East Village: A new bar has finally set its sights on the spot that held the Raven Café before it was destroyed by a fire in 2006. [EV Grieve]
Midtown East: The Oak Room is celebrating the snow by serving hot chocolate in fifteen-ounce to-go thermoses. Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the Central Park Conservancy. [Grub Street]
Red Hook: The corner of Ninth and Smith, formerly the site of an Uncle Louie G’s, will soon house Il Cuntuccio Brick Oven Pizza. [Pardon Me for Asking]

Tribeca: On Monday, Locanda Verde launches a cocktail list by Bobo mixologist Naren Young. [Tasting Table]
West Village: Final preparations on Otarian, a vegetarian fast-food chain from Australia, look to be wrapping up as the eatery gets ready to open its first East Coast outpost on Bleecker Street. [Bowery Boogie]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, central park conservancy, east village, il cuntuccio, midtown east, oak room, otarian, red hook, the raven cafe, uncle louie gs, west village

• 0 Comments

Bushwick: A little local coffee joint has sprung up in the form of Little Skips, which will offer fair-trade coffee, house-blended teas, and small plates and desserts from Ceci-Cela. [BushwichBK]
East Village: Back Forty will offer a special four-course dinner on March 9, centering around the Alsatian favorite choucroute, paired with Captain Lawrence beers. Captain Lawrence’s brewer, Scott Vaccaro, will be on hand that night to answer questions. [Grub Street]
Financial District: Bridge Café is hosting Texas Independence day starting March 2. Texans and Texas wannabes are invited to celebrate all week and enjoy specials like Chef Kunst’s Frito Pie. [Grub Street]
Greenpoint: Ice-cream truck Van Leeuwen opens a stationary shop this Saturday. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, back forty, battery park, bridge cafe, bushwick, east village, greenpoint, little skips, van leeuwen, west village

• 0 Comments

Lower East Side: Construction at Veselka Bowery has finally begun at 11 E. 1st Street, though the project won’t be finished for at least seven months. [Eater NY]
Fort Greene: The Greene Grape is the only store in New York that carries the organic Entusiasmo di Palazzetto Ardi from Veneto, Italy. [Local/NYT]
Greenpoint: Cathy Erway will read from The Art of Eating In and serve crostini at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Word. [Brooklyn Based]
Park Slope: A new hidden restaurant called Benchmark, described as “New American, a little Italian, a little Austrian,” has been discovered behind the local haunt Loki Lounge. [Brownstoner]
Williamsburg: It looks like the much-anticipated second coming of the hole-in-the-wall Pies-N-Thighs might actually be opening soon. [Free Williamsburg]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: loki lounge, lower east side, park slope, pies ‘n’ thighs, veselka, veselka bowery, williamsburg

• 0 Comments

Ditmas Park West: The Middle-Eastern hot spot, Mimi’s Hummus is expanding to open a wine bar, Castello Plan, just a storefront away, which will feature more than 120 selections in addition to some lighter fare. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Gramercy: On February 24, I Trulli Ristorante will host an $85 Venetian-inspired prix fixe dinner, with a suggested $20 donation to benefit Buddha’s Smile School, a not-for-profit school in India for disadvantaged children. I Trulli will match all donations made.[Grub Street]
Midtown East: Starting tomorrow, Convivio will offer a $28 two-course prix fixe lunch menu. Guests can choose one antipasti and a secondi from the midday offerings. [Grub Street]

The Kimberly Hotel’s rooftop party space and restaurant (with small plates by Gwenaël Le Pape of the former Les Deux Gamins) has opened for private events, and Paper has an early look. [Paper]
Midtown West: Eight of Dean & Deluca’s most talented baristas will compete in a latte-art throwdown at DeLuca’s New York Times Café (620 Eighth Avenue at 40th Street) on February 24. [Grub Street]
Williamsburg: Dram (144 S. 4th, near Driggs) won’t open for more than a month, but see if you can try out the cocktails during the soft opening. [Brownstoner]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, gramercy, i trulli, katzs, lower east side, midtown east

• 0 Comments

What better time to be a celebrity in New York than Fashion Week? The HMFIC himself, James Cameron, enjoyed a toast in his honor at Michael’s, though he was momentarily flustered when Dr. Ruth Westheimer presented him with some Sex for Dummies key chains to promote her new book. Designers Zac Posen and Victoria Beckham narrowly avoided a huge faux pas by booking their after-parties at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Luckily Posen picked the Rose Bar downstairs with Russel Simmons and J. Alexander, and Posh received the royal treatment upstairs at the Roof Club & Garden where she and her design team feasted on a meal which included steak, sea bass, and mini red velvet cupcakes, prepared especially for them by Danny Meyer. Read our complete roundup of boldface dining, below.

