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Air’s Champagne Parlor is All About the Bubbly
Beer, wine and even cider bars abound in NYC, but Air’s Champagne Parlor is one of the few area drinkeries devoted to bubbly. To be fair, the Riddling Widow briefly preceded it, but owner Ariel Arce was actually beverage director during its tenure, as well as Birds & Bubbles before that, and Chicago’s Pops for Champagne (not to mention Grant Achatz’s exclusive, original The Office) before that. Meaning her reputation as queen of Cuvèe absolutely proceeds her.
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Where to Celebrate Oktoberfest 2017
If you’re already mourning the loss of summer, Oktoberfest is a reliable way to get you over the hump. Essentially spanning the duration of fall (kicking off on September 16th this year & extending all the way to October 31st, allowing revelers to seamlessly transition to Halloween), the 16 to 18-day festival is a giddy saturnalia of German culture…
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Spotlight on the Finalists for the 2017 Vendy Awards
As a fun challenge to the James Beard Awards, the Vendy ceremony — now in its 13th year — is dedicated to honoring the very best in street food. So here’s who’s in the running during the September 16th event at Governors Island; from an artisanal twinkie baker to an upstart french toast sandwich maker, to a Chinese meat skewer purveyor, whose been tapped for the Vendy Cup…
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Gourmet Gossip: February 2014
In this great dining city of ours, barely a day passes without news of an exciting new restaurant opening, a devastating closing, a shocking chef shuffle, or a groundbreaking, must-try dish. That’s why we’re keeping you apprised of the industry’s most noteworthy bits and bites, from Drew Nieporent’s new plans for the Corton space in Tribeca to Andy Ricker’s machinations at Pok Pok Ny in Brooklyn and Elizabeth Falkner’s flight from Corvo Bianco on the Upper West Side…
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Where to Eat During NYC Restaurant Week 2014
If you’re anything like us, the list of recently opened restaurants that you just need to visit is a mile long. And while in theory, Restaurant Week seems like the perfect, most cost effective opportunity to check out as many as you can, the truth is, few of the newest, buzziest eateries ever participate. That’s why we view the annual event as an ideal time to attend to our other list, focused on iconic New York restaurants that amazingly, we’ve still never frequented (we’ve also never climbed the Statue of Liberty; it must be a native thing).
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Dark Chocolate and Désir: A Taste of Belgium
If you’re going to give someone your heart this Valentine’s day, make it a chocolate one—Belgian chocolate, to be exact. After all, in the world of chocolate, Belgium is king. The country houses a higher concentration of chocolatiers than any other on the planet, and still sticks faithfully to Old World, artisanal methods of making their candy by hand…
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The New School Face of Old World Brooklyn Cuisine
Most major cities can lay claim to one or two signature dishes. San Francisco has sourdough and cioppino. Boston is known for cream pie and baked beans. Philly is associated with cheesesteaks. Cincinnati piles chili on top of spaghetti. But the vibrant, incomparably diverse food culture of Brooklyn has truly shaped the way New York eats, with an unprecedented array of undeniably iconic foods.
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Q & A with Luksus’ Chef Daniel Burns
You may not immediately recognize the name Daniel Burns, but the soft-spoken chef is more than ok with that. Besides, when you have a resume that includes Senior Chef de Partie at The Fat Duck in England (which earned its third Michelin star during his time there), René Redzepi’s lauded Danish restaurant, Noma (he actually created and ran the pastry program), and three years as Head of Research and Development for Momofuku’s test kitchen, there’s not really much else to prove…
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Dish Spotting: The Bacon Flight at BarBacon
Of all the single-concept spots that have popped up in recent years, BarBacon seems like the easiest sell of all. Because while biscuits, taquitos, and rice pudding are all perfectly delicious, none sports a catch-phrase quite as ubiquitous as “everything’s better with bacon.” Not that owner Peter Sherman takes the saying as mandate to go overboard, which is the very thing that elevates BarBacon beyond being a one-joke shtick. There are actually plenty of dishes not particularly well served by a blanket of salted pork, and Sherman’s menu is wisely confined to a lineup of tried-and-true hits…
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New York’s Sexiest Edible Aphrodisiacs
We don’t prescribe to love spells and potions, but there’s another, all natural way to fan the flames of passion this Valentine’s Day. And that’s with edible aphrodisiacs; foods that have long been believed to enhance the libido and stimulate the senses due to their concentrated levels of certain chemical compounds. And we’re not just talking oysters and chocolate by the way. We’re talking unexpected ingredients, like almonds, avocados, salmon and chilies, which can also get your juices flowing. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of our favorite aphrodisiac-focused dishes in New York…
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Chocolate Red Wine Torte
