All Posts Tagged: ‘fiamma’
Tables Available at Alto and Insieme; Scarpetta and Il Buco Mostly Booked
César Ramirez Out at Bar Blanc; Prospect Heights Eats
Carroll Gardens: On July 26, Tall Order caterers will serve a Brownstone Dinner at their house, on the corner of President and Smith streets. [Bergen Carroll]
Harlem: Nectar Wine Bar, at 235 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, is pairing up with next-door's Harlem Vintage and the Joy of Cheese on Sunday to host a wine-and-cheese tasting, which you'll need to buy tickets for to attend. [Uptown Flavor]
Park Slope: The Brooklyn Burger Bar has been replaced by Flipsters, which looks like another burger bar. [Blondie and Brownie via Hamburger Today]
Prospect Heights: James Bistro is the latest in this line of good neighborhood eats. [NYT]
Soho: Frank Bruni may say “Fiamma is about as Italian as a poodle in a Prada scarf,” but Fabio Trabocchi's unfazed: “You don’t need a red-and-white checkered tablecloth and a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce to be Italian.” [Gothamist]
West Village: Lauded chef César Ramirez has left Bar Blanc, and another Bouley alum, Sebastiaan Zijp, will not only step in, he'll expand the menu and add more snack-able bar food. [Eater]
Maremma’s Farewell Feast
From left, Fabio Trachocchi, Anne Burrell, and Cesare Casella, around 1 a.m.Photo: Josh Ozersky
Tables Available at Abboccato and Felidia; Il Buco and Del Posto Mostly Booked
Tables Available at Fiamma and Insieme; San Domenico and Scarpetta Mostly Booked
Tables Available at Abboccato and Del Posto; Scarpetta Fully Booked
Tables Available at BLT Market and Merkato 55; Allen & Delancey Mostly Booked
Tables Available at Accademia di Vino and Bar Stuzzichini; Allen & Delancey Fully Booked
‘Food & Wine’ Big-Ups New York on Best-Restaurants List
New York may have gotten short shrift on San Pallegrino’s list of the world’s best restaurants, but on Food & Wine’s just-released "Go List" of the World’s Best Places to Eat, we rank third, behind Tokyo and Paris. TAKE THAT, VANCOUVER! Curiously, no New York eateries made the lists of Best New Restaurants (these lists apply to 2007, so Ko didn’t qualify) or Best Restaurants for Carnivores (Kobe Club must be crushed), but here are the locals that did make the top-ten lists.
Indian Buffet Pulls a Fiamma, Raises Prices in Midtown
And don't even ask what happened to the prawns.Photo courtesy of Midtown Lunch
First Fiamma, Now Spice Fusion Follows Accolades With Price Hike [Midtown Lunch]
Related: Fiamma Prices Drop After Bruni Post
Tables Available at Bar Stuzzichini and Tailor; Allen & Delancey and Kingswood Fully Booked
Pelaccio Focusing on Fatty ‘Cue; Bruni Gets the Fiamma Memo
Astoria: Leng Thai’s brown rice is delicious; they mix in red grains. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: A new bakery is supposed to open around June on Fulton near the Met. Baker: "When I was young, we’d go to the bakery every Sunday after church for a fresh loaf of French bread, soft and still warm from the oven. I’d love to re-create that here.” Blogger: "OMGYAY!" [Clinton Hill Blog]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: A former Sapa chef will head the kitchen at a new Pan-Asian restaurant called Prana, set to open in June in the old Scopa space. [Zagat]
Soho: Fabio Trabocchi has written a personal note to Bruni and has worked with B.R. Guest to lower prices across the board at Fiamma (including dropping the price of the seven-course menu from $138 to $125). Sorry to those who ate at Fiamma last week. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Williamsburg: Zak Pelaccio’s project with Robbie Richter might be called Fatty ‘Cue. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Related: Breaking: Zak Pelaccio and Robbie Richter to Collaborate on Asian Barbecue in Williamsburg
West Village: If you want to celebrate the Irish all next week, August will be "toasting the Irish" through March 21 by serving Guinness Extra Stout and specials like house-made corned beef and cabbage. [Strong Buzz]
Fiamma Prices Drop After Bruni Post
When Frank Bruni decided to confront Fiamma about its price increases, we knew it wouldn’t take long for Team Hanson to get on the problem. Fiamma is the group’s flagship restaurant, and the critical pile-on about high prices and missing ingredients must have stung B.R. Guest. Today, the group announced the inevitable price cuts to tasting menus. Prices are dropping from $92 to $85 for the standard prix fixe menu, and the five-course dinner has been cut to $105 from $120. Fiamma has also reintroduced its full-bore seven-course menu, which will come in at $125.
Chef Counters on the Rise; Chefs Put in Their Time on the Line
As chefs and cooks take on more roles of service, they cut out more costs and create a more intimate dining experience, especially at restaurants with counters overlooking the food preparation. [NYT]
Related: Ringside Seats at the Chef's Counter
Apparently, restaurants’ hanging of red velvet curtains in colder months signals metaphors of birth and womblike spaces for diners. Ew. [NYO]
Chefs like Akhtar Nawab of Elettaria and Josh Eden of Shorty’s.32 both spent years cooking on the line before being able to fly solo. [TONY]
Adam Platt on Best of New York: “It's a Matter of Taste, Cutty!”