Wine and Roses: Supermodel Brooke Shields showed off her superb pout as she indulged in a glass of white wine at the UWS bar. [Page Six/NYP]

Café Boulud : Rocker Mick Jagger enjoyed the french fare with two dinner companions who bore a suspicious resemblance to his baby-mama Luciana Morad and their son, Lucas. [Page Six/NYP]

Roof Club & Garden at the Gramercy Park Hotel: After working the full frenzy of Fashion Week, Victoria Beckham treated her design team to a decadent meal topped off by a variety of rich desserts, all chosen for them by Danny Meyer. [People]

Strip House: R&B star John Legend ate at this saucily named New York steakhouse.[Page Six/NYP]

Elio’s: Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. got cozy with their wives over some warm Italian fare at the Second Avenue eatery. [Page Six/NYP]

Michael’s: Avatar director James Cameron was toasted at a lunch held in his honor by Les Moonves, Ken Burns, Ellen Burstyn, Parker Posey, Jane Rosenthal, and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. [Page Six/NYP]

Serendipity 3: Professional gossip and pot-stirrer Wendy Williams ate lunch with her son at the perennially packed dessert destination. [Page Six/NYP]

Rose Bar: Zac Posen ate Kobe-beef burgers and steamed edamame as he celebrated his Fashion Week success with Russell Simmons, Maggie Rizer, America’s Next Top Model’s J. Alexander, and a whole lot of Champagne. [People]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: celebrity settings, bar boulud, danny meyer, elios, james cameron, michaels, rose bar, serendipity 3, strip house, victoria beckham, wine and roses, zac posen

• 0 Comments

Most of the boldface and the beautiful were at Sundance this week, but we still had some sightings. Former president Bill Clinton loved the stromboli bread at Scarpetta so much he requested a new basket with each course. Amanda Hearst enjoyed some faux-French cuisine at Indochine. Exhausted Ethan Hawke showed his parental prowess as he watched over 25 youngsters at his son’s birthday party at the uptown eatery Serafina. See who else was out and about in this week’s Celebrity Settings roundup.

Scarpetta: President Bill Clinton held a private dinner party for the Board of Trustees of the William J. Clinton Foundation. [Grub Street]
Charles: Matthew Settle enjoyed dinner with a friend. Strangely, there were no Welcome Back Kotter mugs in sight. [NYDN]
Indochine: Amanda Hearst enjoyed a dinner courtesy of Banana Republic. [Guest of a Guest]
Serafina: Ethan Hawke held his own against 25 kids during his son’s birthday party. [NYP]
M2: P.Diddy threw his son Justin a very Super Sweet Sixteen. [Guest of a Guest]
Wine and Roses : Saturday Night Live’s youngest funny girl, Abby Elliott, watched a rerun of the show as she enjoyed a glass of wine. [NYP]
The Library at the Hudson Hotel: Hayden Panettiere enjoyed lunch and celebrated cocktail hour early with her girlfriends.[NYDN]
Fishtail: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor lunched at the Upper East Side restaurant, Friday. [NYDN]

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: celebrity settings, charles, fishtail, indochine, scarpetta, serafina, the library at the hudson, wine and roses

• 0 Comments

“We’re both writing in some ways about the same thing,” former Times critic Frank Bruni said last night during a debate with meat-questioning author Jonathan Safran Foer at the JCC. “We’re both writing about eating food in an affluent country.” And they both love talking about their grandmas! “Particularly my relationship with my grandmother, food is what she did,” said Foer. “We didn’t read books with her, we didn’t watch movies with her, we didn’t play chess with her, we ate.” Grandma Foer now makes vegetarian matzo-ball soup, but Grandma Bruni is not as accommodating. “If I had told my grandmother that I wanted her to make me a vegetarian meal, … I would have had a bocci ball thrown at my head,” said her grandson. “The one time she didn’t speak to me for days was when I told her I was on a no-carbohydrate diet.”

The talk then took a philosophical turn for the weird. “Why does taste become exempt from all the other ethical rules we apply to all of our other senses?” Foer wondered. “It would not be right to slaughter an animal because of the way it looks. It would not be right to slaughter an animal because of the way it sounds. And of course we think that people who have sex with animals … Sex is a much more profound craving and sensory experience than food.”

“You didn’t grow up in my family,” Bruni retorted. And instead of leaving it there, Foer walked us right into a creepy thought loop that we’re still trying to escape: “Why? What’s sex like in your family?”

Read more posts by Sally Holmes

Filed Under: foodievent, frank bruni, jonathan safran foer, meat

• 0 Comments