Red wine and chocolate tend to play a starring role in most Valentine’s Day celebrations, and not just because they’re so totally yummy. It’s because they’re both believed to be edible aphrodisiacs — red wine contains resveratrol (which helps boost blood flow), and chocolate is full of seratonin, a brain chemical involved in sexual arousal…
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Trend Spotting: ‘Nduja
Never heard of ‘Nduja (pronounced “en-doo-ya?”). While most of us could readily identify paper-thin Prosciutto, savory Soppressata, and olive-studded Mortadella on a board of Italian charcuterie, the spicy Calabrian sausage has only just begun to command notice in New York…
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Dish Spotting: A Progression of Uni Dishes at all’onda
Overseen by chef Chris Jaeckle and established restaurateur Chris Cannon (Michael White’s former business partner), all’onda has been breathlessly heralded as one of the biggest projected openings of the year, from the moment signage went up at the two-story space on East 13th Street. And indeed, while New York is hardly lacking in excellent Italian options, the crowds have descended thick and fast upon the recently opened restaurant…
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Q & A with Skal’s Chef Ben Spiegel
On the surface, five-month-old Skal might just seem like yet another New Nordic restaurant in NYC. And yes, it’s named after a Northern drinking toast, the owner is from Iceland, and there’s a decided Scandinavian slant to former Noma apprentice, Ben Spiegel’s menu. But the young, Toronto-born chef insists that more than anything, this sunny neighborhood spot (improbably situated in Chinatown, skirting the border of the Lower East Side), simply embodies a fresh approach towards eating and dining out in general.
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NYC’s Most Creative Valentine’s Day Chocolates
Our tastes have refined as we’ve gotten older, and it takes a bit more for our significant others to impress us than with Whitman’s Samplers or packages of Russell Stover. That’s where New York’s most creative candy companies come in, from Vosges Haut with their sweet and smoky Bacon Bars to the Japanese import Royce’ and their supremely decadent Cocoa Squares and Brooklyn’s Liddabit Sweets, currently selling Passion Fruit Truffles from their brand new outpost in the Chelsea Market!
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The Clam – Reviewed
There’s nothing worse than a great, new neighborhood restaurant that opens in someone else’s neighborhood. That always happens to me. And it happened again just two weeks ago when The Clam quietly flung open its doors in the West Village (right near another great newcomer, Piora). They had me at a Parker House roll, individually baked for every diner, warm, pillowy & fresh from the oven welcome. If you had any doubts about what’s on the menu exactly, chowder’s muse is indeed the inspiration…
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Lunar New Year Long Life Noodles
We never really need an excuse to eat noodles, because, well, they’re just delicious. But did you know that during the Chinese New Year they’re particularly lucky as well? Long noodles represent a long life, so do yourself a favor and make a batch of our delicious Pasta Stir-Fry this holiday, flavored with Rice Wine and Hoisin, studded with tender Pork, and finished with leafy greens like Chinese Broccoli or Bok Choy (which also portend a long life for parents, and symbolize health and wealth!)
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Best of San Francisco
Living in one of the most exciting food cities in America (that being New York, of course!) can make it rather hard to get excited about other domestic cities. So it says a lot that I’m so fired up about San Francisco’s food scene right now. And I’m not talking about the local, seasonable and sustainable California food movement that Alice Waters made so famous. There’s a thrilling slurry of ambitious, young chefs, bakers and bartenders who are making San Francisco a very compelling dining destination…
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Zero Gravity Spice Rack
Live in New York or pretty much any city in America and you understand the concept of the tragically tiny urban kitchen. Eat-in? Most of us are lucky to have a kitchen at all, settling for mini-fridges, a burner… or two, and (god willing) a microwave. So what’s a spatially challenged chef to do? Give up and eat out… or become a nomadic chef, whipping up dishes in friends with better kitchens apartments…
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Gourmet Gossip: January 2014
In this great dining city of ours, barely a day passes without news of an exciting new restaurant opening, a devastating closing, a shocking chef shuffle, or a groundbreaking, must-try dish. That’s why we’re keeping you apprised of the industry’s most noteworthy bits and bites, from John Fraser’s vegetable-focused debut in the East Village to the implosion of the Dumont dynasty in Brooklyn and Anthony Bourdain’s evolving plans for a fantastic New York food hall.
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Our Favorite Chinese Joints To Celebrate the Lunar New Year
One of the most exciting aspects of living in New York is having access to cuisines from all over the world, from Austrian, Polish and Uzbeki fare to Pakistani, Malaysian and Guyanese. But probably the thing we’re best known for (besides having great pizza, hot dogs and bagels that is), is being a mecca of amazing, regional Chinese food. So whether you’re looking to celebrate the Chinese New Year this Friday (or are merely in search of top notch dumplings and noodles), we’ve got a terrific list of don’t-miss places for you…
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