Posts for February 8, 2013 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for February 8, 2013

2/8/13 at 5:15 PM
Leftovers
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Seersucker’s Fried-Chicken Fund-raiser; Leske’s Bakery to Open in Park Slope

• Seersucker's Second Annual Fried Chicken fund-raiser is scheduled for February 25, and it will benefit P.S. 58 Kid's Vegetable Garden. For $50 a head, diners can get an iceberg wedge salad, Nashville-style fried chicken, and rice pudding with pear cremeux. Help build a garden while stuffing your face. [Grub Street]

• Park Slope will get a new bakery on Tuesday, February 12. Leske's Bakery will open its new outpost in the morning with a celebratory cookie-breaking. Yes, everyone in attendance will get a free black-and-red cookie to break — plus tea and hot chocolate. The free goods keep rolling in, as Leske's will give free coffee to the early-rising customers every day from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. [Grub Street]

• Chobani Soho is introducing two seasonal flavors just in time for Valentine's Day. Raspberry and chocolate, which is very love-appropriate, and smoked salmon and dill, which is less so. The sweeter option comes with pecans and drizzled honey, and the fishier option is a parfait topped with olive oil, lemon juice, and bagel chips. How New York. [Grub Street]

2/8/13 at 4:55 PM
Frozen Foods
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Seven Ways of Eating the Snowstorm (If You Dare)

By Hugh Merwin

Dessert's in there, somewhere.Photo: Steve Prezant/Corbis

Snow is falling, and if you can't decide if you should head out to eat or stay in and cook, why not just do a little bit of both and eat the weather? You'll want to take care to get the fresh stuff and heed whatever the snow equivalent of not eating plants foraged downhill from highways or train tracks is — brownstones may be lovely, after all, but you don't need to taste the rooftop tar or the tang of their gutters. If you have a snow-collecting area of your own that's unfettered by potential contaminants and also a pantry stocked with just a few sweet ingredients, well then, you also may have dessert for the next few days.

Also, snow pancakes.

2/8/13 at 4:05 PM
Grub Guides
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The Last-Minute Cancellation Guide: Tough Tables Available Tonight Because of Nemopocalypse

By Sierra Tishgart

No need to heckle the hostess.Photo: Danny Kim

The collective fear of snow in New York leads to a lot of erratic behavior — unnecessarily long supermarket lines; the purchasing of not one, but three pairs of snow boots; and, lucky for you, the cancellation of highly coveted dinner reservations. If you've got a case of cabin fever and want to venture out to eat tonight, there's more availability than usual at popular spots. Scope the list below to see which places can squeeze in tables — but hurry before they're gone. (Experience would indicate you'll do well as a walk-in tonight, too.)

Find shelter at Per Se.

2/8/13 at 3:55 PM
Video Feed
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Here’s the Very Wet Trailer for Leviathan, a Documentary About Commercial Fishing

By Hugh Merwin

Directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel followed the crew of a commercial fishing trawler out to sea and filmed Leviathan entirely aboard the ship, as well as in the water just off the Massachusetts coast. They used "small, waterproof digital cameras that were variously tethered to the fishermen, tossed in with their dead or dying catch and plunged into the roiling ocean," the Times reported last year, and if this trailer is any indication, the result is a dark, run-on dream of a movie, filled with blood, seawater, gulls, and fish. Count us in! The movie, which really looks incredible, will be in select theaters on March 1.

2/8/13 at 3:20 PM
Toon Tony
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Anthony Bourdain’s Going to Be on Archer, Too

Kevin Gillespie isn't the only food-world luminary getting the Archer treatment. The Taste co-host Anthony Bourdain, it turns out, will play "Bastard Chef" on an upcoming episode, and here's the screencap to prove it. "I hung around the Archer parking lot until they gave me some work," he wrote on Facebook earlier this month. [Helen Cho/Twitter, Earlier]

Peanut Butter Lover Suing Port Authority and TSA for $5 Million

By Hugh Merwin

Not so smooth.

