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• With the neighboring Chase bank soon to be out of the picture, Bar Boulud can expand its bar space and add another kitchen. [NYP]
• If you’ve got the money and the willpower, turning a ten-pound pork belly into bacon at home is a cinch. [Salon]
Related: Bacon: No Need to Overanalyze
• Despite what the packaging says, a British court ruled that Pringles are not technically potato crisps because they are made from dough, not potato slices. [WSJ]
The room looks great and (some) of chef Akthar Nawab's food was great, says Frank Bruni in his one-star review of Elettaria. But both falter for Bruni, who has problems with the way the space flows, and who finds the dishes ranging wildly from brilliant to total letdowns. [NYT]
Related: Restaurant Tour: Elettaria
Restaurant Girl lays three stars on Bar Milano, despite the fact that the pastas are mostly lousy, and the noise is “unbearable.” Except for that, it's great! [NYDN]
Randall Lane didn't even order any pasta but still thought the place worthy of only three stars out of six, with pushy servers and underwhelming meat dishes. [TONY]
Olana comes in under Adam Platt's microscope.Photo: Zach Desart
The Harrison's duck-fat fries — and malt-vinegar mayo.Photo courtesy the Harrison
Michael Psilakis: sitting on top of the world.Photo: Kevin Wick
Frank Bruni rewards Michael Psilakis for his practical efforts to create, in Mia Dona, an affordable restaurant with two stars. (And possibly to make up the third star Anthos should have gotten.) [NYT]
Overall, Restaurant Girl cottons to Merkato 55, though she reserves her fullest praise on account of a few “flubs” and boring desserts. She likes the energy and audacity of the place, though. [NYDN]
Paul Adams has more or less the same sentiments: He likes the place, but it “doesn't dazzle.” Then there are these words, which no doubt the restaurant dreads reading: “not as flavorful as the version I get for half the price uptown.” [NYS]
Mas, tucked away into an odd corner of the West Village, has been off the city’s radar for a while, but has been plugging away, and now been rewarded by a very appreciative two-star rereview by Frank Bruni. [NYT]
Steve Cuozzo goes wild for Mia Dona: “The impossibly inexpensive, all-Italian sequel to prematurely shuttered Dona is also almost impossibly good — and not just in relation to the prices.” Alrighty then! [NYP]
Paul Adams, though noting some early lapses, likes Mia Dona too, but says that it falls into the uncanny valley between the refined (Anthos) and the rustic (Kefi). [NYS]
• Bacaro manager Kama Geary treats everyone like a VIP and would prefer you not try to use cash to get a table. [Eater]
• Michael Psilakis loves that diners at Mia Dona are tapping into the unpretentious atmosphere and ordering pitchers of PBR. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
• Burger King is spending between $8 and $11 million on advertising aimed at recruiting managers and employees for its franchises. Are you King material? [NYT]
• The key to Veselka’s burger perfection is, well, pretty much everything: the successful layering of complementary textures and flavors, tied together with an orthodox attention to proportion and cooking. [Chow]
• In case you didn’t already know, the city’s semi-private nightlife scene is housed entirely below 23rd Street. [Gridskipper]
Astoria: Don't be shy about visiting the newly opened Vue Cafe at 12-14 31st Avenue; "the space is intimate and an upscale touch is felt but not so much that you'd feel awkward dressed in comfortable garb." [Joey in Astoria]
Midtown East: The idea for the popular crispy rabbit served at the bar at Mia Dona "with potato chips made from pickled potatoes and cucumber remoulade" came to Michael Psilakis while he pondered the ultimate bar food, chicken wings. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Midtown West: The Muse Hotel is hosting a cocktail mix-off this Thursday, and the winning team wins a cocktail party for ten at Silverleaf Tavern. [Zagat Buzz]
Williamsburg: Bonita makes a good version of tres leches, but they add chocolate. [Gridskipper]
West Village: Bobo has done well in selecting its new chefs after Nicholas Cantrel's departure; Jared Stafford-Hill of Hearth and Rick Jakobsen from Red Hook's 360 have found their groove. [Gastro Chic] Tasca may be doomed to close and be annexed to the restaurant opening next door, Sheridan Square. [Eater]
If you can get Adam Platt to give you two stars for African food, you're doing something right.Photo: Zach Desart
Jason Hall is like a son to Michael Psilakis. Or maybe a grandson?Photo: Melissa Hom
Age: 28
Restaurants: Anthos and Mia Dona
Background: Hall Worked at San Francisco’s Aqua and One Market, followed by a long period as a line cook under George Morrone, at the four-star restaurant the Fifth Floor. Hall then spent five formative years at Craft, first under Marco Canora and then Damon Wise, before joining with Michael Psilakis and eventually becoming executive chef at his restaurants.
