DIGEST: New York Magazine Food Section

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 12/12/05

Reviews

The Underground Gourmet (Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld) reviews Bar Carrera, a new tapas bar (sister to Bar Veloce) in the East Village. Bar Carrera purports to be a bar first and a restaurant second, but the writers claim the food on offer proves otherwise. They were particularly fond of the chorizo (served either on its own with some mustard or sandwiched on a baguette) and the $3.50/tapa price tag. They were also fond of the atmosphere:

The place itself seems styled to whet the appetite, with Spanish imports lining the shelves, cheeses and chocolates displayed behind glass, and troughs of crusty mini-baguettes and fresh brioche rolls, not to mention a fatty serrano ham or two, artfully fastened to its viselike jamonero for easy slicing. Clipboard menus are distributed down the length of the concrete bar and along the ledge lining the attractively tiled wall, and a single server keeps a fairly close eye on the occasionally rambunctious proceedings.

Openings and Buzz

Three New Restaurants

Each week, New York highlights three new restaurant openings. This week, the winners are:

Giorgione 508:

Few people have done more to raise New York’s collective foodie consciousness (and grocery bills) than Giorgio DeLuca, pioneering co-founder of Dean & DeLuca and co-owner of the three-year-old Giorgione. Any day now—Con Ed willing—he and partner Jorge Neves will expand their modest domain with Giorgione 508, a combination restaurant, espresso bar, and mini-market around the corner from their popular Italian restaurant.

The Orchard:

John LaFemina’s opened the Orchard, where, besides agnolotti and cavatelli, there’s also whisper-thin flat bread with braised short rib or steak tartare, pan-seared foie gras with strawberry coulis, and pork chops with candied yams. The self-taught chef also practically built the entire restaurant from scratch. Was he ever a carpenter? “No, just a control freak,” he says.

Gilt:

Four years ago, the envelope-pushing English chef Paul Liebrandt was charging diners $110 for the singular pleasure of being blindfolded, bound, and commanded to bob for foie gras and suck dessert soup from a baby’s bottle. We can’t imagine that going over too well at Gilt, the successor to Le Cirque 2000 at the New York Palace Hotel and Liebrandt’s opulent new home as of this Thursday.

Sides

Also included this week are some smaller news items:

Bistro Impostor:

After 30-odd years of serving bulky burgers on tiny paper plates to a wildly appreciative late-night crowd, has the Corner Bistro sold out to corporate America?

Spain in SoHo:

But next month, when the Spanish-foods importer opens an airy Manhattan outpost at 408 Broome Street near Lafayette Street, shopping will become much easier.

Using Her Noodle:

Sunshine Flagg, a veteran of WD-50’s daring pastry department, has set up shop in the basement, where she bakes tiny cupcakes in unusual flavors like kabocha squash with maple–star-anise buttercream.

Features

Taste Test: Eggnog

The same duo responsible for the Underground Gourmet undertake a taste test of ready-made eggnogs, and disover that they actually like a few of them. Also included is a recipe for the stuff from the Waterfront Ale House.

Like regifted fruitcake and grown men in Cosby sweaters, eggnog is one of those enduring holiday traditions you just can’t avoid this time of year. Some relentlessly festive people even claim to like it. “How bad can raw eggs, whole milk, refined sugar, heavy cream, and—unless you have the time to make it from scratch—assorted additives and preservatives like guar gum and carrageenan be?” they tell you.

Fireplace Feasts

A list of NYC restaurants with fireplaces - the better to cuddle up with your sweetie. I'm sorry, is it Valentine's Day already?

Gravy Train

A list of places around the city serving "Soprano's-worthy" homestyle Italian-American food.

Market Research: Whisky A-Go-Go

A quick tutorial in the art of enjoying the single-malt scotch.

Single-malt scotch has exploded in the last five years, with sales increasing 10 percent annually and prices of some bottles rising as much as 50 percent in 2005 alone. Historic distilleries have reopened; more special editions are being released; and more malts are 30 years and older...Price isn’t everything. Some old whiskies taste like sucking on a log. If you like that, great. If not, buy 100 bottles of a more reasonably priced dram instead.

Attack of the Snacks

The magazine takes a look at this new trend in NYC eating - not quite a small plate, more than an amuse...what will they think of next?

Taku chef Adam Shepard views snacks as the natural progression of a user-friendly trend to allow diners to order whatever and however they’d like. Come in for a nibble, the thinking goes, and maybe you’ll order a traditional meal.

Rise and Shine

A rundown of new NYC spots for breakfast, including eGullet fave Shake Shack!

Everywhere You Go Has Valet!

A look at the new phenomenon of valet parking at restaurants on 10th Avenue.

The Devil You Say

And speaking of snacks, here's a list of spots with superlative deviled eggs.

Sirio Maccioni's Grub: Condo Amenities for Peckish Millionaires

And, finally, a quick item on the press surrounding Sirio's new location in the One Beacon Place building, where taking a look at the real estate will earn you some free food.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 12/19/05

Reviews

No reviews this week, presumably due to the upcoming Christmas and Hanukkah holidays!

Openings and Buzz

Openings

Each week, New York highlights new restaurant openings. This week, the winners are:

Del Posto:

If you like to dine in large but civilized groups, you may want to home in on the per il tavola section of the menu, which features tailgate-party-size hunks of veal, lamb, pork loin, and whole salt-baked arctic char served with panelle, meant for sharing, and priced accordingly, from $200 on up. (How a conspicuously solo and forlorn Michelin inspector will handle the assignment is anyone’s guess.)

Dani:

The Mediterranean menu at Dani (pronounced Donny), like Sicilian cuisine itself, incorporates North African, European, and Arabic culinary influences and features dishes like chickpea-fried calamari, rabbit cacciatore with semolina dumplings, and mint panna cotta with blood-orange gelée.

Spiga:

Corea punctuates his menu with unexpected flavors and textures, like the spicy gelatin that garnishes burrata, and the fried cream that accompanies pan-roasted pork loin.

Agnanti Meze:

Over the past three years, Agnanti has distinguished itself from the considerable Astoria competition with its impossibly tender charred octopus, its signature rooster pasta, and the Turkish dishes that Constantinople’s Greek community adopted as its own.

