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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…
Most Recent Dish
Q & A with Calexico's Jesse Vendley
If you’re serious about Mexican, you’re probably familiar with the Calexico Cart. If you’re not, you’re missing out. Their carne asada could bring you to your knees. But the food isn’t 100% Mexican. Jesse Vendley dubs it, “a hybrid cuisine influenced by Mexican cuisine and American barbecue.” The Calexico Cart, run by Jesse Vendley and his two brothers, is the result of Jesse’s craving for home and Calexico-style Mexican cooking. This Southern California native loves carne asada the way...
Read MoreBest Farm-To-Table Restaurants
Seasonal menus used to be the exception. Now, they’re the rule. These days, chefs showcase seasonal ingredients from small, local farmers. Diners would rather eat domestic wagyu than Japanese wagyu and American caviar than Beluga caviar. Farm-to-table dining’s become trendy, but some restaurants take it more seriously than others. There’s Greenmarket pioneers that have been around for years, like Dan Barber’sBlue Hill, and some terrific newcomers, like The Local Store. Here’s a few of our favorites: The Local Store...
Read MoreTaco Rack
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to pretend summer’s not over just yet. Who wants to leave behind barbecues and picnics and dinners with cocktails and friends? Luckily, we don’t have to. Instead of barbecues, we can throw Mexican fiestas, replete with margaritas and tacos. But as we recently discovered, hard tacos can get very messy. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to serve tacos, but they don’t stand up on their own. They tip...
Read MoreQ & A With Lure's Josh Capon
How many great seafood restaurants have bragging rights to a terrific burger? Lure Fishbar does and Chef Josh Capon has a lot to do it. His burger won the people’s choice award at last year’s New York Wine and Food Festival. In fact, this fall, restaurateur John McDonald and Josh Capon are teaming up again to open a burger bar called Burger and Barrel in Soho, which will serve small steaks and chicken paillard. Pretty impressive for a...
Read MoreRouge Tomate 2.0 – A Concept & Menu Change
While everyone was lounging on the beach and seizing the last days of summer, Rouge Tomate was busy revamping its menu and its dining room. It was always an original concept: There aren’t many, if any, restaurants with a pedigreed chef, locally sourced ingredients, an in-house nutritionist that clocks calories, and a S.P.E. charter devoted to Health Through Food. The result is a Michelin-starred meal that you don’t have to feel guilty about. Really, the only drawback was the...
Read MoreRib Rack
Labor Day is fast approaching, which sadly means summer is almost over. There goes half-day Fridays, white pants and local peaches. But there’s still time for one last, big BBQ before the summer fun ends. We want to go out big, so we’re making ribs, but as we learned a few weeks ago, one rack can take up the entire grill. There was no room for corn or zucchini on the grill, not to mention that you have to...
Read MoreQ & A with Four and Twenty Blackbirds’ Melissa and Emily Elsen
The sisters behind Brooklyn’s favorite pie shop, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, have baking in their genes. While growing up in South Dakota, Melissa and Emily Elsen learned the craft from their Grandma Liz, who baked all the pies for their family’s restaurant in South Dakota. She taught the Elsen sisters the importance of using seasonal, fresh fruit and the secrets to a phenomenal crust. Our favorites are the caramel apple pie with a thick, sea-salt studded crust and pear ginger pie. Brooklyn may be thousands...
Read MoreSouth Street Seaport Eats
Most New Yorkers think of the South Street Seaport as a crowded tourist destination, best left to out of towners. But just behind the seaport are some often, overlooked restaurants worth discovering. This part of the Seaport is where the real downtown hustle happens. Suteishi Address: 24 Peck Slip Phone: (212)766-2344 Suteishi doesn’t look or taste like your average sushi restaurant. For starters, it’s outfitted with floor to ceiling windows, futuristic walls, and a sleek, red and gold sushi...
Read MoreSimply Peeled – A Whole New Brand of Soft-Serve
This is one of those times I wish I lived on the Upper East Side. Ever since Simply Peeled opened a few weeks ago, I want to move. (I’m only half-kidding.) The Upper East Side has just become home to a unique, new frozen dessert so delicious it may have the downtown set breaking their “no traveling north of 14th street rule.” Now, I’ve been smitten with Mister Softee and his vanilla soft serve since I was a kid. ...
