Results tagged “williamgrimes”

Will Former Times Restaurant Critic Grimes Replace Bruni?

The Feedbag reports that former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes will temporarily replace current critic Frank Bruni when he retires at the end of the summer. According to The Feedbag, Grimes "is said to be lined up to hold down the fort until the new critic comes aboard in January." This fall, Frank Bruni will make his first public, post critic debut at the Food Network Wine & Food Festival, appearing on a panel with Anthony Bourdain and promoting his new memoir Born Round.

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.”

">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.”

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000.

READING: Head to the New School to join the New York Times and their moderator, critic William Grimes, as Carl Hiaasen reads from his latest crime caper, Nature Girl, which chronicles the exploits of volatile Honey Santana who meets a wild cast of characters while en route to the Ten Thousand Islands. Show up early for a good seat - Hiaasen is a popular draw. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras

It's not Caturday, but it might as well be at the NY Times. There are two (TWO!) big cat stories. The first is about how the $4,000 hypoallergenic are in demand. We're still not sure about hypoallergenic cats, but these kitties certainly look very sweet. And the article mentions the travails of Harlem Fur's cat Cimbi and owners Cheryl and Chris. They decided Cimbi needs a new home last week given Cheryl's allergies - and we're sure Cimbi will new loving home soon - she looks like a doll and even likes to be walked on her leash.

- Ed Levine has a short round up of the Il Buco annual pig roast; looks like it should be on the calendar next year.

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."

Over the weekend, Gothamist started to read Julia Child's My Life in France. A collaboration with (and completed by) her grandnephew Alex Prud'homme, Julia gets to describe her experience living in France after World War II, falling in love with cooking, and loving her husband, Paul. And there's writing Mastering French Cooking, too. While the book is absolutely wonderful, we faced the problem of being totally hungry for whatever Julia would describe. Roasted chicken, quenelles, French baguettes, mayonaise, you name it, we wanted it. So we settled on trying to find a sole meuniere (one of her first things she ate while in France and a transporting experience) and got very lucky that Bistro Cassis, on Columbus at 70th Street, served it. The sole, served with haricot verts and Yukon gold potatoes, was delicious and fortified us enough to read more.

It has happened: The Howard Johnson at Broadway and 46th Street has been sold. The Rubinstein family who owned the HoJo at 1551 Broadway for ages sold the property, plus another building on West 34th, for $100 million. The Post speculates that the new retailer will be something a little more high-end, as rumors say the buyer, Wharton Acquisitions, will level the building to create a "retail box" like the Times Square Toys R Us to make a "world-class branding opportunity" for some major brand. Hmm, maybe a Campbell's Soup Test Kitchen? A Procter & Gamble Health and Beauty Aids Emporium? What do you think will go there?

- "He's cute. If you can live through the firetrucks and police sirens you can live through a rooster." Neighbors have called the Animal Control and 311 to catch him, but, so far, they've been unsuccessful - five officers couldn't catch him.

Some downtown residents mourned the loss of a two year old rooster who made friends with the Chinese and Puerto Ricans in the neighborhood (he was crushed by his "owner"'s car - accidentally). The NY Times said the rooster held "Ludlow Street in thrall". Gothamist found an exchange about what to do with the rooster's body telling and we liked this description:

"People would say, 'I feel like I'm in Puerto Rico,'" said Chico Soto, who is a warehouseman for Smart Food, a restaurant supply company down the block from Loi's garage. It looked liked a fighting cock, he said. "I know how they look. It had that fighting look: big body, tall, long legs."

Grimes goes into Nicolai Ouroussoff's and Ben Brantley's territories with a quasi review of the Dodger Stages, a new off-Broadway venue with three stages, on West 50th. You know the Dodger Stages, it's at Worldwide Plaza between 8th and 9th Avenues, where there was a $2 movie theater that showed fairly recent releases; they later charged $2.50, then $3, to stay in business (Gothamist knew the movie theater had problems when we saw a man masturbating to a Mel Gibson movie). Anyway, Grimes seems to have a pretty good time at the "theaterplex" and gives the Dodger Stages bathrooms the thumbs-up. And he revealed himself in January after he stepped down. Gothamist on Grimes's announcement he was leaving the restaurant beat and his interview with Newsweek.

Gothamist on the hilarious tiff between Sirio and former NY Times food critic William Grimes.

William Grimes likens the Time Warner Center Whole Foods' eating area to a food hall like Harrods, but anyplace where there is a 248 seat cafe within an atrium spaced, it's a food court.

