szechuan gourmet -- 212 921 0233 -- 2 rings, for two people? just come in
matsugen -- 212 925 0202 -- 2 rings, i have 8 o'clock for you
hundred acres -- 212 475 7500 -- 1 ring, i have 9 o'clock available for two
sheridan square -- 212 352 2237 -- 3 rings, press 13, how many? yes we can do 8
persimmon -- 212 260 9080 -- 3 rings, yes, we have 8 o'clock
Board Wrap: Restaurant Week Winners and Losers
· Avocado...Yea or Nay? [Yelp]
· Jaded Food Network Watchers Are Taken with the New Dinner Impossible [SE]
· 'Asian' Cafe Gray Set to Open in 2009 [eG]
· A Restaurant Week Rave for Nougatine [CH]
· Restaurant Week Service Issues at Devi [CH]
Plywood Update: Shack Signage Revealed
Upper West Side: On Monday, we took a peek inside the new Shake Shack at 77th and Columbus, and today a tipster sends the latest from the exterior. A black and white Shake Shack sign is being installed above the door this very moment (bottom right corner reads 'What's Shakin'?'). But stay calm kids. Remember the latest opening projection we have is October 1.
· Plywood Special: UWS Shake Shack Getting Closer [~E~]
Adventures in Shilling #035: Gonzo, Bubby's, James
It's time for another edition of Adventures in Shilling, in which we fight shilling the best way we can, by shaming tasteless, unscrupulous shills into submission. Well, that's the plan, at least. Fight shills yourself by dropping offensive links to tips@eater.com
For the latest installment of Adventures in Shilling we found a shiller who love, love, loves Gonzo's pizza, someone who thinks Bubby's mac and cheese is the best she's ever had, and a woman who was blessed to eat a tasting menu at the immaculate James:
A surprising number of five star reviews from first time users for the restaurant Gonzo: "I love Gonzo....Their pizzas are the best. I had the corn & mashed potato pizza and it was the best white pizza I've ever had. The staff are all so friendly and the wine list was nice. I started with a drink at the bar. The bartender recommended some type of fresh watermelon drink and it was WOW! The rest of the food was good too but the pizza stands out.""mmmmmm-mmmmmh!">>
Shill Probability: 58%Even if we disregard our stance on Bubby's, the comment left on this three month old post is a bit suspect: "We were seated right away at a sunny table in the corner. watermelon lemonade was refreshing, mac and cheese was possibly the best i've ever had, and the sour cherry pie was to-die-for. our waiter wasn't exactly fine-dining material, but he was friendly, attentive, and gave us everything we asked for. (including extra place mats to take home with us upstate.) a very good experience all around -- bubby, we're telling our friends!!"
Shill Probability 64%
First Word: CB3 Rejects China 1, Annex, Hop Devil Grill, and oh so Many More!
Welcome to First Word, wherein Eater and its correspondents sit for hours at steamy community board meetings to bring back the first word of new establishments and what they're up to. Your reports from the field always encouraged to tips@eater.com.
Nothing says summer time like an empty high school auditorium—and apparently, nothing says summer like denying liquor license recommendations, either. Here's the wrap up from last night's unusually empty Community Board 3's full board meeting:
1) Denied for License Renewal: Three Monkeys, Hop Devil Grill, Double Down and 4th and B's China One, which is "more akin to a nightclub than a full service Chinese restaurant."
2) New liquor license recommendations were granted to the following establishments, with provisos about closing early and keeping the noise level low: what is assumed to be Gabe Stulman's place, Penmanship, Dishful, and LES Sushi.
3) The Annex was denied a cabaret license because community members said it just can't handle noise and crowding.
4) Label Lounge, Lok Sing Chinese, Friend House, Obrigado, Zerza, Rolo, Pho So, and the Kelley and Ping space, were all denied transfers, alterations, or upgrades.
Will CB3 let you open in a former church?>>Blue Ribbon Empire Invades Williamsburg; Set to Open in Brooklyn Bowl
A lot of news hitting the wire today about Brooklyn Bowl, Robert Shapiro and Charley Ryan's 16 lane bowling alley set to open right next door to the Brooklyn Brewery. It was reported earlier in the month that a "respected restaurant with one foot in Brooklyn already" would be running the dining operations here, and we find out today that restaurant is Blue Ribbon. They've already conquered the Village, Park Slope, and the UWS. Why not hip little ol' Williamsburg? From the Post:
"Peter Shapiro and partner Charley Ryan have teamed up with the Blue Ribbon restaurant group to create a 20,000-square-foot live music venue in a 19th century ironworks foundry, where the VIP section, with 16 bowling lanes, has a full Blue Ribbon menu."But, what about the non-VIPs?>>
Back in March BlackBook speculated that there was a major celebrity backer at a new plywooded spot at 18 Bedford by McCarren Park. It turns out they were right, and the celebrity in question is the late Heath Ledger: "The late actor, who's last movie is obviously doing pretty well, was a key backer of the the project and was going to be a full partner. His untimely death put the project in jeopardy, but his father became executor of the estate and because he knew how much the project meant to Heath, he released the funds to finish construction. The name Five Leaves is a working name." [DBTH; previously]
Florent Update: Farewell Bonus Checks in the Mail
In late May Florent Morellet announced he would auction off all the memorabilia on Florent's walls on eBay and distribute the profits among the employees. Almost a month after the closing employees haven't received anything, and many have wondered if the money will come at all. Florent calls to set the record straight:
"Yes it's been done. The sale of the maps took a awhile. People don't understand that there were close to 85 pieces sold and these things take time...I did this all with just an assistant so I read those comments and it's like give me a break. So we're are going to begin giving the money out this week...It's a little under $50,000. My shrink told me to move on, so I'm moving on...I'm just very happy everyone will get a good bon voyage."So to those 30 or so employees: expect a little over a grand to be arriving any day now.
