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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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New York's Best Turkey Dishes
Thanksgiving is really one of the best holidays invented. You don’t have to shop for the perfect present for every single person you know or fork out tons of cash. Thanksgiving is about one thing: Eating ’til you’re stuffed and giving thanks for the feast. The dish we most look forward to is roast turkey. Aside from indistinct lunch sandwiches and this once a year holiday, roast turkey is hard to come by on the restaurant scene. This year...
Read MoreAdjustable Rolling Pin
I absolutely love the holiday season because it’s synonymous with gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, bread pudding, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple pie. Even if you don’t cook, most people get the festive itch to give baking another try. Now, pies aren’t my forte, particularly the crusts. Most cooks have their strong suits and, well, not-so-strong suits. No matter how hard I try, the crust always comes out bumpy and uneven and that’s not even the worst part. The...
Read MoreDouble Kitchen Timer
If you were in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner last week, you probably realized how hard it is to keep track of all the dishes — stuffing, turkey green beans, sweet potatoes — you’re making, so none of them burn. Where cooking is concerned, timing is everything. Leave a dish in the oven a little too long and you might as well order in. The most important dish usually ends up with the timer, while the rest are left...
Read MoreToaster & Egg Poacher
How cool is this multi-tasking toaster? This might just be one of my all-time favorite gadgets as far as looks go. Not only is it a great showpiece, but it also makes breakfast much easier and cleaner. You don’t even need to turn on the stove or wash a pot. Where poached eggs are concerned, toast is practically a necessity. You need something crunchy and porous to sponge up the warm, runny yolk and toast always does the trick....
Read MoreBar 44's Martha Washington's Rum Punch
Ingredients 15 oz Fresh Lemon Juice 15 oz Fresh Orange Juice 15 oz Spiced Simple Syrup 15 oz Flor de Cana 4yr Rum 20 oz Appleton 12yr Extra Rum 10 oz Orange Curacao Nutmeg Preparation Present punch bowl with ice to the guest. Add all ingredients to Parisian shakers with two small tins worth of crushed ice. Shake till ice dissipates. Then deliver to table and pour. Finish with full lemon and half orange wheels and fresh grated nutmeg....
Read MoreBest Of – New York's Fall Dishes
My favorite eating season is fall. It doesn’t get much better than autumnal fruits, like concord grapes, pumpkins, pears, plums, and apples. And there’s loads of fragrant truffles (for a price, of course), duck, wild game and brussel sprouts. This year, some of New York’s best and newest restaurants have come up with some delicious ways to celebrate the season. There’s an outstanding concord grape tart at ABC Kitchen, pumpkin ravioli and a brioche-like pastry studded with concord grapes...
Read MoreMuffin Tops
There’s a gadget for almost everything these days. Craving a muffin sans the bottom? No problem. Someone with a muffin top fetish or a Seinfeld fanatic came up with this clever pan. Though I’d have no problem baking the whole muffin, the truth is I’d rather just eat the crusty top too. Most people would. Since the molds are shallow, it takes a lot less time to bake. So if you have a few extra minutes at breakfast, you...
Read MoreGrown Up Halloween Treats
You never really outgrow Halloween. You may not feel like dressing up or going to door to door for treats, but you still want to seize the opportunity to eat candy. I never turn down sour patch kids or a bag of M & M’s (especially peanut or the new pretzel variety, which happen to be very good), but sometimes you want something a little more interesting and sophisticated. We scouted out this year’s best treats for grown ups...
Read MoreQ & A with Chef Seamus Mullen
Chef Seamus Mullen played a crucial role in the tapas trend that hit New York, back in 2006. After all, it was Mullen who ran the kitchen at Boqueria, where he served classic Spanish tapas with a distinctly seasonal twist. Having recently left his executive chef post at Boqueria, Mullen is now a free agent, and this may just be his break out moment. While he’s well known for flare for Spanish food, he’s also well versed in cuisines...
