• A homeless man was crushed to death by a sidewalk freight elevator outside of Japonais. [NYP]

• The town of Champagne is concerned after job cuts at bubbly company Piper & Charles Heidsieck. [Decanter]

• Japanese mixologist (and creator of the “hard shake”) Kazuo Uyeda is coming to New York to demonstrate his technique in a workshop for a cool $675. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

• In case The Cove got you wondering what whale tastes like, it’s “similar to reindeer or moose.” [Slate]

• A trailer for a soft-core porn version of Top Chef has hit YouTube. Painful to watch. [Eater National]

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Filed Under: mediavore, japonais, katie lee, the breslin, the cove

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• Wall Street Journal critic Raymond Sokolov is leaving the paper, which he claims will no longer review restaurants. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

• Florida’s deep freeze led Tropicana to raise prices on orange juice. [NYDN]

• The makers of Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper are teaming up to remove soda from schools. [Crain's]

• At North Carolina’s Sticks and Stones Clay Oven, every menu item is named after a Ryan Adams song. [Spinner via Eater National]

• A string of high-profile museum restaurants recently opened in Paris. [NYT]
Previously: Upscale Restaurants Barely Alive While Downscale Restaurants Thrive?

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Filed Under: mediavore, michael huynh, museum restaurants, raymond sokolov, ryan adams, south brooklyn pizza, tropicana

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• Graffiti and Nook are among the city’s smallest restaurants. [NYP]

• Long maligned, decaf coffee is finally getting attention from coffee snobs. [NYT]

• Burger King blames winter storms for a recent decline in sales. [Salon]

• More and more restaurants are hiring foragers to track down hard-to-find ingredients. [NRN]

• The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Flushing’s Guang Zhou Restaurant, charging that workers who tried to join unions were fired. [NYDN]

• Breakfast tacos are huge in Austin. [NYT]

• Consumers are drinking more tap water, leading to a bevy of new water filters on the market. [WSJ]

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Filed Under: mediavore, burger king, graffiti, guang zhou, lori mason, nook

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• A group of public-school parents will hold a “bake-in” outside City Hall next week to protest new bake-sale regulations that ban home-cooked treats. [NYDN]

• New Yorkers are very excited about the return of outdoor dining. [NYT]

• Proctor & Gamble is recalling Taco Night and Cheeseburger Pringles owing to salmonella concerns. [Salon]

• Restaurant diners are ever more interested in health, responding positively to low-fat, low-sodium, and organic products. [NRN]

• Benihana recently refused an offer of purchase — without even knowing the price. [NYP]

• Subway hopes to have as many stores in China as McDonald’s by 2020. [NYDN]

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Filed Under: mediavore, bake sales, benihana, pringles, subway, takeru kobayashi

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A group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis declared lox nonkosher last month because salmon — and fish like cod, tilapia, flounder, and halibut — hosts a tiny parasitic worm called anisakis. The rabbis, known as Chevra Mehadrin, say the anisakis makes the fish treyf. (The Post, predictably, calls this crusade a “schmear campaign.”) The good news, at least for bubbes concerned about brunch options: Most rabbis disagree with Chevra Mehadrin. “This issue has been resolved in Jewish law for hundreds of years already,” Orthodox rabbi Moshe Elefant tells the Post. The bad news: There are tiny parasitic worms in smoked salmon.

Bagel Lovers Tell Rabbis: Don’t Pick on Our Lox [NYP]

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Filed Under: forbidden foods, jews, lox

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• Governor Paterson, city and state health officials, and a group of doctors will all meet this morning to discuss the potential penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks. [NYDN]

• Several fresh produce carts will soon open in Central Park. [NYP]

• Top New York restaurants are going semi-homemade with store-bought ingredients rounding out dishes like Klee Brasserie’s pork belly with Pop Rocks. [NYP]

• A former waitress at the now-shuttered Quo is suing the club’s owner, alleging that he forced her to let him snort coke off her shoulder. [NYP]

• Nobu Matsuhisa contemplated suicide after his Alaska restaurant burned down early in his career. [Eater National]

• In-school sales of full-calorie soda drinks have dropped 95 percent since 2004. [WSJ]

• Starbucks is currently testing a 31-ounce “trenta” size in Phoenix and Tampa. [Boston Globe]

• Food Network chef Marcela Valladolid has spent the past twelve years working with managers, agents, and publicists to try to become a household name. [WSJ]

• West Coast morels are already available, which is a sure sign of the coming spring. [Mouthing Off/F&W]

• Jamba Juice is now offering salads and novelty ice-cream bars. [NRN]

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Filed Under: mediavore, jamba juice, klee brasserie, lawsuits, marcela valladolid, nobu matsuhisa, quo, shake shack, soda tax, starbucks

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• The new Duane Reade in Chelsea sells “locally sourced” groceries. [Gothamist]

• PSAs that present binge drinking as a shameful act may actually increase it, according to a new study. [NYDN]

• José Andrés, Morimoto’s Yoshinori Ishii, and Nandini Mukherjee of the now-shuttered Aamchi Pao are among the recipients of the first-ever Vilcek awards for immigrants in the culinary world. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