Also mentioned: Baci and Abbracci and the new Balducci's!

Features

Bring Out the Bubbly

A list of three spots ideal for toasting the new year with a glass of champers, including the aforementioned Del Posto, and the bar at Country.

Hangover Helpers

Some aid for those who may have, ehm, over-indulged on the 31st, in the form of a list of restaurants serving hangover-mending soups.

Reasons to Love New York: Because You Can Get a Nice Plate of American Hackleback Sturgeon Roe at 3 A.M.

Included as part of this week's cover feature, "Reasons to Love New York," this small piece explores Mas (farmhouse), "the snug, stylish restaurant where they serve the delicate Gruyère-laced choux-pastry puffballs daily until 4 a.m."

Determined to ascertain the difference between the roe of the American hackleback sturgeon and that of the paddlefish, we ordered both one recent frigid Friday night and dutifully washed them down with pink champagne, before moving on to dainty wheels of rainbow trout stuffed with watercress, and a terrine of local beets layered, of course, with local goat cheese.

Amateur Night for Pros

New York provides a step-by-step guide to the perfect New Year's Eve, complete with a 24-hour spa and a picnic on the beach.

Bank Branch Crushes Restaurant

It seems that the UWS branch of Nick and Toni's is having some real estate issues - their lease is up, they're renting month-to-month, and a large bank is vying for their storefront on W. 67th Street...

Holiday Forgiveness for Jean-Georges?

Vanity Fair's publishing side held their holiday party at J-G's Perry Street - despite the magazine side's lambasting of 66 (Dumplings that taste like "liver-filled condoms," anyone?).

Ask Gael

Each week, veteran critic Gael Greene offers her opinion on a restaurant or trend.

I Wouldn't Mind a Dose of Vintage Hotel Classic

This week, Gael volunteers her opinion that the Waldorf's dining room is "rather dowdy" and the reservation system "hopeless," but the food she declares to be "boldly flavored adventures."

A smart citrusy tang is [chef Cedric Tovar’s] signature, as in the verjus and green grapes that set off slow-roasted monkfish, and in the lemony grilled eggplant that is just a parenthesis on the ginger-crusted rack of exquisitely rare lamb.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 1/2/06

Reviews

Restaurant reviews take center stage this week on NYMetro.com, as New York Magazine simultaneously unveils its 101 top picks for food in NYC and its new five-star rating system. An eGullet discussion of the new rating system can be found here. The new stars will be assigned as follows:

Five Stars: Ethereal; almost perfect

Four Stars: Exceptional; consistently elite

Three Stars: Generally excellent

Two Stars: Very good

One Star: Good

In his introduction to the top 101, Adam Platt adresses the inherent issues of restaurant reviews (subjectivity, snobbery, enraged chefs) and defends the magazine's choice to adopt a star system:

Isn’t a perfect one-star cheeseburger at least as delicious as a perfect four-star soufflé? “And what about all those crazy chefs?” asked the Food Aristocrat. “Did I mention they’ll all want to kill you no matter what you do?”

Too bad. We’re doing it anyway, from now on...Why? Because people seem to enjoy this sort of thing. Among restaurateurs and diners, the concept of stars and rankings is beloved, despised, and also deeply ingrained, like some age-old caste system.

The list of the top 101 picks is organized by the number of stars...

Five Stars

Four Stars

Three Stars

Two Stars

One Star

The list is broad and interesting, putting the admittedly neighborhood-y Ouest at number 18, while Alain Ducasse sits at 33.

In addition to the top 101, the magazine lists its top five picks for the following:

Best in Brooklyn

Best Bang for the Buck

Best Italian

Best New Restaurants of 2005

These lists overlap somewhat with the top 101, particularly the latter three.

The 2005 Overrated List deals mostly in trends rather than in actual restaurants, as Adam Platt shares with us his 2005 irritants. Among his pet peeves: heaping portions of petits fours, and cooking sous vide.

Traditionalist chefs maintain that this fashionable cooking technique detracts from the texture of the food. Who knows. But doesn’t Cryovacking a piece of chicken in a plastic bag, then cooking it over low heat for half a day sound slightly insane?

Finally, Platt takes a look at what's New in 2006, including Del Posto and Country. Gilt also gets a mention.

Features

Many Happy Returns

New York Maagzine looks briefly at the new surge of department-store eateries, including David Burke's new spot at Bloomie's, and a new place on seven at Bergdorf's (featured: the $25 Cobb salad).

Veg Out

A look at eateries with good vegetarian fare - most surprising is the inclusion of Cafe Boulud, whose potager menu section is "one of the best-kept vegetarian secrets in town."

Coco Pazzo’s Al Dente Détente

Finally, it seems Mark Strausman and Pino Luongo, former co-workers (Coco Pazzo and Sapore di Mare) and sworn enemies, are collaborating on a cookbook.

Is all really molto bene between the pair? “When someone turns his back on a successful partnership, naturally there is anger,” says Luongo. How’s the book going so far? “His favorite dish is meatballs and spaghetti,” says Luongo. “That’s not even Italian.” Strausman gripes, “He wants thirteen chapters, and I won’t do that—it’s an unlucky number. He says it’s lucky in Italy. Well, we are not in Italy.”

Edited January 5, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 1/9/06

Reviews

Uptown Transfer

In the first review published since the launch of New York Magazine's new star system, Adam Platt takes on Falai, the Lower East Side's latest answer to uptown Italian eateries. Platt gives the place two stars on the new five-star scale, and offers this explanation for the designation:

This is a classic one-star neighborhood restaurant in size and, arguably, even in price. But Clinton Street is a culinary destination these days, and the polished cooking and atmosphere bump a dinner at Falai up to two stars.

Features

Eat, Then Sleep

A look at some of the city's best all-you-can-eat destinations - though decidedly un-Vegas in style. Included are two churrascurias and a sushi bar.

Steep Trajectory

The Magazine lists a few spots offering alternatives to the "prim and proper" hotel tea. The list includes the latest Alice's Tea Cup location - and I can personally vouch for those kicking scones (you can also get them to go).

