Results tagged “restaurant”

       

Click on the images for details on newcomers Spot Dessert Bar, Obao, Lucy's Cantina Royale, and the latest at Emporio and Death & Co, which just introduced their fall menu.

           

If nothing's cooking with your family on Thanksgiving, or if you'd just rather not slave away in the kitchen all day, there are plenty of restaurants from Astoria to the East River which will be happy to serve you. Click on the images for details on special Thanksgiving menus around town, including Trattoria Cinque in Tribeca, Commerce in the West Village, The Classic Harbor Line yacht (on the river), Counter in the Wast Village, Da Franco in Astoria, Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Ed's Chowder House on the UWS , Fishtail on the UES, The Sea Grill at Rock Center, and Casimir in Alphabet City.

This week Sam Sifton at the Times re-reviews the new location of Oceana for the paper; it previously received an impressive three stars from Frank Bruni, but the seafood restaurant recently moved from a cozy townhouse space to a big new home on the ground floor of the McGraw Hill building, in the theater district. New York's Adam Platt deems the reboot "a cavernous expense-account joint," and Sifton also downgrades the new Oceana to two stars.

Brooklyn chef Neil Ganic doesn't take guff from anybody—not even paying customers. A disgruntled diner shared with Eater a hilarious account of her recent experience at the Carroll Gardens restaurant Petite Crevette, where dinner ended with a crazy outburst from Ganic. After her husband sent back an order of Cioppino (fish stew) because it contained lobster which was "pretty much raw," the kitchen returned a dish that "was still kind of weird and gloopy." The couple then "politely" asked for the check, but "suddenly, Neil Ganic comes running out of the kitchen with a LIVE LOBSTER and throws it on the table." We called Ganic to confirm the story, and his response made us wish more people in the restaurant industry were this much fun:

       

Last week we noted the opening of a charming new restaurant/cocktail lounge/jazz bar called The Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint (located on Manhattan between Bedford and Nassau); but as you can see this place is so good looking it merits its own feature. This weekend we were actually lured there twice; the first visit was occasioned by our desire to wait out the Saturday afternoon rain and read over cocktails. The back room was uniquely suited for our purposes, and the Manhattan's Manhattan ($9) was as big and inviting as a heated private lap pool. (The classic specialty cocktail menu is from James Endicott, formerly of Per Se and Allen & Delancey, and there is also wine and craft beer on tap.)

The New Yorker's annual food issue hits shelves today (we'll feel lucky if we get ours in the mail before Thursday). Articles include Calvin Trillin on Candians' beloved poutine, a peek inside flavor labs, Adam Gopnik on cookbooks, and John Colapinto’s "exclusive" look at the rating process of the New York Michelin guide. Apparently this is "the first time in its history" Michelin has permitted a journalist to speak with one of its anonymous inspectors. Colapinto joins an anonymous inspector for a meal at three-star Jean-Georges. It's a lonely and fattening life:

Assigned specific areas of the city to cover, Maxime, who lives in Manhattan, spends weeks riding the subway out to the farthest reaches of Queens to make her way through a selection of Thai restaurants, eating two meals a day, every day, and she typically eats alone, since talking with a spouse or friend is frowned upon... Maxime eats out more than two hundred days of the year, lunch and dinner. She eats the maximum number of courses offered—at Jean Georges, we were having three courses, plus dessert; that way, she said, “you really get to see the most food”—and she is required to eat everything on her plate. It is a regimen that calls to mind the force-feeding of the ducks that supply Vongerichten with his velvety foie gras.

Teenagers: they ruin everything, especially when armed. Lots of people around Brooklyn loved the 40-cent Tuesday wing deal at Buffalo Wild Wings sports bar in Fort Greene—even Brooklyn Cyclones players were known to wing it there on Tuesdays. But now the restaurant has discontinued the promotion because of multiple shootings and a stabbing involving adolescents who descended upon the establishment Tuesday night. Thanks a lot, minors!

      

Click on the images for the scoop on Bar Henry, Sushi Uo, Mermaid Oyster Bar, Manhattan Inn, Northern Spy Food Co., and Má Pêche.

Sheesh, now there are all these rules! A week after would-be Hamptons restaurateur Bruce Buschel published his list of 100 things restaurant servers must never do, longtime bartender and restaurant manager Patrick Maguire has fired back with some rules for people who eat at restaurants. Apparently, snapping fingers, demanding perfection, and starting a sentence with Gimmee or Get me are all frowned upon. But there are all sorts of other no-nos that come with paying strangers to serve you food. To wit:

      

Danny Meyer, the powerhouse behind such hits as Shake Shack and Eleven Madison Park, is almost done reinventing the downstairs space at Ian Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel. The spot was formerly home to the failed upscale Chinese restaurant Wakiya; as you can see here Meyer's team has been busy transforming the dreary cave into a rustic bar and Italian trattoria. Dinner service starts tomorrow, and yesterday the main dining space, which seats 70, was filled with staffers training for the big debut.

