This post originally appeared on May 18, 2019, 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.
I spent far too many minutes on Google Maps this week trying to figure out the best timing for a cab to JFK just to check out the new bars and restaurants at the brand spanking new TWA hotel. And my husband and I had a long text exchange speculating if we could walk in Saturday night to the bar in an airplane, Connie’s, given the resys at all the properties are long gone.
Why? 1. It seems like a fun thing to do. 2. This collection of retro-themed destinations has been in the works for ages and includes a cocktail bar on a plane, a sunken lounge, a Jean-Georges restaurant, and a POOL BAR OVERLOOKING THE TARMAC, not to mention a hotel (that rents out rooms for 4 hours if that’s your thing) and a TWA museum. 3. It’s one of New York’s most iconic buildings and Eero Saarinen’s masterpiece, and it’s been hidden from view for almost two decades before being painstakingly restored to its 1962 glory.
It’s all quite Disney, in the best way. Or I guess if they’ve pulled it off it’ll be like Disney. If they fail it’ll feel like ... being at an airport but without the flight. The more I look at this photo of the line to get into the airplane bar during press previews, the more it reminds me of boarding in Group 9 last week. There may be a thin line between fantasy and drudgery.
But I’m not the only one intrigued. By the looks of the traffic to our coverage, the inquiries from friends and readers, and the way news of this project can light up a Slack channel on Eater and our sister site Curbed, the public seems, for the time being, fascinated.
The most reasonable move would be to book a table before or after a trip out of JFK. Unless you’re an architecture buff. Or you live with a person who watches videos of planes landing on YouTube in his spare time. In which case I’ll see you there.
On Eater
- Intel: Smorgasburg will expand to D.C. next month; the team behind New York’s I Sodi, Buvette, and Via Carota will open its newest spot, Bar Pisellino, any moment now and they are planning an American restaurant nearby; LA street food star Tacos 1986 is going brick and mortar; the ‘lunch-shaming’ school district in Rhode Island reversed its plan to deny hot food to low-income students; Marc Vetri will open a casual Italian restaurant in an old Philly butcher shop this fall; New York restaurateur Gabriel Stulman will open a restaurant in the recently closed Great Jones Cafe space; the team behind SF’s Flour + Water is opening a pizza place; the Publican people opened a casual French cafe in Chicago called Cafe Cancale; Boulder’s Frasca Food & Wine will open a wine bar this fall; failed LA restaurant Simone reopened as Duello this week; LA restaurateurs Caroline Styne and Suzanne Goin will open a Portuguese restaurant the Proper Hotel downtown; Emmy Squared is expanding all over New York; what will be a six-story, four-part restaurant served its first customers at a ground floor patisserie this week in San Francisco; a chef who attacked his ex-wife and business partner at his previous restaurant now has a new one, and it’s a $300/head tasting counter; Ali Wong plays a celebrity chef in her new Netflix rom-com; chef Iliana Regan opened a pop-up bakery inside her restaurant Kitsune in Chicago; Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened a seafood restaurant on the New York waterfront; restaurants are now making their own natural wine; New York’s new Essex Street Market debuted with 21 legacy vendors, 18 new stalls, and two full-service restaurants; and here’s a trailer for Gabriela Camara’s documentary about running restaurants in the U.S. and Mexico.
- All the takes yet to appear on the food internet.
- The attraction to Olive Garden’s large adult meatball is not about hunger, it’s about “the horny pull of annihilation.”
- Why are you drinking LaCroix when Spindrift exists?
- Why the Smithsonian calls Helene An “the mother of fusion cuisine.”
- Social media managers for food brands are getting a little out of control.
On The Podcast
This week on the podcast, Daniel and I discussed the week’s biggest food stories, including a new canned water called Liquid Death, the New York Times’ takes on Danny Bowien and the Aperol Spritz, AmEx’s acquisition of Resy, and more.
Off Eater
- This essay about the writer’s battle with breast cancer made me cry in a restaurant and later on an airplane and I strongly suggest you read it (even if you truly want nothing to do with an essay about breast cancer). [New Yorker]
- Caity Weaver trying to live like it’s 1995 is a delight. [NYT]
- A pie shop in San Francisco refuses to be extorted by the delivery services and Silicon Valley. [Mission Local]
- Inside the VIP, PPX, soigne, PG, MA, TTA, and José Gold world of D.C. dining. [Washingtonian]