While Demi is in rehab, Rihanna goes blonde, and Madonna rehearses for the big, sexy halftime show, New York had a couple lovely, if unscandalous, celebrity sightings this week. The dapper Anderson Cooper brunched, the bald Howie Mandel dined, and everybody’s favorite classical music guru, Philip Glass, celebrated his birthday. This, and more celebrity sightings, straight ahead.

ACME: Zachary Quinto enjoyed a Friday evening dinner at ACME last week, and was therefore not shooting the new Star Trek movie. But really, this flick is never going to get made if he keeps putting his personal life first. [Grub Street]
Catch: Germaphobe and potential Regis replacement Howie Mandel went out to eat the night before his Live with Kelly! guest appearance. In a surprising twist, Ms. Ripa was already at the restaurant and the two unknowingly dined with their backs to each other until a waiter let them in on the situation. [Page Six/NYP]
La Lanterna di Vittorio: Anderson Cooper had brunch with Benjamin Maisani, and supposedly things looked pretty tense between them; Cooper spent most of the time on his Blackberry. But c’mon, give the guy a break, BBMing is super addictive. [Page Six/NYP]
Le Poisson Rouge: Philip Glass celebrated his 75th birthday this past week. Guests Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Tom Waits, Martin Scorsese, Richard Serra, Ravi Shankar, Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Errol Morris, and the Met Opera’s Peter Gelb all stopped by. [Page Six/NYP]
Rao’s: Drew Barrymore ate with her new fiancé Will Kopelman, and was supposedly seated ahead of John Turturro and Francis Ford Coppola, who were already waiting in line for a table, proving once again that Drew Barrymore is adored over every other celebrity, even the guy who made The Godfather.[Page Six/NYP]
Work In Progress: Debbie Harry purchased a nine-foot painting of a devil-horned baby evolving into a businessman by Walter Steding from the nightclub because, well, that’s exactly what Debbie Harry would hang on the walls of her apartment. [Page Six/NYP]

Filed Under: celebrity settings, acme, catch, la lanterna di vittorio, le poisson rouge, rao’s, work in progress

• 0 Comments

East Village: Good news, people who love pizza (a.k.a., everyone): Famed shop L’asso launches its brunch menu this weekend, featuring any entrée with a mimosa, coffee, or orange juice for just $16. [Grub Street]
Empellón Cocina, Alex Stupak’s second Empellón location, is now taking reservations for Tuesday onward — at least according to OpenTable. [Grub Street]
Greenwich Village: Or, you and your significant other can enjoy a heart-shaped pizza, a salad for two, and some wine for $50 at Pizza Roma. [Grub Street]

Kips Bay: Winston’s Champagne Bar has launched a food and caviar menu designed to complement their vast selection of Champagne. [Grub Street]
Lincoln Square: During next week’s Fashion Week, a number of Lincoln Square restaurants (evidently that’s a neighborhood now) — including Bouchon Bakery, Lincoln Ristorante, Nanoosh, and Gastroarte Restaurante — will offer special deals for the “Fashion Plate Prix Fixe.” [Grub Street]
Meatpacking District: The Standard Grill has expanded its list of daily specials, including whole-roasted fish on Wednesdays, suckling pig confit on Thursdays, and classic buttermilk-fried chicken on Sundays. [Grub Street]
Soho: Need Valentine’s Day plans? Red Hook Hospitality hosts a “Hands On” pasta-making class for couples or a group, led by Chef Nikki Cascone of Top Chef fame, where you’ll enjoy pasta, salads, Champagne, and more. Tickets are $175. Call 646-801-0578 for group rates. [Grub Street]
West Village: Spasso launches an aperitivi program on Monday. Running 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily, it will feature $10 specialty cocktails and small bites for $2 to $5. [Grub Street]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch,

• 0 Comments

We’re not the only ones who feel like this week is taking longer to get through than the current season of Top Chef Texas, right? It’s interminable. But as we count down the minutes until we can all finally GTFOH for the weekend, we wanted to share two really delightful food videos with everyone.

The first is an ad for some low-fat butter thing called Lurpak Lightest. And even though we could never bring ourselves to actually use the product, the vegivore-friendly video sure is pretty (apologies if you end up getting the song stuck in your head):

But that’s not all. We also have the latest entry in a video series called “This Must Be the Place,” which, according to its creators, “is a series of short films that explore the idea of home.” And in this case, home is Prime Burger in Manhattan. The video, which looks like a beer commercial from the sixties, highlights the people who have been making the burger shack run since it first opened in 1938:

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: video feed,

• 0 Comments

Now feeding bankers.