$250K Alpha Bull Bought to Sire Many Steak Dinners

It seems Steve Hanson and David Burke, who are working together to open two steakhouses, have bought a 2,500-pound bull to impregnate the cows that will breed their meat. Huh.

The $250,000 stud will be used to inseminate hundreds of females (the bull is ejaculated several times a day with a machine; cows are inseminated by hand using a glove and a long needle). The hope is he’ll produce a super-tasty herd with optimally marbleized meat.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 1/16/06

Reviews

The Underground Gourmet (Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld) reviews Blaue Gans, a "German-Austrian bistro of sorts." They have high praise for the goulash and the kavalierspitz, though the fish dishes (perhaps out of place in this temple of schnitzel and wursts) are dubbed "anemic" in comparison.

Blaue Gans, or “Blue Goose,” is what Gutenbrunner humbly calls a wirtshaus, kind of like the German version of a British pub—simple and unpretentious almost to the point of affectation. Other than some carved wooden geese and new signage in the window, and a long black communal table where his artsy pals like to cavort, the old Le Zinc space is virtually unchanged. Blaue (sounds like wowie) Gans (like Hans) takes no reservations, and for a while purported to have no phone number. Which isn’t to say the place is a hole-in-the-wall or a faux secret clubhouse like La Esquina. Instead, consider it a Bavarian Balthazar—a convivial spot where Tribeca families, their moppets in tow, rub elbows with expat artists, assorted epicures, and denizens from all walks of life.

On the new scale, Blaue Gans fetches two stars, for the reasons below:

Blaue Gans is Kurt Gutenbrunner at his simplest, most accessible, and, by our lights, most satisfying. It’s unpretentious but polished, and fills a culinary niche. Which is why Blaue Gans gets a solid two stars.

Openings and Buzz

Three New Spots

Included this week is Dumbo's latest high-end grocery store, Forager's Market, Urena, and a new dessert bar from.

Forager's Market:

Now, with Foragers Market, a spacious new shop run by Anna Castellani, the owner of the Dumbo General Store, and her three artist partners, Dumbo has a food fetishist’s paradise to call its own. You’ll find everything from June Taylor jams to Benedetto Cavalieri pastas on the artfully stocked shelves, and there are eye-catching departments for meat and poultry, charcuterie, seafood, and prepared foods. Not to mention 150 cheeses.

Urena:

Stimulated by Spain’s gastronomic revolution and its pervasive effect on the culinary avant-garde, Ureña officially joins their ranks this month with his modern Spanish restaurant, the kind of place that assumes a certain foodie familiarity with phrases like mustard paper and chorizo emulsion.

Room 4 Dessert:

Goldfarb focuses on high-concept thematic tastings, often grouped in quartets and based on ideas like “Infance” (cotton candy and meringue), and a curry-scented “Voyage to India...

Also included in this section is a blurb on the latest brew from Sixpoint Craft Ales.

Features

Mystery Muffins

Maury Rubin's latest endeavor, what he believes to be the first "top-to-bottom green bakery," has revealed itself. Birdbath has been open at 14th and 1st for some time now, but has only recently been officially unmasked as an outpost of City Bakery.

Rubin, it turns out, has always baked with organic ingredients and has now created a showcase for them from ecofriendly materials: The walls are made from wheat and sunflower seed; the floor from a cork by-product. The paint is milk-based, and its pigment derived from beets. Tufts of denim insulation make a base for the bamboo counter, and the staff is clad in racy hemp-and-linen jackets—if anything made from hemp and linen can be called racy.

Sunday: The New Saturday?

As a promotion for her new cookbook, Suzanne Goin recently cooked a "Sunday Supper" at Prune - will the trend for prix-fixe family-style dinners catch on in New York?

The Latest in BYOB

For those jealous of Philly's excellent BYO scene, an index of 50 such spots in New York.

Holy Kreplach!

If you found 2nd Avenue Deli's closing to be a wake-up call, here's a list of classic delis crying out for your patronage.

Dog Days

In honor of the Chinese New Year (and, yes, it's the Year of the Dog), the Underground Gourmet provides a list of its favorite Chinese eateries.

Ask Gael

Is It Gilt or Just Plain Brass?

Gael visits one of the city's most talked-about new restaurants, Paul Liebrandt's Gilt.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 1/30/06

News flash! New York Magazine has a new website. The location is the same (www.NYMetro.com), but the look and feel have changed significantly. As a result, the new content was late in coming, but was finally posted yesterday!

I will note, though, that the restaurant search functions still seem to be a little haywire...

Reviews

Adam Platt takes on Telepan, Bill Telepan's new venture on W. 69th Street. Like Tom Valenti before him, Telepan has ventured northward, striving to bring "downtown" cooking (which Platt notes as "preciously highbrow") to the UWS masses.

To further convey a sense of artisanal bounty, and in accordance with another downtown restaurant trend—menu inflation—there are some 27 dishes available at Telepan, not including dessert. Luckily, this menu bloat (wedged between the appetizers and entrées are nine “mid-courses”) doesn’t matter too much, because Telepan’s food is generally very good.

Platt is a particular fan of the coddled eggs and the lobster-braised halibut, and says that though the "rustic theme feels a bit derivative," the food is still very good. And for that, he awarded it two stars.*

For your further enjoyment, here's a link to the eGullet thread on Telepan.

Openings and Buzz

Openings for the Week of January 30, 2006

Included this week is the Philly to New York transplant Morimoto, along with Novo, Ssam Bar, Pala and the Hampton Chutney Co.

Morimoto:

Architect Tadao Ando, the Pritzker Prize winner responsible for Japan’s Buddhist Water Temple and Tom Ford’s house in New Mexico, has partitioned the dining room with glass privacy screens, built a water-bottle wall, and lined the open kitchen with a 24-seat sushi bar and an eight-seat omakase counter where shoeless guests can pay $120 for the chef’s tasting menu.

Novo:

[Alex] Garcia’s embarked on a sideline project, Novo, a long, narrow Latin bistro where he consults on the gently priced menu. Seviches are a house specialty, and Spanish accents appear in dishes like a gussied-up tortilla española, made with lobster and garnished with romesco, and Iberian-inspired pastas like cavatelli with braised oxtail, manchego, and truffle oil.

