Bowery: Forcella, at 334 Bowery Street, is practically giving away pizzas tonight: two Margarita pizzas for $2 until 7:30 p.m. [Grub Street]
East Village: Having been shuttered for months, the café that inspired Rent is up for rent. Life Café, where Jonathan Larson wrote most of his musical, was also the setting for the song “La Vie Boheme.” [EV Grieve, NYDN]
Nolita: City Grit supper cub will engage in a bit of non-basketball March madness with a themed dinner on March 1 at 7:30 p.m. Because chef David Santos, alum of Per Se and Bouley, will be creating the multi-course meal, we’re guessing tickets ($85) will go fast. [Grub Street]

Lower East Side: Sons of Essex is entering the brunch fray, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. They had us at “mac n cheese” omelette, but they made a video, too. [Grub Street]
Soho: Lani Kai is bringing back the Pupu Platter with a spin on the classic that boasts Hawaiian and Asian influences. Diners can pick four of seven options to include on their platters; as for us, we’ll be going for the crab wontons every time. [Grub Street]
Midtown West: Add the Original SoupMan to the list of New York eateries going Linsane for the Knicks’ star point guard. The soup purveyor will rename its lentil soup LINtil soup for the rest of the basketball season. [Grub Street]
Kellari Taverna will host a “Clean Monday” celebration on February 27 to benefit the American School of Classical Studies at Athens’ Gennadius Library. Gregory Maninakis and the Mikrokosmos Ensemble will entertain with live music, and Suzanne Perrault of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow will lead an auction. The fare will be Mediterranean; tickets are $300, or $160 if you’re under 40. [Grub Street]
Times Square: Oceana will mark the leap year with an extra menu item. On February 29, diners can select strozzapreti pasta with frogs leg ragout, with fennel, rosemary, and green olives for $16. As a bonus, anyone celebrating his or her birthday will be treated to a glass of sparkling wine: It only comes once every four years, after all. [Grub Street]
Upper West Side: Momofuku’s David Chang, food writer Peter Meehan, and Lucky Peach editor Chris Ying will headline a Global Kitchen event at the American Museum of Natural History on March 1 at 7 p.m. Tickets, $45, include a Momofuku treat and a signed copy of the magazine. [Grub Street]
Tickets are now available for the fifth annual Whole Foods Market’s New Taste of the Upper West Side, which will be held this year on May 16, 18, and 19. Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and many other big-name chefs will participate. [Grub Street]
Williamsburg: Sweetleaf Cafe is bringing its Stumptown beans and La Marzocco espresso machines to Blue Bottle territory. Look for the new location to open this April. [Grub Street]
Beginning next week, Toby’s Estate Coffee will offer a free cupping for five lucky people every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon. Register by e-mailing brewschool@tobysestate.com or calling 347-457-6160. [Grub Street]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, david chang, forcella, kellari taverna, lani kai, original soupman, sons of essex

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Kind of blue.

Until recently, 7-Eleven was only known within the confines of Manhattan for its annual Free Slurpee Day, even if New Yorkers were left to wonder where, exactly, they could go to get their free Slurpee. But now the chain is expanding like crazy in New York, and it has no plans to stop until the city is blanketed with taquitos. According to Crain’s, we can expect the opening of “20 locations — ranging in size from 1,500 square feet to 3,000 square feet — every year until 2017.” The chain is even focused on “working with existing bodega owners to persuade them to transform their businesses into 7-Elevens.” [Crain's]

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Filed Under: the chain gang, 7-eleven, brain freeze, slurpees, taquitos

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Anella’s husband-and-wife owners, Josh Cohen and Blair Papagni, have had a busy couple of years, tending to babies of both the human and restaurant/bar kind. Last year they opened Calyer and St. Vitus in Greenpoint and now the couple forays down to Williamsburg for the first time, with their biggest venture yet, Bellwether, in the sprawling former home of Royal Oak. The space itself, designed by Matt Zalla in a Danish Modern fashion, looks unrecognizably polished. There’ll be D.J.’s courtesy the guys behind the No Ordinary Monkey dance party, and Weather Up’s Matthew Maddy is also a partner. The seafood-heavy menu from chef Andrés Julian Grundy invites you to eat a little or a lot — there’s plenty to drink, of course, too. See the menu below, and eyeball the space and some food in our slideshow.

