It’s happening, again.

If you’re sitting down, you should know that it’s Macaron Day. In Paris, where holidays are done right, it’s Jour du Macaron, and about eight hours ago, hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren woke up singing a lovely song about pastel-colored magic then promptly flooded les rues with their best patisserie-heat-seeking game in tow. More important for our purposes, today in NYC twelve participating merchants of sweets will hand over a free macaron if you use this code phrase: “I am here for Macaron Day NYC.” Try this out at Bouchon Bakery, Cannelle Patisserie, Epicerie Boulud, Dominique Ansel Bakery, and a bunch of other participating locations listed here.

This crazy holiday of all holidays was created by the Yoda of the modern macaron, Pierre Hermé. Two years ago, our own meringue ambassador François Payard enlisted a few confectionery friends in order to spread the message in the States. A portion of all the day’s macaron sales generated in association with the promotion will be donated to City Harvest.

We’ve been told that supplies are limited at each location, but you should also know there’s a gauntlet of sorts: Pick up a punch card at the François Payard Bakery at 116 West Houston, visit 12 out of the 21 participating merchants (excluding Macaron Cafe), then return to Payard to redeem the card for your complimentary six-piece macaron assortment box. Good luck out there, everybody.

Macaron Day NYC 2012 [Official site]
Earlier: Your Macaron Fix: Now Mapped

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Filed Under: crucial information, bouchon bakery, dominique ansel bakery, epicerie boulud, francois payard, macaron day, macarons, pierre herme

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Go ahead and look.

“Coveting is all everyone does, all the time, every day. It’s what drives the world economy, pushes people to make a go of their lives, so that they can afford the executive model of their Ford Mondeo to park next to their neighbour’s standard model. And who would want to be married to someone who nobody coveted?” — The extremely wealthy and incredibly cheeky Charles Saatchi on life, and being married to ‘domestic goddess’ and chef Nigella Lawson. [Daily Mail]

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Filed Under: quote of the day, charles saatchi, nigella lawson

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A rendering of the new location.

Upper West Siders (and Grub Street Diet subject Sloane Crosley) will no doubt rejoice in the full-bodied, robust news that downtown bean stalwart Irving Farm Coffee Company is opening a new cafe at 224 West 79th Street. The 1,500-square-foot, 65-seat location will also mark the beginning of the company’s rebranding.

The rustic coffee company, an Irving Place fixture since 1996, is moving uptown with a new look in tow; all beans sold by the company will still be roasted at its Hudson Valley facility, but co-owner Stephen Leven tells us that the new cafe will sport a decidedly more urban look, with exposed brick walls and a comfy seating area. And there will be a ten-foot community table made from reclaimed wood set up for less lounge-y types. Caffeinated options will come from the one-two punch provided by the shop’s La Marzocco Strada and a custom Kalita pour-over station. In addition to coffee and espresso drinks, the menu will consist of pastries, charcuterie and sandwiches. Craft beer and a few wines by the glass will also be available. Look for Irving Farm to open the Upper West Side location in May.

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Filed Under: coming soon, coffee, irving farm, upper west side

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Craig Hopson’s menu will take you back to the days of carriages and cabbages.

Some new details today about the Brewster, that massive and ambitious-sounding Gilded Age–themed project that’s marching into 177 Mott Street from developer Ross Morgan, industry vet Frank Roberts, and former Le Cirque chef Craig Hopson. Morgan tells the Post that the team is busy building a complex of food-related features inside the space, including a bi-level, 5,000-square-foot restaurant evocative of mid-nineteenth-century New York culture, with a menu matching the British, German, French, West Indian, and African influences of the neighborhood. Intriguing.

The Brewster will also operate a sidewalk flower market and a small indoor provisions market with sandwiches and jams, which the Post calls the “British answer to Eataly.” It will also offer room service to the residents of the very expensive apartments above, who will be able to stash their wine inside the restaurant’s cellar.

Does this mean Nolita is about to be overrun with parasol-toting doyennes and imperious dudes with pointy canes and coattails? That’s still unclear, but all this nineteenth-century stuff is getting really interesting. “It will be a Gilded Age, New York, harking back to old times,” says Morgan. “This building is an 1850s carriage-making building. No one knows it, yet it is a treasure for American history, unchartered and unwritten about.”

Something brewing: NoLIta eatery aims for August start [NYP]
Earlier: Nolita’s Brewster & Co. Will House an 1850s-Era ‘Oyster Saloon’
Related: Hopson Left Le Cirque for the Brewster

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Filed Under: coming soon, craig hopson, frank roberts, gilded age, the brewster

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Paltrow to Times: We can still be friends.

