When Daniel Boulud and Jim Leiken started putting the new restaurant DBGB together, they decided one hamburger would be topped with pulled pork. Rather than to start recipe testing, the chefs decided to use Daisy May's pork and serve the whole thing on a cornbread-cheddar bun. It's like the restaurant world's version of a co-operative: Chefs and restaurants are outsourcing a lot of ingredients from other restaurants these days. Take Kyle Bailey's Lower East Sliders on the bar menu at Allen & Delancey, for example: the pickle is Guss's, the salami is Katz's, and the Grafton Cheddar is from nearby Saxelby Cheesemongers. more ›

Click on the images for details on the other dishes, which are each $10 or less. more ›

Respected chef Neil Ferguson, who opened the warmly-received Allen & Delancey just last fall, has abruptly quit, taking an offer to be the top chef at Soho House, a private club whose food we cannot vouch for because we only went there this one time to interview the Beastie Boys. But what's cool about Soho House is when you ask them for water, they give you an entire glass bottle of some exotic brand that is yours to keep. So you can see why Ferguson would be tempted. Eater obtained this email he sent to friends, in which he sticks his thumb in the eye of certain unprincipled scoundrels at Allen & Delancey: "I have strong principles and thoughts on how a restaurant should operate and conduct itself, at every level. Unfortunately those principles have been bought into question. I am leaving for both moral and personal reasons." more ›

The festive factor was running high at last night's Taste of the Lower East Side, the 8th Annual fundraiser for the Grand Street Settlement. Forty neighborhood eateries pitched in to benefit Grand Street's programs that assist low-income Lower East Side residents, and they showcased some of their best dishes for the crowd of well over 1,000 people. more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni two-stars Allen & Delancey. Loves the atmosphere; says “the food at Allen & Delancey is at once sophisticated and accessible, reliant on fail-safe luxuries deployed in a modestly creative and occasionally playful manner.” Says that in some ways it’s similar to what he did uptown (at Gordon Ramsay at the London) but it works much better in this context. In $25 and Under, "> Peter Meehan goes to Food... more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Sam Mason’s Tailor. Loves the design of the place, and—along with everyone else—the pork belly, the arctic char and the drinks. Overall? “[Mason’s] infatuation with his own imagination doesn’t leave room enough for a self-appraisal of the results… a duck-and-eel terrine in a chocolate consommé tastes like cat food splashed with Yoo-hoo.” Hee. In Dining Briefs, Bruni goes to Toloache. Calls the upscale Mexican restaurant a “welcome addition”... more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Alex Ureña’s Pamploma, gives the restaurant two stars. “Pamplona is Ureña [the chef’s former restaurant] with an attitude adjustment,” he says. “His best dishes are more than memorable enough to redeem Pamplona’s shortcomings.” In the Post, Cuozzo goes to BLT Market, where he finds “Tourondel’s first fully-composed dishes since Cello.” Says the restaurant revives the corner of Sixth Ave and Central Park South, and “What BLT Market... more ›