Posts for January 18, 2013 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for January 18, 2013

1/18/13 at 5:35 PM
Leftovers
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Annisa Celebrates Female Chefs; Harding’s Launches Lunch Service

• Table Verte opened a few weeks ago in the East Village. As its name hints, the 38-seat bistro serves vegetarian renditions of French classics, like vegan cassoulet and eggplant and fennel confit. It's BYOB at the moment, and brunch service will start February 1. Have a look at the menu (PDF). [Grub Street]

• Alex Garcia's Amigos NYC, a four-month pop-up restaurant, opens today at 2888 Broadway between 112th and 113th Streets. Each month will showcase dishes from a different Mexican chef. Garcia's favorite entrees are on the menu this month, including his AG Roast Chicken and a morita chile-rubbed pork chop with chorizo and potato ragu. Next month, Chef Adrian Leon will takeover. The restaurant is open Sunday through Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to midnight. [Grub Street]

• Charlotte Druckman's next Skirt Steak Supper Series will take place Monday, January 28. Chefs Anita Lo, Missy Robbins, and more will serve a four-course dinner at Annisa. Tickets are $275 per person for dinner and wine pairings, including tax, gratuity, and a copy of Druckman's Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat & Staying in the Kitchen. Proceeds will go to SHARE. Call 212-741-6699 for reservations or email info@annisarestaurant.com. [Grub Street]

1/18/13 at 5:10 PM
Video Feed
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The Swedish Chef Works at SportsCenter

By Hugh Merwin

The "world-renowned" chef ESPN hired here to take over cafeteria duties turns out to be none other than the famous Muppet, and New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who is also Swedish, is the only one who can understand him. Typical. At least they have each other.

"He says today's special is pickled herring."

1/18/13 at 4:55 PM on Grub Street SF
Oeno-File
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Orange Wine Already Over, Say Two Wine Writers

By Jay Barmann

A spectrum of orange wine.Photo: Ceri Smith/Biondivino

Despite the fact that most of your friends, and possibly even you, have not yet heard of orange wine, two people this week have penned pieces cutting it down and declaring the trend over. Writing for Forbes, Richard Betts declares that Tecate is a superior beverage to orange wine, quoting a friend who calls them "the Kardashians of wine," and lamenting that he "look[s] forward to the faddish / cultish following they’ve engendered in certain wine circles waning." (You'll recall that as far as pop-culture comparisons go, Grub Street thinks the wine is more akin to Bon Iver than the Kardashians.) The San Francisco Chronicle's Jon Bonné, who was one of the first American wine geeks to write about orange wine back in 2009, concurs.

1/18/13 at 4:05 PM
Openings
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First Look at American Flatbread Hearth, Now Serving Organic Pizzas in Tribeca

By Hugh Merwin

The anticipated Vermont import American Flatbread Hearth opened yesterday at 205 Hudson Street in Tribeca. Owners Billy Reilly and Gerard Scollan installed one of the restaurant's two primitive ovens — which are made from Vermont clay cured on an alder basket frame — behind a chef's counter in the center of the 145-seat dining room, which has been finished with reclaimed barn boards. The menu's ten signature flatbreads are made with organic flour, the dough is given two fermentations, and the pies are laden with organic, local produce and a mind-boggling roster of cheeses from New England farms. The beech- and maple-fired ovens leave the flatbreads with a crisp and airy crust. Sustainable and "agricultural-friendly" bottles make up the wine list, and there are fourteen craft beers on tap, as well as a selection of bottles and cans. The restaurant also has plans to collaborate with local and craft distilleries. Check out the space and the food, just ahead.

What's a 'Medicine Wheel' pizza, anyhow?