· All Florent Coverage [~E~]
photo credit
Restaurant Week Spot Check: Anthos
Restaurant: Anthos
Time: 7:30
Space: 2/3 full
Menu: Decent choices that gave a taste of what this kitchen can do on a normal night. Raw meze, mussles and calamari, or salad for starters, a lamb shank, or sizable portions of milk-fed chicken or grilled arctic char for entree, and yogurt or chocolate dessert.
Assessment: Excellent (though not worlds better than the cheaper Mia Dona). The portions weren't smaller than usual, and it didn't seem like they were skimping on ingredients.
Extras: Small plate of olives, haloumi, and mini meatballs, amuse, small bag of cookies with the check
Service: Cheery and efficient but incredibly rushed. Wine glasses taken seconds after finishing the last sip, check picked up before we even opened it to pay. Hardly any time between courses.
Duration: In and out the door in 40 minutes
Have a RW spot check? Put 'em in the comments.
David Chang appeared on the Charlie Rose show last night, and Serious Eats has all the clips. Chang plays the usual coy game by saying he's not very special or original and doesn't try to get nor does he deserve the media attention. But the hour long interview is incredibly in depth and worth a watch. Most interesting, of course, is his response when Rose asks if he'll open a place in Vegas: "That's the loaded question. I would say it's pretty good...I'm not ambivalent. It's really hard to do business in New York. What the dining culture doesn't understand is that we're not a food culture like we are in France and Italy and Japan where you can sort of run a restaurant like a mom and pop operation...In New York with all the construction permits...it's hard because these buildings are tough and they're small, and with someone from Las Vegas you have the opportunity to do something fresh and new." [Charlie Rose; SE]
In lieu of his review this week the Cuozz has a slam for all those absent chefs and 'consulting' chefs, the Pelaccios, the Samuelssons, the Ducasses, in New York: "The frenzy for rock-star glory has propelled your favorite culinary god out of the kitchen into far-ranging quests for TV, cookbook and 'branding' deals in Las Vegas and beyond...today, kitchen-aversion has infected much lesser talents and pops up at restaurants where the chef is MIA almost from Day One." [NYP]
Week in Reviews: Szechuan Gourmet Gets the Deuce
Photo via Midtown Lunch
The Bruni throws out another wild card this week, pulls a 'Spicy & Tasty', and awards a somewhat obscure Chinese restaurant, Midtown's Szechuan Gourmet, two stars. A big highlight is when he tells Spicy & Tasty fans they don't have to trek to Flushing to find good Chinese anymore, but most of the word count is devoted to the heat:
"At Szechuan Gourmet...the heat is almost always on, and it comes at you in different ways. Sometimes it hits you full blast with your first bite of a dish and never lets up. Sometimes it starts small and builds, a late bloomer. And sometimes it lies in wait, biding its time before stating its case.And for a fun bonus at the end, the Brunz gives a little kick to the place everyone's been raving about lately, Grand Sichuan: "It paled in comparison...The sauce on the sesame noodles traded sizzle for sweetness. Szechuan Gourmet wouldn’t do that." [NYT]It’s fickle, tricky, fierce. It can light a match to your tongue, numb your lips, snap you to attention and do a job on your stomach that lasts a good long while...Sichuan’s inimitable heat is a big part — for me, the main part — of what makes this cuisine such a riveting adventure."
Matsugen, The Elsewhere, the Blogs, up next.>>
"...just passed by while on the dinner prowl. Saw there was no line, so figured it was finally my chance. Got closer and saw the trademark paper plate on the door: 'Will be open for dinner.' One of the two guys inside pulled the plate down, so I thought my luck was golden. Note: nonfact. Two employees then came out, locked up and rolled the shutter down. Heard one tell someone milling about, 'It's too hot.' I hate you Artichoke." See also, this. [ArtichokeWire]
Listage
Christina's Midtown Gets DOH'd Due to Expired Permit [Flickr Photo Pool/Marianne O'Leary]
· Sous Vide Explained, and Under Fire from DOH [NYT]
· In Poor Taste: Shuttered Le Figaro’s Chalkboard Used for Ads [Lost City]
· Best Cocktails in America List Includes Pegu, Daddy's, Tailor [GQ]
· Chefs Remake Soft-Serve Ice Cream [NYT]
· For Some Foodies, The City is One Big Neighborhood of Familiar Faces [NYT]
· Q & A With Jacques Torres [RG]
· Junk Food Influencing Chefs Citywide [NYP]
· On the Popularity of Yogurt Both in Restaurants and Beyond [NYO]
· Tabla Wine Director Leo Barrera Hardly Ever Drank Wine Growing Up [NYS]
EaterWire: Vendors May Open Weekdays, Brooklyn Flea in Danger, and the Lure Penny Prank
Found on a rack at the Salvation Army on 4th Ave.
RED HOOK— According to Serious Eats New York, the Red Hook vendors might soon be open for business on weekdays and long holiday weekends. [SE]
FORT GREENE— Last night Daily Intel reported that some neighbors are trying to shut down the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. Pete Wells compels us all to think about the papusas: "Does this mean pupusas are endangered in Fort Greene, too? And what about the ice creams from Blue Marble, Italian sandwiches from PaPa Lima and Mexican ices from Chida? I mean, neighborhood disputes are all well and fine, but we are talking about one of the city’s foremost grazing grounds here." [Daily Intel; Diner's Journal]
SOHO— Cutty posts a viral YouTube video in which some joker tries to pay for a meal at Lure using only pennies (to promote a new OfficeMax campaign). Cutty's right: it's completely cringe worthy, yet it's hard not to watch it all the way through. [YouTube; Cutlets]
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