Ssam Bar:

David Chang of Momofuku fame will bring his celebrated buns a couple blocks uptown this summer when he opens Ssam Bar at 207 Second Avenue, at 13th Street. The 40-odd-seat spot will have counter service and delivery, and the fast-food focus will be on ssam, the Korean finger food Chang likens to an Asian burrito of sorts.

Pala:

The secret-formula dough of the Roman-style pizza at Palà makes for what its husband-and-wife owners claim is a healthier, less filling crust. The proof is in the pie—offbeat combinations like pumpkin and pancetta with scamorza cheese, and smoked cod with hummus and mint.

Hampton Chutney Co.:

Hampton Chutney Co. started on the East End, expanded to Soho, and has just arrived on the Upper West Side, foot-long dosas and signature chutneys in tow.

Quick Bites

The Sandwich Chronicle

Jerry Seinfeld has finally fulfilled his ultimate dream and secured his legacy: a sandwich has been named after him by Peanut Butter & Co. in the Village. The ingredients? A toasted (H&H) bagel, peanut butter, honey and cinammon.

Prompted, perhaps, by last season’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which his old pal Larry David has a deli sandwich named for him, but feels slighted by its ingredients, Seinfeld wasn’t leaving anything to chance. Officially known as Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedy Special, Seinfeld’s sandwich, as spelled out in the foreword that Seinfeld wrote to Zalben’s new Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook, is his own creation.

Kraut Control

Spots all over the city celebrate February by worshipping the Alsatian classic choucroute garni. Places to indulge include Les Halles, Jarnac and Brasserie Ruhlmann.

Halftime Extravaganza

Not surprisingly, restaurants all over the city are offering haute Superbowl catering. Hearth is offering a special menu, Blue Smoke is in on the game with mac and cheese and a selection of barbecue items, and 'wichcraft is doing platters.

Recipes

No doubt in anticipation of the football-related gorging anticipated this weekend, two recipes are on offer: one for the onion-y dip served with bread at Cookshop, and one for chili con carne by way of Maremma.

Ask Gael

We're Hungry for Comfort on the Upper East Side...

Gael visits Francesco Antonucci’s new spot, Antonucci's, which features a more Americanized menu than his cooking at Remi might suggest.

*Thanks to oakapple for the info!

Edited February 2, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 2/6/06

Reviews

Vegas on the Hudson

Adam Platt's review of Del Posto acknowledges that the place's main object is to bring glitz and glamour to the traditionally homier realm of Italian cooking. This being a Batali/Bastianich venture, he finds the food to be predictably solid, but notes that:

For grizzled Batali veterans (like me), this is all a little strange and unsettling, like watching a troop of lumberjacks tiptoe their way through a ballet. The great chef made his reputation peddling the opposite kind of dining experience, after all. At raucous, unpretentious restaurants like Babbo and Lupa, Batali and the Bastianich family created an intense, almost tribal enthusiasm for their particular brand of rustic Italian cooking. But at Del Posto they seem to have something else in mind. This is their Vegas enterprise, a splashy combination of canny marketing and aggressive haute-cuisine extravagance.

Ultimately, Platt delivers three stars to Del Posto.

We subtract one star for the stagy atmosphere and another for the lack of what, for a better word, we’ll call “Bataliness.” The food’s very good, but it’s not Babbo in its prime.

For Valentine's Day

The Sweet Lowdown

The magazine lists the top ten chocolate desserts in the city, and in so doing discovers a few trends:

Even the most sophisticated pâtissier plays up to our infantile candy-bar cravings (Snickers rule!), and despite our personal preference for simple, unadorned sweets, the haute-pastry pack can’t help but festoon their plates with edible but distracting gewgaws, gimcracks, and that infernal, unavoidable tuile.

Included in the list are, among others, Jean-Georges' warm, soft chocolate cake, The Spotted Pig's flourless chocolate cake, and Gilt's chocolate/chili.

Just Desserts

Take your honey bunch to one of these dessert-only spots for a bite to eat on Valentine's Day. Or any other day for that matter. Room 4 Dessert is at the top of the list!

Fan Meal

In honor of her fellow chefs, Tia Pol's Alex Raij will serve a Valentine's Day menu based on their best dishes. Included are call-outs to Banh Mi So, Pearl Oyster Bar, and WD-50.

My Funny Valentine

Cabaret is the perfect date - music and food, but still swanky and classy in an oh-so-old-New-York kind of way. The magazine lists its favorite spots to toss one back while listening to those glorious standards.

Ask Gael

Is It The Real or Discount David Burke at Bloomie's?

Gael visits David Burke at Bloomingdale's and finds it to be, on the whole, good and promising. She thinks a bit more attention from the chef whose name the place bears might do everyone some good.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 2/13/06

Reviews

Gilty Pleasure

In a review sure to delight those who feel the attention Gilt has received so far has not been focused on the food, Adam Platt goes into great detail about, among other things, the Pekin Duck, the milk-fed chicken, and the loup-de-mer.

The partners at Gilt are wealthy Londoners, which may be why there’s a forced European extravagance about the place, a sense that luxury isn’t really luxury unless you have to pay through the nose. The restaurant employs a friendly and informative tea expert (“We have 52 teas on the list for now, sir”), and the wine list is loaded with big-ticket trophy items, including a 1999 Screaming Eagle Cabernet for the ludicrous price of $1,000 per glass. The food ($92 for a three-course prix fixe dinner) is a comparative bargain, and once the platoons of carefully articulated amuses begin issuing from the kitchen, it’s difficult to make them stop.

While noting that the atmosphere and pricing are a bit over-the-top, Platt awards Liebrandt three stars, acknowledging that a more varied menu might bring four.

Openings and Buzz

Openings for the Week of February 13, 2006

Included this week are El Centro, Little Dishes, and El Dar, among others.

El Centro:

John Dempsey continues to treat Ninth Avenue like his own personal Monopoly board. Having moved Vynl to spiffy new premises three blocks south, he opens El Centro this week in its place.