Menu [PDF]

Bellwether, 94 Union Ave., at Richardson St., Williamsburg; 347-529-4921

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Filed Under: openings, bars, bellwether, slideshow, williamsburg

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Skeen, in more productive days.

Possibly the city’s most notorious stove-hopper, Ryan Skeen has crashed through 5 & Diamond, Allen & Delancey, Fish Tag, and more, all in the course of a few years — and now we learn he’s done at Pera Soho after two months. Owner Burak Karacam confirmed the news via a rep, writing: “The Pera organization and Ryan Skeen have chosen to part ways as the result of disparate operational and culinary styles that made a continued association untenable to both parties.” Dude is clearly talented (as a recent meal at Pera Soho attests), but he just can’t seem to hold down a job. Here’s hoping Skeen gets what he needs, whatever that may be.

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Filed Under: chef shuffle, pera soho, ryan skeen

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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 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: Meat Specialists.

Blue Smoke (Menu)
212-447-7733
Two for eight? No
Best Available: 8:45 p.m.

BLT Steak (Menu)
212-752-7470
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Craft (Menu)
212-780-0880
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9 p.m.

DBGB Kitchen & Bar (Menu)
212-933-5300
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Manzo (Menu)
212-229-2180
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Minetta Tavern (Menu)
212-475-3850
Two for eight? Fully booked

Peter Luger (Menu)
718-387-7400
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Quality Meats (Menu)
212-371-7777
Two for eight? Fully booked

Seasonal Restaurant & Weinbar (Menu)
212-957-5550
Two for eight? Yes

STK (Menu)
646-624-2444
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Filed Under: two for eight, blt steak, blue smoke, craft, dbgb kitchen bar, manzo, minetta tavern, peter luger, quality meats, seasonal restaurant weinbar, stk

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February 22, 2012 In the mood for Mexican, my friend suggested we head to Sueños in Chelsea, having been there many…

Sueños

311 W 17th St, New York

(212) 243-1333

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I was invited to a press lunch at Benihana in Midtown in mid-January, and I almost had to go. I’ve actually been to…

Benihana

47 W 56th St, New York

(212) 581-0930

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The old Quattro Gastronomia Italiana.

Good news, lovers of velvet ropes and orderers of $1,000 sushi rolls: The city will soon have another Koi restaurant, according to USA Today’s Hotel Check-In blog. The flashy pan-Asian restaurant will replace what remains of Quattro Gastronomia Italiana on the ground floor of the Trump Soho Hotel. Construction has not yet begun, the blog reports, but the new Koi should nevertheless be open by summer.

Quattro Gastronomia Italiana, you may remember, was a clone of its Miami flagship, and opened two years ago in the hotel. A call confirms that the restaurant lost its Piedmontese flair on January 1, and changed its name (in typical Trump-ese) to The Restaurant, though the menu hasn’t changed.

So does all this mean we can expect to see a Koi challenge of some sort on the next season of Celebrity Apprentice?

New York’s Trump SoHo hotel to get Koi restaurant [Hotel Check-in/USAT]

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Filed Under: high rollers, coming soon, koi, trump soho hotel

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Waiter, there’s no shark fin in my soup!

A new bill announced yesterday in Albany would effectively make it illegal to sell (or serve) shark fin in New York, reports the Times. Broth made from the gelatinous fins is said to have a subtle flavor; in traditional Chinese culture, servings of shark-fin soup frequently mark auspicious and celebratory moments. Grace Meng, who represents Flushing (and is also the only Asian-American in the Assembly), is one of three representatives to sponsor the bill, announcing at a news conference that she once “loved shark fin soup,” but, unfortunately, it’s killing the sharks and mucking the oceans. Four states already have enacted legislation banning the sale of shark fins, while a similar bill was introduced in Chicago earlier this month. No matter your stance on the issue, at least you can agree that we’re well on our way to permanently avoiding the fin faux pas committed by POTUS last week in San Francisco. [NYT, Related]

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Filed Under: bans, bills, food politics, shark fins

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Drink up!

