While it seems like many restaurants are suddenly closing in the wake of the scandalous appearance of rats at a Greenwich Village KFC-Taco Bell, the Health Department claims it's just going about business as usual. Their statement to amNY: "Our policy remains the same: Inspectors should cite violations that they see. Our only mission is to enforce the health code and keep restaurants safe for customers." And the DOH denied that closings had spiked recently, which makes this graph very weird.

Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged that there were more closings in the past year because "a new person in charge of that group, and they have doubled the number of restaurants and bars that they have closed down." Former mayor Koch discussed rats with the Sun, "They don't like to be disturbed," which could lend credence to some joints' claims that rats were infiltrating due to neighboring construction.

The Post had an editorial about "Frieden's Follies," as in Frieden's knee-jerk reaction to the rat-infested passing inspection fallout. And John's Pizza on Bleecker was planning on reopening last night - did it happen?

Photograph outside a grocery on 14th and 8th by Jake Fisher; notice how the attempts at removing the sign, in spite of the sign saying "Do not remove"

The boys at Eater (scroll down) are off this week, having put their money on one star for Sfoglia.

Also in the Times, Peter Meehan goes to Caffe Falai for $25 and Under. Iacopo Falai's casual spot gets Meehan's approval for its breakfast and lunch. "Dinner fare is where the strain of running a mini-empire shows," he says. He finds the meat and fish dishes weak, though the pastas are strong. The cafe takes its last dinner orders at 8pm.

Cuozzo's on a tear about incomprehensible wine lists and descriptions in the Post. "As fine-dining eateries grow ever more informal, many wine lists have grown inversely more ponderous, harder to navigate and ever more esoteric," he says.

Paul Adams visits Rosanjin for the NY Sun. The Japanese restaurant only serves kaiseki, a multicourse dinner that changes according to season and the mood of the chef. "Rosanjin's is the priciest kaiseki meal I've had in the city," says Adams, "and it's very fine, but it does not inspire awe commensurate with its price and focus on details."

How did you get started Not Eating Out in New York? Your website says that you got bored with local brunch.
Well, I guess I just started the blog last August after getting frustrated. I had been to the same brunch places, probably maybe ten times, in my neighborhood and some other neighborhoods. I just got sick of paying $10 for two little poached eggs. So while I kind of miss brunch sometimes, I just wanted to make a project out of making the best things I possibly could, as an alternative to eating out.

Do you cook brunch at home now?
I do. It’s kind of different because I don’t try to make a frilly presentation of it. So much about brunch when you go out to a restaurant is about the food presentation- the sauce being perfect, and all that stuff. Mine aren’t that great.

But don’t you have to take pictures of everything you eat?
Well, there are a lot of photos that get discarded if they don’t look good enough. It makes sense because I post an average of three times a week, and obviously I eat a lot more than that.

Founding director Christine Carroll describes the first New Orleans traveling Culinary Corps crew to as an “eclectic collection of students, culinary alumni, cooks, cheesemongresses, wine consultants and bakery owners.” Culinary Corps participants, some of whom are New Yorkers, will be spending time trailing in the kitchens of various New Orleans restaurants such as Cochon, but will spend most of their time manning the stoves for groups like the Katrina relief Emergency Communities. Next week’s fund-raiser will also benefit The Edible Schoolyard, which seeks to combine the ideas of sustainable and organic gardening with a K-8 curriculum; the event will additionally help defray the cost of a public address system to be used at a Crescent City Farmer’s Market for cooking demonstrations. While future week-long Culinary Corps trips to New Orleans are booked solid (one in the beginning of June will consist almost exclusively of alumni and current students of New York's Institute for Culinary Education), other opportunities to help support the "rebuilding and fortification" of New Orleans are in the works. Carroll quotes New Orleans food advocate Poppy Tooker -- "Eat it to save it," -- as part of the Corps' NOLA game plan. Save it, indeed. And save the date.

Culinary Corps
Acme Bar and Grill
Monday March 12th, 6-8 pm
$20 tax-deductible donation

“Crawfish Boil” photo by Jamie Tiampo

Boiling or steaming the asparagus may be the classic way to get things done, but we like a little crunch with ours, so we’ll opt for high heat. They always taste better on the grill -- even if a few are always lost to the abyss-- but that’s not much of an option right now. That leaves roasting and broiling. The latter of which requires less time and will safely hold all the spears so none go venturing too close to the light and scorch themselves.

Preheat the broiler for a few minutes. Meanwhile, break off the ends of the spears. Toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then spread on a baking sheet in one single layer. Place in the broiler for 8-10 minutes, or until they are bright green but show a little char. Make sure to check halfway through and give the pan a good shake so none get stuck.

