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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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Summer on the Plate
One of our favorite places for a mid-morning stroll is the Union Square Greenmarket, or really any one of the city’s greenmarkets for that matter. There’s something so satisfying about the sight of August heirloom tomatoes, corn, hard-to-find peppers, peaches and beautiful berries of all sorts. Lugging them home and whipping up a sensational meal is a whole other story. That’s why we’re lucky to have so many talented chefs and farm-to-table restaurants that take advantage of summer’s bounty...
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Illuminated LED Barbecue Tongs
We’re big fans of barbecue, especially for dinner. But how can you tell if your chicken is cooked to the perfect inner temperature after the sun goes down? (We had this very problem last night. True story.) So you make your best guess then hope for the best, which isn’t the best idea when it comes to undercooked meat. Even if you have a thermometer, there’s often not enough light to read it, not to mention you’ll need both...
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New York’s Best Thai Restaurants
With tens of thousands of restaurants in New York, it’s tough deciding where to eat , nevermind what genre of cooking. We’ve got Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cuban, even British, Burmese and Cambodian these days, but when we want to experience vibrant, layer upon layer of flavors, we head for Thai food. This Southeast Asian cuisine is simultaneously salty, sweet, spicy, and sour, and rich with texture of the crunchy, unripe mango, papaya or roasted peanut sorts. A decade...
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Summer’s Best Seafood Pasta Dishes
With summer already halfway over, we’re trying to devour as many of our favorite warm-weather dishes as possible before autumn hits. And that means sampling the city’s spectacular array of seafood pasta dishes. This season, Donatella Arpaia’s new pizza joint is making the most of a lobster bounty, while Maialino is introducing New Yorkers to the traditional Roman preparation of spaghetti with clams. And there’s our favorite, no-frills clam bar, Randazzo’s, with its lobster Fra Diavolo, perfect for a...
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Our Favorite Seasonal Summer Dishes
Now that we’ve reached the halfway mark of summer, we thought we’d look back at our favorite seasonal dishes and go back for seconds before autumn arrives. You’ll want to take advantage of heirloom tomatoes, asparagus, corn, all things shellfish and even summer truffles, scattered over Dovetail’s salt baked onion. There’s Casa Mono’s simple, yet outstanding, razor clams a la plancha, Scarpetta’s asparagus and mussel soup and Miriam’s zucchini cakes. September is coming soon, and we plan to use...
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King Cube Ice Tray
When it’s hot out, we want our drink. Whether it be an iced tea, iced coffee, or a mojito, we want our drink cold and preferably with lots of ice. Unfortunately, the sun and heat always manage to melt our cubes and dilute our drink long before we’re done. (If we wanted ice water, that’s what we would’ve poured ourselves.) How do we prevent our summer gin and tonics from becoming gin and cold water with a slightly tonic-y taste? Giant ice...
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Get Outta Town: Foodie Day Trips
While we love the diversity of Manhattan, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle. There’s almost nothing more relaxing than rolling down the windows and driving down the open road, especially when you know a good meal is the destination. With so many great options so close by, it’s possible to take a complete vacation in just 24 hours. Whether it’s the beach and a burger that you’re craving, or a quaint cozy inn...
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Herb Scissors
To us, summer flavor means fresh summer herbs. Maybe you have a windowsill herb garden, or you picked some up at the store to compliment a dish. We like to create a dish around whichever herbs we got our hands on, sometimes sage, basil, dill, tarragon or lemon balm. We love these five-blade scissors because we can use them for everything from cutting the herb off the plant itself to finely chopping it up for the plate. No cutting...
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New York’s Best Summer Sips
You won’t hear us complaining, but it’s definitely hot outside. (We’d take the heat over frigid temps any day.) Besides, there’s plenty of places to grab an ice cold drink (not the alcoholic kind). In fact, the options have gotten a lot better than your average iced tea or coke. There’s grown up slushies, made with fresh fruit purees and herbs, Arnold Palmers with fresh-squeezed lemonade, and milkshakes. (No one said cold wasn’t sweet.) All of these libations are...
