Food + Drink | The New York Observer

Sweet Fancy Moses: Manhattan Pastry Potentates

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:18:24 -0500

Last week, as the scrubbed and smirking mugs of Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi continued to advertise Top Chef’s sixth season in Vegas all over town, Bravo announced an open casting call for the series’ latest iteration, Top Chef: Just Desserts, on Sunday, Nov. 8, at Craftsteak.

“It’s about time!” exclaimed Zak Miller, pastry chef at Kefi, Gus & Gabriel and Anthos (where his specialties include a concoction involving beet yogurt and tahini). “I...

Spotted Piglet Hiccups: Boozy Breslin Clashes With Mosque

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:00:26 -0400

The much-hyped, soon-to-open Breslin restaurant, situated in the 12-story Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th, is giving members of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street some agita. “Five times a day, there’s a hundred cabs on the street—the good news is you can always get a cab,” co-owner Ken Friedman told the Transom the other evening. He said some mosque visitors “object to seeing people drink alcohol.”

After the recent FergusStock, a...

Gilroy's Big Gamble at East Side Social Club

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:30:23 -0400

As a boy, growing up in the leafy enclave of Kent, Conn., Devon Gilroy exhibited all the signs of an obsessive-compulsive destined for a lonesome adulthood fraught with daily battles trying to control the uncontrollable. Ketchup was a big thing, early on—the mere sight of it was cause for alarm. Furthermore, everything had to be cooked all the way through. Different food groups could not be touching, not even a little. He was,...

New Booze Policy: Scout's Honor

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:34:47 -0400

The State Liquor Authority's new "Self-Certification" program means that restaurants' own attorneys (rather than SLA employees) can verify the accuracy of liquor-license applications, says Grub Street.

That's just one the measures being considered to address long license waits for new restaurants. SLA Chairman Dennis Rosen said he would also look at legalizing BYOB arrangements, sanctioning a makeshift solution currently banned for establishments seating more than 20 customers.

The Post reports that there are 2,008 applications currently...

Greenpoint Next Frontier in Commercial-Scale Rooftop Farms

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:46:37 -0400

Viraj Puri believes the future of farming is not about tractors or rolling swaths of quilted fields or even soil. Co-founder of Gotham Greens, New York City’s first hydroponic commercial-scale rooftop farm, he envisions a three-dimensional agricultural landscape sprouting across the city’s rooftops.

Toward this green-tinged skyline, Gotham Greens hopes to build 100,000 square feet of hydroponic greenhouses throughout the five boroughs by 2030.

Brooklyn is the next horizon for these sky-high tomato...

The Gate's Pat Fondiller Gets Freaky on Beer

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:45:12 -0400

It’s easy to envy Pat Fondiller, the beermeister of Park Slope institution The Gate. He gets paid to have conversations like this one on a recent late weeknight in the bar’s back corner. He was talking with Gate founder and owner Bobby Gagnon. The topic was which beer the bar would not carry. One TV over the bar played the Yankees game. Another, muted, played Chuck Norris' original The Delta Force.

Mr. Gagnon: “We...

Lunch Ladies and Gourmets: The Times Feels Your Pain

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:18:24 -0400

The politically conscious and pleasure-seeking sides of our current food obsession aren't necessarily at odds--just ask Alice Waters.

But they do sometimes yield uncomfortable incongruities. Take today's New York Times Dining section.

One of the page's top stories ("Schools' Toughest Test: Cooking") describes the movement to replace reheating with actual cooking in New York's public school cafeterias. That is, to produce foodie-approved free lunches in the sort of environment where uncooked meat is forbidden and "grape...

The Foodiots

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:08:04 -0400

At around 10:30 a.m. on a recent weekday, Todd Kennedy, a 31-year-old product developer at a major New York media company, walked down the hall to the office of his co-worker, Antony Petersen, and without so much as a “Morning” or “What’s up, dude,” abruptly inquired, “So what’d you make for dinner last night?”

“Oh, I got some beautiful rock shrimp,” replied Mr. Petersen, who is 39 and Australian. He explained the meal down...

