Chelsea: Head to Donatella starting this Sunday, January 8 for their new Spaghetti and Meatball Sundays, a family-style meal centered around her Meatball Madness-winning (and Waxman-approved) veal meatballs. Dishes are meant to be shared for groups of two or four, with prices at $24 or $48, respectively. [Grub Street]
Crown Heights SideTour is back this Saturday, January 7 with its Brooklyn Rooted Artisanal Dinner Party hosted by Elise Kornack, recent winner of Food Network’s Chopped and an Aquavit alum. Kornack’s wintry menu will include pretzel bread, chicken noodle soup, braised Berkshire pork, and smoked stout ice cream. Tickets are $80 per person and can be purchased here. Another dinner will be held the following Saturday, January 14. [Grub Street]

East Village: Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter is coming to 94 Avenue C, serving hearty Southern sandwiches like pimento cheese, chicken salad, and pork as well as mains that include fried chicken. The place is tiny (tables are available for fewer than twenty people) and counter-service only. [NYT]
The folks behind Bowery Beef are back with a new café at 125-127 First Avenue and plan to serve dishes with locally sourced ingredients from the owner’s family farm as well as items from a raw bar. Keep an eye out for the return of their $5 roast beef roll. [Local/NYT]
Christina Tosi is now selling her famous compost, corn, and blueberry cookies in a mix form for $16 (makes nine cookies). You can grab them at her Momofuku Milk Bar and Williams-Sonoma. [Eater NY]
Lower East Side: CULTUREfix is back on January 10 with a new DINNERfix led by Chef Damon Cohen of wd~50. With the theme of “Not Kosher, an Alaskan Jew Lands in NY” nodding to Cohen’s background, expect to find dishes like cured Alaskan scallops with porter beer bread, pastrami cream, beets, and sumac honey as well as king crab and purple potato kugel. Dinner costs $75 and includes seven courses. Make reservations here.
The Moldy Fig Jazz Club has closed indefinitely owing to the illness of proprietor Charles Brown. Our thoughts go out to Brown and his family and we wish him a speedy recovery. [Lo-Down]
Midtown: STK Midtown starts lunch service tomorrow, with menu items including an organic chicken entrée with Cheddar aligot and sugar snap peas ($26) as well as a lobster Cobb salad ($32). Lunch will be available Monday-Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Grub Street]
Park Slope: Bark Hot Dogs is teaming up with Sixpoint to launch some Super Bowl-playoffs-themed specials this weekend. You’ll be able to snag $2 twelve-ounce Sixpoint drafts, $2 salt-and-pepper fries, $3 classic dogs, $5 burgers (including the Bark burger and veggie burger), and 50 cent wings. While you munch on the cheap eats, you can also enter their NFL pool for a chance to win prizes like $100 Bark gift cards or ten pounds of Bark hot dogs. [Grub Street]
Union Square: Village Taverna, a new Greek spot, is now open at 81 University Place serving classics like taramosalata, calamari, saganaki, pastitsio, and gyro platters. Entrées hover around the $20 range. [Fork in the Road/VV]
West Village: Barrio 47 recently opened in the West Village at 47 Eighth Avenue (at West 4th Street). Owned by Alex Volland of Paradou and his wife, Alyssa, the resto will be serving Latin-inspired cuisine centered on the kitchen’s wood-fired brick oven. [NYT]
The Pink Tea Cup is moving yet again from its current location to one nearby at 100 South Seventh Avenue. It will reopen on Valentine’s Day. [Eater]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, bark hot dogs, barrio 47, bobwhite lunch and supper counter, bowery beef, christina tosi, closings, culturefix, donatella, moldy fig, openings, pink tea cup, stk, village taverna

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Let’s say you wanted to bring a nice Red Hook red …

Now that we know the city’s wealthiest diners aren’t necessarily the people frequenting New York’s three-Michelin-starred restaurants, it seems worthwhile to wonder which of them has the best (and by “best,” we mean least expensive) corkage policy and fee. Lucky for us, the Price Hike is here to break it all down. Masa’s exorbitant $95 charge sits at the top of the heap, with the much-better-sounding $35-for-up-to-four-bottle policy at Eleven Madison Park seeming like the most democratic. (Of the seven restaurants, Le Bernardin and Daniel each have a “no outside wines” policy.) Interestingly, when wine service finally begins at the Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare next week, wines will be served by the bottle only. There are “no immediate plans for by-the-glass service,” reports Sutton, nor will course pairings be offered at the restaurant. Of course you can still BYO (up to two bottles), for $70 a pop. [Price Hike, Earlier]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: corkage, chef’s table at brooklyn fare, daniel, eleven madision park, le bernardin, masa, per se

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Rich people, eating richly.

