Food: February 2007 Archives

So apparently we were the last ones to know that Frank Bruni is gay (see "Mrs. Bruni" comment last week). But as we know from his one-star review today, that didn't stop him from taking in the sights while dining at Robert's Steakhouse in the Penthouse Executive Club.

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores.

When Rafael Hasid shuttered neighborhood standard Hill Diner, it seemed that the promise of a proper Israeli breakfast was retreating ever further into the horizon.

In a town whose worst pork chop might come with a $75 price tag and a perfunctory heirloom vegetable, but whose best tamale might come from a guy in Sunset Park with an Igloo cooler tied to his BMX, it may also come as no surprise that food purveyors like to have as much control over their raw materials as possible. Long suffering menu copy words like fresh and house-made actually still mean something in some places. You know that testa at Babbo? Mario Batali boiled a pig’s head for a very, very long time, instead of buying it from someone else. Less exotically, the mozzarella at many pizza places is still hand-pulled and stretched from steeping hot hotel pans, sometimes twice a day. Meat and fish curing is hardly ever outsourced in restaurants anymore: tour any number of restaurant walk-in refrigerators and you’ll likely find spice-coated and air-dried duck prosciutto, or salmon pastrami suspended from the shelving with butcher twine. When it comes to the home cook, given space constraints and sanitation issues, it seems many food experiments are outside the reach of apartment kitchens, and at the very least, hazard the terms of even the most poorly written lease.

Much has been written about Death & Company since they came on the East Village scene a few months back. As you likely know by now, high-end cocktail people take their craft quite seriously and Phil, the head bartender here is no exception. Made with an array of well-selected spirits, juices, alternative liquid sweeteners and homemade bitters, each cocktail strives for a chilly, complex, and balanced flavor profile. Many of the drinks offered are not just trendy throwback drinks, but classic old ones refashioned and developed around the desire to showcase a particularly interesting class of spirit and/or producer. Get ready to try some Old Overholt Rye, an artisanal Mezcal, or some old-fashioned-new-kid-on-the-block Plymouth Gin surrounded in a glass by like-minded flavor neighbors. Look at this comment from when Gothamist last wrote about this spot, owner of small mescal producer Del Maguey is thrilled to learn that his product is being showcased. There is a real mutual appreciation here between the owners, customers, the bartenders and spirit makers.

- A lovely family story, centered around the casual Puebla Mexican Food restaurant in the EV, was recently told in the The Villager. Some of the food is quite good, we are partial to the roast pork tacos served just as they should be, simply dressed with cilantro, onion and a bit of tomatillo salsa.

The fall out from restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow's full page NY Times ad complaining about Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni continues, much to the delight of foodies, critics of restaurant critics, and mental health professionals. Last Friday, former Times food critic Mimi Sheraton wrote in Slate that Chodorow was an "idiot" to run an ad, given "the added exposure of the negative review to so many who may never have read the original."

Have you ever been at a foreign restaurant and gotten the sneaking suspicion that prices for native speakers and you are different? Well, it turns out that in one Chinatown restaurant, that's true! A discrimination complaint by the city's Human Rights Commission was filed against the Canal Seafood Restaurant for allegedly giving Chinese customers a menu with lower prices. Can't we all just get along...and order the same $3.99 lunch specials? The initial complaint with the city was filed by a Wisconsin man who noticed that his party was being charged extra for rice, while the Chinese customers were getting rice with their dishes. Price comparisons of the English and Chinese menus found that dishes averaged $1 difference. As New Yorkers, is anybody really surprised? Maybe they were just given a tourist menu. Lawyers for the restaurant deny that there are different menus for non-Chinese people, only that there is a take-out and eat-in menu.

Just ask Jean Georges, Mario Batali or Tom Colicchio and they’ll tell you there is no need to re-invent the cheese-wheel, so to speak. They’ve built multi-million dollar culinary empires on a single concept, with a few tweaks here or there for freshness. But we’re sure they would warn, as they’ve learned in varying degrees, that the key is not to spread yourself too thin. They’d say to maintain high standards and consistency because your name can only carry you for so long. At least this is what we expect is the advice they would offer Keith McNally on his latest venture, Morandi, an Italian bistro-style eatery in the West Village.

You're in town for the weekend. You've seen the Statue of Liberty, eaten pizza at Lombardi's, and taken in the view from the Empire State Building? What else is there do to in New York? Why, see the KFC/Taco Bell rats of course! What could be a better Big Apple experience?