El Dar:

At El Dar, recently opened in the old Alphabet Kitchen space, the owners interpret [Mediterranean cuisine] as an eclectic mélange of Egyptian, Moroccan, southern Italian, and American pub grub...

Pasanella and Son Vintners:

...A new wine shop with an elegant antique aesthetic. Handwritten signs and drawings offer user-friendly food-pairing suggestions, and so does the friendly staff.

Little Dishes:

Wright’s menu is pure American eclectic, as you might expect from anyone who did time at the original Shopsin’s. The idea, cramped table space permitting, is to tuck into several “little dishes” like salt-cod fritters, slow-roasted pork butt and beans, even a wedge of blue-cheese-dappled iceberg, before working up to a toothsome braised lamb shank or a whole grilled fish of the day. BYO for now.

Features

Last Minute Table For Two

Spots with romantic settings and available reservations include Oceana and Fizz.

Two For Fondue

Places all over the city that serve fondue, that Valentine's Day favorite.

The Layered Look

The magazine examines the current rise of strudel in popularity, partly spurred by Nora Ephron's Op-Ed about the cabbage strudel from Andre's Cafe. Spots serving Strudel in addition to the UES Hungarian spot include Del Posto and The Modern.

Papaya King: Juicer Melvin Major

A Q&A session with Melvin Major, LifeThyme Natural Market's most popular juicer.

Do you ever eat anything bad for you?

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I can’t kick it. I’ll sneak out, go downstairs, hang out in the grocery store with one of the Arab guys, and he knows exactly what I’m doing. I’ll sit there and eat the Reese’s cup and get rid of the evidence.

Pets or Meat?

Inspired by the recent spate of tabloid photos showing huge rabbits, the magazine provides a list of places serving lapin.

Cocoa Loco

A list of spots where you can find superior hot chocolate.

Ask Gael

Cocoa-flavored Gnocchi? Do I Dare?

Gael Greene hits Spiga, the latest addition to the Upper West Side's burgeoning retaurant culture. Those chocolate-kissed gnocchi are "the hit of the night," but not every dish makes it that far.

When you walk the high wire, it’s easy to slip. Lemon gives mascarpone mousse a smart citric edge, but $8.95 for desserts on West 84th Street feels a bit greedy. Early on, the kitchen seemed painfully slow, but once the eager crew gets the drift, this could become a welcome option for Upper West Siders.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 3/6/06

Reviews

The Graduate

Adam Platt finds the food at Urena to be good, even very good (if not terribly original), but the atmosphere is distracting.

The restaurant’s haphazard ambience doesn’t obliterate the pleasures of this generally well-cooked food, but when you’re someone like Mr. Ureña, who aspires to gourmet greatness, it certainly doesn’t help. The best restaurants convey a sense of excellence in every detail, and if one element is off (the lighting, say, or the bar stools, or the brittle, weirdly shiny menu paper), everything else can feel off, too.

Openings and Buzz

Openings for the Week of March 6, 2006

Included this week is Arium, a cafe-cum-salon (the hair kind, not the literary kind).

The café aims to be a salon of sorts as well, with art exhibits and weekly recitals. But the main attraction, culinarily speaking, is chef Richard Guier’s refined lunch- and tea-time fare.

Features

Best Bets

The magazine highlights the opening of a Bouchon Bakery outpost in the Time Warner Center.

One floor beneath Per Se, the 60-seat café occupies some surprisingly exposed real estate (in the hallway outside the Aveda boutique), which is sure to become a foodie scrum. Boulangerie-style fare, like roast-pork-tonnato tartine and three-bean soup with rosemary pistou, are also available for takeout at the nearby retail counter.

Best of NY Food: 2006

The magazine releases it's "best of" lists for 2006, among them the food list, which includes mentions for everything from bar food to fish tacos to steak tartare.

Also included are the magazine's critcs' top picks for new restaurants in 2006, including Jovia and Cookshop.

Arrivederci, Sal Anthony's

Sal Anthony's, the legendary family-style restaurant, has closed.

The 40-year-old Irving Place Italian family-dining icon fell victim last month to a protracted court battle over rent. The restaurant offered moderately priced fare in a brownstone where O. Henry once lived. “I tried with all my heart and soul to keep it open for a middle-class clientele, but everything’s changed,” says owner Anthony Macagnone, 66, a former longshoreman who’s fed everyone from Woody and Diane to Yoko and Sean and is currently at New York Downtown Hospital suffering from acute respiratory distress.

Put a Cork In It

A list of some new wine bars around town.

Brooklyn South Precinct

A look at the eateries dotting the South Slope.

Self-Incrimination in the Supermarket Checkout Line

Apparently, there are some privacy concerns over those supermarket and pharmazy loyalty cards.

For one thing, who knew your shopping list could be used against you in court? Loyalty-card data have been subpoenaed: In one case, a Washington man was falsely accused of arson after grocery records indicated he had bought a fire starter. But the real concern is a different kind of self-incrimination. Actuaries have long sought reliable information to predict who is at risk for heart disease and other ailments; the fear is that insurance companies will raise rates for shoppers with bacon and Mallomars habits.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 3/20/06

Reviews

Hello, Moto

Adam Platt reviews Morimoto, giving two and a half stars to the main dining room, three stars to the sushi, and four stars to the omakase menu.

But none of these items had quite the impact of the final act of Morimoto’s omakase. This was a simple bite of persimmon, flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen and served with a tiny silver spoon. It was as hard as a walnut but melted, as you ate it, to a kind of smooth, fruity sweetness. The result was subtle, ingenious, and refreshing, which is to say it was about as different from your average Godzilla-restaurant dining experience as it could possibly be.

Openings and Buzz

Openings for the Week of March 20, 2006

The list includes Zibetto's Espresso Bar, Sascha, and A Voce's Eames chairs.

Features

Eats Street

With the opening of Trader Joe's at the eastern end, 14th Street is officially the boulevard of food. The magazine takes stock.

Good Eggs

Eggs have a season, too! And here are some spots to enjoy great egg dishes, including Casa Mono and Telepan.

Say When

A look at the growing trend of buying pizza in ways other than by the slice: by the pound, the inch, the foot...