Two Upper East Side restaurants refuse to deliver uptown to East Harlem, but they willingly schlep longer distances downtown to service a more affluent and more white neighborhood. An investigation by the Post reveals that both Chinese Mirch on Second Avenue between 94th and 95th streets and One Fish Two Fish on Madison Avenue and 97th Street declined to deliver to addresses located 15 blocks to the north, but readily fulfilled orders 20 blocks to the south — a delivery discrepancy that "smacks of racism," according to state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem). "The difference between north and south is black and white," he said.

Ugh, servers. After they bring your food they're always butting in asking if you're "still working" just as you're reaching the punchline of your most well-rehearsed anecdote! Weren't we supposed to eliminate the human element from the dining experience with computers and conveyor belts by now?! While the world waits on that technology, would-be Hamptons restaurateur Bruce Buschel has completed his list of 100 things servers should never, never do. For instance:

This week in the Times, Sam Sifton reviews the newly-opened midtown outpost of French mini-chain Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, which serves just drinks, salad, fries, steak, and dessert. "Women in French maid outfits serve the stuff as if they were characters in an early Preston Sturges film," says Sifton. "And you know what? It’s terrific." Meanwhile, the Times's Oliver Strand is in Williamsburg to rave about the gourmet sandwich shop Saltie, from veterans of Marlow & Sons and Diner: "It’s a lot of talent for one cramped kitchen. So they overachieve." (He also has kind words for Crosby Connection and Barros Luco.)

Yaargh, the frothing 17,000 square foot vortex at Third Avenue and 40th Street has swallowed up many an ambitious restaurant, and even left jaunty Jeffrey Chodorow with nothing but an ivory stump for a leg. Some say that spot on the map is cursed by a foul wind, and no one's been fool enough to set sail for it in years, ever since that monomaniacal Captain Chodorow lost his leaky Wild Salmon to tropical storm Frank.

       

Click on the images for more details on truffle specials at Bottega Del Vino, Sapori D'Ischia in Queens, Marea, Gilt, Scarpetta, David Burke Townhouse, and Craft.

You wouldn’t know it today walking down West 46th Street in Manhattan or Smith Street in Brooklyn, but until 1827, New York City did not have a single restaurant. That's the year when a pair of Swiss brothers named Delmonico opened their eponymous William Street confectionery and café, ending 200 years of restaurant-less history and setting "the tone for fine dining in New York almost overnight," according to a new book detailing the city's evolution as a restaurant capital. Before then, anyone forced to eat out had two choices at their local boardinghouse or chophouse: “a slab of beef or mutton with potatoes and gravy."

The Argentinian opera star who was nearly arrested after throwing a tantrum at an Upper West Side restaurant had her day in court yesterday. Soprano Gabriela Pochinki had been carrying on a noisy cell phone conversation via speakerphone at restaurant Nice Matin when a manager asked her to pipe down. When Pochinki blew her off, the manager asked her to leave—four times, and then Pochinki allegedly flew into a rage, shoved her, and refused to pay her bill.

A sexy South American opera singer who behaved like a real diva in an Upper West Side restaurant is due in court today to face charges of trespassing, theft of service, and disorderly conduct. It all started when diners at restaurant Nice Matin complained that soprano Gabriela Pochinki was carrying on a noisy cell phone conversation via speakerphone. And when a manager had the nerve to tell Pochinki—a Fulbright scholar who was the toast of Vienna for her portrayal of Maria in West Side Story—to pipe down, she got quite an earful!

    

Click on the images here for more details on The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, Bill's Burger in the Meatpacking District, Corsino in the West Village, and Giano in the East Village.

New York's Adam Platt files a twofer on twee West Village restaurant Joseph Leonard and Civetta, an Italian restaurant on Kenmare Street. Each gets a measly one star out of five; "Joseph Leonard’s very standard bistro menu isn’t inspired enough to add to this festive atmosphere, but neither is it so horrible that it detracts from the proceedings." At Civetta, "if you choose wisely, it’s possible to have a decent meal." Meanwhile, Jay Cheshes at Time Out finally gets around to reviewing Graydon Carter's Monkey Bar, giving it three out of five stars and noting that, "There are still some rich people in New York City, and they eat here."

       

Exuberant chef David Burke is no longer involved with Hawaiian Tropic Zone, and that's probably for the best, since he's had his hands full with plenty of other projects anyway. Last fall his sustainable seafood restaurant Fishtail opened on the Upper East Side to favorable reviews, and his restaurant at Bloomingdale's continues to give shoppers the sustenance they need to keep our economy afloat. Burke, who first made a splash at the River Café in Brooklyn in the '80s, has recently finished changing up his other serious venture in the neighborhood, which opened in 2003 as "davidburke & donatella." Restaurateur Donatella Arpaia is no longer involved (the partnership is said to have ended amicably) so it's now simply called David Burke Townhouse, and has reopened with a new menu after renovations.