It wasn't Skippy: “They’re looking to confiscate my explosives,” former New Yorker Frank Hannibal joked to his wife and daughters just as he was pulled out of the TSA queue at La Guardia Airport by security workers who were confused by the sheen of all-natural oil floating inside his container of Crazy Richard's peanut butter. That comment didn't fly with one of the screeners, however, and Hannibal spent the next day in jail, where he was served lackluster peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. His detainment stunned his family and turned his life upside-down, and now the Arizona man is suing the Port Authority and the TSA for $5 million. "It’s a sorry state of affairs in this country when sarcasm is considered a felony," his lawyer tells the Daily News. [NYDN via Daily Intelligencer]

2/8/13 at 1:55 PM
Thin Mints
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Girl Scouts Can No Longer Sell Cookies in This Weather

Today is National Girl Scout Cookie Day, which is perhaps the only made-up national holiday Grub Street can really get behind. The organization was all set to make four stops in midtown and upper Manhattan, with members selling Samoas and Tagalongs from the back of a bright green cookie mobile, but the imminent winter storm has forced the Girl Scouts to shut it down earlier than expected. Thankfully, there will be plenty of chances to get your Thin Mints in the upcoming weeks. [Girl Scouts/Twitter, GSA]

2/8/13 at 1:25 PM
Drawn Butter
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Kevin Gillespie Was on Archer Last Night

By Hugh Merwin

Funner than a Quickfire Challenge.

Former Top Chef competitor Kevin Gillespie made a guest appearance in an episode of Archer last night called "Midnight Ron," which was otherwise chock-full of obscure pop-culture references. The Atlanta-based chef played a truck-driving "transvestite rapist," naturally. Vulture got the lowdown from executive producer Matt Thompson. [Vulture]

2/8/13 at 1:05 PM
Questionable Practices
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Why Pay Normal Price for Bourbon When You Can Pay Extra to Have It Neat?

By Hugh Merwin

Order it with ice, then take it out.

Businessweek writer Devin Leonard, who loves bourbon, ordered a Woodford Reserve neat at BLT Burger in the Village the other night and nearly lost his ticker tape when he found out his $13 tab included a $2 surcharge for ordering a drink without ice. And so it would seem that the sour-mashed, ugly, up-charging monster that plagues bar tabs every few years or so is now back with a vengeance.

Ice, ice, baby.

2/8/13 at 12:35 PM
Grub Guides
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22 Recipes to Cook When You’re Snowed In This Weekend

By Sierra Tishgart

Gramercy Tavern's Off-Menu Brownies.Photo: Anna Williams

As you've no doubt been warned numerous times this morning, there's a city-pummeling snowstorm headed this way. Which means your weekend plans are probably shot, and you'll be stuck inside at least through tomorrow afternoon. But you've still got time to grab some groceries before the Nemopocalypse hits, and we've rounded up a slew of recipes you can cook while you're cooped up. Some are short, some are time-consuming, but all are straight-forward and will give you some comfort food to eat while you're snowed in.

From brownies to Bo Ssäm.

2/8/13 at 11:55 AM on Grub Street Boston
Video Feed
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Watch an Opera Flash Mob Take Over a British Restaurant

By Kara Baskin

On Sunday, a flash-mob opera troupe burst into Surrey's very staid-looking Bel & The Dragon restaurant, interrupting diners to break into a rousing rendition of "Dance of the Cachucha" and other favorites from The Pirates of Penzance. The Godalming Operatic Society reports that customers were "pleasantly surprised." Watch the video for yourself (things get started around the 26-second mark), and send good wishes to the poor little boy who looks like he wants to crawl under the table. Earbuds recommended.

