Vegan Brisket Is Here; Brooklyn Cafe Charges by the Minute

Happy Thursday. In today’s food news: meatless brisket has arrived to terrorize Texas barbecue lovers; a new coffee shop in Brooklyn charges by the minute; the world’s rarest pasta; and California restaurants want to make a dent in transgender unemployment.

Let’s get to it:

— What on earth is vegan brisket? A Dallas restaurant is serving a meat-free version of the state’s beloved barbecue protein. Made of seitan, the Dallas Observer’s food critic pronounces it “pretty good” — but many barbecue lovers are outraged at its very existence. (It also resembles pumpkin spice biscotti, Y/N?)

— How long is it appropriate to camp out at a coffee shop with your laptop after buying a latte? A new Brooklyn coffee shop has laid that question to rest, charging customers by the minute instead of by the cup.

— California wants to put a dent in the high unemployment rate faced by transgender people, one restaurant job at a time. The new California Transgender Workplace Project, backed by the California Restaurant Association, will help restaurants get certified as “trans-friendly” and will also “pay for the first 60 hours of a new hire's wages as an incentive.”

— Pasta comes in countless different shapes, but the rarest of them all may be one called su filindeu, or “the threads of God.” Made by just one family in Italy for the last three centuries, pasta giant Barilla has tried to replicate it with machines to no avail.

— British chef and Michelin darling Jason Atherton is preparing to open his next restaurant: Called Temple & Sons, it lands November 21. A downstairs deli will serve fancy “artisan” version of canned goods like sardines by day, then transform into a cocktail bar at night; upstairs, a separate restaurant will feature large cuts of meat and whole fish served family-style. (Atherton, who once worked for Gordon Ramsay, has restaurants in cities across the globe including Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Dubai.)