New York City is full of extravagantly expensive restaurants, places like Per Se and Le Bernardin, where dinner for two costs hundreds of dollars and a bottle of wine can fetch more money than the average American household makes in a week. Given the amount of cash it takes to eat at such places, it stands to reason that they’re all full of rich people, right? Actually, it turns out that’s not really the case. In fact, the city’s most expensive restaurants are far more egalitarian than you might think, which also might be the reason why they’re so good in the first place.

Here’s how we know: The good people at Bundle — a company I’ve talked about before, with access to an anonymized database of credit- and debit-card spending data — decided to identify the city’s luxury spenders by looking at where people shopped. They put together a list of high-end shopping destinations — Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Harry Winston, ABC Carpet, you get the idea — and then identified the New Yorkers who shopped at those places on a regular basis. It might not be an ironclad way to track the city’s highest earners’ every move, but conveniently, those New Yorkers whom Bundle identified as luxury spenders constitute just under one percent of people in the entire Bundle data set (although of course they account for much more than one percent of all spending).

Once they identified those one percenters, Bundle’s team created a kind of league table of restaurants with the highest percentage of those high-spending customers. All of a sudden, we’re able to see which restaurants have the highest percentage of rich people. The most relevant results are mapped below: Blue tabs indicate restaurants where 6 to 15 percent of the clientele are luxury diners; red tabs are more than 15 percent:

At the very top of the list is Eli Zabar’s Vinegar Factory — grocery shopping for the Cartier crowd. Fully 34 percent of the people buying there are luxury spenders. Right on its heel is Sushi Hana Delivery on 78th Street and Second Avenue — the place that the rich call when they don’t want to actually go out to eat — with 32 percent. And in third place, with 27 percent, is Sant Ambroeus on Madison Avenue — a lovely place to sip a $20 glass of Chardonnay during afternoon tea, while picking at a $22 arugula salad.

In fact, all of the places whose clientele consists of more than 15 percent luxury spenders are on the Upper East Side, and all are low-key places like Mezzaluna and Bar Italia — not to mention a surprisingly large number of neighborhood sushi spots.

It’s interesting that no Tribeca restaurants show up here, but while Tribeca is the richest NYC neighborhood per capita, the Upper East Side still has bigger wealth concentration (check out this helpful wealth map to see a full geographic breakdown of the city’s household median incomes).

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the percentage of luxury diners at the city’s super high-end restaurants don’t even come close to ranking among the top. For instance, just 3 percent of Per Se’s clientele comes from the luxury crowd; Eleven Madison Park is at 2 percent. Even Le Bernardin, pretty conveniently located on 51st Street, gets only one percent of its customer base from the one percent of luxury spenders. (I guess it’s on the wrong side of Fifth Avenue.)

Head to downtown’s most popular “expensive” restaurants and the numbers are even lower: Babbo, Momofuku Ko, Blue Hill — all get about 2 percent of their business from the luxury spenders. Jewel Bako and Hearth: one percent.

What’s going on here? Well, one obvious explanation is that the kind of people who shop at Bergdorf are social X-Rays who think of Momofuku Ko’s tasting menu as more of a challenge than a pleasure. And the rich, even more than the rest of us, place a high value on convenience. If you’re not budget-constrained when it comes to restaurants, then, sure, sometimes you’ll go out for a special occasion. But more often, you’ll meet a fellow Upper East Sider for lunch or for dinner, and you’ll go somewhere mutually convenient rather than schlep somewhere noisy and trendy and well reviewed downtown or (heaven forfend!) in Brooklyn or Queens. Proximity trumps quality, even when you have a car and driver.

But even Sfoglia, the sole “trendy” Upper East Side restaurant that pops up in Bundle’s list, has one of the lowest percentages of luxury clients. So the question then arises: Why don’t ambitious restaurateurs follow the money and open interesting new places where the free-spending rich people are? In a free market, wouldn’t good food drive out the subpar?