On Twitter over the weekend, Gwyneth Paltrow politely made it known to the entire world that in light of assertions made in last week’s New York Times feature on cookbook ghostwriters, the newspaper needs more diligent fact-checkers. The actress says she did not use a ghostwriter while putting together last year’s My Father’s Daughter. “Love @nytimes dining section,” Paltrow wrote on Saturday, “but this weeks facts need checking. No ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself.”

Julia Moskin’s article recounts the various perils of trailing chefs and restaurateurs in service of streamlining their ideas into manuscripts and quotes Julia Turshen, who worked with Paltrow on My Father’s Daughter, saying her journey began when she was hired to be a ghostwriter to another ghostwriter working for Mario Batali. No matter how this plays out, between that new book on the subject and this weekend’s Mike Daisey debacle, it’s beginning to look like fact-checking is now both the new pork belly and the new Capri pants.

[Gwyneth Paltrow/Twitter]

Earlier: Ghostwriters to Gwyneth Paltrow and April Bloomfield Spill the Beans

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Filed Under: ghostwritten, bookshelf, ghostwriters, goop, gwyneth paltrow, my father’s daughter

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Dutch Kills will add food this summer.

Eating a nice porterhouse while watching some catamaran-building isn’t the only exciting development near 43rd Avenue in Long Island City. Turns out you’ll also be able to get a bite or two to eat at cocktail haven Dutch Kills when its new kitchen, called Blissville, debuts in a few months.

Brooklyn natives Natalie Blake and Chris Faga were inspired to start the “pop-in” restaurant after spending many hungry but otherwise very enjoyable hours at Dutch Kills. Faga is a self-taught cook and has worked as a doorman and waiter at the bar, while Blake is a hospitality industry veteran. Blissville, like the name Dutch Kills, is a nod to the nineteenth-century Queens neighborhood. The historically minded suggestion was the input of Dutch Kills proprietor Richard Boccato, who has graciously allowed the under-construction kitchen annex some dining room space near the bar’s entrance.

So what will you be able to eat? The Blissville team is developing a short and sweet menu to match the seasonal and standard cocktails at the bar, including sandwiches like a “rustic” pulled pork, a grilled cheese, and a sliced steak. “The menu will very much suit the vibe already set by Dutch Kills,” says Blake. “We just want to serve food that makes our friends feel good.” If all goes well, she adds, the restaurant will also serve take-out lunch to the local workforce through a walk-up window. Sure sounds happy to us. Look for Blissville to open in the early summer.

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Filed Under: menu changes, dutch kills, long island city, nightlife, queens

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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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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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Andy Warhol’s Andy-Mat: “The restaurant for the lonely person.”

Opening a restaurant in New York City ranks right up there among the world’s most difficult jobs: You have to deal with endless streams of red tape, near-constant cash-flow problems, contractors, critics, egos, and a city full of very fickle diners. New York might have 24,000 restaurants, but plenty of ideas go bust long before the front doors open. The grander the scale of the project, the more fun it is to speculate about what could have been. In that spirit, we’ve put together a list of ten projects that, had they opened, would have changed New York’s culinary landscape — some for the better, some for the worse (unless you’re a fan of huge theme restaurants in Times Square). Here are ten of the biggest projects, in terms of scale, scope, or ambition, that came thisclose to happening in NYC.

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Filed Under: what could have been, lists, slideshow

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The Aviary could be landing in New York very soon.

Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas are, at the moment, putting the finishing touches on the upcoming El Bulli menu at Next, but Achatz tells us that the year ahead means probable expansion for the duo’s Chicago cocktail bar, Aviary: “Nick and I looked at 2012 and made a list of places where we’d want to open, including New York, Miami or South Beach, L.A., Shanghai, Singapore, and Las Vegas. After hearing about some spaces in New York, we literally jumped on a plane, flew to the city and looked around.”

Aviary, of course, has been known for its boundary-pushing drinks since it opened last spring — toddies are percolated table-side; a dark ‘n’ stormy arrives in a sealed, brown-bagged bottle. The place has been such a success that Chicago Reader critic Mike Sula even went so far as to say that a visit to the bar “could become one of those rare but essential activities that, along with a game at Wrigley, a trip up the Willis Tower — or dinner at Alinea — are defining Chicago experiences.”

But Achatz says Aviary is actually the easiest concept to reproduce outside of the Windy City: “We’ve learned a lot from running Alinea, Next, and the Aviary. If there’s any one concept that’s scalable, it’s the Aviary.” Achatz adds, “The thing with making drinks is that they are consistent around the world. If you buy Beefeater gin in Des Moines, for example, it’s going to be the same Beefeater you buy in Singapore. That consistency of product is huge.”

The team hasn’t nailed down a location yet, but Achatz says he’s seen several spaces, including one in the Flatiron Building. “It’s been exciting trying to envision being a part of the New York restaurant community,” Achatz says. “New York has always been intriguing. I think this would be a lot of fun.”

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Filed Under: coming soon, achatz, aviary, nightlife, the aviary

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