     

Click on the images above for the scoop on 'Wichcraft's dinner, Harbour's lunch and "Mai Tai Tuesdays," brunch at Charles, speed lunch at La Fonda del Sol, and "Moules Frites Monday" at Bar Blanc Bistro.

The city's recurring "restaurant weeks" are all about getting your money's worth by visiting an establishment that would ordinarily be beyond your reach; there's no sense paying $25 for a prix-fixe at a place that ordinarily charges about that about much or less, which is why the Water's Edge is an ideal choice for Queens Restaurant Week. Situated literally on the edge of the East River in Long Island City, next to Deitch Studios, the three decade-old restaurant could easily be misidentified as a private catering hall—which it is. But it is also an Asian-inflected seafood restaurant with three star ambition, and it re-opened a few weeks ago after an extensive face-lift.

Would a Tavern on the Green by any other name fare just as well in Central Park? The NY Times digs into the latest debate over the restaurant's name, which is reportedly appraised at $19 million.

Abe & Arthur's: This big, beautiful new restaurant exorcises the old Lotus space, with "contemporary American cuisine...that evokes the nostalgic feeling of 1930s and 1940s New York City dining." This means leather, low lighting, and a varnished zinc bar. So zinc was 1930s? The menu is contemporary American with seasonal leanings, masterminded by Franklin Becker (Brasserie, Trinity). Starters average around $15, with tuna tartare tacos looking particularly enticing. Fresh market seafood changes daily, but pan-roasted sea scallop & foie gras with chantrelles is seasonal mainstay. Steaks and chops range from $18-$72 with your choice of six sauces. 409 West 14th Street; 646-289-3930

We recently interviewed chef Saul Bolton, whose eponymous restaurant in Boerum Hill just celebrated ten years in business. Today Pete Wells at the Times bestows two stars on the place, where the elegantly understated atmosphere provides a modest frame for Bolton's culinary ambition: "One of the first restaurants to bring a contemporary sensibility to Brooklyn when it appeared on Smith Street in 1999, it has neither faded, nor stood still, nor sought a personality transplant. Instead Saul Bolton, the chef and the owner with his wife, Lisa, has upgraded just about everything in their modest storefront. Saul is the same restaurant, but better."

After two entertaining yet vicious slams on Hotel Griffou and Gus & Gabriel, interim Times dining heavy Pete Wells throws a one-star bone to The Standard Grill, which has been winning over critics despite the grotesquely exclusive velvet rope scene at the door. Wells declares that "it is not the place I would send friends who want to study the latest contortions of the yoga masters of haute cuisine. But it is exactly where I would direct anybody who needs to recharge by plugging straight into the abundant, renewable energy source that is downtown Manhattan." And yet! "The tiled, barrel-vaulted ceiling makes for treacherous acoustics. At times conversations across the room are beamed directly to your table. Sitting by the open kitchen one night, we heard an expediter shouting out orders as if he were communicating with cooks in Jersey City." Still, "with 100 seats in this room, another 100 in an even noisier antechamber, and 85 more on the sidewalk, it is a marvel that the kitchen reliably bangs out solid, flavorful food."

After years of protests and a long, drawn-out lawsuit, the city is moving forward with a plan to convert a large part of the 80-year-old Pavilion in Union Square park into a restaurant. The Parks Department recently put out a request for proposals to operate a seasonal café in the park's refurbished pavilion; the deadline is in two months. According to the Post, the winning bidder would secure a 15-year contract to run the private café six months out of the year, and also have the option to operate a satellite cart or kiosk.

Chef Wolfgang Puck opened Spago in LA back in 1982, and, to this day, it remains the prototypical Hollywood hotspot. The chef, originally from Austria, later went on to open the steakhouse Cut (replete with celebrity headshot menus for the celebrity diners), Chinois, an Asian fusion restaurant in Santa Monica, and myriad other fine dining and casual restaurants nationwide. Yet he's still largely an unknown entity to New Yorkers, unless they make a jaunt down to his American Grille in the stellar Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.

This week the Times's Pete Wells (filling in before incoming chief dining critic Sam Sifton takes the reins) reviews Hotel Griffou, the trendy speakeasy-style restaurant from veterans of the Waverly Inn, Freemans and La Esquina. He finds the plating "scattershot" and the service "wildly inconsistent." But the place "does have its allures. Each dining room has a different motif, as if the restaurant were trying to ignite a collect-them-all frenzy. A friend described the Library as 'very man-cavey,' outfitted with wooden ducks, a manual typewriter, a fiddle, a saddle, shelves filled with law books, a football that looks as if it was in play when F. Scott Fitzgerald was at Princeton, and four fox pelts." The Times also has a roundup of the new street food vendors, just in time for the Vendys this weekend.