Read MoreNew York's Best Izakayas
What’s better then a good bar? A good Japanese bar with scores of sake, shochu and Asian beer! Just like any Spanish tapas bar, Japanese izakayas offer plenty of traditional small plates to nibble on. Most fly under the radar, but there are some terrific izakayas hidden all over Manhattan. Venture into any one of them and you’ll discover natives nostalgic for a taste of home, foodies and chefs seizing the opportunity to snack on grilled chicken meatballs, fried...
Read MoreQ&A with Po's Steven Crane
It’s not easy to open a restaurant in New York, and it’s even harder to keep it open after the newness has worn off. But Po has managed to not only survive the New York dining scene, but also thrive and even get better with age. After two decades, Po is still going strong, which has a lot to do with its owner, Steven Crane. When Po first opened, Crane was partnered with chef Mario Batali, who also helmed...
Read MoreNYC's Most Unusual Restaurant Restrooms
Whether restaurateurs realize it or not, a restaurant’s restroom is an integral part of its appeal. It’s true. Women visit the restroom more frequently than men to “reapply their face,” take a little break from an unbearable first date, or well, go to the restroom. But we all go. And depending on its level of cleanliness, comfort and charm, the restroom can make or break a dining experience. Some are social experiences, while others are just plain entertaining. Here’s...
Read MoreNew York's Best Beer Gardens
I don’t know about you, but I always associate fall with football and tall, frothy glasses of beer. Luckily, the weather’s been nice enough to sit outside (or inside) and do just that. New York not only happens to have great food, but also some terrific beer gardens with an interesting variety of brews on tap and by the bottle. Besides, it’s almost Oktoberfest and German-bent Radegast Hall & Biergarten and Zum Schneider, are two great e great places...
Read MoreQ & A with Aquavit's Marcus Jenmark
Aquavit Chef Marcus Jenmark says he wants to be, “the ambassador of Scandinavian food in New York.” He’s already off to a great start. After traveling the world showcasing Swedish ingredients and cooking techniques as part of a venture called Culinary Sweden, the former hockey player got a job as a chef for the Swedish Consulate in Manhattan. And now he’s on an even bigger stage, Aquavit, where Chef Marcus Samuelsson first broke out on the city’s culinary scene....
Read MoreNYC's Best Late Night Eats
One of the many things that sets New York apart from any other city in America is its feast of late night eats and we’re not talking about dumpy, 24-hour diners. Only in New York can you get your favorite slice of pizza or impeccably fresh oysters until 6 in the morning. Whatever your midnight craving, chances are somebody’s open for business and serving an admirable, and often creative, rendition til the wee hours of the morning. There’s everything...
Read MoreQ & A with Tiella's Peppe Castellano
If you’re from the Boston area, you’re probably familiar with Gran Gusto’s terrifically thin-crusted pizzas. Peppe Castellano not only made a name for himself with his pizzas, but also his flair for seafood. But if you come to New York peddling pizzas, they better be exceptional. “In New York, it’s the war of the pizza,” says Chef Pepe Castellano. Instead of pizza, Castellano is focusing on Neopolitan cooking, minus the trademark pizzas, at Tiella, his new restaurant located on...
Read MoreNew York's Best Fall Dishes
Fall doesn’t offically begin until September 22nd, but it’s starting to feel like summer’s already gone. Many restaurants have changed their menus with an eye on fall. That means plenty of pumpkin, zucchini, apples, brussel sprouts and meat. There’s roast chicken with pumpkin pie, dinner and dessert in one, at Park Avenue Autumn, and exotic pumpkin soup in Queens. For Oktoberfest, we recommend you head to Prime Meats in Brooklyn to feast on their vast array of sausages, homemade...
Read MoreFoolproof Homemade Donuts
I don’t know about you, but we’re so over cupcakes. Thankfully, pastry chefs are turning their attention to other baked creations, like pies and donuts. It doesn’t get much better than freshly fried dough, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or stuffed with raspberry jelly. Of course, it’s probably not a good idea to make a daily habit of fried donuts, which is why we’re obsessed with Babycakes’ baked donuts. But unless you happen to live near the Babycakes shop...
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