Taking "resy" to another level, the New York's Intelligencer exposes the innerworkings of the reservation system at Daniel, the East Side crown in Daniel Boulud's NY culinary empire. Apparently, there are codes next to the names in the reservation books: NBD (No Big Deal), PX (Person Extraordinaire), or PXX (Person Extra Extraordinaire). And, admittedly, for a second, we wondered why "E" wasn't used for "Extraordinaire," but then we figured it out. Hee, of course. [Via Page Six]
And the Rush & Molloy puts this rumor out there: Brat Pack author Jay McInerney may be William Grimes' replacement as the Times restaurant critic. You write a book that becomes a movie that stars a post Back to Future Michael J. Fox, you write about your wine collection, you eat food, and you're in the running to be the restaurant critic at the Times? Good to know! Marion Burros reviewed Zona Rosa last week.

), Maccioni told WWD, "When a reviewer has an ugly wife, he can never be very good." Ever diligent, Page Six gets Grimes to speak, "It's a contemptible comment, regardless of who he was referring to. I thought he was a gentleman." Grimes doesn't think Maccioni was really talking about him, because, among other reasons, "Objectively, my wife is very attractive."

Plus Gothamist's most popular and favorite posts and our resolutions. And the week in full.

William Grimes doffs his hat as the restaurant critic for the New York Times with a farewell (of sorts; Grimes will be working on other projects for the Times) column that recounts some of the big New York restaurants themes and chefs he's seen since 1999. They are the flowering of neighborhoods as dining destinations (Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Meatpacking District); seeing various chefs develop food empires (Batali, Brennan, Bradley, Colicchio, etc.); and, of course, a reference to the French chefs of NY. But what Gothamist was most excited to see was this photograph of Grimes, who would shield his face in photographs or be blue–dotted out during TV interviews. We'll be on the lookout for him at some of his favorites, like L'Impero, Sushi Yasuda, and 66 (for the fish tank more than the food), or in Astoria.

Grimes diplomatically says there have been many wonderful dining experiences, but does mention ones at L'Impero, Ilo, and Town in particular. According to the article, Grimes will not be working on a food-related beat, so Gothamist would like to suggest him for writing about animals in the city, as he demonstrated aptitude for it with his book about his city chicken, Chicken, in My Fine Feathered Friend.

kottke is scared of this picture (claiming it is scarier than this one)

May we finally see your face, Biff!

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown:

Holy headrush, the Times has a feature on the cupcaking of New York! Reporter Julia Moskin calls the sight people toting cupcakes around, the way one would a hot dog, a sign of a trend that entrenched itself, and covers how NY bakeries are making bank off teeny little cakes. Cupcakes analyzed come from Magnolia, Cupcake Cafe, Buttercup, Amy Sedaris, Polka Dot, William Greenburg, Yura, Kitchenette, Crumbs, and Downtown Atlantic, and who better to analyze them but food critics Eric Asimov and William Grimes (though Grimes admits "A 10 year-old should be able to handle the assignment"). The best cupcakes? Mitchel London, Amy's Bread, and Sage Caterers (pictured above, left to right) won out, but as Gothamist knows, if you eat your cupcakes cake first, then frosting, you're not thinking perfect marriage of cake and frosting, you're thinking "Mmm...sugar and butter..."

William Grimes looks at a league of restaurants that become neighborhood stalwarts without particularly amazing food or an excellent location - they survive just by being. About one restaurant, Isle of Capri, Grimes writes, "It's a restaurant in which nothing makes sense and everything makes sense at the same time." Gothamist had a madeline-moment when we read Grimes' assessment, because, for a time, the Isle was an unofficial hangout during the heady days of our first job and that was when everything and nothing made sense, too. Even though it's nothing spectacular, it's where we cheered as well as cried, so the Isle has a special place in our heart.

Glenn Collins of the Times finds out what happens when restaurants decide to install DJs to add more mood to the food. Restaurants featured are industry(food), Butter, Hue, Lotus, The Sanctum, and Tao. Karim Amatullah, co-owner of Hue, says, "it adds a little something extra that most people don't even notice but enables them to relax." It's also motivated by profit, as the margins on drinks are much more enticing than on food. Gothamist is just curious about how the restaurants will turn tables efficiently, or if this will mean a new movement for new restaurants to have larger lounge areas.

Last night, Rocco DiSpirito's reality show, The Restaurant, premiered and the Times' food critic William Grimes reviewed the show in the weekend's Arts & Leisure section. (Gothamist is curious if one of the TV critics Alessandra Stanley or Julie Salomon or even Caryn James - who we haven't seen much of lately - will be reviewing Rocco's On 22nd Street, the restaurant, as a restaurant then?) Biff loves the "thrilling" glimpse into what goes into making a New York restaurant buzz, but was also reminded of "the unholy alliance of creativity, money and public relations that dominates New York's restaurant economy." The LA Times on the show and Newsday on Rocco's mother, Niccolina, who was his mentor of sorts.

).

Right around the corner from the day job's midtown office is Ola on East 48th Street and 2nd Avenue. Ola is the latest restaurant from peripatetic Douglas Rodriguez, formerly of Patria and Chicama. Even though William Grimes' review was okay (one star), Gothamist was curious about the infamous mystery meatballs and killer dates [insert joke here about "dates from hell" but never "killer dates"].

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