1/18/13 at 3:10 PM
Video Feed
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Watch This Indie-Steeped Promo Video for Stumptown Coffee

By Hugh Merwin

A new report that suggests that more 18- to 24-years-olds are choosing coffee over caffeinated sodas shouldn't come as a surprise, especially because sugary drinks are under attack and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns are shifting the soda companies into new territory. Along comes a somewhat bare and handsome promotional video for Stumptown Coffee, and it's a real pick-me-up: We've got tamped and steeped coffee mythology, tattoos, horns playing in the background, a Chemex receiving a good ritualistic pour-over, and the silhouette of an espresso cup at dawn. It may be the most attractive music video you've ever seen that just so happens to be about coffee.

The best part of waking up.

1/18/13 at 2:05 PM
Crime
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Kutsher’s Tribeca Waiter Busted for Skimming Credit-Card Data

On Tuesday, police arrested a 30-year-old named Jaiquan Ibraheem, who allegedly used a credit-card skimmer to steal card data from approximately 120 customers at Kutsher’s Tribeca last year between February 1 and April 30. Ibraheem worked as a waiter at the restaurant, and allegedly spent $90,000 of that stolen money on "purchases at various Manhattan stores," the Post reports. Maybe he was trying to impress the slippery bookkeeper who was running a similar operation uptown at Masa. [NYP, Earlier]

1/18/13 at 1:25 PM
Hamburger Helper
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Crafty English People Will Convert Horse Burgers Into Cozy Home Heating

By Hugh Merwin

Because food-safety authorities in the U.K. would have a hard time trying to figure out which burgers among the 10,000 frozen patties spread out across inventory at seven chain supermarkets contain trace amounts of horse DNA and which ones are actually 29 percent equine — not to mention which ones are unadulterated, old-fashioned beef — a decision has been made to convert the horsemeat of the apocalypse into energy at anaerobic digestion plants. Earlier this week, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland announced it had found varying amounts of horse and pig DNA in Tesco's line of frozen (and ostensibly) beef hamburgers; up to 10 million burgers may be affected by the recall. [Guardian UK via Daily Meal, Earlier]

1/18/13 at 1:05 PM
Coming Soon
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Japanese Café and Bar Hi Collar Moving Into the Old Rai Rai Ken Space

By Hugh Merwin

What have you done for me percolately?

The traditional coffee scene in Japan has diversified and come into its own in the last dozen years or so, and now a café with an arsenal of gadgets and a menu of "'unique' Japanese-style coffee and espresso drinks" is coming to — you probably guessed — the East Village. Bon Yagi, the entrepreneur who built New York's so-called "Little Tokyo," tells the Local East Village that Hi Collar will be a café by day and a bar at night when it opens in the old Rai Rai Ken space on East 10th Street in "about a month and a half." [Local EV/NYT, Earlier]

1/18/13 at 12:32 PM
Previews
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Andrew Carmellini Will Preview Lafayette Next Week at the Dutch

By Hugh Merwin

Two good eggs at Fresh Eggs.

The chef-owner's next big venture, a big French bistro in the old Chinatown Brasserie space with chef de cuisine Damon Wise called Lafayette, may not yet be open, but the chefs will preview its menu next Wednesday night during a feast held at Fresh Eggs, the dinner-party space beneath the Dutch. The $250 per person charge is inclusive and comes with Vin de Champagne selected by beverage director Josh Nadel. You can get a peek at the menu, which includes chevre ravioli with black truffles and turbot prepared "Marie Claire," then see you can can score some seats, right here. [Dutch, Earlier]

1/18/13 at 11:50 AM
This Kale Kills Fascists
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Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Takes Back That Whole ‘Fascism’ Thing

By Hugh Merwin

This man sure knows his world history.