Why they love Chris Cosentino out there.Photo courtesy Boccalone
If you’re not going to the Astor Center’s Head-to-Tail dinner with Chris Cosentino on Tuesday, you can also find his food at Mia Dona, the only New York restaurant serving Cosentino’s charcuterie. Cosentino met Mia Dona owner Donatella Arpaia when shooting The Next Iron Chef, on which he was a contestant, and goes way back with the restaurant’s executive chef, Jason Hall. “We use their lonza (pork loin). It’s amazing. The fat cap is like the finest lardo. And the meat itself expresses the purity of pork — it’s perfectly seasoned and cured, ” he enthuses. Mia Dona serves the lonza on two crostini — one with sheep’s-milk ricotta and Sicilian oregano, and the other with winter-citrus mostarda — but Hall would like to use even more: “I want to use a lot of Chris’s stuff, but we can’t overwhelm the menu all at once.” Cosentino, whom we think of as California’s answer to David Chang, also sells his charcuterie online. Visit Boccalone to order for yourself.
Related: Back-to-Back Feasts Will Break the Bank, Blow Your Mind
Video: Inside Mia Dona's Kitchen
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]
Mia Dona, just before they opened the doors.Photo courtesy Mia Dona
Mia Dona Dinner Menu
Related: Video: Inside Mia Dona’s Kitchen
The Red Hook ball field vendors are in a bidding war with two anonymous groups for control of the weekend food market. [Brooklyn Paper]
Dylan Lauren, founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Shop, used to have a diet consisting “almost entirely of candy, frozen yogurt and vegetables,” but these days she’s paying hundreds of dollars per hour for personal training sessions that keep her slim. [WSJ]
You only have until the end of the month to snag yourself an invite to the secret makeshift nightclub operating in a boutique on Sullivan Street. [Villager]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: A “family-run seafood/soul food take-out spot” called 71.Ate has opened at 417 Nostrand Avenue, and while the fried whiting is tasty, the house-made banana pudding will definitely make you want to come back. [Eat for Victory/VV]
East Village: Ruhlman’s hosting a nose-to-tail dinner with “gut man” Chris Cosentino on Tuesday, March 4, at Astor Center. [Ruhlman]
Murray Hill/Kips Bay: Can the 2nd Avenue Deli really be called kosher if it’s open on the Sabbath? Many observant Jews, whom Frank Bruni has chatted with, say no. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Tribeca: Bouley has been denied a liquor license for his proposed Japanese restaurant and cooking school, Brushstrokes, “based on the history of the owner, having problems with the community in the past, and the way he runs his establishments.” [Eater]
Upper East Side: Mia Dona is currently BYOB until the liquor license comes through next week. [Eater]
What will you be eating next month at Mia Dona, the new midtown restaurant from chef Michael Psilakis and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia? We suggest the meat loaf roasted to order with an egg tucked inside. Or the hamburger with the salsa verde and garlic confit. And what will the dining room look like? Too soon to tell with all the plywoodTM, but Psilakis points out the construction highlights. See what other treats are coming by watching Grub Street’s video preview of Mia Dona.
Danny Meyer and the Union Square Partnership are planning to renovate the north end of Union Square Park, including a transformation of the decaying pavilion into a windowless restaurant space. [NYO]
Mia Dona, Donatella Arpaia and Michael Psilakis’s newest baby, will start serving up rustic Italian with Greek influences in midtown next month. Marc Forgione, most recently the corporate chef for the BLT Restaurant Group, is planning an American restaurant for a spring opening. [NYT]
Forget about bringing your junior gastronomes to the finest restaurant Disney World has to offer: Victoria & Albert’s has banned all kids under the age of 10. [NYP]
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