Apps to Get Free Apps

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:00:54 -0400

There’s another reason why so many Facebook and Twitter users’ news feeds are crowded with status updates about where their “friends” or “followers” are eating and drinking around the city. In an attempt to entice diners out of their kitchens, restaurants and bars are creating their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, hoping customers will sign up to receive updates on their latest menu specials or wine-tasting events. What’s more, they’re encouraging their networks of...

Endless Summer

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:12:19 -0400

Despite the recent autumn temperatures, this weekend is your last gasp of "official" summer. And, unlike many of the weekends this summer, it's going to be pretty nice—70s and sunny everyday! Maybe you're headed down to Lower Manhattan for one last hurrah of waterfront fun at South Street Seaport or Water Taxi Beach or Governors Island? If so, checkout these nearby eateries, recommended by the Michelin Guide:

Nebraska Beef

Serious business folk crave serious steak, and...

Eat! Even if Nobody Else Will

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:45:31 -0400

Fashion Week is in full effect and Bryant Park is buzzing.

We realize food may be the last thing on your mind after watching dozens of tall, skinny, toned, and otherwise in-shape male and female models sashay down the runway. (Or, depending on how you look at it, food might actually be the FIRST thing on your mind!)

But hopping from show to show can be exhausting, so if you're hungry after the shows, check out...

'All Sorts of Delicious Letters': Food Writer M.F.K. Fisher's Grand-Nephew to Write Book About Her, Child, Beard

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:59:11 -0400

Luke Barr, the grand-nephew of the late food writer M. F. K. Fisher, has sold a book about her and her pals James Beard and Julia Child to Clarkson Potter, the food-centric imprint of Random House’s Crown division.

According to Clarkson editorial director Doris Cooper, the book will tell the story of a milestone winter in 1970 when Fisher, Child, and Beard—along with cooking teacher Simone Beck and food writer Richard...

Fire Up the Grill!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:55:39 -0400

Don't let the weird calendar glitch fool you! There's still one weekend of "real" summer left, and it's a holiday weekend, which means it's time to fire up the grill. Unless, of course, you don't have a grill, or are too lazy to fire up the one you do have. In which case, check out these recommendations for barbecue joints from the Michelin Guide:

Daisy May's BBQ (Midtown West)

Honey, grab your appetite and head straight...

Waif-er Thin: Why Is Fashion Designer Erin Fetherston Making Cookie Tins?

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:12:13 -0400

LU is a french bakery company that makes those fancy biscuits and crackers (Petit Ecolier, Pims and Le Petit Beurre) that you find at the corner grocery store. Yesterday afternoon, the Daily Transom received a tin of the company's Creme Roulee wafers—those long cigarette wafers filled with chocolate and hazelnut—that was designed by designer Erin Fetherston.

The design is surprisingly simple, considering how much Ms. Fetherston enjoys playing with volume and fabrics in her whimsical...

Watching Grass Grow: Prolonged Pain for Tavern on the Green Bidders

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:02:37 -0400

July has come and (really) gone, and the Parks Department has yet to choose a bidder to run the legendarily profitable Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park.

This spring, when the department was giving potential bidders tours of the premises, Parks officials made vague statements about issuing a decision in July. It being Aug. 21, at least one bidder is getting a tad antsy.

"It’s a very uncomfortable position, as you can imagine," said...

The Tastiest Catch!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:50:52 -0400

When it comes to educational reality TV, there's nothing better to watch in the summer than shows about burly commercial seafarers who risk their lives in some of the world's most treacherous waters, all for the greater good of putting seafood on your plate. Deadliest Catch is a good one, and its Discovery Channel-mate, Swords, a new series about New England's long-line fisherman, is pretty epic as well.

So now that we've put you in...

Getting Hopheaded in Brooklyn

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:57:50 -0400

Erica Shea was on the Chinatown bus from Boston to New York after Thanksgiving in 2008, reading Burkhard Bilger’s profile of Sam Calagione, the wort-crusted owner of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, in The New Yorker’s food issue. She texted her boyfriend, Stephen Valand, who was visiting relatives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: “We have to do this.”

Within five months, the couple were in Oslo, Norway, the first stop in their 15-country, seven-week backpacking, CouchSurfing.com...

The Demise of Sky-High Dining

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:43:01 -0400

It was Friday night on the revolving 48th floor of the Marriott Marquis, and an elevator had just vomited a handful of tourists onto the solid core of the restaurant there—a minor miracle given how difficult it is for even the directionally adept to navigate the hotel’s devious elevator system.

