Bedford-Stuyvesant: Twofiftyeight Café closed after a two-and-a-half-year run. [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Chelsea: Matsuri will celebrate the Penis Festival on April 1 with a special menu of cocktails and dishes with names like Ginseng Up Cocktail, Get It Up Hot Pot, and Hard Banana Cream Pie. [Grub Street]
Greenpoint: A new Italian spot, Carmine’s II, is set to open at 436 Union Avenue. [Brownstoner]
Flatiron: Stop by any ‘wichcraft location between 3 and 6 p.m. and score a free creamwich. The offer is good until Sunday, and teas are half price, too. [Midtown Lunch]
Midtown/West Village: Otarian, an Australian vegetarian chain claiming to be “the planet’s first low carbon restaurant,” will open two Manhattan eateries (one in midtown, one on Bleecker Street) on April 19. [Fork in the Road/VV, Midtown Lunch]
Murray Hill: The Empire Room, an Art Deco–style cocktail lounge in the Empire State Building, opens today. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bedford-stuyvesant, carmines ii, chelsea, empire room, flatiron, greenpoint, lower east side, matsuri, midtown, otarian, seven rivers of india, twofiftyeight cafe, west village, wichcraft

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Growing numbers of small farms and declining numbers of slaughterhouses are worrying locavores who have no way to get this little piggy to market. Farmers complain of a backlog of animals to be slaughtered and livestock that may travel a significant distance to get to a slaughterhouse. Possible solutions: “local cooperatives or mobile slaughter facilities,” says the Times. Trouble is, no one wants to live near a slaughterhouse. [NYT]

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Filed Under: unintended consequences, locavores, meat, slaughterhouses

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Resort casino Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas first broke ground five years ago, and it’s finally (almost) ready to announce its Big Apple culinary lineup. Rumor has it the roster includes Scott Conant, Costas Spiliadis from Estiatorio Milos, Bruce and Eric Bromberg, Jonathan Segal of STK, and David Myers of Sona in L.A. Plus, Kenny Shopsin is in talks about doing a Slutty Cakes pop-up kiosk in the lobby (kidding!).

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Filed Under: empire building, bruce bromberg, costas spiliades, eric bromberg, jonathan segal, las vegas, scott conant

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Telepan is hosting Seder dinner tonight and tomorrow ($65, four courses, non-Kosher), and the meal begins with a nontraditional amuse: gefilte fish. Watch the video to see how chef Bill Telepan prepares three new bites for the ancient holiday.

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Filed Under: video feed, bill telepan, dish demo, passover, telepan, videos

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It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they could squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Notable Italian.

A Voce Columbus (Menu)
212-823-2523
Two for eight? Yes

Babbo (Menu)
212-777-0303
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

Convivio (Menu)
212-599-5045
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Del Posto (Menu)
212-497-8090
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:00 p.m.

Faustina (Menu)
212-475-3400
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Locanda Verde (Menu)
212-925-3797
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:00 p.m.

Maialino (Menu)
212-777-2410
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

Scarpetta (Menu)
212-691-0555
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

SD26 (Menu)
212-265-5959
Two for eight? Yes

Sfoglia (Menu)
212-831-1402
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Filed Under: two for eight, a voce columbus, babbo, convivio, del posto, faustina, locanda verde, maialino, scarpetta, sd26, sfoglia

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In his profile of Pat LaFrieda this week, David Amsden notes that the storied meat purveyor is moving operations out to New Jersey. So who’s moving in? Art gallery Gavin Brown’s Enterprise will take over the 10,000-square-foot West Village building in May, says Crain’s: “Its first exhibit in its new digs will be the work of the artist Jonathan Horowitz; the exhibit is titled “Go Vegan!” [Crain's]

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Filed Under: diametrically opposed, art, meat, pat lafrieda, vegans

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One final entry in the tale of the Columbia Daily Spectator critic who trashed Colicchio & Sons and sparked ire among our readers and the Don himself. In an interview with IvyGate today, Bell explains that he wanted to “take part in the dialogue among food writers in the city” and that the tone of his review reflected his role in the city as a student. “Students are participating in an academic environment constantly, so in a way my student perspective, more than other critics, mimics or parodies an academic voice. Which I don’t think a lot of people got — they though [sic] I was just being over the top or verbose,” says Bell. “That may be the way I write when I write about Derrida, but I think it’s amusing to apply that academic voice to food criticism.” Bell adds that slamming his review simply because he’s a college student “is an ad hominem attack with no real merit.” Separately, Bell submitted a response to Grub Street’s coverage of the review and its aftermath. Read it below, in full.

Dear Grub Street,

After reading Grub Street’s coverage of my Colicchio & Sons review and watching the aftermath unfold, I feel compelled to respond. I intended the review to strike a humorous chord, but I believe many aspects of the piece contain serious criticism that merits consideration. In particular, while I appreciate Grub Street’s commentary, I do take issue with that commentary’s sarcastic attitude.

