Posts for January 29, 2013 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for January 29, 2013

1/29/13 at 5:50 PM
Leftovers
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Hillside Kicks Off Oyster Hour; Angolo Soho Serves an Apertivo

• Starting Tuesday, February 5, Hillside will begin Oyster Hours, which will continue Sundays through Thursdays (closed Mondays) from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. $10 will get you a half-dozen oysters and a glass of beer or white wine. Aw, shucks! [Grub Street]

• Angolo Soho will begin serving an authentic Italian Apertivo from 5 to 7 p.m. Starting this Thursday, January 31, diners will receive an expertly crafted cocktail and plate of bite-size Italian fare for $16. Highlights include seasonal Arancini and Cassoncini. [Grub Street]

• Further proof that the world’s best vodka is made in Pittsburgh was found at this year's Good Food Awards. On Friday, January 13, the award was presented to the distiller and co-owner of Pennsylvania Pure Distilleries, Barry Young. Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka was one of the top ten national spirit winners. [Grub Street]

1/29/13 at 5:30 PM
Openings
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Hamburger Chain BurgerFi Is Opening Its First New York Location

By Hugh Merwin

In addition to the forthcoming openings of imports like Big Smoke Burger, Fatburger, and Umami Burger is the very first New York City location of the South Florida-based burger chain BurgerFi, which will open on February 9, at 1571 Second Avenue on the Upper East Side. The chain prides itself on its "farm-to-tray" approach, which means humanely raised, antibiotic- and hormone-free beef and menu items like "Wagyu Kobe" hot dogs, frozen custard, and more. Sodas are sweetened with sugar cane, and yes, there is a quinoa burger. [BurgerFi]

1/29/13 at 5:00 PM
Great Grits
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Sean Brock Is Coming to Cook at Louro

By Hugh Merwin

Brock.

The acclaimed Husk and McCrady's chef, who also seems to be something of a pop-up restaurant junkie, is headed to Louro in the West Village to collaborate on a crazy-sounding tag team dinner with that restaurant's David Santos and Georges Mendes of Aldea. The festive, rye-and-wine-fueled six-course dinner is being held by Underground Eats the day after the big game and is called, appropriately enough, the Supper Bowl. Details and tickets are here. [Underground Eats]

1/29/13 at 3:50 PM
The Cocktail Bible
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Pouring Ribbons’ Joaquín Simó Was a Religion Major

By Hugh Merwin

Former Death & Co. bartender and Pouring Ribbons partner Joaquín Simó doubled up on English and religion at Boston University, and says detailed readings of old and sacred texts left him particularly well-suited for his job in a time when drinkers want to know the historical details of their gin or the minutiae of distilling rum. "That was all exegetical work and all the parsing of diction and all of the stuff that got drilled into me when you're reading 1,000-1,200 pages a week and condensing that," he says. "That really paid off professionally and allowed me to get better at taking large amounts of complex information and rendering it accessible." We'll drink to that. [Food GPS]

1/29/13 at 3:20 PM on Grub Street LA
The Chain Gang
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Border Patrol: Taco Bell Confirms New Flavor of Doritos Locos Tacos

By Hadley Tomicki

Cool Ranch Doritos, making a run for the border.

The world has been waiting with bated, nacho-cheese-y breath to see how Taco Bell would duplicate its extraordinary success through the wizardry of Frito-Lay-flavored taco shells. Today Greg Creed, the Bell's wild and crazy CEO, previewed the chain's new Super Bowl ad for CBS. Since the commercial's stale setup of old people tasting a product and acting young again sort of hit its apex already with 1985's Cocoon, Creed had no choice but to then resort to spilling some industry secrets as the segment arrived at its long-awaited end. "We've got Cool Ranch. That's coming ... That's my tease," the suit admitted to Gayle King about the next taco barreling down the fast-food Mexican pipeline. (Guess those tests last summer worked out.) Great news, since everyone knows Cool Ranch is basically the best flavor of Doritos out there. So, when can we try one?