2/8/13 at 11:35 AM
Celebrity Settings
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Mary-Kate Olsen Chooses the General for Date Night; Weiner and Spitzer Cross Paths at David Burke Townhouse

By Lauren Duca

Ms. Olsen.Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

It seems that February's scarves and puffer coats have rendered stars undetectable to the common tabloid spy; perhaps Fashion Week has left them to forget about eating altogether. In any case, a few notable names managed to grab a bite this week. Olivier Sarkozy fawned over Mary-Kate Olsen at the General, while Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner found themselves in an impromptu meeting of the Corrupt Politicians Club at David Burke Townhouse. This and more in our weekly roundup of celebrity dining.

2/8/13 at 10:55 AM
Openings
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The Dead Rabbit Opens Tonight, With Bishops, Flips, and Nogs in FiDi

By Hugh Merwin

Welcome back, 1862.

Snow be damned: Don that cold-weather hat you made from out of that small woodland creature you killed and skinned yourself last summer and then go nurture your inner Bill the Butcher tonight in the financial district, where Jack McGarry and Sean Muldoon are opening their long-awaited Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog at 30 Water Street. As mentioned earlier, Muldoon approached the drinks menu with an almost archaeological ethic, working out hundreds of recipes — some from the seventeenth century — from old guides, newspapers, and first-person accounts. The result is an appropriately expansive menu, including "pop-inns," drinks that combine ale, liqueurs, spices, and botanicals. The Dead Rabbit's two drinking areas include hand-pumped fizzy house beer, nogs, mulled bishops, shandies, sangarees, and large-format punches. Foodwise, it's things like burgers, vol au vent, potted shrimp, and an old-fashioned raw bar. For the first few days, the Dead Rabbit is in soft-opening mode and will operate on a limited schedule; check out its very 21st century website for more details. [Earlier]

2/8/13 at 10:10 AM
Openings
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First Look at Clarke’s Standard, Midtown East’s New Burger Joint

By Sierra Tishgart

Signage.Photo: Melissa Hom

The folks behind P.J. Clarke's have opened a spinoff burger joint, the first of several that will hit Midtown in the coming months. Clarke's is serving up locally sourced beef that hails from a Pennsylvania ranch, which comes topped on custom-made rolls from a private Italian bakery. Toppings include smoked bacon, farmer's gouda, crispy shallots, good ol' American cheese, and the brand's signature mayonnaise. If it's a hot dog you want, you can choose from four custom-blend varieties, including an exotic Bánh Mì Dog with Sriracha mayo (so trendy!). Fries and ice-cream cups round out the menu, which you can check out ahead.

One black-and-white milkshake, please.

2/8/13 at 09:45 AM
Stable Manners
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Oops! Frozen 'Beef' Lasagna Dinners Found to Contain Up to 100% Horsemeat in the U.K.

By Hugh Merwin

WHOA!Photo: Gabriela Herman

Following the news that six U.K. retailers were selling burgers that contained varying amounts of horse, then the revalation that Burger King's patty supply contained "very small trace levels" of equine DNA, it's now being reported that the U.K.-based food manufacturer Findus has been selling frozen lasagna dinners that purport to be beef but may actually be up to 100 percent ground horse chuck.

2/8/13 at 09:00 AM
The Grub Street Diet
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They Might Be Giants’ John Linnell Doesn’t Know What to Eat When His Wife Leaves Town

By Gwynne Watkins

Linnell with his regular lunch at Elora's, which always costs $6.50.Photo: Melissa Hom

"I am whatever the opposite of a foodie is," John Linnell says. But he promises that this week, "I have strained against my natural impulse to insert the feeding tube and think about anything other than what was pumping down my neck." He'll head out later this month on a national tour for the new They Might Be Giants album, Nanobots, but that's not why he faced unusual challenges this week. His wife, "the cook and adventurous eater of the family," was in Scotland, so, he says, he and his son "faced the dire prospect of a week of mindless bachelor eating." And yet — "assisted in no small part by many friends who actually taste things and later remember what they tasted" — Linnell still managed to track down smoked-paprika macaroni and cheese, tender pork sholder, and black-sesame ice cream. Read it all in this week's New York Diet.

"A triumphant reprise of Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast."