Daniel Boulud’s Shaq Shoe, a French Opening, and Colostrum Ice Cream

This post originally appeared in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of her favorite food and restaurant stories — both on and off Eater — each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

I don’t have a singular coherent thought for this week, because I’m writing this at 5:30 on a Friday after a very intense week. I just want to get home to hang with my kid before ordering takeout (not from Maple!) and watching the shit out of the new season of Master of None.

Some stray thoughts:

• Daniel Boulud keeps one of Shaq’s shoes in the “sky box,” a glass enclosed room that hovers above his kitchen at fine dining institution Daniel. Also up there: framed photos of Boulud and Matt Damon and Pelé.

• An unnamed Very Important Person told me this week he used to be a regular at this mediocre restaurant in Union Square and took breakfast meetings there every weekday morning for seven years at the same corner banquette. Then one day, a new hostess started and told him he would have to wait up front (at the empty restaurant) for his full party and sit at a smaller table. He threatened to never come back. She called his bluff. He's never been back. Just shows how one bad apple can ruin a good thing.
• There’s a new bar in New York that serves omurice. The bar itself is just okay, but the dish is very worth seeking out (and not just because it looks cool on Instagram).

• I chatted with Dan Barber this week about colostrum ice cream. Hoping to put something together on it next week, but if you have any thoughts (especially new parents out there OR animal husbandry experts), please email me at amanda@eater.com.

Opening of the Week: Grand Cafe

Who’s behind it?: Jamie Malone and Erik Anderson, two nationally renowned chefs who have been trying to open a project together called Brut for years. They still hope to open Brut, but in the meantime are opening this neighborhood cafe.

What is it?: It’s a casual French spot, the revival of a cafe that was around for 70 years before closing this past winter. Interestingly, Malone took over the stoves at the restaurant in December, and fans eagerly anticipated her return to a permanent spot after years of pop-ups. It was a blow when the restaurant announced in January that it would close in February — but the tides turned in March when the duo purchased Grand Cafe. “We are still looking for the perfect spot for Brut, but sometimes you follow that path that life puts in front of you,” Malone told Eater Twin Cities then.

Where is it?: South Minneapolis.

When did it open?: Friday night.

Why should I care?: Both Malone and Anderson have large followings, and both earned “Best New Chef” nods from Food & Wine in years past. She worked under him at Sea Change (a locally lauded restaurant) before he left for tasting menu counter Catbird Seat in Nashville. They reunited to open a restaurant together in the Twin Cities in 2014. It’s also interesting because this is the latest in a string of French openings in Minneapolis.

TJ Turner

On Eater

• Delivery-only startup Maple is dead; street food-focused Bar Bao opened on Thursday in DC, while a Nintendo-themed bao spot called Baoser opened in Portland; famed LA chef and former Mr. Nancy Silverton Mark Peel is getting into the fast-casual game; José Andrés and the Adrià brothers are opening a Spanish food hall in New York; literally no one asked for this, but Austin now has Cheetos-covered poke burritos; a doughnut shop with the most beautiful cruller I’ve ever seen opened in Minneapolis; after nearly seven decades in business, one of Chicago’s favorite Italian beef stands is closing; people are really digging Charleston’s new food hall by Butcher & Bee’s Michael Shemtov; and Philly’s Franklin Bar is turning their upstairs into a tiki bar.
• Are you going to binge watch Master of None this weekend? We have recaps of every single episode and (for New Yorkers) a guide to all the restaurants they filmed in.
• How Jean-Georges Vongerichten runs his international restaurant empire.
• The history of McDonald’s beloved and missed fried apple pie.
• Everything you could ever want to know about franchising a restaurant.
• An Eater’s guide to Miami.
• Man, people can’t get enough of baos. Here’s a photo gallery of a well-known fried chicken bao in Dallas.
• The best 24-hour restaurants in Las Vegas.

Off Eater

• It’s 2017 and there’s still a controversy about letting women into gastronomic societies in the Basque region. [Explore Parts Unknown]
• A big package of international food writing from Words Without Borders. [Words Without Borders]
• The owner of a super-popular Atlanta barbecue spot is also a former K-Pop star. [Munchies]
• Maybe you’re inefficient at life because you don’t know about “deep work.” [Vox.com]
• Amazon’s diabolical plan to control how you eat. [Thrillist]

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