From the center, one could watch parents with litters of children on red leathery chairs chomping on buffet food as the floor beneath them...

Chop-Up Shop: Two Dudes to Bring Food, Temporarily, to Montauk

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:28:04 -0400

Over the past few years, pop-up (or temporary) stores have become a more common thing in New York. Falls, a small independent clothing line, opened one in the Salt and Battery space in the West Village in March; Yohji Yamamoto's luggage line, Y Mandarina, opened a three-month-long pop-up shop at 98 Greene in May; and Rachel Roy will open one in Soho at 11 Spring Street for her Macy's line on Sept. 10, which...

Times' Bill Keller: Sam Sifton Was Our First Choice

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:28:51 -0400

Bill Keller told The Observer that Sam Sifton was his top choice to replace Frank Bruni.

He asked Mr. Sifton, The Times' culture editor, sometime after Mr. Bruni announced he was stepping down in May, but Mr. Sifton demurred. He wanted to keep editing.

But Mr. Keller was persistent, and managing editor Jill Abramson, living editor Trish Hall and dining editor Pete Wells all wanted him, "not for any one piece of writing but for a...

Lament for the Old-Fashioned Restaurant Critic

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:56:11 -0400

Sometime in the next week, The New York Times plans to name its newest restaurant critic.

“I hope to announce something by the end of the week,” wrote executive editor Bill Keller in an email to The Observer on Tuesday, Aug. 4. “That could slip, but it’s my hope.”

A well-placed source said that The Times has generated a shortlist of about four people—two or three from within the Times Tower, one from...

At Ziegfield Premiere of Julie & Julia, It's a Big Celebrity Stew! Where Else Can You Find Both Rachel Ray and Rachel Roy?

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:21:29 -0400

The red-carpet procession at the premiere of Julie & Julia, which stars Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as the blogger Julie Powell, was a big celebrity stew. It included musician Yoko Ono, restaurateur Drew Nieporent, food personality Rachel Ray and fashion designer Rachel Roy, as well as Katie Lee Joel, Steve Buscemi and Andrew Cuomo on the arm of Sandra Lee. Actor Sam Rockwell quickly followed Stanley Tucci, who was swept...

The Audacity of Hops

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:10:38 -0400

He played it safe and sad. President Obama picked Bud Light, that watery, insipid, largely tasteless, tinny amalgam owned by Belgians, run by Brazilians and favored by your uncle, for his Thursday White House sit-down with Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass., sergeant James Crowley.

Sigh. There were so many more—so many more—great American beers that the president could’ve chosen. But, as with these things, he had to consider the politics: “He’s trying...

Michelin Does Machu Picchu!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:07:02 -0400

On July 24, 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the ancient Inca settlement Machu Picchu in Peru.

We don't know about you, but after absorbing this historical factoid, we're craving tasty Peruvian food something fierce! So this weekend, we're headed down to Pio Pio in Jackson Heights. Here's a bit about the restaurant from the Michelin Guide:

Spanish for “chirp chirp”, this charming eatery serves up authentic Peruvian fare in a colorful, casual atmosphere; vibrant hues...

Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Y'All

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:55:24 -0400

Sunny’s Bar on a recent Wednesday night was packed. The last of the longshoremen’s bars that once dotted the Red Hook waterfront, the sepia-toned watering hole is, nowadays, known as a bohemian stronghold and a vital neighborhood institution.

Tonight, customers are packed into the front room, swaying to the rhythms of Smokey’s Roundup, in full Western wear, play a swinging “San Antonio Rose.” Regulars kibbitz with the competent bartender. Visitors wander, examining the photography...

Waterfront Dining!

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:34:34 -0400

It took awhile, but summer is officially here (as you could probably tell from the bead or two of sweat dripping down your face on the walk back to the office from lunch). That's right—gonna be 85 and sunny this weekend! So if you plan on going out to eat, we suggest you do it summer-style and pick a place by the water. In this week's installment of Michelin Guide reviews, we'll recommend a...