Or is it all in the Alchemy? Flavored vodkas are everywhere these days, so it's rare to find one that stands out above the rest. You just might find that standout in Alchemy, an infused (not flavored) vodka from Agata Podedworny, who proudly touts her Polish heritage through her product. The bottle itself is striking, a sharp, angular and sleek design, with antiqued lettering reminiscent of chemical compounds. Alchemy sticks to traditional distilling processes, using water from ecologically protected land in known as "the green lungs of Poland," and is infused rather than merely flavored. While flavored vodkas are made by adding ingredients during the distillation process, infused vodka is made by introducing ingredients once the vodka has already been distilled.

Or is it all in the Alchemy? Flavored vodkas are everywhere these days, so it's rare to find one that stands out above the rest. You just might find that standout in Alchemy, an infused (not flavored) vodka from Agata Podedworny, who proudly touts her Polish heritage through her product. The bottle itself is striking, a sharp, angular and sleek design, with antiqued lettering reminiscent of chemical compounds. Alchemy sticks to traditional distilling processes, using water from ecologically protected land in known as "the green lungs of Poland," and is infused rather than merely flavored. While flavored vodkas are made by adding ingredients during the distillation process, infused vodka is made by introducing ingredients once the vodka has already been distilled.

- Gridskipper leads us to some of the city's best fried food including the fried mayo at WD-50 and the Chip Shop, which will fry any food you bring them.

You know what's awesome in high definition TV? Seeing images of huge, fat rats run around a fast food restaurant in the Village! WABC, WCBS, and WNBC descended on a Taco Bell-KFC location on Sixth Avenue at 4th Street. The restaurant had been open until 11PM last night, and someone called in a tip when they saw rats running around. While people have seen rats in restaurants, they probably haven't seen something that looked this close to the Rats of NIMH. This story also made the Today Show, in a broader piece about "Is food from your restaurant safe?" Which makes us wonder about the pros and cons of e. coli and rats.

You’d think a place called MiniBar in Carroll Gardens would have an inferiority complex. It even stares across the street at Frankies 457 Spuntino, a much more serious eatery and wine bar, with a very high reputation. But it doesn’t seem to care.

Just shy of a month old, the new Alphabet City branch of West Village Gothamist favorite, Westville, keeps farm fresh veggies flowing to hip, young clientele seven days a week. Seating forty, Westville East offers the same American comfort food as the original joint, but with twice the space to dine and serve in. Of course, this doesn't mean the lines are shorter--during brunch on a recent Sunday the line ran longer than twenty minutes, and during dinner, seats were filled just after the clock hit seven.

- Penelope Cruz - Cellar Can Blau - Sexy, Spanish with lots of shiny diamonds on the dress. Soft, velvety and beautiful underneath.3 - 6 p.m.; free tastings. 5 West 19th Street; 212-929-2323.

While our comparatively well-paid proxies jetted off to enjoy their three-day weekends in the sun, Gothamist stayed home and indulged our sorrows with what we imagined (wrongly, as it happens) would be a journey into the bleakest corners of the former Soviet Union—Vostok, a traditional Bukharian restaurant deep in the heart of Boro Park.

Jeffrey Chodorow has it out for Frank Bruni, and we mean big time. In a full page ad in yesterday's New York Times dining section (at a reported cost of over $83,000), Chodorow a essentially called Bruni a hack with no real food or reviewing experience (see Bruni's bio here), and accused Bruni of personally attacking him rather than focusing on the food at his latest restaurant, Kobe Club.

In case you've been cut off from the outside world, we wanted to let you know that Keith McNally's Morandi (named after the painter, Giorgio Morandi) is officially opening tonight in the West Village. The man behind Balthazar, Pastis, and Schiller's Liquor Bar has teamed up with Chef Jody Williams, most recently at Gusto, for an Italian extravaganza.

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores.

Bruni two-stars David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar, calls Chang "one of this city's brightest culinary talents." He likes the food, the waitstaff, and the design of the restaurant. "By bringing sophisticated, inventive cooking and a few high-end grace notes to a setting that discourages even the slightest sense of ceremony, Ssam Bar answers the desires of a generation of savvy, adventurous diners with little appetite for starchy rituals and stratospheric prices," says Bruni.

