Those of you (us) who kvetch about spending $12 on a cocktail or a glass of wine have a new crazy drink to get worked up about. Brooklyn, NY now offers a gourmet cup of coffee that goes for $12.
W. T. F.
The NY Post reports…
Previously: NYC Travel Guides for Liquid Elitists
With all the hype surrounding Top Chef’s arrival in DC I thought I would share my experience at Tom Colicchio‘s newly opened Colicchio & Sons, formerly Craft in NY’s Meatpacking District. As a post-theater treat for my birthday, Deej promised me a dinner of my choosing. I went with Colicchio & Sons as I’m a fan of the chef and figured the timing would be right. And how it was.
As some of you might remember from our meal at José Andrés’ Bazaar, Deej isn’t the most accommodating when it comes to food, so we opted to eat from the dining room menu and not the tasting menu. And because we just love harassing picky eaters, Deej will also provide commentary on our dining experience.
Britannia:
The kitchen was very accommodating: they were more than happy to provide one of the tasting menu dishes as an appetizer — scallops with foie gras terrine, honey turnips and puntarelle. A small portion of each, the scallop and foie gras combined on the fork; it was exactly how it should be. Simply delicious.
Deej:
Simply—not so much. The foie gras was foie gross. The texture was like gelatinous meat puree. It reminded me of that Jell-o—like brown stuff at the top of a dog food can. How do you people actually enjoy this stuff? Seriously!?! The scallop was well cooked but not my thing flavor-wise. So I choked down two bites and gave the rest to Britty-boy.
Our pals over at Good Bite have an interview with Egyptian-born celeb chef Michael Mina, who reveals plans to expand his 18-eateries-and-growing empire, talks some smack about NYC (kinda not really), and offers some advice for all you budding restaurant titans.
You have an incredible empire of restaurants and seem to always be working on a new project. What’s next?
I just signed a lease in San Francisco at 252 California Street (Aqua) – where I started my career! I don’t have a plan for the space yet, but when it became available, I knew I had to have it!
Why have you chosen to not open a place in NYC? Is this something you would consider in the future?
I love New York City and the food culture there. Guests dining at New York restaurants like to see their chefs in the kitchen. I’ve chosen not to open a restaurant there because I know I wouldn’t be able to dedicate the time in the restaurant that I would want to.
How did you learn to cook?
My mother is an incredible cook (many of the recipes in my restaurants are hers!). My first introduction into a restaurant kitchen was at the age of 15 when I did a work study program in high school. I worked front of house in a small, family-owned French restaurant in my hometown. I fell in love with everything restaurant and within a year I was managing the entire restaurant for the family. My passion ended up being in the kitchen.
What kind of advice would you give to someone looking to open a restaurant in this economy?
Do your homework, study the market, create a sound plan around your restaurant that brings something to that neighborhood/city/location that diners can’t get anywhere else.
What are your thoughts on In-N-Out Burger?
LOVE THEM!
Read the rest over at Good Bite.
That's the whole package right there.
Editor’s Note: New contributor Elle joins the DC-based ES team with — what else — a DC rant. Welcome, Elle, and good luck on your quest!
I’m on a hunt. No, a quest. A quest to capture a surprisingly elusive prize: an awesome bagel (toasted!) that comes with awesome cream cheese (on both sides!) and awesome lox, somewhere (anywhere!) in DC.
On New Year’s Day, a friend of mine hosted a “hangover brunch” at her parents’ place in Manhattan. A few DC folks made the trip up to NYC for the NYE festivities, and our resident New Yorker was treating us to an impressive spread of quiche and French toast and Bellinis and….goodness, I can’t even remember everything she put out. But in addition to those made-from-scratch offerings, she had a bag of fresh bagels from Pick-a-Bagel and a heaping plate of lox.
My initial reaction? Something along the lines of “omgsofreakinggood.” I managed to polish off a pair of perfectly doughy, chewy bagels piled up with cream cheese and thinly sliced lox in a blink. Then it occurred to me that maybe decorum dictated I should stop hogging that heaping plate all to myself.
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Our recent rundown of the Top 10 New Things to Put in Your Drink inspired ES’s newest feature, In The Mix, a look at the coolest/craziest/most outlandish new ingredients — alcohols and mixers both — we’ve seen popping up in cocktails.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day we’re kicking it off with an alcohol that’s relatively green to the market and also very, very green.
Agwa de Bolivia starts with coca leaves (yes, those coca leaves) plucked in Bolivia, transported by armed guard and sent to Amsterdam to have their cocaine alkaloids removed (sorry, kids). The coca is then distilled and mixed with stimulants like ginseng and guarana to mimic the “oxygen buzz” Bolivian farmers get when chewing coco leaves at high altitudes.
Our tasting team tried Agwa straight (ugh) and mixed with club soda and lime, which brought out a refreshing, floral flavor everyone liked, although if I experienced an “oxygen buzz” I have to say it wasn’t so wildly different from a good old beer buzz.
Normally I’m a proponent of just drinking Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day, but if you must imbibe something unnaturally green, you could do worse than Agwa. For something crazier than club soda and lime, the Agwa folks have a whole bunch of more creative drink recipes over on their YouTube channel, or try it at bars like New York’s Macondo, where it’s mixed with honey, agave nectar, avocado (!) and lime.
Sorry about our recent transition to all-baby, all-the-time, but this story is too good to pass up. The NY Post reports:
Chef Daniel Angerer is letting diners at Klee Brasserie munch on cheese made from his wife’s breast milk.
“It tastes like cow’s-milk cheese, kind of sweet,” he told The Post. The flavor depends on what the cheese is served with — Angerer recommends a Riesling — and “what the mother eats,” said Angerer, who once bested Bobby Flay on TV’s “Iron Chef.”
After blogging about his efforts with the human cheese, customers started demanding a sample, he said. “The phone was ringing off the hook,” the chef said. “So I prepared a little canapé of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper.”
The response has been generally positive from those who’ve tried the cheese, although many customers are too squeamish to attempt it.
Well this is definitely not cheating. But is it an amazing idea or is this chef just amazingly disturbed? Cast your vote and feed us back in the comments.
Read the full story here.
Much virtual ink has been spilled about New York’s food truck renaissance, but now there’s a new twist to the gourmet meals-on-wheels trend: no wheels. In the last month, two of the city’s most popular food trucks have put on the brakes and opened real brick-and-mortar restaurants.
First DessertTruck, one of the original establishments to ignite the food truck craze, ceased its rolling late last year. A few weeks back, it opened DessertTruck Works in a narrow storefront on the Lower East Side. The new menu features the same upscale snacks that made them famous — warm chocolate bread pudding with bacon custard sauce (!), vanilla creme brulee — along with Counter Culture coffee and some new, coffee-sized treats like mini chocolate-prailine cakes.
Now Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream (632 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn), the roving band of ice cream purveyors that put Mister Softee to shame with ingredients like imported Ceylon cinnamon and local red currants, have settled down with a flagship store of their own in Greenpoint. In addition to the cold stuff, they’ve added Intelligentsia Coffee and fresh baked goods like blood orange olive oil cake (damn!)
Truck to Shop — Is this the new restaurant industry business model?
More on Oyster Locals: New York gourmet dessert trucks gone stationary (plus recs on hotels-near-desserts on the LES and East Village).
(Photo: Global Voyager)