Fiamma Says the Luxe Ingredients Never Went Away
Fabio Trabocchi isn't exactly cooking with Spam.Photo: Patrick McMullan
Fiamma’s Menu a Fraction of Its Former Self
You can get a martini here, we're sure.Photo: Noah Sheldon
Produce Carts Approved for Low-Income Areas; Calling a Clone a Clone
The City Council passed a watered-down version of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to place produce carts in low-income neighborhoods. The new plan cuts the total number down to 1,000 from 1,500 and reduces the number of targeted precincts from 43 to 34. [NYP]
The Post hit two midtown Starbucks yesterday and found that, while Tuesday night’s three-hour training session for baristas may not have instilled the ability to make perfect drinks, they will remake them as many times as you force them to. [NYP]
A City Council member introduced legislation yesterday that would require meat from cloned animals to be labeled as such. [Metro NY]
Bar Blanc Draws Its Deuce; Mia Dona Welcomed by Richman
Frank Bruni finds Bar Blanc fussy, mannered, overly fastidious — and very, very good. The two stars should take the sting out of his review for the place's owners. [NYT]
Related: Raising the Bar
Restaurant Girl hits Williamsburg’s Zenkichi and, between the room, the food, and the sake selection, seems to have a real find on her hands. [NYDN]
Randall Lane joins in the general enthusiasm for Dovetail , but now he seems unwilling to go back to his five-star-granting ways and so ends up giving them only four — the equivalent, in traditional star terms, to a two-star review, which is not what this reads as. [TONY]
‘The New Yorker’ Hits Fiamma Hard
The New Yorker’s “Tables for Two” reviews have generally been mordant little affairs, short on criticism and long on wry descriptions of restaurant culture. Not this week. Nick Paumgarten comes down hard on Fiamma, describing “FEMA-like” service, cold food, a martini made without vermouth, and, in general, the very picture of a major ripoff operation, subsisting on “a strong euro and the proximity of the Soho Grand hotel.” It’s a wild departure from the usual “Tables for Two” mold, and though it may or may not be reflective of Fiamma (practically all of the reviews have been very positive, including Adam Platt’s two-star job), it’s certainly a lot more fun to read. Something tells us Paumgarten had a lot of fun writing it.
Tables for Two: Fiamma [NYer]
Tables Available at Fiamma and Tailor; Allen & Delancey Mostly Booked
What's the City’s Greenest Restaurant™?
Birdbath, which doesn't need no stinking certification.Photo: Melissa Hom
Starbucks Nixes Breakfast Sandwiches; Kenny Shopsin Ready for Mind-Altering Substances
In addition to slowing its expansion (finally), Starbucks will halt “sales of hot breakfast sandwiches because their smell interferes with the aroma of coffee.” [WSJ]
If Padma Lakshmi could eat anywhere right now, she’d head to a little taco stand in Mexico for some fish tacos on the beach. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Chelsea hot spot Stereo, which was closed by police earlier this month, will not be reopening at its current location because the landlord bought out the lease. [NYP]
Tables Available at Centro Vinoteca and Tailor; Kingswood Fully Booked
Jennifer Garner Likes the Food at Fiamma More than Padma Did
Jennifer Garner cooks?Photo: Getty Images
Barbuto Saved by a Chicken; Fiamma Comes Up Short
The wildly uneven Barbuto earns a single star from Frank Bruni, almost entirely on the strength of a well-roasted Bell & Evans chicken. To quote Winston Churchill, “Some chicken!” [NYT]
Alan Richman was appalled by how small the portions were at Grayz, how much they cost, and how shady most of them were, except for the magnificent, world-beating short rib: “In complexity and satisfaction, this dish reminded me most of the Gray Kunz of Lespinasse, the chef we miss so much.” [Bloomberg]
Randall Lane gets that Fiamma’s Fabio Trachocchi is cooking in a grand, Continental style and doesn’t hold that against him, but the food is too rich and the service too sloppy to give him the five or six stars the place would have liked And so they have to settle for four. [TONY]
Tables Available at Barfry and Tailor; Primehouse Mostly Booked
Bloomberg Delivers Cheesecake; McDonald's Takes on Starbucks
Hizzoner showed up to a political summit in Oklahoma with Junior’s cheesecake for all. [NYS]
Jennifer LeRoy sees another 30 years of LeRoy ownership at Tavern on the Green, but she isn’t striking a deal with Donald Trump to keep the place. [Insatiable Critic]
When world adventurer Anthony Bourdain found out that Food Network would be re-airing episodes of his series A Cook’s Tour, he was sitting by a pool in Hawaii. His reaction? “This was like being unexpectedly groped and publicly slipped the tongue by the ugliest girl at the prom.” [Anthony Bourdain’s Blog/Travel Channel]
Shake Shack Reopens Today; Fabio Trabocchi's Last Meal
Sweet glory, Shake Shack reopens today at 11:30! You can call ahead to place your order, but you won’t be enjoying the new heaters until next week. [Eater]
The British agree: Adam Platt's term “haute barnyard” defines the prevailing dining trend. [Guardian]
Related: The Haute Barnyard Hall of Fame
The manager of Sarabeth’s on Central Park South caught a 50-year-old thief taking $27 from her pocketbook over the weekend. [NYP]