April Bloomfield Is in LA Now

This post originally appeared on December 9, 2017, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

With everything going on in my life (did you know Vox might get an editorial union?) and the world at large (here's just one of many horrific stories this week), I almost forgot that I need to hurry up and a) choose holiday gifts for my friends and loved ones, and b) write some checks to some charities before the end of 2017.

The last one first: You probably have a good sense of where you like to give money and how much to give. When I was young, my goal was one percent of my income (I was working at Friendly’s then). Some religious folks tithe ten percent over to their place of worship. These days I fall somewhere between those numbers. Some food charities I like: World Central Kitchen, Hot Bread Kitchen, Wellness in the Schools, ROC Action, Food Bank for New York City. Here’s an even more complete list. I don’t want to get yelled at for my non-food ones, so I’ll just link them here, here, and here.

Next: Gifts! I touted our Eater Gift Guide (and the Gift Guide newsletter) in my last newsletter, so I’ll just recommend two of my personal favorite gifts that didn’t make it into the guide — both of which a coworker deemed “too pretentious for normal people.” First: a big bag of oysters! Next: pineapples direct from Hawaiʻi! Find me a person who wouldn’t delight in a box of overpriced pineapples from an island far away, and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t know how to live.

Openings of the Week: DaDong and the Hearth & Hound

Photo by Gary He

DaDong: A high-end roast duck chain from China that people are incredibly excited about. It opened December 8 in a 17,500-square-foot space in Midtown, New York, and is already booked through February.

Photography by Wonho Frank Lee

The Hearth & Hound: Chef April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman’s first LA restaurant, which also opened on December 8. There, she’ll serve seasonal vegetables, fish, game meats, and whole animals cooked over an actual hearth in the center of the renovated dining room.

On Eater

• Intel: Philly chef Marc Vetri quit Urban Outfitters; the founder of Golden Krust committed suicide at his Bronx factory; LA’s Momofuku is getting closer to opening; famed Connecticut pizzeria Sally’s now has new owners; the owner of NYC’s popular Morgenstern’s ice cream will open an all-day restaurant and rooftop lounge; Saison’s Joshua Skenes will open a casual restaurant called Angler in LA and SF; chef Rosio Sanchez opened a very Danish-looking Mexican restaurant called Sanchez in Copenhagen; Miami’s Michael Schwartz opened a new pizzeria; another modern Israeli restaurant opened in LA; in SF cocktail news, Tartine Manufactory now has some real cocktail firepower with Julian Cox, while the Lazy Bear team hopes to open their cocktail tasting bar on December 22; and the owners of (the very wonderful) Republique will open a new spot in downtown LA.
• Reviews: Three stars for Eight Tables in SF; one star for The Aviary in NYC.
• Here are the 2017 Eater Awards winners, and here’s my contribution to the package: Martha Hoover, Empire Builder of the Year.
• Learn about the bros who invented the wrap/bastardized the burrito.
• Oh look: Tip-pooling is going to be legal again.
• These walnut pastries look incredible.

Off Eater

• The return of the power restaurant. [GQ]
• This is my coolest non-Eater coworker. Be jealous. [Racked]
• Prototypes of Trump’s wall offer a chilling lesson in the power of architecture. [Curbed]
• The insane lengths restaurants go to to track and influence food critics. [Washingtonian]
• Before Guy Fieri, there was Graham Kerr. [Taste]
• VOX BORDERS IS GREAT. [Vox.com]
• Random recs: this Joan Didion doc (with some fun Calvin Trillin cameos) and this Jim Carrey doc. Both are highly watchable.

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