In an effort to lubricate its patrons as well as educate them, the New-York Historical Society will put on a summer exhibit that sets out to “survey the social, economic, political, and technological history of the production and consumption of beer, ale, and porter in the city over the past three hundred and fifty years.” So, that sounds like it could be interesting. Also in the cards: the Historical Society will reward visitors to the exhibit with a beer hall that will feature craft beers from New York.

The concession will be run by the Starr Restaurant Organization, operators of the Society’s 74-seat Caffè Storico. (You’ll recall Stephen Starr plans to open a slew of new projects in NYC by the end of 2012, including something in the old Paris Commune space.) Think of this particular project — which will run from May 25 to September 2 — as a sudsy summer bonus.

We’ll pass along more details, including whether or not Caffè Storico’s Jim Burke will create period-appropriate small bites for the beer hall, as we get them. For now, however, it’s just nice to know that our plans for summertime day drinking will also be a means of celebrating New York’s brewing heritage.

Beer Here: Brewing New York’s History [New-York Historical Society]
Related: Stephen Starr to Open Restaurant in Paris Commune Space

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Filed Under: beer me, caffe storico, new-york historical society, stephen starr

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A dash here, a dash there….

Bartenders’ recent fascination with bitters — the mysterious potions sold in little apothecary bottles — has created a market for all sorts of variations. There are citrus bitters, maple bitters, cherry bitters, celery bitters, bitters aged in whiskey barrels, chocolate bitters, etc., etc. There are a lot, is what I’m saying. But do bitters — often added in doses so small that they verge on homeopathic — actually impart a discernible difference? I sat down and drank a lot of booze to figure it out.

Bitters are made by taking high-proof spirits and infusing the fuck out of them with concentrated herbs, fruits, roots, and spices. These potions were originally concocted in the early 1800s for medicinal purposes, and the list of ailments they supposedly cured is wonderfully long and charming: liver complaint, sick headache, biliousness, indigestion, jaundice, salt rheum, constipation, humors, fever sores, colic, and diseases caused by “an impure state of the blood.” The bottles themselves are delightful and old-timey in their own way, too. Angostura’s label famously doesn’t fit on the bottle; Peychaud’s boasts about an award it won in 1869.

At some point in the mid-nineteenth century, someone decided that a jar full of booze might help the medicine go down. And now, bitters have been mixed into drinks for so long that we take their supposed impact on faith. I am sure there are nerds out there who spend whole weekends licking various bitters off their hands, but it’s difficult to believe these people when they espouse the difference between blackstrap and cherry-bark vanilla bitters — they care too much not to be delusional. So I set up a taste test to find out once and for all if a normal person can tell if bitters make any difference. And to see if they’d help me shake this damn case of blood impurity that’s been troubling me so.

First, my Wine Allergic Girlfriend and I added a few drops of each type of bitters we’d be testing — Angostura, Fee Brothers Orange, and Peychaud’s — into soda water. The colors were dramatically different. Angostura was the prettiest, a pale gold. Peychaud’s was rose pink, and Fee’s orange bitters were straight-up clear.

Bitters, in water, from left to right: Angostura, Peychaud’s, Fee Brothers orange.

In addition to admiring the pretty colors, W.A.G. and I also tasted each of the bitters-enhanced soda waters, and they did indeed taste different. Tasting notes are boring, so quickly: Angostura tastes kind of like Coca-Cola; Fee’s Orange actually tastes like orange; Peychaud’s was pretty solidly cinnamon to me, and W.A.G. swears it is a ringer for a particular brand of hippie cherry licorice she ate as a kid. Bottom line: We can agree that bitters taste different. Which, okay, so that’s our baseline. Score one for bitters nerds.

The idea was that W.A.G. would make three versions of three cocktails (a rye old-fashioned, an improved gin cocktail, and a vieux carré), each with a different bitter. I’d taste them all blindly and see if I could tell the difference.

Old-Fashioned
“The color is a dead giveaway,” said W.A.G. after making the three drinks. Because we didn’t want any reddish tints tipping me off, it was decided I’d drink all the drinks with my eyes closed.

The same bitters, mixed into bourbon.