Part of the reason it doesn’t work that way is that diners downtown, or in Brooklyn, have become accustomed to cutting-edge food. Just as New York has districts for garments and flowers, downtown Manhattan is the established place to go for interesting food; the Upper East side, the opposite.

This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy for restaurants: Momofuku Ssam Bar on lower Second Avenue is a roaring success; open the same concept 60 blocks north and you’d probably fail miserably. Gourmands and food writers naturally flock to the new and interesting, but the rich tend to be neither gourmands nor food writers. (It goes without saying that food writers tend not to be rich, too.)

Reinforcing that theory is the fact that for the rich, the combination of high prices and unadventurous food acts as a sort of invisible velvet rope. Besides being handily located on the Upper East Side, a restaurant like Nello can charge $26 for mediocre beet salad, or $40 for a plate of uninspired mushroom risotto, because to its customers, the money matters as little as the actual food does. But the 99 percent won’t go there, because when they do splurge on food, they want an adventure to remember.

When diners do spend hundreds of dollars on dinner at a restaurant in the East Village (maybe after waiting in line, since no reservations are accepted), this data shows us it’s likely a significant investment. And the only way a restaurant will keep customers like that coming back is to offer them an exceptional experience with cutting-edge food.

In other words, restaurants downtown that cater to a slightly less well-heeled crowd have to be more interesting than restaurants uptown in order to attract new customers and convert them into regulars. Meanwhile, the one percenters on the Upper East Side are probably perfectly happy when their restaurants aren’t a destination for New York’s culinarily adventurous masses.

Earlier: Gastronomics: Exactly How Much Do People Spend at New York’s Top Restaurants?

Read more posts by Felix Salmon

Filed Under: gastronomics, eli’s vinegar factory, hoi polloi, one percent

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Come for the airplanes, stay for the fried chicken and “comfort food classics.”

A week after Iron Chef Michael Symon posted a glum Facebook message about the failure of his Bar Symon in Cleveland, AIRMALL® USA today takes to the PR wire to announce they’ve partnered with Symon on the opening of Bar Symon at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The restaurant, which will open in the spring, will feature “creative twists on comfort food classics,” meaning things like a burger topped with a fried egg and pickled onion, or mac and cheese made with pulled pork, hot sauce, and green onions.

But that’s not the only news today in the world of airport dining. Looks like Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (who is closing his Atlanta restaurant Straits) has just inked a deal to open Chicken N Beer (named after his 2003 record, natch) inside the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “As I continue to learn and evolve as a businessman,” wrote the rapper/actor/mogul in a statement announcing the new venture, “I am extremely excited to put my restaurateur footprint into a new venture inside the busiest international airport in the United States.”

But will these new airport restaurants, and their inevitable barbecue ribs, stick to travelers’ ribs? And are airports the next battleground for celebrity-owned restaurants? At this rate, by the time Thanksgiving 2012 rolls around, we’ll have to update our epic layover list.

Renowned Celebrity Chef Michael Symon to Bring Bold Flavors, Signature Dishes to AIRMALL® at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) with Opening of First Airport Restaurant [MarketWatch]
Ludacris to close Straits in Midtown, focus on airport restaurant [AJC]
Related: Air Fare: 47 Places to Eat When You’re Inevitably Stuck During a Layover

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: airport food, bar symon, chicken n beer, ludacris, michael symon, openings

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It’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze in a couple for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: New & Buzzy.

ABC Kitchen (Menu)
212-475-5829
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Ai Fiori (Menu)
212-695-4005
Two for eight? Yes

Beauty & Essex (Menu)
212-614-0146
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:15 p.m.

Brushstroke (Menu)
212-791-3771
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

The Dutch (Menu)
212-677-6200
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

Empellón (Menu)
212-367-0999
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Miss Lily’s (Menu)
646-588-5375
Two for eight? No
Best available: Closed for an event until 9 p.m.

Osteria Morini (Menu)
212-965-8777
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

Red Rooster (Menu)
212-792-9001
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Tenpenny (Menu)
212-490-8300
Two for eight? Yes

Filed Under: two for eight,

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Things are happening at 343 Broome Street, that space where the Randolph team is opening a restaurant. A little Facebook-ing reveals that the joint has a name, Randolph Beer, and we hear the plan is to serve all-day food with an Aussie bent (the influence of partners who’ve worked with Kingswood and Ruby’s); pending a license, expect a geek-tastic lineup of craft beer. Word is the eatery is slated for February 1.