Oops! Turns out that while Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey stands by his political beliefs, he says he probably shouldn't have called the Affordable Care Act a form of "fascism," NPR reports. "Well, I think that was a bad choice of words," he says. And now he's working the apology circuit, also appearing on the "Brian Lehrer Show" in full-on retraction mode. "I realized that word has so much baggage associated with it, from World War II, with Germany and Italy and Spain," he explains. "That's just a very provocative word, so I regret using it." [NPR, Earlier]

1/18/13 at 11:15 AM
Grub Guides
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Four! More! Beers! Where to Drink While You Watch the Inauguration

By Sierra Tishgart

It's the American way.Photo: Getty Images

Let's be honest: The Presidential Inauguration on Monday is really just a highbrow excuse for day-drinking. (Bonus: Since Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, plenty of people don't have to work.) Festivities kick off at 9:30 a.m. and go until 5 p.m., and if you're a true American, you'll tune in and toast a few drinks to Obama's second term. Fortunately, diligent bars around town will host Inauguration watch parties, so go congregate with fellow citizens and support the economy by buying patriotic drink specials. There aren't many days of the year when it's appropriate to belt "Born in the U.S.A." with total strangers.

"Another round of Obama-tinis, please."

1/18/13 at 10:35 AM
Interview
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Paul Liebrandt on Fine Dining and Corton, the Greatness of Mission Chinese Food, and the Elm

By Hugh Merwin

"You know, I had a very odd childhood."Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

On Tuesday, it was announced that the chef Paul Liebrandt was headed to Brooklyn to open a second restaurant called the Elm, at the King & Grove Hotel in Williamsburg. Liebrandt will stay on as chef and partner at Corton in Tribeca, but few details were given beyond that. The chef says he's "getting older" and likes to stay out of the blogs, but since this is the same guy who was once found in the West Village feeding dessert soup to Times critics from baby bottles and offering a selection of ripe cheeses on a loaded mousetrap, we sensed there may be some surprises ahead. Grub Street met up with Liebrandt at La Colombe Torrefaction in Tribeca to talk about rustic English food and the axis of fine dining. Also, a little about his forthcoming restaurant, the Elm.

"I don't consider myself a genius, no."

1/18/13 at 10:05 AM
Celebrity Settings
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Daniel Craig Juices at Liquiteria; Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill Dine at Bounce

By Monica Burton

Bond likes his vegetables blended.

Not even L.A. awards shows or court appearances could keep celebrities away from New York's restaurants and bars this week. Daniel Craig bought juice at Liquiteria, Django Unchained co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill solidified their friendship at Bounce, and Lindsay Lohan fit in an early morning meal at Cafeteria before flying across the country for her court date (no biggie). It's time once again for our weekly roundup of celebrity dining.

T.I., Aziz Ansari, and more ahead.

1/18/13 at 09:30 AM
Reopenings
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Silk Rd Tavern Will Reopen As Mira Sushi Next Month

By Hugh Merwin

Playing coi.

The Flushing-based restaurateur Andy Lee confirms to Grub Street that Silk Rd Tavern in flatiron is indeed closed. The restaurant is adding a sushi counter and undergoing other renovations, and will reopen next month as Mira Sushi. Sharpen your debas. [Earlier]

1/18/13 at 09:00 AM
The Grub Street Diet
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Rachel Dratch’s 2-Year-Old Son Dictates Her Diet

By Vanita Salisbury

Dratch with her son Eli, who is not a big fan of fritters.Photo: Melissa Hom

"Back in the days of SNL, I'd go out probably five nights a week," says comedienne and actress Rachel Dratch. But now she has a 2-year old son, and her routine has changed. "A lot of my diet is affected by what Eli will eat, in terms of what I order and what I cook, which will become apparent," she says of the diet. "So I know this may end up sounding like a mommy blog! I’m aware!" Of course, it isn't all baby talk for Dratch, who will field questions alongside Alex Karpovsky on the couch of comedy talk show Running Late With Scott Rogowsky at Galapagos on January 31.* Dratch is also working on turning her memoir Girl Walks Into a Bar…: Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle (paperback out February 5) into a television series; and, okay, she voices the Disney Channel cartoon Fish Hooks (in which she plays Esmargot and Koi). Read all about her grilled-cheese failures, Seamless addiction, and early-bird dinner with Will Forte in this week's Grub Street Diet.