Eater is reporting that chef Cesar Ramirez is out at West Village restaurant Bar Blanc. Stepping up to the stove will be, like Ramirez, another veteran of David Bouley's restaurants, Sebastiaan Zijp. According to the restaurant’s PR, Bar Blanc’s “partners decided to go their own ways and [the parting is] quite amicable, believe it or not.” Eater cites an additional report in their inbox that “puts the parting at less than ‘amicable,’” and “that it... [continue]

20 years ago this summer, Fabio Trabocchi started his culinary career in the Marche region of Italy. The chef-to-be was fourteen at the time, and found himself occupied with odd jobs such as shucking mussels, cutting vegetables, and even serving as ad hoc valet at a small restaurant close to the beach. Next month marks Trabocchi’s one-year anniversary at SoHo restaurant Fiamma, where, with a kitchen staff of 12, he serves plates like Burrata di... [continue]

Gala Apple is a sprawling Slavic supermarket housed in a former Rite Aid, located along the southern border of Kensington, Brooklyn. It’s loaded with odd food gems like these cute, 8 oz. “Subway Series” rye mini-loaves ($1.29), above, that come from a Queens bakery. Part of the baker’s profits benefit education about the Armenian Genocide. Just past the bread aisle, a refrigerated case is stocked with Russian cheeses and odd, layered dessert concoctions. Sausages... [continue]

Fresh from attending the Bronx Food and Arts Festival on Sunday, Dave Cook of the highly recommended food site Eating in Translation reports that Hunts Point barbecue rig Mo Gridder’s – famous for its St. Louis cut smoked rib platter served in the parking lot of an auto center – is moving into its very first restaurant space without axles. Owner Fred Donnelly will open Mo Gridder’s II in the Belmont Section of the Bronx,... [continue]

Last Sunday morning, two prospective diners approached the entrance of Abigail, a new restaurant on the corner at Classon Avenue and St. Johns Place. One of them pointed to a sign taped to the front door that said “B.Y.O.B.” “That sucks,” one of them said, “isn’t this supposed to be a wine bar?” They went in for brunch anyhow; the place was busy. Brunch, normally a buckshot-filled game of Russian roulette, is relaxed yet... [continue]

In his cookbook called Mantra, which was released last month, Graffiti chef-owner Jehangir Mehta includes a recipe for a cocktail he calls “Barley Legal,” a cheeky mix of ultra-healthy barley water and Johnny Walker. "This drink is dedicated to all the young celebrities out there," the chef writes, introducing the recipe. And it’s probably a sincere note of acknowledgment, coming at the tail end of book filled with new and understated ideas about food. The... [continue]

Blogger Flatbush Pigeon recently noted the curious case of Pomegranate, the enormous new supermarket currently in its final stages of construction in Flatbush/Midwood. The food store takes the place of a kosher bakery, another store, and an auto repair shop. Giant pomegranates loom over Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L. The picture here belies the sheer size of the place—just take a look at Flatbush Pigeon’s photos. The blogger notes that “this isn't going to... [continue]

When Eater reported on the Elizabeth Street Tasting Room location closing last week and mentioned “a dinner theater event” as a negative prognostic sign, chef-owner Colin Alevras stepped up to the comments section to defend the event and its organizer: “Marlo produced a fantastic event,” wrote Alevras, while confirming the Tasting Room’s closing, “and I hope to be able to work with her again in the future.” Marlo is Eating Their Words creator and director... [continue]

Sunday June 22nd marks the return of Stink-Fest on Smith Street, a mini-celebration of all cheese pungent and dank. With that comes one of the better competitive eating events in recent memory, the Stinky Cheese Eating contest. The call for new competitors is out at this very moment, so get ready: Last year, Oliver “cheese baron” Butler – director of acclaimed theater company The Debate Society – dominated the contest by downing 6 oz. of... [continue]

Top photo: Focaccia at Palermitana; Primo Sale at Lioni Latticin. The price of the average pizza slice in New York continues to rise dramatically with the price of flour, taking mozzarella cheese and other assorted toppings with it. But not in Bensonhurst. Places like L&B Spumoni Gardens have in fact raised their grandma slice prices because of flour. But at $2.25, it’s merely a quarter more than this time last year. And that's a... [continue]