Party On! The Four Seasons Continues to Toast Its 50th, this Time with the Guggenheim

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:02:12 -0400

The Four Seasons Restaurant knows how to keep the party going. On Wednesday, July 15th, the NYC landmark feted its 50th birthday again, this time with the Guggenheim Museum, also celebrating its 50th.

Guests, including Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and author Michael Gross, sipped champagne and snacked on rabbit sausage and sushi before dinner, in celebration of two of the city’s most beloved locales.

Richard Armstrong, Director of the Guggenheim Museum, described the event...

No Reservations! Famous Foodies Sample Celeb Chef Fare

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:30:09 -0400

Star chefs—and the hungry folks who love ’em—turned out for the Chefs for Scher event at the Bowery Terrace on Monday, July 13. The grub-centric event, a benefit for the Steven Scher Memorial Scholarship for Aspiring Restaurateurs, was punctuated with fond memories of Mr. Scher, a co-founder of Main Street Restaurant Partners and influential figure in the New York dining world.

The chefs in attendance—including Rocco DiSpirito, Nancy Olson of Gramercy Tavern, BarBao’s Michael...

Bastille Day Bistros on Observer.com

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:40:53 -0400

In our last installment of Michelin reviews, we brought you suggestions for some recession-friendly city eateries that were cheap enough to be rated with pictures of coins rather than dollars. Since Tuesday is Bastille Day (and seeing as how the originally French guide is best known for making and breaking the reputations of fancy French chefs), here's a list, in no particular order, of 10 French restaurants throughout the five boroughs. Just click...

Krushed by Kardashians at Bubble Gum-Flavored Vodka Klatch

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:53:21 -0400

Holy hangover! Reality stars descended en masse to the introduction of Three-O Bubble Vodka at the Greenhouse nightclub on Thursday, July 9.

Hair-gelled and spray-tanned revelers sipped the bubble-gum-flavored drink of the evening while craning their necks to get a look at the upstairs VIP section, where Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Real Housewife of New Jersey Danielle Staub and The City's Erin Lucas mingled and danced to the DJ’s set of—surprise!—Michael Jackson songs. Pop singer...

Desperate Restaurants? Semi-Annual "Week" Will Probably Ooze, Like a Molten Chocolate Cake, Past Labor Day

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:39:26 -0400

At the Time Warner Center on the afternoon of Thursday, July 9, the cast of Hair will serenade New Yorkers in an attempt to drum up excitement for Restaurant Week—which is increasingly seeming like a misnomer for a semi-annual promotion that last January was extended a full four weeks past its initial run.
This season, the “week” is slated to last 19 days, with an option allowing participants to extend their runs until Labor...

Griffou's Wilde Past: West Village Restaurant's Ghost Guests Included Oscar, Twain, Tarbell

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:13:38 -0400

Faux classic is the New York restaurant flavor du jour, but partners in the new Hotel Griffou at 21 West Ninth Street hit authenticity pay dirt with a history-buff neighbor’s fortuitous tip.

Johnny Swet (former general manager of Bowery Bar, Balthazar, Pastis and Freeman’s); Larry Poston Jr. (formerly front-of-the-house manager at Town, Pastis and the Waverly Inn); Jonathan Hettinger (who had run a private-equity fund before managing Cafeteria in South Beach, Fla.); and Jesse...

Zagat Me, Baby! New Mobile App Will Tell You Where to Eat

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:18:12 -0400

In a video posted on YouTube, a pretty young woman with long blond tresses twirls in Times Square at night, phone in hand. She’s staring at the screen, which flashes a compass plotted with nearby restaurants. Scores and distances float above a red dot marking a restaurant’s location. She turns: There’s Bond 45! Turns again: There’s Junior’s! So many options, and all Zagat-ranked.

Handy! Or, definitely handier than...

Georgica on Our Minds: Wainscott Road Restaurant Welcomes Sedate Set (And, Er, Sims)

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:48:22 -0400

The nightlife scene in the Hamptons has been strange so far this season. Southampton's Pink Elephant has filed for bankruptcy. Dune has turned into Axe Lounge as part of a disturbing summer-long sponsorship deal. Lily Pond hosts humongous sponsorship parties with the Hilton spawn. And Surf Lodge, while hip and crowded on weekends, can be intimidating.

One newcomer that sounded somewhat promising was the Georgica Restaurant and Lounge. Located on the Georgica Pond—a.k.a. land of...