[Megan Blocker]

New York Magazine Digest - 3/27/06

Reviews

Town, Now Country

Adam Platt gives two stars to Country, reviewing the Cafe and "Grand Dining Room" as one.

This food was presented with all the exaggerated pomp and ceremony you’d expect at a grand European hotel. But we’re not in Europe, of course. And, as you sip your glass of after-dinner Muscat, you can’t help wondering whether, in their rush to expand, these facile and talented New York chefs haven’t begun to run out of fresh ideas.

Features

Ashes to Ashes

As we approach the third anniversary of the NYC smoking ban, the magazine asks local restaurateurs to weigh in on how it's affected their business.

Mario Batali:

It has done nothing to hurt business, as it is ubiquitous. If I could create a place for people to smoke, I would in a second—smokers drink more and tip better.

Gerard Meagher (Manager of Old Town):

To us it seems like a wash; we’ve lost customers. But it’s had benefits we didn’t expect, like there’s more turnover at tables, particularly with women who light up a cigarette after a meal and hold up a table for another fifteen minutes. And we have chandeliers that once we clean them, they stay clean. If the law were overturned, yeah, we would allow smoking again. We’re an old-style tavern where cigar smoking and things of that nature are part of the experience.

Drew's Favorite Brunchery Moves to B'klyn

Shopsin's is moving out of Manhattan - what will the celebs do now?

[Lizzie Grubman] resolved to follow Kenny (“my most favorite person”) and his culinary concoctions, as did Drew Barrymore, who can often be found chowing down with her boyfriend, Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Said Barrymore, “I went to the one on Bedford and Morton. I went to the one on Bedford and Carmine. I guess I’m headed to Brooklyn!”

Chicken Little

The Underground Gourmet checks out Pio Maya, a new taqueria in the Village.

All the energy and resources have wisely been focused on the food—a selection of cheap, filling Mexican fare that’s freshly prepared, subtly seasoned, and a very welcome addition to a culinarily blighted block (Gray’s Papaya the lone exception).

Fish Fests

With the onslaught of spring comes the rush to put the seasonal seafood on your menu...included in the list of places to check out is the Grand Central Oyster Bar.

Heroic Heros

A list of Subway alternatives.

Ask Gael

A Shiver of Excitement at Cafe D'Alsace

Gael checks out this latest - and promising - addition to the UES' food scene.

Though Brittany-born, veteran Philippe Roussel vividly recalls eating the Alsatian dishes of his chef-papa, and he channels them as cook-partner here. A pleasant tarte flambé with bacon. The essential choucroute garni cooked in Riesling. And a savory version of the rustic Baeckeoffe (lamb shoulder, oxtails, bacon, potatoes, and onion braised in Pinot Gris) that Alsace’s gifted son André Soltner used to do for special customers at Lutèce.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 4/3/06

Reviews

No reviews this week!

Features

Onan the Vegetarian

The magazine profiles Dan Hoyt, owner of the raw food restaurant Quintessence and the city's latest subway flasher. Some choice quotes:

Hoyt tells me of pictures taken with Kirlian photography, a technique used to measure auras. “An organic raw vegetable has a huge rainbowlike aura,” he says. “A cooked organic has less. And a cooked, factory-farmed vegetable has almost no rainbow at all.”

Originally, Hoyt’s plan was to be a rock star. After arriving in New York in 1988, he played around the East Village with an industrial synth band called Lysdexic (a nod to his disability), then made a demo tape that never got picked up by a label. “What Korn is doing now, I was doing in 1988,” he says. “If I had just stuck with it, I could have been Nine Inch Nails or Linkin Park.”

Hoyt believes that if he and Nguyen had only met under different circumstances, she might really like him. “You know, she’d go, ‘That guy’s pretty cool. He’s got this restaurant, and he’s fun,’ ” Hoyt says. “She’d probably want to go out with me.”

Early Bloomer

A list of spots around the city serving cherry blossom-flavored cuisine.

Spring Melt

Did you know that April is National Grilled Cheese Month? The magazine shows you the best places to indulge.

The Pushcart Pride

Ever wonder where all those street vendor carts go to sleep at night?

Spring Travel: Dining Destinations

As part of their Spring Travel issue, the Magazine looks at dining destinations in the following cities:

- Los Angeles

- London

- Paris

- Rome

- Sydney

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 5/1/06

Reviews

Ciao to All That

Adam Platt reviews A Voce, and gives it two stars.

To someone whose job it is to explore the increasingly bizarre, Oz-like world of Manhattan restaurants, the first reaction, upon sitting down to dinner at A Voce, is relief. Everything about the place is carefully calibrated to convey a sense of soothing, almost soporific familiarity, including the décor, which is a study in retro Four Seasons–style modernity. The room’s color scheme is a subdued mix of earthy browns (the walls) and mossy greens (the tabletops), both of which contrast nicely with the sleek, modernist windows, which are cathedral-size and afford a tall view of the streetscape outside.

Features

The Sayings of Chairman Chow

The magazine profiles Michael Chow, restaurateur (and Zen master, apparently ).

For Chow, restaurants are complex and long-running installations set in theaters of his own careful design. The movements of his waiters—filling glasses, changing tablecloths, delicately deboning rare, fresh pieces of fish—are parts in an elaborate symphony of which he is, ultimately, the conductor.

To eat at a Mr. Chow restaurant is to participate in a roving party, one that has migrated through four decades, three continents, and an awful lot of soup dumplings. It is to acknowledge that the rich and famous will get better tables than the rest of us, and everyone will have a better time for it. In his L.A. restaurant, Mae West got a standing ovation just for finishing her dinner. And it was at Mr. Chow on 57th Street that John Lennon took his last meal before walking home across the park. It was the center of London’s swinging sixties, L.A.’s silky seventies, and the glamorous debauch of the Manhattan art world, circa 1984. Mr. Chow on 57th Street is still a party—now starring Lenny Kravitz or Jay-Z—seven nights a week.

Q&A: Tyler Florence

An interview with Tyler Florence.