1/29/13 at 2:50 PM
Video Feed
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The Mamu Thai Noodle Truck Is Looking for Your Help on Kickstarter

By Hugh Merwin

Siwat Thitiwatana has eaten noodles on the streets all over Thailand, and even has an uncle who owns noodle shops in Bangkok. Thitiwatana is now leaving his career at a local hospital, we learn via Gothamist, and is launching a food truck that will sell noodle dishes, including pad thai, pad si-ew, boat noodles, and khao soi. The future vendor has been training on the wok station at a Thai restaurant and says he's got his flavors down. He's outfitted his food truck for the most part and has the license to sell noodles, but he could use a little more help, so he's launched a Kickstarter to bridge the gap. Check out his campaign, straight ahead.

"I went on a noodle journey in Bangkok."

1/29/13 at 2:00 PM
Chef Shuffle
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Max Sussman Has Left Roberta’s

By Hugh Merwin

Sussman: Great chef, cereal eater.

Nick Barker, formerly of Central Kitchen in San Francisco and Manresa in Los Gatos, has replaced chef de cuisine Max Sussman at Roberta's. Last week, Eli Sussman tweeted, "ok "Max is done. 86 max at Roberta's. tomorrow he wakes up and watches the entire battle star galactica series." We wish Max the best wherever he ends up next, and hope he has enough cinnamon Life to make it all the way through the three-part finale. [TheSussmans/Twitter, Earlier]

1/29/13 at 1:25 PM
Beep Beep
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So, No, Mario Batali’s Restaurants Don’t Have a Secret DOH ‘Alarm System’

By Hugh Merwin

Babbo is not alarmed.

We last heard from Elizabeth Meltz, food safety and sustainability director for Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's restaurants, after the hurricane hit and she was trying to salvage the Grana Padano wheels at Babbo. (The cheese was thrown away.) Because it's her job to ensure the restaurant group's cooks are keeping the cured meats cool and everything's in compliance with Health Department nitty-gritty, you can imagine Meltz was perturbed by yesterday's breathless New York Post "Exclusive" that alleged Batali's nine restaurants were wired with an "alarm system" designed to be triggered at the hostess stand whenever an inspector walked in. Here's what she had to say about it all.

"No bells or whistles."

1/29/13 at 12:50 PM
No Really
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James Deen Redefines Food Porn

By Sierra Tishgart

No relation to Paula.Photo: WoodRocket.com

Sex-industry sweetheart James Deen stars in a video food blog on the porn site WoodRocket.com. Though the website itself is obviously NSFW, the "James Deen Loves Food" series is surprisingly PG-13. Watch him make liquid nitrogen ice cream, order everything on Burger King's menu, and re-create the last meals of death-row inmates. The latter is where things get really weird: The porn-star-next-door (turned actor in The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan) is obsessed with serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy. Hollywood has clearly corrupted Deen. But at the end of the day, he's just a boy, eating empanadas at Johnny Pacific, and cruising through the Del Taco drive-through. Deen's going so mainstream, he may just be the next Paula. [First We Feast]

1/29/13 at 12:10 PM
Oh Snap!
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OpenTable Will Buy Foodspotting for $10 Million

By Hugh Merwin

Sadly, the new company will not be called OpenFoodTableSpotting.

Score one for the imperiled practice of taking food photos at the table! The online restaurant reservation service OpenTable is buying Foodspotting, the food-photo-based social media network app, for $10 million, reports Bits. Turns out the food photography platform is data-rich: Foodspotting has a database of 3 million photographs and is growing at a "few hundred thousand photos" each month, the blog says. But since OpenTable is all about the business of making reservations, and Foodspotting allows its users the chance to virtually share their meals, how will the companies integrate?

"Mind if I set up my tripod right here?"