“If you build it, they will come” could be the motto for Battery Park City these days, which has gone from culinary wasteland to having quite a few excellent dining options (Shake Shack, Blue Smoke BPC, North End Grill, anyone?) in a hurry, and will get its own food truck court on Monday. Unlike food truck courts in other boroughs, ahem, this one will have a roster of 21 rotating players, with the likes of Red Hook Lobster Pound, Mexicue, Treats Truck, and other members of the mobile dining elite on hand daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. So if you find yourself wondering where all the trucks have gone, that’s where. [Official Site]

Related: Who Wouldn’t Want to Occupy It? [NYM]

Read more posts by Jenny Miller

Filed Under: the new york banker diet, battery park city, food trucks, truckin’

• 0 Comments

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: French Accent.

Adour Alain Ducasse (Menu)
212-710-2277
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Boulud Sud (Menu)
212-595-1313
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:15 p.m.

Bouley (Menu)
212-964-2525
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:15 p.m.

Corton (Menu)
212-644-0202
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

Daniel (Menu)
212-288-0033
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon (Menu)
212-829-3844
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully booked

La Silhouette (Menu)
212-581-2400
Two for eight? Yes

Le Bernardin (Menu)
212-554-1515
Two for eight? No
Best available: 11 p.m.

Lyon Bouchon Moderne (Menu)
212-242-5966
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Recette (Menu)
212-414-3000
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:15 p.m.

Filed Under: two for eight,

• 0 Comments

Euro-Maki hits midtown Manhattan.

This weekend, New York gets its first taste of Sushi Shop — a concept that has revolutionized Sushi take-out in Europe for fourteen years. The meticulous two-story space is located on Madison Avenue, featuring self-service and takeout by day and in-restaurant dining at night. With 150 choices of maki-style rolls, “crossovers” like foie gras sushi and fish tartares, macarons (by Mille-feuille Bakery), and booze, it sounds like quite the party. [NYT]

Sushi Shop, 536 Madison Avenue (54th Street), (212) 840-5555.

Read more posts by Alyssa Shelasky

Filed Under: openings, sushi shop

• 0 Comments

Bourdian, no doubt during one of the films.

Anthony Bourdain is obviously a man who rarely holds his tongue when he has a distaste for something, and it’s usually fun to hear him spew his bile. But over on the Times’ carpetbagger blog he’s speaking out against Midnight in Paris and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (again): About the former, he opines, “It’s everything bad about Woody Allen” (so it’s a movie about marrying Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter?), and he says he “beyond loathed” the latter movie. We won’t defend either film’s merits, but do you think Bourdain has ever just sort of not liked something? Or even been nonplussed? Now that would be a story. [Carpetbagger/NYT]

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: tony tony tony, anthony bourdain

• 0 Comments

The deer hunter.

Last night, at the Bushmill’s “Since Way Back” event held at The Wooly, Grub Street got to grab a few minutes with Justin Vernon, the man behind Bon Iver. Since the mood at the party was so whiskey-saturated, we naturally wondered how Vernon whet his whistle while he was famously secluded in a Wisconsin cabin recording For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver’s debut. And the diet was about as rugged as you might expect.

“Leinenkugel’s,” Vernon said was his beer of choice. “And whatever whiskey my dad had around that I could steal. And venison.” Hold up, did he have to hunt his own? “Me and my brother always hunted growing up, but I wasn’t actually living there during the hunt.” Still, Vernon says meat from that year’s deer was in the cabin. “I ate a bunch because I didn’t have any other food.” Nothing at all? Well, Vernon admits, his dad — who he describes as the “Kurt Vonnegut of North Woods” — would “would drop in once in a while and get, like, eggs and, like beer and milk and stuff.”

Read more posts by Nisha Gopalan

Filed Under: interviews, bon iver, extreme diets, justin vernon

• 0 Comments

She’s on a diet.