I’ve had a thousand opportunities to open restaurants with a million sleazeball opportunists, and it’s never been the right thing at the right time. And I don’t want to jinx it, but we just looked at a place yesterday—can’t tell you what it is, I think it’s bad mojo—but the space is just smokin’. We’re going to put a lot of great energy into this to make sure it happens. It’s going to be very Tuscan, like a grotto, and almost kind of passed through a California filter. Superfresh, as organic as humanly possible, and really ultradelicious. Almost like Chez Panisse. As Italian as Chez Panisse is.

Gastro Grub

On the heels of the opening on AngloMania at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a list of spots to get some good British grub. Tea and Sympathy, of course, makes an appearance.

How Low Can You Go

A guide to the Lower-Lower East Side.

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Gribouille, Craftsteak, Ditch Plains and Parea.

Insatiable Critic

Dona

Gael Greene visits Dona and finds it good, but perhaps a little over-thought.

Cheese plates come in three acts: supernal Gorgonzola picante from Lombardy escorted by fig-balsamic granita alongside crispy prosciutto. Pastry chef Nancy Olson’s defiantly thin sesame-studded bread sticks are addictive. I admire her olive brioche, and zucchini-chocolate cake is not as nasty as it sounds. But it will take taste buds more corrupted than mine to succumb to her walnut-thyme gelato.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 5/15/06

Reviews

Fench, Sans Connection

Adam Platt reviews two new bistos, Cafe D'Alsace and Sascha. He likes the former, which merits one star; not so much the latter, which earns none.

About Cafe D'Alsace:

...it boasts many of the cheery features that have helped make the ersatz bistro-brasserie model the dominant comfort formula of our age. There is the curved pewter bar (here with a ring of decorative, antique seltzer bottles suspended over the barflies’ heads), and rows of tables jammed together, which, in summertime, will no doubt spill out onto the street. There is the meticulously tiled floor, which suggests equal parts bonhomie and old-fashioned good taste, and, of course, there are the posters on the wall, in this case ones depicting hoisted beer steins and other scenes evocative of old Alsace.

About Sascha:

Sascha Lyon, attempts, with varying degrees of success, to directly channel the fake-brasserie template made famous by his former boss, Keith McNally. Sascha is located in the meatpacking district, a block south of the well-known McNally outlet Pastis, where Lyon served as executive chef for five years.

Features

The Subtle Knife

Masayoshi Takayama tries out some knives and ranks them for your purchasing pleasure.

Just a Taste

A list of the culinary fairs hitting town this weekend.

Starving Art-Lovers

Places to eat if you're heading over to the South of the Navy Yard Studio Stroll.

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Pies-N-Thighs, The Little Owl and the new Red Hook Fairway.

Insatiable Critic

Capital Grille

Gael Greene visits Capital Grille - loves the steak, finds the potatoes lackluster.

And not everything scores as high as the beef. Still, I can’t stop eating the greasy tangles of onion sharing a platter with puffy cottage fries. The potatoes had a rewarmed weariness.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 6/5/06

Reviews

Jack Be Nimble

The magazine reviews Jack and Grace Lamb's new restaurant, Degustation. The new place features small plates, and nothing is more than $16. Score!

Croquetas are a case in point. Four to an order, they’re crisply panko-crusted outside, creamy within, and mortared to the plate with a rich pimentón aïoli. You may hate menu quotations, but the Spanish “tortilla” is an innovation that works: two razor-thin slices of potato folded into tiny squares over some shallot confit and adorned with a sliver of pickled jalapeño. Pierce it, and a soft-cooked quail-egg yolk oozes out.

Features

Sea Change

A look at some of the new and notable restaurants in the South Street Seaport area.

1,000 Points of Wine

High-tech wine tasting in Union Square.

The Enomatic wine system stores 48 open bottles, preserving them with argon gas, and dispensing 15-milliliter tastes at the swipe of a card that the store has preprogrammed with an introductory 1,000 points. Points are deducted based on the wine’s value (a 2001 Ridge Monte Bello, at 175, is the biggest splurge), and added in a five-to-one ratio—spend $10 on wine, get 50 points.

Watching the Clock

The magazine takes a look at the minute-by-minute days of four New Yorkers this week, including Il Buco sous-chef Lesley Covitz.

2:00

Put bunnies in the oven. Finish pastas and scallops for the dining-room tables. Chef arrives to check ingredients in stock so he can write the daily dinner menu.

2:26

Lunch is winding down. Start cleaning up. One more table comes in—frustrating. Cook their order, continue cleaning for the evening cooks.

2:43

BAR

Grab a bottle of water. Gossip about a waiter with two publicists.

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Chinatown Brasserie and Penzeys Spices in Grand Central.

Insatiable Critic

Dressler

Dressler is over the river, and the portions are huge.

You can barely see the white of the rib-eye plate under its puddle of spinach, mushroom-flecked bordelaise, and its tower of crisp, hot onion rings. Starters like spring-pea-and-Fontina raviolini in a lemony Parmesan broth with peas and pea shoots would be an entrée in most joints across the river, as might smoked sturgeon on potato galette with herbed crème fraîche, frisée, arugula, hard-boiled egg, and truffle vinaigrette. Does that sound hauntingly Tom Valenti? Well, it’s definitely got that lush heft, I’m happy to report.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 9/18/06

Reviews

Godzilla on Lower park

Adam Platt reviews Japonais - he's not much of a fan.

As I sat at Japonais, sipping my Floating Orchid Martini...,groping for new ways to describe the latest glossy, Pan-Asian disco palace to land in our midst (from Chicago, by way of Vegas), a dish appeared that was so misconceived, so eccentric, so downright flat-footed, that it did the job for me. The Wagyu beef “Toban Yaki” style is not to be confused with the Wagyu rib eye (ten ounces for $58) or the Wagyu-brisket ravioli (which you will find on the menu under the category Les entrées chaudes). No, the Wagyu Toban Yaki (in a pot) comes to the table in a steaming clay vessel. The lid is then lifted, with some ceremony, to reveal a dank mélange of peppers, mushrooms, and the beef itself, simmered to a kind of dull-gray nothingness in a broth described as a Kirin Light beer fondue. I took one hesitant bite, then another. Then I scribbled the following cosmic question in my notebook: “What am I doing here?”