1/29/13 at 11:05 AM
The Final Countdown
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The Bocuse d’Or 2013 Has Begun

By Hugh Merwin

Rosendale: He's got his head in the game.Photo: Bocuse d'Or

The culinary chops of several nations' finest cooks are being tested today and tomorrow at the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France, and team USA — Richard Rosendale and his commis Corey Siegel, who hail from West Virginia's Greenbrier resort — have been preparing for a year and are now in competition. The world's greatest chefs are waiting to judge; Iceland's meat platters are being presented; and someone, somewhere is serving gargantuan quenelles de brochet. How will Rosendale and Siegel fare at the Bocuse d'Or? Tune in live to find out. [Bocuse d'Or, Earlier]

1/29/13 at 10:30 AM
Cheesy Blasters
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Ben & Jerry’s Unveils 30 Rock Flavor

By Sierra Tishgart

"Well, the theme-restaurant business model does work. NASCAR's Fat Load Cafe is a gold mine." — Jack

From Alec Baldwin's Schweddy Balls to Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Snack, it was only a matter of time before Ben & Jerry's honored another comedic legend with an ice-cream flavor. It's basically the American version of knighting. NBC's 30 Rock comes to an end this Thursday, but don't fret: You can catch your tears in a pint. Co-founder Jerry Greenfield will announce details of the flavor at the finale viewing party, but if we had to guess, it'll include the following ingredients: Sandwich scraps (for Liz), paper (for Jenna's Japanese-porn-star diet), pig (for that time Kenneth ate Harold), additional meat (made in Tracy's meat machine), and Cheesy Blasters. The flavor must be named Adultaraisin, because that's the name of Tracy's fictional Ben & Jerry's flavor. Or at least Muffin Top, after Jenna's No. 4 single in Belgium. [Vulture, HuffPo]

1/29/13 at 10:10 AM
Flew the Coop
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Men Arrested for $65,000 Chicken-Wing Heist

By Hugh Merwin

Follow the celery sticks!

You may have heard that chicken-wing prices are up to an all-time high of $2.11 per pound. Since the Super Bowl is this weekend, and desperate times call for desperate measures, it sort of makes sense that two men pulled off a brazen, high-stakes theft of $65,000-worth of frozen Tyson chicken wings from the cold storage facility where they worked in Doraville, Georgia.

1/29/13 at 09:35 AM
Video Feed
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Taylor Swift’s Future Breakup Lyrics About Diet Coke

By Sierra Tishgart

Fake sugar doesn't lead to real love, T Swizzle.

This weekend, Taylor Swift announced her partnership with Diet Coke, which is "one of the great loves" of her life. If Taylor's prior relationships are telling, the inevitable end of this endorsement deal is going to be hella emotional. America's sweetheart will cope the only way she knows how — she'll write depressing songs about her ex. The tunes will make us all a little uncomfortable, but they're so damn catchy that we'll bop our heads and smile at her heartbreak. Diet Coke, that bastard.

"All you're ever gonna be is aspartemean."

1/29/13 at 09:00 AM
YOLO
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Drake’s Cakes Reportedly Sold to Little Debbie

By Hugh Merwin

The bittersweet balkanization of a once-grand carbohydrate empire continues today with the news that Little Debbie will reportedly buy the Drake's line from the bankrupt Hostess Brands for $27.5 million. That line includes Yankee Doodles, Yodels, Devil Dogs, Coffee Cakes, Funny Bones, Ring Dings, Pound Cakes, the Pop Tart–esque Pick-m-Ups, and Sunny Doodles. Last week, it was reported that the manufacturer of Pabst Blue Ribbon had made a bid for the line of Hostess Snacks that includes the iconic Twinkies and Sno Balls line; Bloomberg also reported yesterday that United States Bakery would likely bid for a number of the bankrupt company's bread brands. It is thought that the maker of Tastykakes will emerge as the high bidder for Wonder Bread, another Hostess property. [Bloomberg, Earlier, Earlier]