Results tagged “restaurants”

In a real world example of supply and demand economics, the proliferation of Southeast Asian eateries on and around Williamsburg's main commercial street has hurt business, according to neighborhood restaurateurs. The pad thai business is ailing in a three block area centered around Bedford Avenue and North Sixth Streets, where four Thai and three Asian fusion restaurants compete, according to the Brooklyn Paper — which dubs the enclave "Brooklyn's Little Bangkok."

More than 500 NYC eateries have bitten the dust this year (farewell, Chanterelle; bye-bye Cafe Des Artistes), but, at the NY Food and Wine Festival, experts insist the Le Bernardins of the city can compete during the recession—as long as they keep "stuffy" to a minimum. Now that one-upping each other's Bordeaux lists is so 2007, Travel & Lesiure food writer Anya von Bremzen called for an end to "table bureaucracy" while chef Andrew Carmellini predicted a "move to casual, comfort food without the trappings of a fancy restaurant."

Zagat released its 2010 NYC edition and, as expected, old favorites remained on top. The most popular restaurants are Gramercy Tavern (number 1), Union Square Cafe, Le Bernardin, Babbo and Daniel while top food can was deemed to be founded at Le Bernardin (number 1), Daniel, Jean Georges, Per Se, and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Asiate had best decor and Per Se has best service.

Though more influential abroad, the Michelin restaurant guide is still kind of a big deal for NYC restaurateurs and chefs, who take great pride in receiving a star ranking from Michelin. (The guide only started reviewing NYC restaurants in 2005.) The new edition hits shelves tomorrow, and contains some noteworthy news for the fine dining world. With Michelin, receiving one star is a sign of achievement, not mediocrity, so Chef Michael White is surely tickled pink to see that his new seafood-centric restaurant Marea debut with a star, his Convivio also receives one star, while his Alto has been upgraded to two stars.

In his farewell from restaurant critic duties, the New York Times' Frank Bruni offers answers to reader question questions: For instance, in answering, "What's the best sushi place? Masa is the "absolute best" but acknowledging the $400/person price is steep, he offers Sushi Yasuda where you can have "a wonderfully intimate, pampering omakase experience...for under $100 a person... Still a major treat, but much, much more manageable." Steakhouses: For "a certain corny, musky ambience," go with Sparks for its strip; for a contemporary ambience, go with Porter House New York or BLT Prime; Keens has a great mutton chop; and while Peter Luger's has an "outstanding porterhouse, but the lights are always too bright and the service usually too gruff."

Hobbled by a corruption investigation, the State Liquor Authority is taking longer than ever to issue liquor licenses, and restaurateurs and bar owners are paying a heavy price. It used to be common practice for diners to bring their own wine or beer while restaurateurs waited for the bureaucracy to finish its business, but in March the SLA warned license applicants they could be rejected if caught letting customers imbibe. Warren Pesetsky, a lawyer who represents many applicants and was the SLA's general counsel from 1976 to 1981, tells the Times, "They are taking longer than they ever have to approve new applications. When things were working at their best several years ago, it took three months." Employees at the SLA's Harlem office are under investigation by the state Inspector General for possibly taking bribes to expedite license applications. No one has been charged yet, but a lawyer for the state restaurant association thinks the investigation has a chilling effect on the 9 license examiners in Harlem: "Everyone there is afraid if they cough, they might get investigated." Meanwhile, new restaurants are having a hard time hanging on until the license is approved, which now takes over seven months in some cases.

This week Frank Bruni at the Times has nice things to say about two new Spanish restaurants: La Fonda del Sol (photos) in the Met Life building, and Chelsea's Txikito (pronounced cheek-ee-toe). Upon the former, Bruni bestows two stars, a crucial break the restaurant and for chef Jay DeChellis, as reviews have been mixed: "Although the menu has weak spots, with a few too many dishes not from the heart but from a marketing plan, [DeChellis's] cooking here feels less forced and more exuberant." The diminutive Txikito is a mixed bag: "Across many meals here I had wonderfully memorable food (suckling pig as fine as any in New York beyond Eleven Madison Park’s); ridiculous food (a rib-eye so excessively fatty and undercooked it was almost inedible); food that fell somewhere in between... and food that never tasted the same twice."