Then it’s up to you. They are definitely tasty as is, or maybe with a little spritz of lemon. We decided on a little soy and ginger vinaigrette stolen straight from the Cook’s Illustrated. Whisk together 1 chopped scallion, 1/2 inch of minced ginger, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 1/2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce, the juice of 1 lemon, and 1/2 tablespoon of honey. Then toss with the cooked asparagus. Enjoy that first gleam of spring’s eye. It’s oh so close.

Despite a recent triumph for Carroll Gardens, an area that once hosted one of the city’s most concentrated Italian communities, there are few remaining vestiges of the neighborhood that was. Among them is Sam’s Restaurant, a quintessential red sauce joint and pizza destination helmed by Louie Migliaccio, the self-named “Son of Sam.”

Though the place isn’t exactly bustling, it is without the sense of doom that lingers over so many neighborhood relics that feel gentrification’s apocalyptic pinch. The Migliaccio family has owned the building, including the apartments above it, since the 30s; worries of mortgage payments or ascending rents haven’t been an issue for decades. Nor has the concept of modernizing, apparent in the dining room’s plastic poinsettias, wood paneling and plaster cast effigies bathed in an awkward florescent light. There’s also a kind of archaic sexism here (Sam’s menu reads “If your wife can’t cook, don’t divorce her, keep her and eat at Sam’s…you will both be happy”), but we forgive it the way we forgive our grandparents for their occasional lapses in political correctness.

The menu is vast—21 varieties of pasta, 12 veal dishes, 13 fish and half as many “fowls”—but the main event, the pizza, is relegated to a list of toppings. When pressed, Louie offered this morsel, “We’ve got two kinds of pizza—small and large.”

Sam’s serves a contentious pie. Some swear by the crust, others find the sauce too sweet and the cheese too sporadic. It hasn’t embraced the expensive flourishes of descendants like Fornino and doesn’t attract the kind of die-hards willing to queue outside Grimaldi’s. But the honest, brick-oven cooked pies achieve moments of greatness with toppings like simple minced garlic or shredded escarole and very occasionally fall short—on Gothamist’s recent visit the meatballs were noticeably dry.

The best of Sam’s might well be Louie, whose wise-cracking bravado ranges from bawdy one-liners to tales of the Carroll Gardens of yore. By 11 pm on a recent Friday night, when just blocks away, places like Brooklyn Social Club and Last Exit were beginning to pick up speed, Louie had cleared the tables and was finishing the last of the glasses behind a long, florescent-lit bar. “This place has been here for 75 years, I’ve been here for 49,” he said. “But I’ll take the neighborhood the way it was 30 years ago.”

Sam’s Restaurant
238 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-596-3458

Photos by Daniel Krieger

- Round-up of the wake left behind the Robert's at the Penthouse Club steakhouse review. Ganda, Bruni Digest, National Review, and Bourdain on Ruhlman (again). Bonus Bourdain: Q&A over at Serious Eats.

- Seems the John Mackey (Whole Foods) vs. Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) smackdown turned into a bit of a fizzled out firecracker that did not pop. Well it could have been fun.

- A look at the back of the house over at Park Slope's Al Di La. The winning Northern Italian restaurant gets the full treatment replete with photos by Michael Harlan Turkell.

- Porky links from Lia - Heritage pork renaissance, Filipino lechon, 4 thoughts on the humble pig, and bacon maple donuts

Got some Hot Sake for us ? Send it our way, credit will be given...or not if you prefer.

We learned all of this when we were schooled in how to achieve the perfect beer pour from a bottle. Beers like hefe-weizens lend themselves perfectly to this technique so we choose one of our favorites, a Paulaner Hefe-weizen. The key is to start with a clean, pilsner glass. Any pint glass will do as well, but we were with a beer professional (read: “functioning alcoholic”) who took his stemware very seriously. Here’s what we learned:

1. Start, by taking the clean glass and rinse it with cold water, making sure there is no soap residue left in it. To ensure it is clean hold the glass upside to see if the of water evaporates up the glass. If it does without stopping then you've got yourself a clean one.

2. Hold the glass at a 45-degree angle and stick the neck of the bottle far inside the glass. Pour the beer slowly into the side of the glass pulling the bottle out slightly as you go. When you have about a “finger’s worth” left of beer in the bottle (about 1/2 inch) stop pouring.

• The foie gras battle rages on sparked by a sign at Fairway on the Upper West Side.
• Jacques Torres is in a hot chocolate war in DUMBO (his use of exclamation points is also noted).
• Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia find a new home at Anthos, in the former Acqua Pazza space on 52nd Street. Restaurant Girl gets an early peek.
• And with Japanese Restaurant Week starting today, we find Grub Street's guide very handy.
]]> Food food_laren 2007-03-05T09:39:30-05:00 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/03/04/tortilla_espano.php The vagaries of a properly made Tortilla Española have plagued Gothamist for years. A thick egg based dish, a tortilla has a more robust structure than its slutty cousin, the omelet, and is traditionally made with only potato and egg. The addition of other vegetables (peppers, peas, chives and onions most frequently) or other leftover foodstuff--from noodles to ham--is also common in the Spanish home.

