Coffee pro Liz Clayton fills us in on last night’s Chelsea bean extravaganza.
Last night at Chelsea java house Café Grumpy, Luis Norberto Pascoal of Brazil’s Daterra farms, a legendary artisanal coffee bean producer, laid out three of his most recent coffees for a crowd of novices and fanatics. Think of this as the coffee equivalent of Daniel Day-Lewis talking shop at an Ohio community theater. Read the rest of this entry »
A number of good articles—including this one from The Village Voice on May 6, and another from The Wall Street Journal on March 8—have come out recently, chronicling the effects of our poor economy, weak dollar and expensive grain on the food we love. We don’t like to gloat, but since TONY isn’t usually associated with cutting-edge economic analysis, we can’t help but be a little pleased with our early coverage (February 20) of the subject, part of a larger article on the recession’s effect on life in the city.
Watch out, Rupert: We’re on your tail.
Zach Feldman, on the state of affairs over at Top Chef:
Last night’s episode took the chefs to their breaking points: There was sleep deprivation, locker smashing, gastronomic (and astronomic) erections and even a sweet yawn montage. Thankfully, the only blatant product placements were for the Clos Du Bois wines poured at the wedding and the Verizon phones used during shopping. We demand more subtle manipulation, Bravo! Read the rest of this entry »
No plans for 6pm tonight? Then run—don’t walk!—to this coffee-tasting event. Sip, slurp and learn your way through three new java offerings at Chelsea caffeine haven Café Grumpy. The goods, straight from Brazil’s Daterra plantations, include a "Taste of the Harvest Magnum Reserve Yellow Bourbon" and a newly discovered low-caffeine variety (no GMO here; it grows naturally that way). Specialty coffee roaster Andrew Barnett of Ecco Caffè will present these unique reserve lots for tasting, while the producers themselves will give the story behind the cup. Check in tomorrow for TONY contributor Liz Clayton’s event coverage—she’ll file when she’s through bouncing off the walls. FREE Café Grumpy, 224 W 20th St between Seventh and Eighth Aves (212-255-5511). 6pm. For more info, visit cafegrumpy.com.
We’re not quite sure what to make of this e-mail, which arrived in our inbox moments ago from Matilda restaurant in the East Village. Have the owners been watching too much Bravo? The memo invites "fearless chefs" for a monthly Tuscan-Mexican "cooking slam." The winner gets to have his/her winning dishes showcased on the menu (and a job? This does seem like a genius way for the restaurant to audition prospective staffers). Spectators can mill about and munch hors d’oeuvres while the competitors sauté their hearts out. Whether Matilda’s doing it for publicity (of course), for fun (likely) or both, let’s just hope they don’t do it on Wednesdays—we’ll be watching Top Chef. "Fierce" cooks, see the entire e-mail after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday marked the fourth annual “D’Artagnan Duckathlon,” and TONY was on hand to take in the action. The culinary relay race draws teams from some of the city’s top restaurants (Annisa, Oceana, Chanterelle, DB Bistro Moderne and Jacques Torres to name a few) to compete in such absurd challenges as correctly matching the testicle to the animal, crêpe flipping and bobbing for lemons. Blatant product shilling notwithstanding, we had great fun meandering about the Meatpacking District (when’s the last time we said that?) and popping into participating restaurants to watch the teams at play. At the end of the day, Cercle Rouge took home the win, with Anita Lo’s contingent picking up second place. See some shots from the day, including Florent’s bawdy “Saucisson Fan-Dangle,” after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
When Tisserie owner Ronald Harrar told us that he would be soft-opening an outpost of his pastry shop–café in DKNY’s Soho store today (see the rendering on the left), we found it both humorous and cruel. Would the ladies who aim to fulfill the neighborhood’s size-2 standard of beauty appreciate temptation in their clothes-shopping midst? It turns out that Harrar, whose business replaces a tea salon that previously occupied the space (and whose wife works for Donna Karan), already considered this very conundrum. Read the rest of this entry »
Mom’s gonna be in town for Mother’s Day (May 11) and you haven’t made plans? No worries, you ungrateful brat—we’re here to help. Below, some of your options for saying, "Thank you, Mom, for wiping my nose, changing my nappies and subsidizing my whippits habit in college." Read the rest of this entry »
Zach Feldman, Top Chef correspondent, brings us up to speed.
Tear. Top Chef is halfway done, and two NYC chefs are out to pasture. Dale, Andrew, Lisa, Nikki and Spike, we’re counting on you! Read the rest of this entry »
Sad news in midtown today. TONY has confirmed via an NYPD press representative that George Atterbury, general manager at Grayz, was slashed at 7:54am outside 22 East 40th Street by an unidentified attacker who fled in a dark-colored vehicle. Atterbury suffered multiple lacerations and was stabbed to the stomach. He was admitted to Bellevue Hospital, where his injuries were deemed to be minor abrasions. The suspect, who the NYPD believe to have been a random attacker, has yet to be apprehended.