Eric Greenspan might be the best chef you’ve never heard of. The 31 year-old Jersey born, California raised, and one-time New Yorker spent the better part of the last decade working his way through several top-rated restaurant kitchens- Bouley, Union Pacific, and Alain Ducasse to name a few- before landing his first high profile chef’s job at Patina in Los Angeles four years ago. Later, a stint at the highly-regarded but short lived Meson G left Greenspan without a kitchen to call his own. “I was doing cookie demos in combi-ovens at trade shows,” says Greenspan, “but it paid the bills.” Now the chef will put everything he knows about food to test when he opens The Foundry on Melrose, a place that will serve what he calls “fine dining for the everyman.” This past weekend, Greenspan came back to New York to catch up with some old friends, and to survey the current restaurant scene.

Octopus Garden is a specialty seafood market located along the far reaches of Avenue U in Bensonhurst. Operated by Vincent and Pina Cutrone, the unassuming corner storefront long been known to chefs like Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin as the go-to place for fresh octopus and sepia.

Or at least you can get your fat on. You can start by hitting up the newly opened Popeye's Fried Chicken at 40th Street between 7th and 8th. And of course you'll need to follow it up with some pancakes. Lucky for you, IHOP is giving them away free until 10 p.m. today! Here's a list of nearby IHOPs, for your convenience.

After our disappointing foray into the world of Park Slope picnic fare, we scoffed at the neighborhood's promise of a gourmet hotdog. But Willie's Dawgs, the Technicolor lovechild of husband and wife team Ellen Lutter and Tom Anderson, may well have turned the tides.

- Shortly before the now infamous Bourdain post skewering the Food Network appeared, blogger Jinius put her newly acquired TV writing skills to the test with a piece funneling the stars of the much maligned network into the Lost model. Enjoy and don’t miss riding the wake still behind Bourdain’s post, hundreds of comments from readers, Josh at Grub Street defending RR and Nina Lalli piling on him.

Hot chocolate aficionados are likely well-aware of The City Bakery's on-going Hot Chocolate Festival through the end of February, but for the layman of the hot chocolate world, Gothamist reminds you to stop by for a cup of the coma-inducing cocoa. With a new flavor each day, including Monday's (2/19) , Thursday's (2/22) cinnamon, and next Monday's (2/26) chili pepper varieties, there's sure to be a cocoa for any type of chocolate lover. Notoriously rich and thick, The City Bakery's hot chocolate is offered in "shot" or cup ($4.50) sizes either with or without a homemade marshmallow. The brew--if one seeks pure indulgence--can be enjoyed with any one of City Bakery's memorable cookies, including new vegan chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin varieties.

Let us be the first to wish you a happy President’s Day, assuming your loved ones or roommates haven’t beaten us to it. Just on the heels of Valentine’s Day, this holiday comes as a welcomed treat with no responsibilities of gift buying, cooking or convincing yourself that you’re “just picky”. Not to mention a day off to catch up on important tasks like beating your high score at Wii Bowling (current record: 152) or watching those NetFlix that have been patiently waiting for you, collecting dust on your TV stand. But it’s easy to get caught up in “you” and forget the meaning behind the holiday. President’s Day is an opportunity to recognize some of the great and crappy Presidents that have helped to build our nation. Being leader of the free world is really hard work - requiring frequent vacations and trips to the ranch. Sometimes you need to take a night off from building an empire and have a nice, stiff drink. So that’s how we are going to celebrate today - take it easy, turn off the Treo and drink what the big boys do.

One of things you quickly learn on this job is that Gothamist readers are pretty damn good at finding typos. The other is that you can’t make everyone happy all the time. But occasionally we’ll scroll through the comment section, passing over the ones filled with pain and anger, and come across a genuine suggestion or concern. Well, it seems that a reader or two believes that we are “encouraging irresponsible drinking!” Yes, that's right, with an exclamation point. We nearly dropped our pint of whiskey when we read it. That’s not the type of message we want to send. Perhaps our wine and spirits posts are “too focused” on alcohol. Well this week we’re going to make a change. Instead of encouraging our readers to drink copious amounts of delicious alcoholic beverages, we will share our favorite recipes for virgin cocktails that are wonderful to share with friends on a Saturday night or serve at your son or daughter’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

Reader Stanley sent us this photograph of what he described as a "low key PETA protest" from the other day. Two PETA demonstrators were protesting an Iron Chef America outside of Chelsea Market, where the show films. An episode of the cooking showdown featured a lobster challenge - Morimoto vs. Eme from Season 3. But the protest may have had an unintended effect: Stanley tells us that he was inspired enough to buy a lobster bisque at Hale & Hearty.