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Lure's Watermelon Salad With Crumbled Feta & Shisito Peppers
Watermelon is a quintessential and one of our favorite summer fruits, so we asked Lure’s Josh Capon for an inspired recipe to share with readers for your next cookout. Chef Capon adds a unique twist to a classic watermelon salad with shisito peppers, which turns out to be a terrific combination. Watermelon Salad with Crumbled Feta Cheese & Shisito Peppers By Chef Josh Capon (Lure Fishbar, Burger & Barrel) (Serves 4) Ingredients 4 cups, watermelon, cubed 24 whole shisito peppers 2...
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Q & A with Chef Marcus Samuelsson
Marcus Samuelsson has always been a trailblazer. He first made a name for himself at Aquavit with his innovative approach to Scandinavian cuisine, then left to the midtown restaurant to open Manhattan’s first pan-African spot, Merkato 55. But Red Rooster is his biggest accomplishment to date. Just this past year, Samuelsson brought American comfort food and its many traditions to Harlem, and with it put this uptown neighborhood on the culinary map. “The most gratifying thing about the...
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Q & A with Hill Country's Elizabeth Karmel
Elizabeth Karmel is on a mission. The North Carolina born chef has spent much of her career encouraging women to barbecue, founding a website called “Girls at the Grill,” writing cookbooks, and of course, running the kitchen at Hill Country — one of New York’s best barbecue joints. Hill Country is famous for its Texas meat market-style atmosphere and Karmel’s exceptional brisket, chicken and ribs. So it’s not surprising that Karmel has her fair share of male fans as...
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New York’s Best Summer Soups
When we think of summer, soup isn’t exactly the first thing to come to mind, except gazpacho of course. The cooling combination of tomatoes, olive oil and vinegar has made gazpacho a summer staple. Light and flavorful, this chilled, Spanish soup can be the perfect beginning to a meal, or lunch in and of itself. Lately, we’ve noticed (and eaten) some very creative renditions and a few non-gazpacho. From super seasonal toppings at Salinas to Balaboosta’s honeydew and cantaloupe...
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July Food Happenings
New York is a hard core foodie town with plenty of culinary events to attend in this summer. July alone is chock full of food happenings, everything from restaurant week deals to Hamptons fundraisers and, of course, the annual Meatopia festival where you gorge yourself silly on all things meat cooked by some of the best chefs in the country. Here’s a few of our favorites: Taste of Two Forks – July 16 Website Usually you have to choose...
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BBQ Pizza
Summer practically revolves around the barbecue, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend every meal cooking or eating hot dogs and hamburgers. The backyard barbecue grill is just as great for making pizza. No oven required. This pizza grill pan (pictured right) turns your barbecue into a pizza oven, replete with a unique heat shield that protects the crust from burning and ensures even cooking. Plus, it’s non-stick and surprisingly easy to clean. You don’t have to be...
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New York's Best Pickles
Thankfully, pickles aren’t seasonal, but we find ourselves eating a lot more of them in the summertime. Now that the weather’s hot, a cool, crunchy bowl of pickled vegetables sounds a lot more appealing than warm, sauteed or fried vegetables. Chefs and artisanal food shops have become so creative with everything edible, including pickles. (Our love for them borders on a fetish.) There’s a lot more to pickles than classic Kosher Dills these days, like pickled okra, beets, and ...
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Serious about S’mores
We want to be on record that in all of years obsessing over gadgets, we’ve never written about an “As Seen On TV” gadget before. But this one is too good not to share because it actually works. (We tried it ourselves.) When we think of summer, backyard barbecues, and beachside fires, we instantly think of s’mores. While it’s fun to roast marshmallows over an open flame, it can also be scorching hot and most of us have lost...
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Summer's Best Cocktails
We’ve waited all year for the warm weather, the sunshine, and of course, cool, summery cocktails. If you’re going to drink, New York is the place to do it. Where else can you get a snow cone doused with tequila? There’s spicy margaritas, pickled martinis, and even an oddly refreshing sugar snap pea libation at Rouge Tomate. There’s no better way to beat the heat then sipping a cocktail on a rooftop bar, lounging in a garden, or chilling...
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