Earlier: Randolph Team Plans Diner

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Filed Under: coming soon, bowery, nolita, openings, randolph beer, the randolph

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Possibly the most hyped bar in Manhattan, Employees Only is located in the West Village. Employees Only has been…

Employees Only

510 Hudson St, New York

(212) 242-3021

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Matlida, the Algonquin’s resident kitty.

Here’s a story we can all relate to: The Daily News says Chinese billionaire Long Liyuan “died after noshing on slow-boiled cat meat stew during a business lunch in the Guangdong province” on December 23. Long’s dining mates, including “local official” Huang Guang, also got sick from the stew, but neither experienced the, uh, lasting effects that Long did. But hold on, don’t go blaming it all on the chef just yet!

After the family offered a reward for information about Long’s death, it was discovered that “the cat stew had been laced with a toxic herb called Gelsemium elegans.” And the Daily News says Long and Huang “had been locked in a dispute over money.” Uh-oh! Huang, you see, was allegedly in on the job. He’d apparently hoped that eating just enough of the cat hot-pot to make him sick would help him appear innocent of the crime, but instead now he’s just been charged with murder.

Chinese billionaire dies after eating poisoned cat stew: police [NYDN]

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Filed Under: crime scenes, murder was the case

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The door says 5 p.m., but now food starts going at 11 a.m.

First, a little bad news for Brooklyn beer nerds: Because of a snafu with the community board and SLA, Beer Table in Park Slope is temporarily dry (owner Justin Philips tells us it’s just a paperwork issue, and he hopes to have everything sorted out by mid-month). But starting today they’re going to make the best of it and begin offering a revamped lunch and brunch service, Wednesday through Sunday, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., care of a brand-new chef, Jamie Klotz. So, yes, anyone in Brooklyn hoping to pop in for a quick Dieu du Ciel Route des Epices or Mikkeller Chinook IPA might be out of luck, but in the meantime you can get dishes like a spicy duck sandwich with chipotles, raisins, and mayo; or sauteed beet greens with radishes, bacon, and eggs. So it’s not exactly a terrible trade-off, plus maybe your liver needs a break after the holidays? We know ours does.

Snacks
- Radishes with butter and sea salt
- Pickle plate: sweet peppers, bok choy, celery knob
- Dehydrated Plate: apples and carrots

Salads and small plates
- Roasted beets, arugula, Calkins Creamery Quark
- Arugula with pickled cippolinis, spiced sunflower seeds and Parmesan
- Roasted cauliflower with pickled onions, parsley, capers and chili flakes
- Sauteed beet greens, radish, bacon and egg
- Wax beans with pesto

Large plates
- Spicy duck sandwich with chipotles, raisins and mayo
- Beef and beer stew with malt vinegar and toast
- Heirloom beans with duck sausage and sage
- Caramelized bacon with fingerling potatoes and chives
- Butterbeans on toast with bacon, rosemary, mayonnaise and scallions

Sweets
- Il Laboratorio Gelato and Sorbet
- Chocolate coffee cookies

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: menu changes, beer table, community boards, park slope, sla

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Awright, 25 bucks for lunch at Aldea’s not bad.

Another season, another Restaurant Week. While $24.07 lunches and $35 dinners at places like Gotham Bar & Grill and Le Cirque are admittedly a great deal, we’ve never found the experience to be on the same level as paying full price — and plus, the top places generally only participate at lunchtime. However, if Restaurant Week is your thing, go forth and reserve, and do it now, since the good spots like Ai Fiori and Aldea will fill up fast. As for us, we’re holding out for Chinatown Restaurant Week. [NYC Go]

Read more posts by Jenny Miller

Filed Under: foodievents, restaurant week, winter restaurant week

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In addition to the variety of food that is shown across their palette, the service provided here is beyond words…

Le Bernardin

155 W 51st St, New York

(212) 554-1515

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It provides great Shanghainese (and other types as well) food in a setting that’s far more approachable to many New…

Joe’s Shanghai

9 Pell St, New York

(212) 233-8888

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