Having first encountered the bonne bouche in its native environs, we marveled at its versatility. Equally tasty hot or cold, eaten in hefty wedges for breakfast or bite-sized triangles before dinner, or chilled and tucked into a baguette for lunch, the tortilla was a great equalizer, welcome in any household at any time. We grilled our surrogate Spanish mother for a recipe and walked away with a "little of this, little of that" farce that produced a loose, eggy omelet, not the dense construction of tortillas past.

After much experimentation and many years, we've come to realize that the perfect tortilla is in the delicate interplay of ingredients and equipment. Potatoes should be lower in starch so that they hold their shape while frying- try red-skinned or round white potatoes . They should be sliced thinly and consistently and fried until tender but not crispy. When they are added to the beaten eggs, let them sit to absorb the mixture before pouring it into an extremely hot nonstick pan with sloping sides to ease the flipping process. Let the tortilla set at a high temperature before lowering the heat and slowly allowing it to cook through.

Flipping the tortilla is, for most cooks, the most difficult part of the process. A broken tortilla ruins the integrity of the dish and comes with some grave disappointment. Choose a large plate without a lip and shake the pan to loosen the disc. Position the pan over the plate and, using a spatula to guide its descent, tenderly nudge the tortilla off the skillet. Very carefully cover the plate with the pan, flip and return to the flame.

It takes a good bit of practice to master the flip and even at our best, our tortillas seldom fully resemble the ones we ate in Spain. This recipe is a good start for first time tortilla makers but, like the best of dishes, will require your personal tweaking to achieve greatness.

Got any tips of your own?

]]> Cooking in the City goth_jordana 2007-03-04T14:03:52-05:00 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/03/04/restaurant_heal.php A new shocking Health Department-related video has emerged, but there are no rats in this one. Apparently, a restaurant inspector looks like he's sleeping at a restaurant's bar area before handing over a notice of inspection failure!

The Post reveals that the unnamed Manhattan restaurant had previously hired a restaurant consulting firm after being failed last year. The firm, S.A.F.E., managed to get the fines dismissed on a technicality because the inspector "had written the wrong date on the report," and the Health Department sent Jonathan Morales for a follow-up inspection. But Morales's inspection actions were very odd. From the Post:

The video shows the inspector strolling into the eatery wearing a T-shirt at 3:10 p.m. After a few minutes at the bar, he walks off-camera with a restaurant employee - presumably inspecting another part of the restaurant.

When he reappears 10 minutes later, he is seen going behind the bar, where he looks around for another 10 minutes.

At 3:44 p.m., he parks at the bar for the next hour and a half.

At first he is seen writing on a stack of paper, off and on.

Within half an hour, his activity slows down dramatically. He is seen rubbing his head, stretching and taking out a newspaper to thumb through.

On a couple of occasions, his head droops down on the bar - at one point for what looks like a brief catnap.

In the end, Morales hands over his notice of inspection failure to an employee.

The restaurant was also fined $1,400 in violations. Apparently Morales claimed his visit took two hours, even though he seems to have spent 20 minutes actually inspecting. Naturally, the restaurant filed a complaint with the Health Department, where a supervisor said she's "rip up Morales' report and rescind the violations." The restaurant eventually passed inspection.

Ever since over three dozen rats were seen at a KFC-Taco Bell in the Village the day after the Health Department passed it, the Health Department has been under fire over its inspections. Morales was fired from the Health Department shortly after the incident. He told the Post that he wasn't sleeping and that the Health Department doesn't provide good training for inspectors. Like how to put the proper date on a form? We shudder to think how many other restaurants manage to have inspection failures thrown out because of technicalities like that.


]]> Food News jen 2007-03-04T13:30:47-05:00 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/03/04/foxy_brown_no_j.php

The old adage says, "any publicity is good publicity," but is that really the case with Foxy Brown? Just this Thursday, Brown was given another chance in criminal court for violating the terms of her parole. It seems like Foxy, who's real name is Inga Marchand, decided to celebrate Friday night with a free meal at Junior's in Brooklyn. Junior's management told The Post that Foxy and her crew walked out on a $53 bill before someone came back and tried to pay. The restaurant refused payment by saying, ""Look, don't pay for it, just don't come back."