Features

Captain Buffalo

A conversation with Ted Turner on the eve of the latest opening of an outpost of Ted's Montana Grill - at Rockefeller Center. Not Time Warner Center?

Grub Street

The magazine launches an online-only feature, a blog called "Grub Street," which will be updated throughout the day, every day. Today's postings include one on Ssam, David Chang's new restaurant, and an introduction to the new section:

Grub Street was an eighteenth-century London avenue populated by hungry writers. Those long-dead litterateurs never rested, and neither will New York Magazine's food blog. Grub Street will be updated hourly, covering everything from the cult street vendor, nameless yet venerated, to the latest temple of gastronomy, awash in renown.

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Pinkberry, Goblin Market, and Lonesome Dove Western Bistro.

Lonesome Dove's chef, Tim Love, translates a few of the terms from his menu:

PRAIRIE BUTTER: Take the whole femur bones of a buffalo and split ’em lengthwise. Roast with a chile rub and then some chiles and onions. Scoop the marrow out and paint it on the “camp bread.” It’s gorgeous!

FRIED LOBSTER BACON: Goes with the monkfish braised in a posole stew. We poach the lobster in veal stock first about halfway, then we cut it up into chunks and soak it in bacon fat, then pull it out and deep-fry it in peanut oil. It’s real crispy on the outside, so it gets that kind of bacon chew. It’s gorgeous!

Insatiable Critic

Je'Bon Noodle House

Gael is a fan of this incredibly cheap, usually delicious Chinese noodle house. Yet another reason for me to hop on the downtown M15...

Expecting not much at all on this funky stretch of St. Marks Place, I am instantly taken to a pleasure zone by Cantonese “silver needles”—pleasantly gummy little spears of dough tossed with roast pork, chicken, tiny shrimp, and strips of egg. Delicate fish purée piped through a pastry tube into simmering broth becomes noodles: the house’s own creation (the menu claims) and a luscious nest for shrimp, clams, chicken, mushrooms, and a slice of mild fish pâté. Even usually perfunctory beef lo mein impresses; the large scallops of beef are juicy and clearly freshly cooked. That’s remarkable fuss for the price: $3 and $4 starters and entrées from $7 to $12.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 9/25/06

Reviews

Tasty

Adam Platt reviews the new, NoLIta version of the Tasting Room. Seems this new incarnation is a (relative - two stars) success.

...it’s clear that Alevras has been somewhat reinvigorated by his new surroundings. He has a special knack for highlighting unusually earthy ingredients and shuffling them together in a deceptively simple, pleasing style. I’ve been eating around town for several years now, but I’ve never enjoyed silvery fillets of butterfish served cold, in the escabèche style, over a pile of pimiento peppers, pickled onions, and the kind of long, sinuous lunga beans you see ladies carrying around in bundles down in Chinatown, as I did here. Lamb shoulder is served as an appetizer in cool pink slices, with a nutritious Greenmarket weed called lamb’s quarters and a sidecar of sweet green-tomato chutney.

Features

Grub Street, the new blog, has pretty much taken over the Features section of the Restaurant page. Recent posts include:

- Will Text for Food

- America's Amusingest Food Videos

- Prune's Cynthia Rojas on Diners Shy and Naughty

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Porter House New York and STK.

Insatiable Critic

Picholine

Gael visits the newly-renovated Picholine, and finds it to be good, if not great.

Well, disco-and-rock-diminished ears will welcome the near-quiet, and Brennan’s longtime fans will happily wallow again in his signature truffle-tinged risotto. Tonight its creaminess is laced with rabbit, wild mushrooms, and corn. Red gazpacho granité anchored in white gazpacho mottled with paprika, shrimp, and almonds is a dramatic diversion, and pungent sea-urchin panna cotta with a generous plop of farmed osetra seems worth a $6 premium.

[Megan Blocker]

New York Media Digest - 10/23/06

Reviews

Not Your Papa's Tapas

Adam Platt reviews Boqueria, the latest addition to the tapas scene - two stars, no reservations.

Mullen spent two years rambling around the kitchens of Spain, and the tapas he produces are generally well-executed versions of the timeworn originals. There are ribbons of Serrano ham, cut from a leg prominently displayed in the window, a selection of creamy goat-cheese croquettes (the best of which are flavored with mushrooms), and a decent rendition of salt-cod brandade. I don’t know whether my platter of dates wrapped in bacon (Iberian Devils on Horseback with a hint of Cabrales cheese) are legitimate tapas, but they tasted quite fine. So did the tortilla española, with a deposit of sweet onions at its center, and a dish of little toast rounds elegantly decked with slices of chorizo and a single fried quail egg.

Features

Ferran Adria, Molecular Gastronomist - Who, Me?

A Q&A with Ferran Adria, food's "preeminent futurist," in town to promote Spain's tourism and gastronomy. Some interesting thoughts from the man himself...

People have described your style as molecular gastronomy. Why does that phrase bother you?

Well, for starters, it doesn’t exist. That’s the biggest lie out there in terms of cooking. What is molecular cooking?

Well, you’re definitely known for unexpected flavor combinations. What two ingredients would you never think of combining?

Why not mix this and that? If soy goes well with fish, how come no one does beef carpaccio with soy? Why do we have such a taste and not another? It’s all about culture. There is something, however, that I really don’t like: bell peppers.

Openings and Buzz

Recent Openings

Openings include Sheep Station, Tinto Fino, Cafe Cluny, and Bar Martignetti.

Insatiable Critic

Porter House New York

Gael visits Porter House, which has taken over V Steakhouse's TWC real estate.

Chef-partner Michael Lomonaco and his designer Jeffrey Beers have gone for cozy country-club neutrals in cherrywood with leather booths. No gold-leaf shtick, no thrills, other than that stirring view across the park. The menu is a pledge of allegiance to American steakhouse familiars—some of them sensational: outsize lumps of fresh crabmeat delicately bound into a spicy cake. Luscious oyster pan roast with smoked bacon in a puddle of tarragon cream. Elegant baked clams (just a bit too salty).