We just wanted an excuse to link to this high-larious Jimmy Fallon sketch: “Real Housewives of Late Night in Indianapolis,” where “Denise” hosts a luncheon for her friends and the Colts’ better-halves. But it’s not totally non-epicurean … one of the RHOLN ladies drinks ranch dressing with a straw, and someone gets a dinner roll chucked at her weave. [Hulu/Jimmy Fallon]

Read more posts by Alyssa Shelasky

Filed Under: lol, late night

• 0 Comments

Ted & Honey’s sun-washed Navy Yard digs.

The hottest hood in the BK these days might in fact be the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Brooklyn Grange is set to expand there, as we reported earlier, and now Grub gets word that Cobble Hill fave Ted & Honey has opened its café, BLDG 92, at the Brooklyn Navy Center. The little café that could has also launched a catering arm, Parker Red Culinary Events, the exclusive supplier of grub to the 8,000-square-foot event space at the center. The spacious, airy eatery is quite a departure from Ted’s cramped yet cozy Cobble Hill digs. Scope that out straight ahead, and get a look at the “A.M.” and “P.M.” menus on the website, below.

Menus [Official Site]

Ted & Honey BLDG 92, Brooklyn Navy Yard; 347-335-0529

Earlier: Big Plans: M. Wells, Ted & Honey Expand

Read more posts by Jenny Miller

Filed Under: openings, brooklyn navy yard, empire building, slideshow, ted & honey

• 0 Comments

Pictured with Scott Conant, Richard (right) loves chefs, kisses, jewels, chocolate cake, and NYC.

While Todd English practiced self-restraint at last night’s Vegas Uncork’d presented by Bon Appétit, Michel Richard gloriously showed no such restraint. He wouldn’t touch the sliders (”Too big! Like me!”), but Richard exuberantly chatted with Grub Street about love, lust, Daniel Boulud’s little bistro, which he thinks is called “BCBG,” and oh yeah, some breaking news.

You seem like the kind of man who would have very romantic Valentine’s Day plans …
Of course! I don’t want to cook, I just want to be sitting and waiting for all the kisses. I want to give my wife wonderful jewelry and then take her to my friend at CityZen in D.C. Oh, the chef is fabulous there! But I’m going to call him and tell him that everything is to be pink, pink, pink!

Sounds very …
You know, we’ve been together for 32 years and I don’t spend that much time with my wife, so that evening, I want to talk to her like I did 32 years ago: “I lovvvve youuuu my little cherie!” And wow, she loves oysters, so I want them all over us, and then I’ll give my chocolate-cake recipe to the chef and he’ll make it!

That’s the kind of night that belongs in New York City, not D.C.!
I think you are right! When I come here, the restaurant I love is Le Bernardin. And also, my friend Daniel! He has … BCBG! No, what do you call it? It’s kind of complicated, so many restaurants, Daniel. Oh, he is so charming, wonderful, and young. Well, no, he’s not young! But he does have the same accent as Michel Richard!

Might you join Ripert and Boulud here, professionally?
Oh, yes! I’m going to see a location here in a few weeks. There are a few locations I want to look at, actually. The answer is yes! It will happen … at the end of this year. In 1974, when I used to live here, a friend said, “Don’t ever leave New York; when you leave, you’re out of town.” And he’s right. I’ve been out of town for too long.

What would you call it?
Central.

Another Central?
Yes, American food with a french accent. THEY NEED ME!

Read more posts by Alyssa Shelasky

Filed Under: passion, bon appeit, michel richard

• 0 Comments

Change is afoot at Untitled.

Not long ago, Danny Meyer’s Untitled at the Whitney launched a $46 three-course farm-to-table dinner three nights a week. But nine months later, they’re changing it up again. Instead of the fixed-price, no-additions, no-substitutions meals, chef Chris Bradley will offer an expanded dinner menu with about six appetizers and six entrees — all with a focus on what’s seasonal and local. Offerings will change weekly according to Greenmarket wares.

In addition to hearty mains like braised short-rib or ricotta gnocchi, there will also be lighter fare — some of the familiar sandwiches from the lunch menu will reprise after dark, and new ones might rotate in. Unless they sell out at lunch, daytime desserts from Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Betty Bakery will be on the menu, in addition to housemade sweets, a concession to diners who would specially request those items on top of their prix fixe portions. Dinner hours won’t change, so it’s still only Thursday through Saturday nights, but Upper East Siders will have more flexibility to dine as they choose. Look for the new program to launch later this month.

Read more posts by Edna Ishayik

Filed Under: menu changes, danny meyer, the whitney, untitled, upper east side

• 0 Comments