Posts for March 20, 2013

April Bloomfield’s Special Dinner at John Dory; Tickets Now on Sale for the Lobster Roll Rumble

• On Tuesday, April 9, April Bloomfield will host British chef Nathan Outlaw for a seafood dinner at John Dory Oyster Bar. The two chefs will serve a special menu for one night only in celebration of Outlaw's new cookbook, Nathan Outlaw's British Seafood. Dishes include scallop tartare with pickled beets and bacon, and squid with pork belly, satsuma, fennel, and squid-ink mayonnaise. Reservations can be made via e-mail. [Grub Street]

• The Tasting Table's fourth annual Lobster Roll Rumble will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea on June 6. Twenty of the country's best lobster rolls will duke it out for the title of America's Best Lobster Roll. Tickets are priced from $150 to $250 and can be purchased here. [Grub Street]

• Tickets are now on sale for the Wellness in the Schools annual benefit on Tuesday, April 23, at the Tribeca Rooftop. Guests can enjoy views of the city and the harbor while sampling bites from restaurants like Barbuto, Gramercy Tavern, and Blue Hill. Tickets start at $225 and can be purchased here. [Grub Street]

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Centro Vinoteca Calls It Quits After Six Years in the West Village

By Hugh Merwin

The restaurant is closed for good.Photo: David Leventi

Last week we learned that 'ino had closed on Bedford Street after doing business in the West Village for fifteen years, and today there's news that the nearby restaurant Centro Vinoteca has also shuttered, Zagat and Eater NY report. The restaurant, you may remember, opened in July of 2007 with Mario Batali protégé Anne Burrell in the kitchen. Burrell left in 2008 and was replaced by Leah Cohen, who left a year later after her turn on Top Chef. A real-estate listing indicates that the 1,100-square-foot restaurant is available to lease for $16,500 a month. [Zagat, Eater NY, Earlier]

You Can Now Use OpenTable and Foursquare via Evernote Food

By Sierra Tishgart

The restaurant- and recipe-focused free mobile app just became even more awesome; a new update allows you to search Foursquare ratings, make OpenTable reservations, and share clipped recipes via Twitter and Facebook. Basically, it eliminates the need for all human interactions. Cool. [TechCrunch]

J. Cole Really Likes the Cheesecake Factory’s Mai Tais

"Sometimes I try a Mai Tai. It's so fruity. It's a little embarrassing, but I like it. Cheesecake Factory has good Mai Tais, actually, which they don't have in New York City. We need to get one. I tried to look into investing, to franchise, but they don't do that." —Hip-hop artist J.Cole is apparently serious enough about this whole Cheesecake Factory thing that he did his homework. Somebody make this happen now. [Daily Intelligencer]

Details on the Momofuku ‘Late Night Dinner Series’ With Zahav Announced

By Hugh Merwin

He'll be here on April 9.

Exactly 44 hours and eight minutes after it first teased something special was about to go down, Momofuku Long Play now shares more details about a nifty event taking place at Ssäm Bar on April 9: Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov will bring Zahav to the East Village, it turns out, for one night only, as part of Momofuku's "Late Night Dinner Series." Menu details have not yet been announced, but the $85 charge covers food, drinks, and service, and the restaurant is now accepting reservations for parties of up to six people. Dinner starts at 11 p.m., and you can get in on the fun by e-mailing rsvp@momofuku.com. [MLP, Earlier]

Watch Chris Cosentino Geek Out in a Promo Vid for His Upcoming Wolverine Comic

By Jay Barmann
Watch Video

We had some warning a while back that chef Chris Cosentino was involved with Marvel Comics and their Wolverine franchise, and today we get a promo video for Wolverine #1 featuring the chef, who will serve as a writer on the title, discussing the character of Wolverine from the angle of his imagined, and observed, tastes in food. According to Cosentino, Wolverine likes sashimi, because of the time he spent training in Japan, but he also digs spaetzle and wild boar ragus. "The food world and Wolverine's world have always collided," he says. "It's a really pretty beautiful marriage of sanity and insanity, and it's all based around food." Watch the whole thing, straight ahead.

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Big Gay Ice Cream Will Change the Soft-Serve Game on Friday

By Hugh Merwin

Cup or cone?

Fans of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and/or Big Gay Ice Cream's East and West Village shops will no doubt be intrigued to learn that owners Doug Quint and Brian Petroff have scrapped the high-quality, off-the-shelf commercial bases used to make their ice cream in favor of a proprietary mix they've developed with "ice cream scientist" John LeSauvage and Ronnybrook Farm, which means Hudson Valley milk. Fork in the Road reports that the new, hyperlocal soft-serve will debut in this Friday at the shops in chocolate and vanilla, but also with coffee and cardamom flavors. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Kate Moss Designed a $58 Sequined Sushi Box

By Sierra Tishgart

One fancy lunch box.Photo: Sushi Box

The model presumably got bored and agreed to collaborate with French chain Sushi Shop in honor of the opening of the first London location. The Moss-designed box has sequin patterns, metallic shades, and can hold 40 pieces of fish. Her pretty face doesn't even appear on it — and she won't be in the advertising campaign either. Nothing tastes as good as easy money feels. [WWD]

Former Waiters Sue Peter Luger for Wage and Hour Violations

By Hugh Merwin

Hopefully they'll settle with porterhouses.Photo: Gavin Thomas

It doesn't concern the iconic Brooklyn original, but a group of former waiters at Peter Luger's Great Neck outpost have filed a class-action complaint with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York "on behalf of all waiters" who have worked at the establishment since March of 2007.