Charles, the clandestine West Village restaurant that Village Voice critic Robert Sietsema recently skewered for its affected, still-under-construction front, gets eviscerated by Frank Bruni at the Times today. He goes meta with this one, once again writing in the voice of a vapid, trend-spotting socialite pecking out an email to Graydon Carter, whose Waverly Inn inspired Charles's game of hard-to-get: "[The windows] are covered in old newspapers and blue tape, as if the space is under construction or even condemned, and they’ve been that way for so long that when I paused on the sidewalk the other night to read the fine print, I learned that Sarah Palin had resuscitated the McCain candidacy. The newspapers are at first funny, then odd, then just sort of sad, maybe because Charles doesn’t have enough else going for it. In the end I couldn’t get around that. I suppose it’s pretty inside, though it’s so dark you can’t tell, so dark that Bitsy and I never could decide if that was Maggie Gyllenhaal two tables away." For further reading, here's Charles's most recent DOH inspection results: a whopping 36 violation points...but maybe that's just they're way of dissuading you from dining there?

New York City has a strange relationship with fast food restaurants—our first McDonald’s, for example, opened in 1973, ten full years after the franchise had sold its one-billionth hamburger. McDonald’s initially took off in the Big Apple in part because diners accustomed to the joint’s kitsch and cheeseburgers were eager to share it with others. The opening of a new fast food restaurant within the five boroughs, it so happens, is hardly ever completely new to everyone.

The health department says the number of violations for smoking inside bars and restaurants jumped by a third in the past year, following an increase in inspectors conducting checks as late as 4 a.m., when barkeeps are more inclined to let drinkers light up. The number of smoking citations issued to bars and restaurants increased to 917 in the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2008, compared to 694 in the previous year. The fines range from $200 to $2,000.

                    

Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 34th annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. For the uninitiated, this not your typical New York "tube sock" street fair. Sure there are some of the typical food vendors (gyros, roasted corn and Mozzarepas, natch). But unlike most other street fairs, there is a strong neighborhood presence in both food (including freebees from the new kid on the block Trader Joe’s) and vendors, along with many Brooklyn community groups and a wide variety of live music. As an added bonus this year, the New York Transit Museum had free admission along with its annual bus festival.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chef Tom Colicchio is coming back to the kitchen. Starting two weeks from tomorrow, Colicchio will cook at Tom: Tuesday Dinner in the 32-seat private dining room space at Craft, offering a seasonally-driven, seven to eight course tasting menu for a limited number of guests every other Tuesday. (Set-price starting at $150.) Though Colicchio insists he's never really left the kitchen—despite the vastness of the Craft empire and his Top Chef judging duties—the new venture will certainly afford him the creativity that comes with plating individual dishes (as opposed to the family-style service of Craft).

Kampuchea was one of two Cambodian restaurants recently profiled in the Times, where it was accurately pointed out that there is a dearth of Cambodian cuisine in New York. Chef/Owner Ratha Chau and Co-Executive Chef and Partner Scott Burnett are attempting to rectify that. Veering from a more traditional route, they base their menu on Cambodian street food, but add their own creative twists. Ratha and Scott took a break between lunch and dinner service to discuss Kampuchea and Num Pang, their upcoming sandwich shop.

Tonight after a rough day in the markets, many of the city's residents will join their families to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It is tradition to eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year, but if you're more interested in a spicy new year, try Mexican Rosh Hashanah dinner at Toloache. Tomorrow and Wednesday from 5-11 p.m., they'll be serving a special menu for the holiday, featuring dishes like Pescado Ahumado, house-smoked whitefish salad Yucatan style with chips; Tacos de Cordero Agridulce, a leg of lamb steamed in banana leaf with tamarind and pickled prune jalapeno salsa; Pollo con Granada, chicken breast with kabocha puree and chile de arbol pomegranate salsa; and Pastel de Aguacate, a honey piloncillo avocado cake with roasted apple salsa and date walnut ice cream. Toloache, 251 W. 50th Street, 212-581-1818.

Anne Burrell has "parted amicably" with trendy West Village wine bar/Italian restaurant Centro Vinoteca. As reported earlier, Burrell has been keeping herself extremely busy as of late, primarily with her new Food Network series, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, which has 13 new episodes coming up. Her appearance on the show (and ostensibly as Mario Batali's sous-chef on Iron Chef America) had also postponed her scheduled start date at Gusto, which was supposed to take place in June.

Long Island waiters who provide a tantalizing description of the daily specials while omitting such vulgar details as price may have to change up their patter if a proposed law in Nassau County gets passed. Of course, resistance is coming from the New York Restaurant Association, which in recent years has failed to block regulations on calorie info and bans on artificial trans fat. The executive vice president of the group maintains, "It’s good business to give the prices, but it’s beyond the purview of a legislative body to get that far into managing restaurants." But Harvey B. Levinson, a champion of the proposal, tells the Times: "I’m sure that at one time or another you have been enticed by a waiter or waitress into ordering the special of the day, only to discover that it was really the price that was special."