“This one is the Fee’s,” I said about old-fashioned number one, after drinking all three. I didn’t really taste orange, per se, but I somehow felt the orange, at least compared to the other two drinks. The second old-fashioned I picked out as Peychaud’s, and the remaining one I put down as Angostura. They did indeed taste different to me, but that difference was jumbled up in my pre-sip expectations about how they’d taste, as well as some good, old multiple-choice test-taking strategy (”W.A.G. probably wouldn’t start with Angostura because it’s the most basic, so that’s out for the first one,” etc.).

“You got them all wrong,” W.A.G. said.

Improved Gin Cocktail
The improved gin cocktail (a wonderful concoction of Genever gin, Maraschino, simple syrup, and bitters) apparently showed the color of the bitters even more than the old-fashioned, and so W.A.G. told me I really had to close my eyes for this one. I did my best to close my eyes harder.

Primed, I easily picked out the one made with orange bitters. But I mixed the other two up. Better, but still not very good. Perhaps because I was searching for differences in my improved gin cocktails, I did sense differences. But like something I was catching out of the corner of my eye, those differences disappeared when I looked directly at them. If I thought too much about it, I started to doubt my senses, and all the drinks started to taste the same.

All of which is to say: I was drunk, so we decided W.A.G. would taste the next cocktail.

Vieux Carré
This was the most complicated recipe we tried: rye whiskey, brandy, sweet vermouth, bitters, and Benedictine. Those ingredients are all heavy hitters, flavor-wise. Naturally, I assumed the bitters would have less of an impact in a drink with this many ingredients. It’s like someone playing the triangle amid an entire orchestra of kettle drums, trombones, and violins.

For the purposes of the taste test, I made each V.C. with only one type of bitters, though the traditional recipe calls for two. W.A.G.’s palette trumps mine, and she nailed the orange, like, immediately. She mixed up Peychaud’s and Angostura, as I had with the improved gin cocktail, but like me, she says she felt a difference in the drinks.

I made one more V.C., this one with the traditional dose of two kinds of bitters. It takes a decisive flick to get a good dash of bitters; it comes with practice and something akin to confidence. Some bitters nowadays come in little eyedropper bottles and these, too, are a joy to use. For the V.C., picking up two small old-looking bottles and dashing each pleased me even more than just adding one.

That’s when I realized the major difference that bitters can make. It’s not really about the flavor that bitters impart on a drink; it’s about the mystique.

My taste-test was hardly exhaustive, but it’s still clear that bitters are pretty darn subtle when compared to the big-flavored ingredients like gin, whiskey, sugar, or lime juice, if only because we add the bitters in such a relatively minor amount.

What bitters actually do is add another layer of ceremony to the process of mixing a drink. There’s a reason why bartenders always add the bitters at the end, too: It’s a signaling mechanism. Not only that the drink is now “complete,” but that the person making the drink cares enough to put real thought into what, precisely, is going into the drink — down to the very last dash. Bitters are fundamentally old-timey and strange, and they give drinks a sort of magic-potion feel. The actual flavor they impart is in the taste bud of the beholder.

Matthew Latkiewicz writes about drinking and other subjects at You Will Not Believe. His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Wired, Time.com, Boing Boing, and Gastronomica. Follow him on Twitter.

Earlier: Sloshed: How to Order a Proper Drink in Any Bar, Anywhere

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Filed Under: sloshed, booze news, nightlife

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When Alec Baldwin visited David Letterman last night, the host pitilessly probed the diabetes-saddled actor about all the sugary treats he’s had to resist since his diagnosis last May. (It’s probably safe to assume Paula Deen won’t be showing up on The Late Show anytime soon.) Baldwin’s no-no list includes candy bars, pies, and even, sadly, grapes; not too many carrots either! But what’s the one thing that Alec Baldwin would die for? Individually wrapped butterscotch candies from the British Callard & Bowser company, which he used to eat as a kid. Thankfully for the actor’s insulin levels, the company is no longer around. Watch the whole thing, straight ahead.

Related: Jonah Hill Totally Dissed Paula Deen on TV

Read more posts by Caroline Shin

Filed Under: video feed, alec baldwin, david letterman, diabetes, video

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