Midtown West: This year, Chocolat Michel Cluizel will make Purim even sweeter with an inventive take on the mishloach manot, an edible gift basket customarily gifted for the holiday. The basket (which is actually chocolate) will include kosher truffles and hamantaschen. Be a mensch and buy one for a friend, for only $35. [Grub Street]
Prospect Park: If the first hint of spring weather has you daydreaming of searching for wild spring greens and roots, wander no further than Prospect Park, where “Wildman” Steve Brill will lead an urban foraging expedition on March 17. Call (914) 835-2153 at least a day in advance to reserve a spot. [Grub Street]

Soho: The flagship location of Grandaisy Bakery will close in July. Plans to expand into Chelsea appear still to be moving forward. [NYT/Eater NY]
Times Square: The ballet “Aureole” has, on its 50th anniversary, inspired a special prix fixe menu at Aureole. The celebratory dinner menu will be offered until April 1 for $55, or make an evening of it and pair the dinner with its dance for $125. Our taste buds have danced before, but they’ve never turned pirouettes — until now. [Grub Street]
Union Square:</strong Tocqueville has announced Jason Lawless as its new chef de cuisine. Lawless, who has trained at Tocqueville for a year in preparation for his new gig, is an alum of Tabla, Mix, and Morrell’s, among others. [Grub Street]
Upper East Side:Numero 28’s location at First Ave. and E. 74th St. will be serving up its inaugural brunch this weekend, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Try the brunch pizza (topped with mozzarella, tomato sauce, eggs and choice of bacon or ham) and a Bloody Mary made with pizza sauce. [Grub Street]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, aureole, grandaisy, numero 28

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Every meal ends with a slice of warm apple pie on the house…

Butcher Bar

3708 30th Ave, Astoria

(718) 606-8140

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20,000 cups in just a few weeks.

Over at City Bakery Daily, Maury Rubin notes that, despite the unseasonably warm winter (the loveliness that is today not included) and all those bonus bummers, the hot chocolate business at City Bakery is hardly hurting: “The numbers aren’t final yet, but in spite of warm and warmer temperatures, we will have sold close to 20,000 cups and mugs of hot chocolate these last few weeks, and a little more than half that number of homemade marshmallows.” [City Bakery Daily]

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Filed Under: cocoa, city bakery

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Just when you thought that surely New York’s DIY, artisan food scene had reached its saturation point, here comes another annual Next Big Small Brand contest, and another crop of finalists. There are chia-seed snacks, organic baby food, and a “rock and roll bakery,” with nary a pickle in sight. Visit the contest’s website for more on the winners, and how to get tickets to the March 27 judging event. [Next Big Small Brand]

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Filed Under: foodievents, next big small brand

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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 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: Splurge.

Corton (Menu)
212-219-2777
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Craft (Menu)
212-780-0880
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Daniel (Menu)
212-288-0033
Two for eight? No Answer

Jean Georges (Menu)
212-299-3900
Two for eight? Yes

L’Atelier de Joël Robouchon (Menu)
212-829-3844
Two for eight? Yes

Eleven Madison Park (Menu)
212-889-0905
Two for eight? Fully booked

Marea (Menu)
212-582-5100
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

The Modern (Menu)
212-333-1220
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Oceana (Menu)
212-759-5941
Two for eight? Yes

SHO Shaun Hergatt (Menu)
212-809-3993
Two for eight? Fully booked

Filed Under: two for eight,

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While Sirio Maccioni gets ready to open Sirio Ristorante, his other show, Le Cirque, is hitting the road. The glitzy New York eatery will pop up in cities across the country, taking over private-club-type venues in each to re-create “Le Cirque’s modern circus theme including their iconic china, orange orchids and décor,” as an e-mail announcement informs us. Chef Olivier Reginensi is the tour’s ringmaster traveling toque — he’ll offer a five-course menu in each town, with a wine pairing. The lucky cities include Chicago, L.A., San Jose, Dallas, and Houston; more info here.

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Filed Under: hitting the bigtop, le cirque, pop-ups

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"I don’t worry about the creativity–I worry about the execution ," explains famed New York City restaurateur, Lello…

Fiorini

209 E 56th St, New York

(212) 308-0830

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Can you hit it out of the park?

The new Nets arena in Prospect Heights is hoping to score with Brooklyn foodies by interviewing vendors exclusively from the borough, who also have an A on their health department inspection, and who can dependably churn out enough orders to satisfy an 18,000-seat arena set to open in September. Nifty pickles, pizza, and sandwich-makers are encouraged to apply. An artisanal arena … only in the crook. [NYDN]

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Filed Under: prospect heights, nets, sports

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Ducasse.

While Adour Alain Ducasse awaits the appointment of a new full-time head chef, its menu is getting a slight tweak. Beginning tomorrow, the restaurant’s vegetarian tasting menu will be replaced with a health-focused “Nature” menu that will coincide with the recent release Ducasse’s new book, Alain Ducasse Nature: Simple, Healthy, and Good. The five-course menu will run you $85 (same price as the vegetarian menu), with wine pairings going for an extra $85. It will be available through April. Take a first look, straight ahead.

Adour Alain Ducasse [Word]
Earlier: Didier Elena Bids Adieu to Adour

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Filed Under: menu changes, adour alain ducasse, alain ducasse, alain ducasse nature, midtown, st. regis

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“When I get my hands on really good lamb, I barely do a thing to it.”

Her popularity is as timeless as that beef and Bayley Hazen pie, which is why Grub Street is so excited for the sneak peek at April Bloomfield’s A Girl and Her Pig via Scribd. This is Bloomfield’s first cookbook, a personal reflection of the otherwise (mostly) private chef, which will be released to The Spotted Pig’s cultish fans, The Breslin’s beautiful people, and the rest of the world, on April 10.

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Filed Under: food lit, april bloomfield, spotted pig, the breslin

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We had the pleasure of previewing the soon-to-be-released documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and this clip should give you a taste of the film, which comes out next month. (See release dates for different cities here.) The movie profiles 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the best sushi chef in the world, and his eponymous Tokyo restaurant. The film is equal parts funny, touching, inspiring, and food porn-y. In other words, it’s basically the opposite of Dead Sushi. See for yourself in this clip about a trip to Tokyo’s massive Tsukiji fish market.

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Filed Under: video feed, documentaries, food tv, jiro dreams of sushi, jiro ono

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Well this is fun: The Times put together a DOH restaurant letter-grade map. Even better, there are all sorts of great ways to sort it. Want to see all the restaurants that have “evidence of rodents”? Just click and your wish is the map’s command. You can also see all of the restaurants that have A’s, B’s, C’s, or the dreaded “Not Yet Graded.” Oh, speaking of restaurants with that last classification, the map points out that Per Se got slapped with 41 violation points during its last inspection and is currently awaiting a reinspection. Another restaurant with a surprisingly terrible score: Loi, the UWS Greek spot run by Maria Loi, the “Greek Martha Stewart.” It got hit with 86 points (!) for a whole host of violations, over which the real Martha Stewart would probably kill somebody: evidence of mice, unwashed surfaces, food not protected from potential contamination, etc. How do you say gross in Greek? [NYT]

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Filed Under: service stories, department of health, dohmh, letter grades, loi, per se

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