In American Nerd: The Story of My People, Brooklyn-based writer Benjamin Nugent combines a peripatetic history of the word “nerd” with accounts of the various kinds of people it is most often used to describe. The book includes an autobiographical dose; one section called “My Credentials” details Nugent’s early 90s adolescent exodus from d20-style probabilities. On page 3, Nugent fittingly discloses: “when I was eleven, I had a rich fantasy life in which I carried... [continue]

According to its press release, the mood and décor at Yerba Buena, which opens tonight, “takes its inspiration from old-time Havana.” There’s nothing over-the-top about it; the place thankfully does not look like a movie set. A small, bright white neon sign is planted in the restaurant’s window, and the room is breezy and dark. Diners can check in on the kitchen, which is separated from the dining room with a large glass window. Yerba... [continue]

Esquire has just released a far-out video showing Momofuku chef Dave Chang and crew sitting for one hour inside a translucent ten-foot square cube. The resulting portrait, made by Chicago-based artist Lincoln Schatz, is part of an ongoing series commissioned to celebrate both Esquire’s 75th anniversary and “the most influential people of the coming decades.” Through a collage of camera feeds and permuted edits, the video installation portrait never depicts the same image sequence... [continue]

Cesar Ramirez, the 36 year-old chef at Bar Blanc, doesn’t want to be called a chef. Taking a cue from his mentor David Bouley , he prefers the term craftsman, and insists that his food speaks for itself. Ramirez doesn’t waste a lot of bandwidth talking up his game, bragging about how often and how hard he hits the Greenmarket. In a time when it is not uncommon for chefs to spend their days with... [continue]

On West 10th Street next door to his eclectic restaurant P*ong, Pichet Ong sells takeout cupcakes, cookies, and other sweets at Batch. True to the shop’s name, desserts are made in small quantities and are featured until they run out; this gives Ong the opportunity to cook whatever he wants. The chef currently features a variation of tiramisu made with mangoes and Thai tea, and plans to offer it for the entire summer. The base... [continue]

There was a smorgasbord of inter-borough hamburger love last night at the chandelier-bedazzled Astoria World Manor in Queens for the inaugural Burger Battle of the Boroughs. Representing good taste in general at event sponsor Pat LaFrieda Meats's table, Seymour Burton chef de cuisine (and non-competitor) Josh Shuffman cooked the restaurant’s signature burger for spectators while the event was judged. At the judges’ table, author Arthur Schwartz seemed to have a beef (sorry) with Grub Street... [continue]

Montreal-based food writer Taras Grescoe thinks something fishy is up with the global seafood economy. From pollutants to piracy, preservatives to Patagonian toothfish, Grescoe surveys the state of our collective waterways in his new book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, which combines some literal seabed muckraking with a fascinating travelogue. Each chapter follows a specific fish down the food chain from net to dinner plate; the book is a... [continue]

Photo: du Barry bagel; 2008. Bagel, cauliflower, cheese; mixed media. From author’s private collection. “Pizza!” so begins a song beloved by millions, “pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time. When pizza’s on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime.” That timeless anthem conveys a fundamental truth: pizza bagels are a kind of sublime food, except if you’re lactose intolerant, hate tomatoes, or have Celiac disease. So it may come... [continue]

The following open letter from The Ghost of Oscar Tschirky does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Gothamist. We would like a plate of Waldorf Salad now, though. On last night's episode of “Top Chef” you slammed cheftestant Ryan’s “Waldorf Salad,” calling it a debacle in not so many words. You deemed the failed dish all the more insulting because the episode’s block party took place in the Waldorf Salad’s supposed culinary cradle, a... [continue]

Just a few feet off of the BQE’s Hamilton Avenue exit and next to the Battery Tunnel toll plaza is an assortment of auto wreckers and chain link fences. On Columbia Street between Ralpelye and Summit Street are a couple of neighborhood institutions like the venerable Moonshine bar, whose floor is paved with discarded peanut shells. In the last few weeks, (and somewhat stealthily), a new tapas bar and grocer called Reds Produce has also... [continue]