Results tagged “fourseasons”

            

Fifty years ago, chef and food writer James Beard consulted on the very first menu at the Four Seasons restaurant. Beard's input helped galvanize the kitchen in its early days, and over the last 50 years the Four Seasons has developed and maintained its position as the city's preeminent Caesar salad and power lunch spot, complete with seating charts that are more detailed than most star maps. On Saturday afternoon, the James Beard Foundation honored the Four Seasons' co-owners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini at their annual Chefs & Champagne event.

The city's most expensive hotel room got the kind of publicity money can't buy today thanks to the Times, which has paired the voyeuristic article with an addictive, 360-degree photo panorama of the bathroom. We've been virtually spinning around in it for the last ten minutes like Julie Andrews on a Bavarian mountaintop in The Sound of Music. The immaculate bathroom in the 52nd story "Ty Warner Penthouse" has a laser in the bathtub to turn the water different colors, a “steam rain” shower with aromatherapy, a crystal sink lighted from within, and a computerized Toto Washlet “smart toilet" that "does everything on your behalf except wipe"—including warm the seat. The butler on hand confirms that the typical guests in the $30,000 a night room are "the anonymous rich who run the world." It's going to be so depressing taking a shower tonight.

Spencer Tunick and a crowd of volunteer naked people brazenly defied the dress code at the Four Seasons restaurant last Saturday for Tunick’s 75th installation documenting the human form in unexpected places. Other New York locations where Tunick's models have gone au naturale include Grand Central Station and Times Square.

Yesterday Forbes magazine, in their annual ranking of the rich, declared New York City is no longer the billionaire capital of the world. Where have all the dollar signs gone? To Moscow, of course, who beat us out by 3 billionaires (they have 74 to our 71).

Developer Larry Silverstein announced yesterday that he will build an 80-story building at 99 Church Street, in place of the former Moody's headquarters, just a block away from the World Trade Center site. Twenty-two floors will be for a Four Seasons hotel; the other floors will include 143 condominiums, making it the "tallest residential structure" in the city.

Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did some extensive coverage of last weekend's Fun Fun Fun Fest, which featured over 80 indie rock/electronic/punk bands like Girl Talk and Battles—there's also a video recap of the festival, viewable in HD.

HEADS UP: Last year we had Daniel Kitson join our Laughable Hype comedy show, and we've been eagerly awaiting his return to the states since then. Good news...he's back! We strongly urge you to buy tickets right now so you can catch the special performance on Monday at Mo Pitkins. These will go fast Sold out! But this just in...Kitson will also be performing at Union Hall this Sunday at 9pm (first come first served).

Sure, the Yankees have lost their fifth game in a row and are 14.5 games behind the Red Sox, but know what's more interesting: Alex Rodriguez's off-the-field activities in Toronto! The Post puts A-Rod on cover, calling him "Stray-Rod," and wondering why he was hanging out with a "mysterious, busty blonde" at a strip club AND his hotel. Apparently he went to the strip club with two other guys, but he was seen going into the Four Seasons elevator with only the woman.

This week in the Times, Bruni visits the Four Seasons, awards it two stars. Says, "The standouts on the menu aren’t as numerous as they should be. The signs of a restaurant that runs on two tracks--one for the anonymous, another for the anointed--are too obvious." The restaurant had previously received three stars from Ruth Reichl in 1995. But Bruni also finds a "stubborn magic" still there: in the architecture, the history, and the insider atmosphere.

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend...

Ooh, the NY Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton had lunch with former Senator Al D'Amato and former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday at the Four Seasons, which Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini likened to "the Second Coming of Christ." And how, as D'Amato is a notable Republican power player. Apparently the trio have lunch at least once a year, and Clinton picked up this meal's check.

- MUG gives us their latest Hot List, featuring recent openings Little Owl and Japonais, among others.

Bruni reviews Blue Hill (in Greenwich Village, not at Stone Barns) bumps the restaurant up to three stars from the two it received from William Grimes in 2000. He cites "quality and immediacy" of ingredients and says eating there is a subtle experience, "like a hushed foreign film with subtitles."

The heat is on, the humidity is rising, seems about the perfect time for a good old fashioned tabloid hooker scandal, doesn't it? Well, ask and you shall receive. The News and the Post both ecstatically report today that alleged madam Andrea Schwartz was more then happy to give interviews yesterday from Rikers Island. Even more exciting for the tabs Schwartz, who steadfastly denies that she is either a prostitute or a madam and claims that she was entrapped by the NYPD, seems to have decided that the best thing to do in her position is start naming names of her "sugar daddies." First up, Wayne Pace the Chief Financial Officer at Time Warner.