For example, when describing flaws in the veal breast and pain perdu courses, I purposely employ rhetorical strategies that appear, in Grub Street’s terms, “over-the-top.” References to “trash talk” and a piling-on of adjectives establish a snarky tone that I intended to function in a self-referential manner. I wanted my review to not only darkly chuckle at Colicchio & Sons, but also at the various absurdities of the review’s very existence itself (which Grub Street accurately discusses). But why then must these rhetorical strategies diminish the veracity of my arguments? The fact remains that the food at Colicchio & Sons, to my palate, tastes poor. Moreover, the entire dining service feels suspended in a play-act world where haute cuisine clashes with oftentimes amateurish service and milieu. Other critics may disagree with me, however, Grub Street’s attempts to belittle my analysis with a backhanded slap of snark fail to actually undermine my criticism on any meaningful level.

Tom Colicchio’s own response to my humorous review seems even more absurd. Insinuating that my review is “nonsense” and not worth reprinting emphasizes Colicchio’s own elitist sentiments. In his mind, I am nothing more than a meaningless college student, devoid of any food knowledge, a voicebox for virtual gibberish that simply adds another annoyance to his day. Yet, I smile at Tom Colicchio’s tweets, at his immature ravings, because they help me understand why Colicchio & Sons is such a horrendous restaurant. In effect, the bitter taste of Colicchio’s entitled, elitist attitude spills over into his food and infects the ethos of his restaurant. When I went to Colicchio & Sons, I felt like an outsider, isolated and denied access to the true possibilities of Colicchio’s skill. And when I read Sam Sifton’s review, a glowing assessment of a restaurant I never enjoyed, this seemed all the more apparent. Disguising snobbery and exclusivity in a few rustic dishes or casual restaurants only makes that rottenness all the more revolting when encountered unmasked.

Oh, and Grub Street, I know that the chef-owner personally doesn’t make the dessert. Yet, when the media so highlights Colicchio’s daily involvement in the back of the house, it seems safe to assume that on the average night Colicchio takes a decent look at the plates leaving the pass. Even if his pastry chef, Stephen Collucci, designed the dish and his line cooks or pastry sous (if he has one) execute it, Colicchio should have been the ultimate quality control mechanism.

I too see the humor in my post. I injected it in to every line. Nonetheless, I hope that Tom Colicchio sees the essence of my criticism peeking through: every diner deserves an excellent meal, whether a college student paying $19,648 in tuition or the New York Times restaurant critic.

Sincerely,
Jason Bell
Food and Drink Editor
Columbia Daily Spectator

Interview With the Columbia Freshman Tom Colicchio Loathes [IvyGate]

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Filed Under: the other critics, colicchio and sons, columbia spectator, jason bell, tom colicchio

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Andrew Matthews (formerly of Gramercy Tavern, Boqueria, and Town) is the new executive chef at One If by Land, Two If by Sea. Eater reports that former chef Sam Freund is moving to Denver. Another personnel move: Stephen Mancini is leaving Maialino. Assistant GM Sam Lipp will handle all your wine needs in the interim, Feast assures us. [Eater NY, Feast]

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Filed Under: chef shuffle, andrew matthews, maialino, one if by land, sam freund, stephen mancini

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Tasting Table is adding another national newsletter to its roster: Chefs’ Recipes. The twice-weekly mailing “will serve up an exclusive recipe that we’ve adapted and tested for you to cook at home.” Sign up now; your free subscription starts with a pasta recipe from New York’s Maialino. If you don’t want to wait, you can always search New York’s enormous recipe database.

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Filed Under: recipes, newsletters, tasting table

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Around the corner from where I work (and a ten minute walk from Shake Shack ) is brgr. While I would normally prefer…

Brgr

287 7th Ave, New York

(212) 488-7500

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For the past year, Eater , the Fox News of the New York City restaurant scene, has breathlessly reported every…

Pulino’s Bar and Pizzeria

282 Bowery, New York

(212) 226-1966

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A group of French culinary enthusiasts known as Le Fooding came to New York last fall, and Adam Gopnik reports in The New Yorker that they’ll be back in the U.S. again this year. Founder Alexandre Commas describes the movement this way: “‘Fooding’ means to eat and drink with feeling — to recognize that one eats with the nose, the eyes, and the mouth, with everything that makes us human!” Gopnik makes this analogy: “Le Fooding was to cooking what the New Wave was to French cinema. The hidden goal was to Americanize French food without becoming American … ” So what better way to do that than come to États-Unis?

“The next Fooding event in New York is promised for September,” Gopnik writes. “But, instead of being once again a Franco-American conversation, it will be a match, even a confrontation between San Francisco and New York chefs.” Est Côte, Ouest Côte, Bébé!

No Rules! [NYer]

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Filed Under: foreign relations, foodievents, le fooding

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