With the overwhelming amount of choices available for where to eat in NYC, sometimes you just want someone else to make a decision for you. Often you can foist the decision onto your dining companions, especially when you are traveling outside of your neighborhood. But what if it is just you at home, no one to help you decide, and you are feeling indecisive. You really just want to get some delivery or pop out for a solo bite, what to do - enter the Wheel of Food. Reminiscent of the paper wheels that determined what your chores for the day were for cleaning the cabin at summer camp, it is also fun to play with in a “I always wanted to spin The Big Wheel on the Price is Right” kinda way. This flash tool was created by Jim Bumgardner, “a programmer/hobbyist with a passion for making cool graphics & music software, and software toys.”, and it ties into Yahoo local listings via the mash-up. Look for new enhancements down the road as Jim is clearly a world class tinkerer. [via Megnut, who got it from Matt]

The aptly titled and recently openedHope Lounge (it's on Hope Street), might might seem a little too tranquil at first. The enormous red walls are sporadically graced with signs and Indian statues, but if there is a theme, it’s not readily apparent. Right now, it is huge, clean, and spare, which accentuates the high ceilings and abundant seating. With so much space they have enough room to house a regular schedule of live acts, most starting around 9 or 10, in the usual jazz-bluegrass-D.J. vein. You know, something for everyone.

The city may be fighting a war on trans-fats but Google's NYC cafeteria might as well be Switzerland from the looks of some photographs of what's being served up. Today, a Bacon Krispy Kreme Burger (whose sign also says "wrong on so many levels") was on the menu. Not only is the Krispy Kreme bun grilled, but the burger had cheese, too.

The good folks at The Spotted Pig are ringing in the Year of the Pig with, you guessed it, a pig roast. 314 W. 11th Street at Greenwich. Call 212-620-0393 for details.

On the hunt for a lunch/brunch spot whose griddle cook we don’t know by name, Gothamist headed to the newish Cheryl’s Global Soul, a cozy little eatery from Food Network personality Cheryl Smith (of Soul Kitchen).

More than a few Chowhounders were a little bit riled last fall when Cobblestone Foods opened in the former Tuller’s space on Court Street. Cobblestone Foods was billing itself as a specialty foods shop, but there was just one problem: “Where’s the chow?” asked one CH member, after finding “1/3 stocked" shelves during a fact-finding mission. Other curious shoppers found the same problem but noted Cobblestone's vital signs to be otherwise normal -- behind the register, the rotisserie was filled with Long Island duck and roaster chickens, and the large refrigerated display case was stocked with a variety of fresh vegetable salads. More than a few customers seemed confused. “[T]hey were very friendly,” offered one CH member.

We tried to warn you. But now, Valentine's Day is upon us and you haven't gotten a reservation for dinner. It's okay. In fact, it's even better. We're of the opinion that a home-cooked meal is far more romantic than dinner out (plus, it's closer to where you want to end up at the end of the evening, if all goes well). So -- get thee to the grocery store, grab some candles and, if your local bodega isn't already picked clean, some flowers, and get cookin'.

Though you may only be able to dream of ordering that whole lobster this Valentine’s Day, Fairway is making a home cooked one a little more plausible. Though not exactly a steal, lobsters are available at a reasonable markdown that will bring one of the most expensive items of that romantic meal a little closer to affordability. At $8.99 a pound, a regular small sized lobster (1.5 pounds) will run around $13.50 - not exactly a bargain. But if there were any season to spend a wee bit more, it’s now.

Bruni doubles up this week, visiting both Pera in midtown and Dennis Foy in Tribeca. Each restaurant receives one star and the summation that they're worth stopping by if you're in the neighborhood. At Pera, the grilled meats stand out, though Bruni warns, "Stray far from 'tradition' and you risk disappointment, or at least boredom." He likes Dennis Foy's "French-inflected" food, particularly the gnocchi and the crab tian. Calls the restaurant "a worthy but low-wattage addition to the New York dining scene."

Dennis Foy, a self-taught chef who has owned and operated restaurants in the tri-state area for over 30 years (most recently, EQ, which closed shortly after 9/11) can currently be found in Tribeca at the eponymous Dennis Foy. Although the restaurant has been open since December, a recent visit on a Thursday night found more empty chairs than one might imagine. Could it have been the cold weather, or perhaps the location, which is not prone to street traffic?