Bib Gourmands on Observer.com

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:31:48 -0400

We have an exciting piece of news! Observer.com is now the host of all the Michelin reviews of New York restaurants.

The originally French guide is best known for making and breaking the reputations of fancy French chefs, but lots of restaurants in New York are reviewed here, and not all of them are very expensive.

Restaurants are reviewed and sometimes assigned one, two or three stars. The amount you can expect to...

La Goulue Gets a Reprieve

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:32:47 -0400

“We just heard from the landlord and he told us we could stay until the end of August now,” said La Goulue co-owner Jean Denoyer when the Transom called to ask about the impending close of the Upper East Side institution.

La Goulue had planned a goodbye party for the restaurant’s last supper this Tuesday, after having been told in April that they needed to be out by the end of June. The lease actually...

Exorcising Leona From the Helmsley Hotel She Made Famous

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:36:28 -0400

The New York Helmsley Hotel, that 775-room inn trapped in a design hell of 1980s Greed-Is-Good glamour, is getting a face-lift, one to obliterate many of the fingerprints of the late Queen of Mean herself, Leona Helmsley.

While you still can, walk through the revolving doors of 212 East 42nd Street and step into the hotel’s intimate lobby, one of at least six in New York City where Leona reigned. You will find yourself standing...

Socialites Freak at Food Film; Coralie Paul Plumps for Tomatoes

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:37:43 -0400

Socialite Coralie Charriol Paul began a React to Film series on Wednesday, June 10, at the SoHo House with the film Food, Inc., directed by Robert Kenner and produced by Mr. Kenner and Eric Schlosser, author of the eye-opening and stomach-churning book Fast Food Nation.

“This movie really inspired,” said Ms. Paul’s husband, Dennis Paul. Food, Inc., which opens in New York, Los Angles and San Francisco on Friday, June 12, is another...

Restaurateur Danny Meyer Not Sure What to Name His New 'Recession Baby'

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:00:00 -0400

“You stopped me right before I could walk in and get too liquored up!” prolific restaurateur Danny Meyer told the Daily Transom as he arrived at the Central Park Conservancy's "Taste of Summer" benefit on Wednesday night, June 3.

An estimated crowd of about 1,000 had turned out to the Central Park Naumberg Bandshell--not only for the open bar--but also to sample fare from some 40 top-notch New York...

Bikini Babe Fernanda Motta Risks Modeling Career on 'Thrilling' Pesto Pasta at Le 55

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:26:02 -0400

Restaurants are notoriously risky investments, especially for a supermodel.

"I cannot come here," Fernanda Motta told the Daily Transom the other night at Le 55 in the meatpacking district, "because I love Italian food."

Despite the inherent danger—every carb-laden bite of pasta a potential career-ender for the slender, four-time Sports Illustrated bikini babe—Ms. Motta and her husband, Roger Rodriguez, remain partners in the renamed, revamped and relaunched restaurant, formerly known as Merkato 55, located at 55...

Lily Pond on Fire! Stereo Refugee Mike Satsky Exults in East Hampton, Trashes Greenhouse, Mum on New Manhattan Spot

Thu, 28 May 2009 10:39:14 -0400

Impresario Mike Satsky has what he calls a "LeBron James attitude" when it comes to his Lily Pond nightclub in East Hampton.

"Our product and what we bring to the table we feel is extremely valuable and we feel like we’re the only ones doing it, even though there are other people in the business, just like there are other basketball players who are incredible," Mr. Satsky told the Daily Transom last week.

The swanky 7,000-square-foot...

'David v. Goliath': Restaurateur Sues Moinian, Zuckerman

Tue, 19 May 2009 11:22:55 -0400

On Sept. 26, 2007, the second episode of Kitchen Nightmare’s season aired on Fox. Against a New York skyline, a deep voice intoned: “Tonight on Kitchen Nightmares: New York City may be the Mecca of fine dining, but in the heart of Manhattan is a restaurant in such bad shape it may prove to be Gordon’s biggest challenge yet.”

Cut to Gordon Ramsay, face contorted in horror: “Oh my God! What do we need, a...