Read MoreDIY Ice Cream Sandwiches
Last week’s sleek popsicle molds inspired a search for other inventive gadgets for making frozen treats. There’s only one frozen dessert we love as much as popsicles and that’s ice cream sandwiches. And apparently, we’re not the only ones who feel this way. The mix-and-match ice cream sandwiches at The Meatball Shop, located in the East Village, are just as popular as their meatballs, With this ice cream sandwich maker (pictured right), you can make your own ice cream...
Read MoreQ & A with Annisa's Anita Lo
Opening your own restaurant is a daunting task in and of itself, but Anita Lo had to open Annisa twice. Last year, a fire destroyed her thriving West Village eatery. And just a few months earlier, she closed Bar-Q, another one of her restaurants. Instead of calling it a day, she started over again and rebuilt Annisa from the ground up. She and her partner even hired a feng shui consultant to clear the “bad energy” in the space. ...
Read MoreFried Pickles on The Rise
You always hear about pregnant woman craving strange food combinations, like pickles and ice cream. We ‘ve been craving fried pickles and we’ve discovered quite a few places to get our fix. Mara’s Homemade342 East 6th St., btwn. First & Second Aves.(212)598-1110One of our favorites are the fried pickles at Mara’s Homemade, a small, southern spot in the East Village. Mara’s pickles are dusted in cornmeal and served with a creamy remoulade dipping sauce. The fried green tomatoes rank...
Read MoreIl Matto's Clamato Mary
Ingredients 1 1/2 ounce of gin 3 ounces of clam juice 1/2 ounce of worcestisher sauce a splash of lemon juice salt pepper fresh thyme PreparationIn a mixing bar glass, add all of the ingredients, ice, and stir. Garnish with thyme. Il MattoAddress: 281 Church St., btwn. Frankln & Avenue of the AmericasPhone:...
Read MoreDIY Popsicles
You never really grow out of popsicles. I love them just as much today as I did when I held my first popsicle, though I do eat them more gracefully these days. And this sleek, stainless steel mold (pictured right) is practically made for grown ups. It’s also BPA free, dishwasher safe and comes with stainless steel lids and silicone rings, which makes for easy clean up and worry-free licking. The best part is that whatever you can dream...
Read MoreBest of – New York's Summer Eats
What’s not to love about summer? Of course, there’s the beach and the sun, and more importantly, all of the season’s fruits and vegetables. Summer is practically synonymous with grilled corn, lobster rolls, citrusy ceviches and soft shell crab and the city’s filled with great ways to seize the last few weeks of summer. Red Hook Lobster Pound – Lobster roll Address: 284 Van Brunt St., nr. Verona St. (Brooklyn) Phone: (646) 326-7650It’s hard to imagine that just a few years...
Read MoreThe Local Store's Spicy Corn on the Cob
Corn on the Cob with Spicy Lime ButterBy Richele Ingredients 4 good sized firm ears of corn from the greenmarket. (Don’t husk them when you buy them as this will make them taste starchy sooner. It’s better to take your chances with a few undevoloped kernels.) 1/4 cup of butter 1 lime cayenne pepper salt PreparationHusk your corn at home and put all four cobs in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. For the butter, mix about 1/4 cup...
Read MoreDual BBQ Grill Pan
It’s the height of BBQ season and we’ve been taking full advantage of cooking on the grill. Really, there isn’t much that doesn’t taste better grilled – our recent favorites are peaches and octopus. The only complain we have is that smaller ingredients, like local stone fruits or shellfish, fall through the grates of the grill and are lost forever. So we did a little digging and found the Dual Grill Pan, (pictured right) that prevents anything from...
Read MoreNYC's Gourmet Picnic Baskets
The dog days of summer are upon us, so we might as well take full advantage of them. While everyone else is picnicking in the Central Park, why not throw a picnic on the High Line or even Lincoln Center? Several of the city’s best restaurants and chefs have packed a basket full of homemade treats for you, some of which even include Frisbees or corkscrews to guarantee a fun afternoon outdoors. RG writer – Sam Dangremond Blue Ribbon...
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