This wasn't the first time that Foxy has tried to skip out on a bill at Junior's - she skipped out on a $200 bill earlier in the week too. From quotes in The Post, it seems like Foxy is a regular at the Brooklyn cheesecake institution - her favorite is the strawberry cheesecake.

Here's what happened on Friday, according to the accounts of a manager at Junior's, "After ordering fried calamari and an ice cream soda, Brown spilled the drink on herself, then allegedly demanded the restaurant pay to clean her "$2,000 Dolce & Gabbana jacket." Foxy Brown sounds like the best customer ever!

Perhaps the next time she appears in court, which will probably be next week, the judge won't be so lenient. And in fun Foxy Brown trivia, did you know that State Senator John L. Sampson is her lawyer? If he's not busy enough in Albany, his client sure keeps his schedule full.

Photo of Junior's by Paulo C on flickr

]]> Restaurants tien 2007-03-04T10:55:59-05:00 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/03/04/cook_like_the_c.php The great divide between New York City restaurant chefs and serious home cooks is becoming narrower by the day. Chefs pen guest columns for the New York Times telling us what to look for when buying turnips and get interviewed by bloggers about where the most durable knives can be found, all in the name of improving the home cook’s game. A chef might even be followed around the city in order for us to learn, for example, which Chinatown street vendor has the best charcoal-grilled chicken hearts. These things all are well and good, but here is one product used in many high-end restaurant kitchens- up until now a well-kept secret, really- that isn’t available in many, if any, New York gourmet food stores, despite the breadth of all the cold-pressed, virgin, and refined choices to be found. Yes, it’s a type of olive oil, one that chefs don’t want you to know about.

Formerly available exclusively to restaurants with globetrotting chefs, and completely unavailable to consumers in the U.S. until very recently, Terre Bormane is a private label olive oil made from Ligurian taggiasca olives. Daniel Boulud at Daniel and db bistro moderne uses the stuff, as does Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park and Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern. It comes in two varieties: Riviera di Fiori, an unfiltered, pure taggiasca bottled at the beginning of the harvest season and slapped with a D.O.P. designation (like Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano), and Colombino, a blend of 3-4 olive types pressed each fall. While the Riviera di Fiori is a 6,000 bottle per year limited edition and comes numbered as such, the less expensive Colombino, with its sweet, strong, and non-bitter olive flavor is a good choice for cooking, vinaigrettes, and dressing vegetables. You can buy it by the 500 ml bottle for $15.50, or a case of 6 for $84 from the Chef’s Warehouse, the same supplier Chefs Boulud, Humm, and Anthony use. And if you don’t feel like waiting for mail order you can always make arrangements for pick-up at the Chef’s Warehouse cash-and-carry, in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx. While it’s never open for supermarket-style shopping, the place is, at least in some sense, the largest specialty food store in the tristate area.

Terre Bormane at The Chef’s Warehouse
1300 Viele Avenue
Bronx, NY 10474
(718) 842-8700

]]> Food goth_hugh 2007-03-04T10:40:45-05:00 http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2007/03/02/health_departme_1.php

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Restaurant Inspection division is on a tear. The DOH shut down three Pizza Hut restaurants owned by the franschisee who owns the rat-infested KFC-Taco Bell in Greenwich Village, the restaurant that launched a thousand shocked giggles and a million more eeewww's. And maybe there were a couple, "Oh, the rats look cute. Behind the glass." Franchisee ADF has eight restaurants in NYC that were allowed to remain open; the company claims it is reviewing its maintaintence procedures.

After introducing a number of new inspection procedures, many people are probably noticing more "Closed" notices. A reader writes:

Just walked on Bleecker btwn 6th and 7th past John's Pizza and Risotteria and they are BOTH CLOSED by the DOH. They've also posted signs referring to a "witch hunt" on the DOH's part, covering for "sins of the past..." and things of that nature.

Ouch. A lot of restaurants are being closed. Vegas Diner and Bubby's in Dumbo were closed, and their owners are crying foul. Bubby's owner Ron Silver told the Post, "They gave us violations for things they passed us for in the past. A lot of them were bogus. They cited us for rat droppings, which is absolutely untrue," while the Vegas's Ted Vlamis said, "We have no rats, no mice, no nothing. They've overreacted. Now, they're going by the book." Au Bon Pain, which had its 40th Street and 3rd Avenue location closed this week, says that they suspect construction drove rats to their restaurant. Hmm, who will restaurants sue first, the Health Department or neighboring construction sites?

Have you noticed any restaurant closings related to a recent DOH visit? You can search restaurant inspections online here. amNY had some rat and restaurant stats. And because it's crazy, here's the video of the rats at KFC-Taco Bell.

Cartoon by Mikhaela Blake Reid, via Flickr

]]> Animals jen 2007-03-02T16:44:47-05:00