Hockey Star Sean Avery Drops the Puck for Boozy Offseason at New Tribeca Bar

Mon, 18 May 2009 09:58:57 -0400

Tempestuous New York Rangers left-winger Sean Avery won't be lacing up the skates any time soon, following his team's anticlimactic exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But he still knows how to tie one on.

"How do you say 'cheers' in the Jewish language?" the flashy forward asked guests at the opening of his new Tribeca bar and restaurant Warren 77 on Friday, May 15.

Danny Meyer Drops Out of Race for Tavern on the Green

Mon, 18 May 2009 07:35:43 -0400

Popular restaurateur Danny Meyer no longer has his eye on the late Warner LeRoy's illustrious Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Bids on the city's top-grossing eatery are due on Monday, May 18, but Mr. Meyer, an early favorite for the famous space, has decided to withdraw his name from the competition.

According to a statement from Mr. Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group:

“After careful consideration, we have elected not to submit a...

Waverly Inn Chef John DeLucie, Macin' and Cheesin' in Full Book-Tour Mode

Fri, 15 May 2009 10:36:42 -0400

Chef John DeLucie has been serving celebrities at Graydon Carter's exclusive Waverly Inn since November 2006. Lately, he's been soaking up the spotlight himself.

"Someone, somehow told Hugh Jackman that I was doing the food for Graydon’s Vanity Fair Oscar Party," Mr. DeLucie told the Daily Transom. "So I walk over to his table and Hugh Jackman says, ‘Hey, I hear we both have Oscar gigs.'"

The affable chef was dumbfounded. "Is there a...

Frank Bruni is Off the Food Beat at 'The New York Times'

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:22:51 -0400

Frank Bruni, the restaurant critic for The New York Times, is leaving that role to become a writer-at-large for the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

In a staff memo, Bill Keller writes:

He will be turning in his restaurant-critic credentials when his memoir, 'Born Round: the Secret History of a Full-Time Eater,' is published in late August. After a break for book promotion and some overdue vacation, Frank will become a writer-at-large on the staff of...

High Times With Greg Brier: Impresario to Conjure Old Times Square 10 Stories Up

Tue, 12 May 2009 16:13:48 -0400

Greg Brier likes it on top.

In June, the 42-year-old proprietor of Highbar, Amalia and Aspen Social Club plans to open his second rooftop nightspot in the past year with the debut of Ajaxx, high atop Vikram Chatwal’s 10-story Stay hotel on West 47th Street.

“If you want to experience New York, you cannot be in a more central location than this,” Mr. Brier, dressed in a blazer and Ben Sherman-designed t-shirt emblazoned with...

New Restaurant Applications Soar; Storefront Rents Grow More Palatable

Fri, 08 May 2009 13:02:54 -0400

Perhaps it's because New Yorkers are inveterate foodies. Maybe it's all those late nights at neighborhood pubs fantasizing about the restaurants they will one day own. Or perhaps it's the surge of laid-off bankers looking for new career paths.

For whatever reason, there has been a 25 percent jump in applications for new restaurant permits in New York City in the first three and a half months of 2009, as compared to the same...

Axis Spies? Alex Who? Four Seasons Guys Get Treated Like Guests at 50th Anniversary

Wed, 06 May 2009 10:50:59 -0400

"With friends like you, who needs relatives?" quipped Alex von Bidder, co-owner of the illustrious Four Seasons restaurant, after enduring a rollicking tongue-lashing on Tuesday night, May 5, from such luminaries as Pete Peterson, Martha Stewart and Liz Smith.

Hotelier Jonathan Tisch and restaurateur Drew Nieporent also piled on, during a Friars Club-style roast of Mr. von Bidder and his charismatic partner, Julian Niccolini, in celebration of the renowned midtown power-lunching spot's 50th anniversary. It...

Drew Nieporent Has a Dog Pile Premonition of James Beard Awards Glory

Tue, 05 May 2009 14:35:33 -0400

Jovial restaurateur Drew Nieporent stood outside of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall on Monday evening, May 4, holding an umbrella in one hand and a smoldering stogie in the other.

A Cuban? Never! “You’re too young to remember, but Ken Aretsky almost went to prison for that!” Mr. Nieporent said, referring to the proprietor of midtown’s Patroon whose well-stocked humidor was raided by customs agents back in 1998.

“[Publicist] Jennifer Baum has...