Broadway's big night celebrated two hit shows, both with word "Boys" in the title. "Jersey Boys," the musical about singing group, The Four Seasons, won Best Musical and two actors won Best Actor (John Lloyd Young) and Best Featured Actor (Christian Hoff), and "The History Boys," a play about British education, won Best Play, Best Direction and Best Actor (Richard Griffiths). The speeches were all very heartfelt, touching and classy - Frances de la Tour, who won as Best Featured Actress in The History Boys, graciously thanked the crew and said she felt at home in "New York, New York." LaChanze won Best Actress in a Musical for The Color Purple, and thanked Oprah Winfrey at the very end. And Cynthia Nixon won Best Actress in a Play for The Rabbit Hole, and called herself a theater geek. The team behind The Drowsy Chaperone, the throwback to the 1920s musical, won a bunch of big awards, including Best Book and Best Score, with its Canadian creators thanking America.

The American Theater Wing announced the 2006 Tony award nominees, and there are a lot of notables:

We came to win. We were prepared for the challenges they laid before us. Blind wines…bring it. Guess the spices…we came to play. Decorate the cookie…we’ll take down the pastry chefs. This was our mantra. Dirty or fair, we had one goal and that was to win the 2nd Annual Duckathlon sponsored by D’Artagnan.

- Support of legislation to provide financial incentives to produce affordable housing for New Yorkers.We're all for affordable housing, giving working families more educational choices, protecting the city and creating lasting infrastructure, but how about getting NY State to pay the city the billions it owes for the school system? Anyway, people are skeptical that donors will actually change their mind about who they support because of these cards, but they probably appreciated the free lunch.

So, it's been a little while since the last time we visited the Times Weddings and Celebrations by the Numbers but today there was no way we couldn't count 'em up. If you opened up the paper today you might have noticed that the familiar face of our very own Jen Chung and her new husband Jay Wilkins were the on top of the list of sixteen non-Vows weddings this week.

Gothamist knows that the best restaurants in the city use the best ingredients they can find. But there are many chefs that go to extremes to find the best of the best. Chefs like Thomas Keller of Per Se fame develop relationships with local farmers, fisherman and wild mushroom cultivators in the maticulous pursuit of the best ingredients. Unfortuntely, most of these ingredients are not always available to the passionate home cook.

The NY Post goes after the Michelin Guide for its glaring mistakes, sort of the way Manhattan User's Guide nailed the 2006 Zagat guide a few weeks ago. The Post's restaurant critic, Steve Cuozzo, goes after Michelin, wondering if their highly trained inspectors even went to some restaurants and calls some of the advice "inane." Plus: The guide tells readers to take the "Metro," not the subway, to restaurants, mentions Le Bernadin's a la carte menu when it's only prix fixe, and seems to rely on a 1960s review of the Four Seasons for decor information. Sacre bleu! Gothamist can only believe that Michelin's star for Etats-Unis, which Cuozzo calls an "overreaching dud" is because its name is in French, which means future restaurants will attempt to Frenchify their atmosphere for a coveted star.It's been an interesting week since the Michelin star/non-star filter has descended upon the city, as guide actually seems to make men cry.

Jessica Cutler, ex-blogger, author, The Washingtonienne

cityrag has pictures of NASCAR's "Victory Lap" in New York, proving that there are NASCAR fans in a blue city. And with news last May that NASCAR was looking to create a roadway in the five boroughs, the presence of logo-emblazoned cars might be less surprising to our eyes. It looks this crowd is outside the Seagram Building on Park Avenue; Gothamist hopes that some Nascar dads were rubbing shoulders with the lunch crowd at the Four Seasons.

Another thing we all to look forward to this fall: The Presidential election. We hope you're voting, and if you can, why not think about being a swing state volunteer? Two swing state resources: The Swing State Project blog and a swing State Project volunteer site.

Nicole Beland, Writer/Girl Next Door

Matthew Rose, Wall Street Journal

And that's all anyone wants - to find the truth. Whether it's from the sugary high of a cupcake, or the sweet richness of ribs, or briny delight of oysters, a food truth means a lot. [There's also a great anecdote to start Sam Sifton's article, about a young man looking for his mother. Read it.]

The Times also has a Julian–Niccolini drawn seating chart for the Four Seasons and while we expected to see Anna Wintour, Harvey Weinstein, and G.Pa(ltrow) on it, we were surprised to see Kerry Kittles, Nets guard. For some reason, basketball players seem more steak–oriented, like at Smith and Wollensky, Sparks, or Michael Jordan's.

It's great news that 21 and Four Seasons have settled with striking restaurant workers late last night, preserving their health insurance while enacting salary increases too, but it seemed a no-brainer: If you run a classy joint, do you really want one of those huge inflatable rats looming over your incoming patrons? However, La Caravelle has not settled yet, so the rat stands not alone, but with striking workers.