The transformation of food trucks into a major promotional tool is in full effect. Hot on the heels of the Air France truck and the Swamp People truck comes another free food truck, this one boasting food from Tom Colicchio inspired by HBO's upcoming series Game of Thrones. The truck will be in New York from March 28 through April 1 serving 300 portions a day of free dishes featuring meats like rabbit, duck, squab and venison. more ›

Check out this week's new restaurants and bars, including more from Michael Huynh, a new 'wichcraft location, and a lady club for ladies at Hotel Gansevoort! more ›

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In more flush economic times, there were all of those jokes about the proliferation of coffee shops and fast food locations, like the new Starbucks opening in the bathroom of a preexisting Starbucks. Now restaurant owners and chefs are actually branching in, not out, opening new mini-locations inside their own dining rooms. Tom Colicchio cordoned off one part of the Craftsteak dining room to create the more economical Halfsteak, while his executive chef Damon Wise launched the similarly bargain basement Frugal Fridays. Now, Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia are opening Anthos Upstairs tomorrow night as an annex of Kefi; the new restaurant’s menu is said to be a lower-priced alternative to Anthos. Even the venerable Four Seasons is launching a luxe (yet discount) minibar, of sorts, this week dedicated to sustainable caviar: the Calvisius Caviar Lounge, where seven grams of sturgeon eggs with blini can be had for the comparatively lower-priced (for caviar) $25. more ›

Alfred Portale became Gotham Bar and Grill’s chef in May of 1985. The restaurant had been open for a year: despite a strong opening, business was seriously flagging and the food didn’t taste so good. Portale basically cooked his pants off for six months, at which point the restaurant was re-reviewed and awarded three stars from the Times. It was also around that time that the chef started attracting young, talented cooks with names like Colicchio, Telepan, and Valenti to work in his kitchen. Later, Wylie Dufresne and Chris Lee spent time on Portale’s line, and the talent roster continues to grow. more ›

In September, the bar Apothéke opened in an unmarked space on Doyers Street, a tiny alley in Chinatown that sort of plays hangnail to Worth Street's cuticle. Apothéke is one of those semi-private venues, a bar you can't get into; that it's close to a secret tunnel makes it all the more baroque. You half expect to find a minotaur preening in the bathroom mirror with a bottle of Binaca and a comb. The name Apothéke refers to the pharmaceutical-themed nature of its mixed drink menu. The idea is that the place raises the bar for bars, and that head chef (or lead apothéker, as it were) Albert Trummer is half-and-half supertaster and chef, and one part sage. His specially concocted, spiced-tinctures-botanical-elixirs might cure your woes, homesick blues, lovelorn heart, or gnostic turpitude, if you're into that kind of thing. more ›

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, owner of Craft, Craftbar and Craftsteak, and a familiar face to millions for Top Chef, is being sued in Federal court by a former waitress who accuses his company of denying employees a portion of their tips and distributing the earnings among supervisors. Nessa Rapone, a Brooklyn resident who worked at Craftbar from March to May 2007, says the company also "failed to pay proper overtime compensation," and illegally retaliated by firing her when she objected to the policies. According to City Room, Rapone's lawyers say they hope other Craft employees will come forward so the can certify the lawsuit as a nationwide class action. (There are Craft restaurants in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Ledyard, Connecticut.) Colicchio has not yet released a statement. more ›

Well, we now know why Tom Colicchio wasn't at the New York Taste event last night (as promised); he skipped the shindig to hang with fellow celeb chef Mario Batali at a private dinner at the Rockefeller Center rooftop garden. The event, put together by Absolut, was all about cooking with local ingredients grown on eco-friendly farms, and was hosted by chef Jim Denevan, who runs Outstanding in the Field, a "roving culinary adventure" that promotes the locavore lifestyle. Deborah Greig of East New York Farms in Brooklyn, and Michael Hurwitz, director of the GreenMarket, were also in the house. more ›

Last night, for the second year in a row, visiting English chef Fergus Henderson (pictured) returned to The Spotted Pig to cook with chef April Bloomfield. The event was dubbed 'FergusStock.' Chefs and cooks from all over attended: in one corner, Tom Colicchio sat with his family and Ken Friedman, one of The Spotted Pig's principal owners. The bar was crowded (more than usual) with prospective diners angling for dinner spots. more ›