• Superdive hopes to open in Vegas and expand in New York. [Eater NY]

• Former waiters are suing both Maggiano’s Little Italy and the Hard Rock Café, charging tipping misconduct. [Boston Herald]

• Thousands of processed foods are being recalled after salmonella was found in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, but FDA officials say the risk of illness is low because the salmonella disappears after cooking. [NYT]

• Mable Hoffman, creator of the best-selling Crockery Cookery, died last month at 88. [WSJ]

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Filed Under: mediavore, botta di vino, dry dock, duane reade, hard rock cafe, jose andres, maggiano’s little italy, superdive

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• Consumers are asking Starbucks to ban guns in states where it’s legal to carry unconcealed weapons. [WSJ]

• Bobby Flay will pay an $800,000 settlement to workers at three of his restaurants who argue that they were denied fair wages and tips. [NYP]

• Luxury-box servers at the U.S. Open are suing the tournament, charging wage violations. [NYP]

• The FDA issued warnings to sixteen food and beverage companies, including POM Wonderful, over inaccurate nutrition claims. [WSJ]

• Toronto’s Sky Blue Sandwich Company named all of its sandwiches after Wilco songs. [Pitchfork]

• Downtown Vancouver restaurants saw sales rise between 100 and 300 percent during the Olympics. [NRN]

• Vegetarian restaurants are on the rise in meat-obsessed Buenos Aires. [NYT]

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Filed Under: mediavore, bobby flay, starbucks, u.s. open, wilco

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• Condensed milk, once frowned upon by foodies, is now appearing on menus at high-end restaurants like wd~50. [NYT]

• Performers with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus can get any dish they want at any time (and at cost!) in the circus train’s Pie Car. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

• McDonald’s is testing $1.99 oatmeal in stores in Northern California, Baltimore, and D.C. [NRN]

• Just the thrill you’ve been waiting for: America’s Test Kitchen will soon release a Nintendo game. [Food Section]

• Fresco by Scotto is selling frozen meals to customers nationwide in partnership with Schwan’s. [Crain's]

• The European Union approved a biotech potato for cultivation yesterday. [NYT]

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Filed Under: mediavore, america’s test kitchen, debra zimmerman, fresco by scotto, mcdonald’s, rabbit, shake shack, smith and wollensky, tomatoes

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• The Upper West Side’s neighborhood Chinese restaurants are disappearing fast. [West Side Spirit]

• Cheeseburgers and desserts are the primary culprit behind Obama’s high cholesterol, says Robert Gibbs. [Salon]

• Once the exclusive provenance of high-end patisseries, macarons have gone mainstream, popping up everywhere from Whole Foods to French McDonald’s. [WSJ]

• A new FreshDirect iPhone app remembers customers’ past purchases and keeps a list of favorites. [Digits/WSJ]

• Chile’s largest winemaker has temporarily halted production after this weekend’s earthquake. [AP]

• Rose Gray, chef of London’s influential River Café, died over the weekend at 71. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

• Quiznos plans to open hundreds of mini-locations within convenience stores over the next two years. [WSJ]

• A sign in front of the Harlem Chuck E. Cheese’s lists several rules of conduct, most related to gangs. [A Fine Blog via Gothamist]

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Filed Under: chuck e cheese’s, fresh direct, macarons, river cafe, rose gray

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• Get ready for fewer mozzarepas: Mayor Bloomberg wants to cut street fairs to trim the police budget. [1010 Wins]

• Restaurateurs are leading the gentrification of Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Paper]

• New York’s newest wave of coffee shops, like Stumptown and the forthcoming Blue Bottle, take brewing very seriously. [NYDN]

• Soho House is purging hundreds of corporate members from its rolls. [NYP]

• London is becoming a serious coffee town, complete with award-winning baristas. [NYT]

• Plenty of adults still covet Easy-Bake Ovens. [Salon]

• Average grocery shoppers can almost perfectly predict what they’ll spend at the store, a new study finds. [NYT]

• Otto and Momofuku Noodle Bar are just a few of the city’s late-night dining options. [NYP]

• A Brooklyn raw-milk devotee claims that the unpasteurized dairy cured her thyroid problem. [Brooklyn Paper]

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Filed Under: mediavore, blue bottle, easy bake oven, momofuku noodle bar, otto, soho house, stumptown

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• Nine banquet waiters are suing the Waldorf-Astoria, alleging that they were only given part of their tips. [Reuters]

• Owner David Arrick hopes to open a brick and mortar outpost of online “manly cupcakes” emporium Butch Bakery in downtown Manhattan this spring. [Fork in the Road/VV]
Previously: Have Cupcakes Entered the Testoster-zone?

• Tip pools are perfectly legal as long as a restaurant pays more than the minimum wage, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. [KTVZ via Eater National]

• Munich’s starkbier season (or strong-beer fest) is a less touristy alternative to Oktoberfest. [WSJ]

• North Carolina’s Kampai Japanese Steak & Seafood House banned a regular for being a bad tipper. [Eater National]

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Filed Under: mediavore, bakesales, butch bakery, lawsuits, waldorf astoria

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