Tip-pooling, extra hours. »

Christine Quinn Gives Special Treatment to Pigs-in-a-Blanket

By Sierra Tishgart

Eating is part of the job.

How do the city's politicians avoid the inevitable weight gain that comes with schmoozing at campaign events? Quinn says that she sticks to crudité (hold the ranch), but makes one exception: "If there's pigs-in-the-blanket, I get to have two." Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer counts on his press secretary to rip doughnuts from his hands, while Joseph J. Lhota stuffs his briefcase with protein bars (how Republican). And poor William C. Thompson Jr. says, "You just can't eat." [NYT]

What to Expect From the New Restaurant at the World Trade Center Observatory

By Hugh Merwin

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday unveiled its renderings for the three-level, glass-enclosed tourist attraction that will cap off 1 World Trade Center beginning in 2015, City Room reports. The so-called "One World Observatory" encompasses the building's 100th, 101st, and 102nd floors, and includes an undulating wall of video screens that will bombard visitors with the "history of New York City." There will also be a casual restaurant at 1,250 feet on the 101st floor operated by the newly selected Legends Hospitality, a big concessions company known locally for its Yankee Stadium food offerings. So, who's the chef?

Oh, hey, Jamie Oliver. »

New Twinkies Owner Obviously Wants Will Ferrell to Star in Ads

By Sierra Tishgart

Ding Dongs are a good choice.

Don't call it a comeback: Ding Dongs and Ho Hos are returning to shelves — hopefully by this summer. A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Twinkies and other Hostess brands to two investment firms for $410 million. Evan Metropoulos, a principal at one of the firms and the co-owner of Pabst (!), says that Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are on his "wish list" for pitchmen. "Mom! The Twinkies! Fuck!" [Earlier, AP]

Serious Beef: 15 Fantastic New York Steaks That Cost Less Than $30

By Sierra Tishgart

St. Anselm's hanger steak, which will run you $15.Photo: Melissa Hom

Head out to a buzzy New York restaurant and you'll see it on the menu: a hulking piece of dry-aged beef, "for two," sold at an astronomical price. Minetta Tavern's Côte de Boeuf is $140. The 40-ounce rib eye at the Dutch is a cool $125. Perla's 56-day-aged rib eye is $95. They're all excellent, but they're also damn expensive — and beef prices are expected to increase by as much as 10 percent this summer. What's a budget-minded person in search of properly seared flesh to do? Fortunately, you've got options: Here are truly great steaks around the city that are (relatively) affordable, ensuring that carnivores can get the meat sweats without having to sweat the price, too.

El Toro Blanco, Buttermilk Channel, and more. »

The Other Critics: Pete Wells Gives Chez Sardine One Star; Tejal Rao Praises Xixa

By Jessica Goodman

Chez Sardine "challenges our notions of appropriate caloric intake."

Our own Adam Platt filed a twofer this week and wrote about the return of lobster thermidor at Le Philosophe, as well as Laurent Tourondel's beef-heavy menu at Arlington Club. He gave two stars to the former and one to the latter. Where did the other critics dine this week? Read on to find out.

Who called a dessert "poetry"? »

Oops! Inspectors Find 57 Tons of Contraband Mutton at French Beef Warehouse

By Hugh Merwin

What's that you say, French veterinary inspectors? You found what in our warehouse? Oh, those 57 tons of illegal, mechanically scraped mutton in our freezer — oh, no, that's not ours — it belongs to a friend, the Cyprus-based Draap Trading company. We're Spanghero SAS, after all — we don't sell counterfeit meat. Of course we know that using that mechanically separated, bone-scraped industrial pasty meat nastiness has been illegal throughout Europe since 2001 because of its association with prion diseases! You believe us? Oh, great. It'll never happen again. Oh, and hey, you hungry? We'll grill you a burger on your way out. [WSJ, Earlier]

First Look at Kajitsu in Its New Murray Hill Digs

By Hugh Merwin

Let the sunshine in: the dining room at the new Kajitsu.Photo: Melissa Hom

The Japanese restaurant Kajitsu has reopened, as promised, moving uptown from its old, austere, East Village basement space into the second floor of a Murray Hill townhouse filled with natural light, straight lines, and finished wood. The vegan restaurant got its license to serve wine and sake earlier this week, and it will continue to offer two prix fixe menus each month based on shojin, a cuisine style that has roots in centuries-old Zen Buddhist traditions and involves, essentially, a "nose-to-tail" approach to vegetables where nothing is wasted and everything is revered. Other changes are afoot: Kajitsu Murray Hill will serve lunch and will also introduce a separate, ground-level restaurant called Kokage, whose chefs will be able to prepare menus with seafood and eggs. Straight ahead, a look around the new Kajitsu, including the retail counter where the restaurant will sell loose tea, matcha, and supplies from Ippodo, a Kyoto-based company.

Counter seats, lunch hours, natural light. »

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