LES Crackdown; Yogurt Wars Expand UWS Front

Chelsea: Patricia Yeo is out at Sapa. [Eater] Lower East Side: Turns out La Esquina’s basement is illegal! [NYP] Midtown West: Get your Charlie Murphy fix at El Centro; it’s his favorite Mexican restaurant. [Gridskipper] Soho: Former 66 chef Josh Eden has taken over the kitchen at Goblin Market. [Strong Buzz] Upper West Side: Yogurt Wars update: Pinkberry takes over Excel Fine Art’s space on Columbus Avenue. [Eat for Victory/VV] West Village: Something's fishy about the seafood sister restaurant to the Spotted Pig: Diners at the original heard staff chatting about the location opening soon as the 10 Spot. [Down by the Hipster]

Posted 08/27/07 in Grub Street : Neighborhood Watch

Tags: 66, chelsea, el centro, goblin market, josh eden, lower east side, midtown west, neighborhood watch, patricia yeo, sapa, soho, spotted pig, the box, west village

Tony Nominee Justin Bond Has Cucumber Cocktails With Tilda Swinton

Performance artist Justin Bond is perhaps best known for playing half of Kiki and Herb — their show, Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway, is up for a Tony on Sunday. What will he be prowling for during the after-party? “I’m a connoisseur of crab cakes,” says the Maryland native. “I haven’t really found one that’s completely satisfying.” He’s also a lover of oysters, prosecco, and dropping the names of his dining companions Rufus, Maggie, and Tilda — or so we discovered when we asked him about his recent meals.

Posted 06/08/07 in Grub Street : The New York Diet

Tags: blt fish, blue ribbon bakery, goblin market, gramercy theatre, hudson diner, justin bond, kiki and herb, maggie gyllenhaal, mermaid inn, ps 122, rufus wainwright, the new york diet, the park, tilda swinton, zipper factory

Mr. Chow, Dojo, and Other Biggies So Flunked Their Health Inspections

Taking an active interest as we do in hygiene, we keep an eye on the New York Health Department’s restaurant-inspection site. Usually, it’s outer-borough taco joints and the like that flunk their tests. We were surprised today, however, to find a few big names cited for everything from suspect shellfish to — something worse than supect — rats.

Posted 01/09/07 in Grub Street : NewsFeed

Tags: cafe des artistes, dock's oyster bar, dojo, goblin market, health inspection, mr. chow, newsfeed, savannah steak, trattoria dell'arte

Love Gets No Love From Bruni; Strong Falls in Love With Self at Cafe Cluny

Bruni shares Platt's horror over Lonesome Dove's "hairy and scary" welcome mat and agrees the "mistakes don't end at the front door." For one, the quail quesadillas and rabbit empanadas taste like, well, chicken. Still, it's not all bluster: "Mr. Love seems dedicated to getting first-rate cuts of meat, and if the rub-happy kitchen goes overboard in seasoning them, especially with salt and pepper, it certainly knows how to cook many of them." [NYT] Forget the two-hour rule at Ramsay at the London: Paul Adams fumes over getting bum-rushed at Goblin Market: "When a place goes to such lengths to make it clear that they don't want customers, I for one am glad to oblige." [NYS] At David Burke's Hawaiian Tropic Zone, the dishes taste "like they came from a war zone, not a tropic zone." But then again "at a human zoo like this, the quality of the food just doesn't matter." [TONY]

Posted 11/15/06 in Grub Street : The Other Critics

Tags: cafe cluny, devin tavern, goblin market, hawaiian tropic zone, lonesome dove, metro marche, sheep station, sheng wang, The Other Critics

Hollywood Desserts and Soho Goblins

This week in the magazine, Rob and Robin track two openings: the wildly successful Hollywood frozen-yogurt chain Pinkberry, and Goblin Market, a new Soho eatery named after lascivious young men in a poem by Christina Rossetti. Pinkberry, they report, is "the talk of the L.A. food blogs." We tracked down a few of those blogs.

Posted 09/18/06 in Grub Street : Openings

Tags: boba, chowhound, goblin market, openings, pinkberry, soho