Summer may be slowly winding down, but that doesn't mean you can't have a taste of that New England lobster shack year round. This map will help you find lobster rolls in New York City, Maine, Connecticut, or California if you still have a few weekend getaways left. Brought to you by Tony Green, a man who is slightly obsessed with the crustacean creation, it does contain a few spots that have been shuttered (Bar Minnow, for example), but is otherwise a helpful resourse for those moments you need your lobster roll fix.

The Insatiable Critic brings concrete news of Borough Food and Drink's imminent demise. According to Eric Lemonides and Jason Weiner, both of "much loved" Almond and Almoncello in the Hamptons, the space will transform into "an American bistro, 'totally affordable, with strong French roots.'"

      

C'est Bastille Day aujourd hui! Frogs and Francophiles were out in force on Smith Street in Brooklyn yesterday for the Bastille Day celebration, which featured big band music by Baby Blue Orchids, plenty of French food, French cigarettes and heated games of Petanque, played on sand dumped out for the occasion. McBrooklyn reports that "actual French people were everywhere, smoking cigarettes and speaking actual French."

Chef Cesare Casella announced that his West Village restaurant Maremma will be closing after tomorrow night's service. Casella said that Maremma, which specializes in chianina (Tuscan beef), will reopen in other location; in the meantime, he is opening Salumeria Rosi, an Italian specialty foods grocery-and-wine bar, on the Upper West Side this fall. As for Maremma's West 10th Street space, Eater speculates it could be an offering from the dell'Anima team (we asked dell'Anima owner Joseph Campanale about it, but he offered no comment).

In spite of recently winning a James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine Service and earning a 5-star review in the New York Daily News and a 3-star review from Bloomberg, the team at Eleven Madison Park is stopping their Saturday brunch service and shuttering on Sundays beginning July 19th. Maybe the only brunch dish they'll continue to serve are scrambled eggs with truffles, but only when Daniel Boulud is in the house. The new hours will be lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.; dinner: Monday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni relates his multiple visits to West Village Asian barbecue restaurant Bar Q, and by the sounds of it you’d never guess print media is in any kind of financial trouble – an initial trip with one group of ungrateful friends prompted so much "grumbling" he had to "unruffle their feathers" by being “especially profligate with the wine” on his paper’s expense account. The hangers-on who shared his second visit tasted a better side of Bar Q; after passing over chef Anita Lo’s “cloying” baby back ribs for her “gorgeous” steamed lobster, he decides that Lo’s “triumphs, more than her wobbles, stayed with me.” Two stars.

                                            

Bobby:

While skyrocketing food prices are sparking riots around the world, in New York the crisis is forcing restaurants like Good Enough to Eat to make due with frozen blueberries in their pancakes! The owner tells the Times the blueberries she gets shipped from Maine are now $38 per flat, up from $24 last summer. A five gallon jug of Canadian maple syrup is now $250, up from $200. And a 100-pound sack of flour costs $7 more.

Some West Village restaurants can’t catch a break this week; first an old water main broke and flooded them out during Memorial Day weekend, now the city has been stone cold shutting them down. Eater has it that the Department of Health ordered Diablo Royale on West 10th Street to close yesterday for “unsanitary conditions” – a tipster says the inspectors faulted the restaurant’s flooded basement. Now the swank bar/restaurant Employees Only has gotten the hammer. The DOB’s sign on the door reads:

The Department of Buildings has determined that conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life. This premises has been vacated and reentry is prohibited until such conditions have been eliminated to the satisfaction of the department.

Mark your calendars -- National Escargot Day is rapidly approaching. Really. As a lead up to the big day, Chef Craig Hopson of One if by Land, Two if by Sea, in association with Douglas Dussault of Potironne Company, is serving a 6-course snail-laden tasting menu featuring Wild Burgundy Snails. Yes, even dessert will have a snail of some sort involved.

Jason Denton has made his mark in the New York restaurant landscape with well loved favorites like Lupa, 'ino, and ‘inoteca. His latest endeavor, Bar Milano, opened in April, serving not only lunch and dinner, but brunch and weekday breakfast. This upscale tribute to Northern Italy is housed in a Gramercy Park space that has been described as "cursed" due to the short lifespans of former restaurant tenants. Hopefully Denton's talent, pedigree, and strong partners will make the notion of a curse laughable and succeed where others have failed.

There's no shortage of fiestas this Cinco de Mayo, so pull out the maracas and get going.

If the thought of matzo ball "sinkers" and your aunt's dried out brisket are making you dread Passover, perhaps you can convince the family to eat out for the seder this year. Many restaurants are offering more traditional seders, but some are kicking up the spice.