There has never been a better time to lay off the heart-shaped and maraschino-red dyed food madness than this Valentine’s Day. Not that there’s anything wrong with Russell Stover- okay, maybe there’s a lot wrong with Russell Stover- it’s just that February 14th is the beginning of predictable three month sugar slump that reaches a high point with St. Patrick’s Day brisket obliterated in brown sugar, and ends sometime at the beginning of Spring (April 8 this year) with a monumental pile of foamy, Marshmallow Peeps. Tis the season to eat processed corn syrup.

Last year, after suffering through a painful prix fixe at a shall-remain-nameless eatery on the Upper West Side, Gothamist was felled by a distinctly unromantic case of Valentine’s Day food poisoning. The year before, after preparing a feast fit for Saint Valentine himself, we suffered the indignity of being dumped while the bourguignon over which we had so tragically labored scalded our Le Creuset. But this year, things will be different. We’ve got a flashy little number, a pre-dinner bottle of Gaja, and a fellow who claims…claims…to have everything under control.

The petite woman that sat in front of the imposing steel door glanced up from her clipboard to ask us if we had a reservation. We were warned that reservations at La Esquina were necessary, so we called earlier that day. She checked our name off the list and pushed the door open just enough for us to squeeze through to the other side. We heard that you had to journey down a dingy staircase through a steamy, bustling kitchen to get to the dinning room and it was no exaggeration. But for a list of tequilas like the one at La Esquina, we would have gone a lot farther.

"Sweet Heart," composed of Necco Conversation Hearts by Nathan Sawaya.

- Restaurant Girl reports that Gary Robbins has jumped ship on the giant, long-listing cruse liner The Russian Tea Room.

Mister Cutlets is somewhat of a role model for me . . . maybe even a father figure. We are both food writers. We are both lovers of meat puns (his book is called "Meat Me In Manhattan" and my last post was about a place with the motto "Let's Meat At Sahara.") We've both appointed ourselves absurd nicknames. And we both find it appropriate, even though neither of us are super heroes as far as I can tell, to take on theme songs ("With the bacon and the lamb chops and the scrapple and the ham hocks, Mister Cutlets spend some time with me" written by Life In A Blender West versus "Pickles! Salami! Dumplings! Pastrami! Take a look, grab a bite, put it in your tummy!" written by Jack Dolgen of Sam Champion before, mind you, he ever heard that phenomenal Mister Cutlets theme song.)

You know the conversation, the one that starts with “I never go above 14th Street”? Seems that for all its pretentiousness it can serve as decent advice when hunting for quality eats. Sure, many inhabitants of the upper stratosphere of the NYC restaurant world call “uptown” home, but it sure seems easier to find a casual yet professional, enjoyable yet tasty, food experience downtown. Of course places that fit this bill inhabit “uptown” also, just at a lower ratio – feel free so share some of your favorites in the comments below.

February 11: Second New Indian Dinner - A Benefit for Kids with Cameras

Anthony Bourdain, who has taken to guest-blogging for Michael Ruhlman, has already offered his opinions on Top Chef contestants. Now, he's on to bigger and better targets -- the personalities on the Food Network. He admits to watching it, "I find myself riveted by its awfulness, like watching a multi-car accident in slow motion," and has plenty to say about those who grace its airwaves. Emeril: "I STILL find him unwatchable." Giada: "Food Net seems more interested in her enormous head (big head equals big ratings. Really!) and her cleavage--than the fact that she’s likeable, knows what she’s doing in an Italian kitchen--and makes food you’d actually want to eat." Rachel Ray: "She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that '[e]ven your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!'" Sandra Lee: "Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time."

Book-ending 85th street in Jackson Heights, Mama’s Empanadas and Papa’s Empanadas caught Gothamist’s attention on a recent food-finding mission to the borough.

- It's strange that in this arctic weather that the best food news we've heard today is that NYC Icy is returning. NYC Nosh snapped a photo of this sign in Hell's Kitchen. Bring on the summer!

“I don’t eat anything with a face” is the oft-cited dinnertime proclamation of many vegetarians when faced with dumb questions and pointless cross-examination from meat eaters. “Well, do you eat eggs?” the meat eater asks, “Cause an egg eventually has a face.” The vegetarian shakes her head. The meat eater, content with some pseudo-philosophical victory, usually chortles, and proceeds to bury his face in a giant pile of hot dogs topped with bacon and chili cheese. The vegetarian waits patiently for salad. It’s a all-too-common scenario.