Food world celebrities gathered at the Astor Center last night for a lively discussion on the phenomenon of celebrity chefs. Andrew Carmellini, Gwen Hyman, David Chang, Gail Simmons of Top Chef, and Mitchell Davis of The James Beard Foundation all weighed in on the celebrity craze, which has infiltrated kitchens everywhere like roaches. Only recently, some argued, has the idea of the celebrity chef become a prominent force in American culinary culture. Customers take digital pictures of every entrée, kids trade Iron Chef results like they were baseball statistics, and weirdos in Helsinki post wistful paeans to Tom Colicchio on Top Chef fansites. Some soundbites from last night:

Simmons on the pre-Top Chef world: “When I told my Mom I was going to be on a reality show, I had to convince her that I wasn’t going to be tied to a tree on an island in a bikini, eating maggots.” more ›

The aroma of cooking meat wafted as far as the BQE from the NYC Wine and Food Festival's Rachael Ray Burger Bash last night. Throngs of meat-lovers descended upon the Tobacco Warehouse to sample 18 burgers and vote (by text message) for their favorite. more ›

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). more ›

Despite the rain, the crowds poured in at Citymeals-on-Wheels Chef's Tribute fundraiser in Rockefeller Center last night. This year's theme -- Crème de la Crème, a tribute to the great French masters, many of whom were in attendance. As one might expect, honoring the world's best French chefs includes a large quantity of foie gras, caviar, duck, and truffles, and America's top chefs certainly put them all to good use. Each chef prepared two dishes: one classic dish as a tribute to a French master, and one of his/her own that was a variation on a French classic. more ›

The entrée is so over, the top chefs tell us. Yesterday Times reporter Kim Severson sunk her teeth into the long decline of the entrée and the increasing dominance of side dishes and tapas at many fine restaurants. As former Gramercy Tavern chef Tom Colicchio tells her, “Eating an entrée is too many bites of one thing, and it’s boring.” Amid all the evidence of diminishing entrée options at restaurants nationwide (at Gemma, entrées are... more ›

Got a tidbit for us? Send it to the feedbag. more ›

The Michelin Guide announced selections today for its third New York Edition, which officially goes on sale Wednesday. more ›

What’s worth watching on food-relatedTV this week? more ›

The Top Chef Miami finale is upon us and we're going to weigh in with some thoughts. There will be spoilers, but they'll be after the jump. more ›

Last night Top Chef began with a Quickfire Challenge consisting of everyone cooking Padma breakfast...we swear she thinks of the challenges when she's stoned (see: the onion cutting relay. C'mon!). After the "food awakening" they were in for a rude awakening. Sent to New York City, the contestants seemed genuinely happy when they saw the Manhattan skyline...but their dreams were dashed when they were held in New Jersey for a day at Newark Airport. Cooking airplane food. Oh dear. more ›

Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared in Red Hook yesterday to support the plight of the vendors that serve the people who come to watch and play sports at the Red Hook ballfields. The vendors have been cooking up ethnic food that appeals to their mostly Hispanic clientele for several years under a series of temporary permits from the city. The Parks Dept. wants to put an official vending permit up for bidding, and the current vendors who sell relatively low-priced food to their customers are not assured of winning the contest over a business catering to newer and more well-heeled Red Hook residents. more ›

As we mentioned earlier this week, the vendors who set up shop at the Red Hook ballfields may be at risk for losing their permit. According to the New York Times, the vendors have operated for years under a series of temporary use permits, but now they will have to place a formal bid with the city in order to remain in the space. But the vendors are not guaranteed to win this bid, so the fans of this culinary community institution have rallied behind it. more ›

">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.” more ›

">Bruni revisits Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak, upgrades the restaurant from one star to two. He says, "The improvement in the steaks has made it easier to appreciate the restaurant's other virtues… the unassailable quality of its raw bar selections; its gigantic, crunchy onion rings, some of the best in the city; its fried bone marrow appetizer, a decadence-squared dream." He still thinks the menu is overcrowded, though, and doesn't like the way they age the steaks. Bruni also visits Craftbar, about which he's less enthusiastic. He awards the restaurant one star, finding the atmosphere "grim" and that "much of the food lacked personality." more ›