Bruni no-stars Kobe Club, Jeffrey Chodorow's contribution to the steakhouse scene. Finds the Kobe "rapturous," but the restaurant as a whole crazily overpriced and gimmicky. Says it presents "too many insipid or insulting dishes at prices that draw blood from anyone without a trust fund or an expense account."

Just steps from the interminable reconstruction of the BQE’s Roosevelt Avenue exit, and under the round-the-clock clatter of subway tracks, is Zabb Queens, an Isaan Thai restaurant. Isaan cuisine is soul food from the northeastern region of Thailand, and while the clichéd “hot-sour-salty-sweet” plate-view applies, it would be something bordering criminal to talk about Zabb Queens as such.

With all the Super Bowl savings going around on huge slabs of meat, tortilla chips and beer, it was easy to look past some of the lighter fare offered on sale this week. It was especially hard at Pathmark where shell steaks were going for an incredible $4.99 a pound (which beats Fairway's price!) and the spare ribs were $1.99 a pound (which we pigged out on during the big game). But if your mind was full meat, then you’d miss the sale of the week, which was not so hidden on page one: Grapes for $.99 a pound. We were immediately suspicious when we encountered the price, expecting mushy grapes instead of nice crisp ones. But upon squeezing, we knew these were legitimate specimens.

- Florentine specialty gundi gets the Sunday treatment in the Daily News from Irene Sax. April Bloomfield speaks about the “fluffy little bites of love”, Iacopo Falai calls them a “woman's dish”, and Mark Ladner’s recipe from Del Posto is included. Hit DiPalo’s to find the sheep’s milk that is essential for a winning dish at home.

When we saw it on the wine list at Cru, we rubbed our eyes in such disbelief that you could almost hear that signature squeaky sound if you listened closely. There it was, a 1989 Zind-Humbrecht Muscat Goldert from Alsace, France. It went against everything we were taught to know about Muscat. We were told that wines made from the Muscat grapes were best enjoyed young. That the fresh floral and grapey aromas would grow tired with age and that it was certainly not a wine that would improve with some time in the bottle. But here was a Muscat that was 18 years old, from one of the best producers in the region. Our curiosity got the best of us; maybe aged Muscat was misunderstood. We had to taste it to find out (at a cost of around $90).

Mario Batali, Iron Chef, TV personality, cookbook author, and restaurateur sat down with us at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria in Greenwich Village to discuss his latest philanthropic project -- a cookbook with recipes from celebrities, including the likes of Kristen Davis, Ashley Judd, and Harrison Ford. Mario paired up with fellow Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis to edit the recipes. The cookbook is free and available online at CelebrityPastaLovers.com. Each time the book is downloaded, Barilla pasta will donate $1 to America’s Second Harvest, or one of its local branches, up to $100,000

Hopefully you’ve got your party stocked and ready to go for the game tonight. We’re getting ready to fake some real enthusiasm here, and we hope you can muster it, too. But if you really couldn’t care less about the game, hopefully you can put all that spirit into the food.

Ugh.

Poor Columbia Street. In Manhattan, streets are completely torn up, repaired, and repaved and functional in a day. But for the past 6 months this street on the edge of Carroll Gardens and Red Hook has been in a stages of distinct disrepair, each frustrating in its own particular way. There were the potholes of the summer, the big dig of the fall -when all the concrete and asphalt were removed and new concrete poured- and the seemingly intentional crevices the new concrete came with, which were worse than the potholes. But all that uneven walking couldn’t hide the fact that it’s lined with some interesting bars, and a month ago it gained something kind of novel for the area, a tapas bar.

When self-proclaimed "pizza master" Michael Ayoub invited us to an evening party of wine and pizza pairings (complete with a mozzarella making demonstration) at the LES's Cronkite Pizzeria, Gothamist knew we had to stop by for a taste. Last night, Ayoub, the chef-owner of Cronkite as well as of Fornino in Williamsburg, catered to a hungry and happy crowd with a selection of antipasti and "3 Generations of Pizza" -- fifteen varieties of artisanal pizzas selected from the more extensive daily menu.

February 3: James Beard House Cookbook and Culinary Tag Sale

Hungry for some good gluten, Gothamist booked it to the three-month-old Kate’s Brooklyn Joint in Williamsburg, an outpost of the East Village mainstay.