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All Posts Tagged: ‘rao's’

Neighborhood Watch

3/31/08

3:00 PM

East Village Pizza Spot Aspires to Match Di Fara; Foosball Lures Families to Cobble Hill

Astoria: A new Greek called Akti Seafood Restaurant has opened at 34-19 30th Avenue. [Foodista]
Chelsea: If you can't get a reservation at Momofuku Ko, you could spend about the same price you would for dinner there on a single burger from the Old Homestead. But it comes with tasty-looking tater tots. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Cobble Hill: The Moxie Spot is a two-story spot aimed at families, where "Foosball, board games, music, and arts and crafts are served along with grass-fed hanger steak sandwiches, spaghetti Bolognese, and house-roasted Chinese duck" care of consulting chef Josh Eden from Shorty's 32. [Strong Buzz]
East Village: New spot Artichoke is trying to become the Di Fara of Manhattan, but as "being deemed the new Di Fara is the food equivalent of being deemed 'the new Dylan' in singer-songwriter circles," they have their work cut out for them. [Slice]
Fort Greene: Paper covering the windows at June indicate the southern restaurant may be closed, again. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Spanish Harlem: Tips from the Insatiable Critic for how, as a civilian, you can get into Rao's: You can't. Well, you could stop in during Thanksgiving in person, and you might get a table for 2009. [Insatiable Critic]

More: Neighborhood Watch »akti seafood, artichoke pizza, astoria, chelea, cobble hill, di fara, east village, fort greene, june restaurant, old homestead, rao's, spanish harlem, the moxie spot

The New York Diet

3/28/08

3:30 PM

Carmine Agnello Is a Grown-up Gotti at Rao's

At Grotta Azzurra. "You go from a boy to a man
and that's it."Photo: Melissa Hom

It was a big week for Carmine Agnello Jr., grandson of John Gotti — he has just finished cutting his debut hip-hop album, his 22nd birthday is coming up (“you go from being a boy to a man and that’s it,” he says), and his father, who just served almost ten years, made a rare dinner appearance, an event that was filmed for an upcoming reality show that will bring fans up to date on goings-on since Growing Up Gotti. We’ve heard that Agnello, who lives in Old Westbury, Long Island, can’t move around the city as freely as the average diner, given his family history, but that doesn’t mean he can’t score a table as Rao’s.

More: The New York Diet »carmine gotti agnello, growing up gotti, long island, matteo's, old westbury, one if by land two if by sea, peter luger, pj clarke's, rao's, strata, victoria gotti

The Underground Gourmet

11/28/07

9:00 AM

Steve Schirripa Has No Problem With Little Italy, Steaks

Steve Schirripa eats his way through New York, and your
computer.Photo Courtesy Lifeskool

In his new cable cooking show, Steve Schirripa’s Hungry (Lifeskool network, debuting December 6), Uncle June’s faithful manservant Bobby Baccalieri tours his favorite New York Italian kitchens and takes some sauce-splattered pointers from pals like Rao’s Frank Pellegrino and Peasant’s Frank De Carlo. Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld asked the man Tony Soprano immortalized as a “calzone with legs” to expound on his favorite pastime — eating on and off the set.

There are a lot of cooking shows out there these days. What distinguishes yours from the competition?
This is a real guy going into a real kitchen; I think after you watch this, you’re really going to learn how to make the meatballs from Rao’s. It’s a combination of talking, comedy, and how-to.

Who does the cooking at home?
My wife; I eat, she cooks. Which is why I’m doing this new show. They’re teaching me how to cook.

In one episode, you spotlight the Mulberry Street restaurant Il Cortile. Do you think that Little Italy gets a bad rap?
I think it does. First of all, it’s a lot of fun down there. There’s a lot of tourists, but Il Cortile is as good an Italian restaurant as any in the city.

More: The Underground Gourmet »bamontes, don peppe, il cortile, little italy, macelleria, manducatis, park side, peasant, piccola venezia, rao's, spumoni gardens, steve schirripa, the palm

Mediavore

6/18/07

10:24 AM

Restaurants Sue to Keep Calorie Info Out of Sight; Online Reservations Dominate

The New York State Restaurant Association sues the city to stop having to reveal calorie information. [Nation's Restaurant News]

The days of making, and keeping, reservations off-line are over: OpenTable has come to dominate the restaurant business. [NYT]

In a Times op-ed, the Zagats plead for real regional Chinese cooking to come and save us from egg foo yong. It would be a revelation, they say — “Imagine … what it would be like to discover for the first time Memphis-style barbecue, New York deli food, soul food and Creole, Tex-Mex, Southwestern, California and Hawaiian cuisines all at once.” [NYT]

More: Mediavore »absinthe, chinese, frank pellegrino, new york state restaurant association, opentable, produce, rao's, reservations, the next food network star, tim zagat, tony bourdain, top chef

Mediavore

4/30/07

10:00 AM

New Hope for the Moondance Diner

Well-heeled fans of the soon-to-be-closed Moondance Diner consider jacking the place up and moving it somewhere else. [NYT]
Related: Well, It's a Marvelous Night for Luxury Condos [Daily Intel]

Rachael Ray seizes control of her own E! True Hollywood Story. [Buffalo News]

The only difference between the Rao’s in New York and the Rao’s in Las Vegas: The latter has a terrace overlooking the Caesar’s Palace hotel pool. And you can actually eat at the Vegas location. [NYS]

More: Mediavore »a voce, city meals on wheels, eric ripert, fr.og, friend of a farmer, institute of culinary education, las vegas, laurent tourondel, moondance diner, rachael ray, rao's

User's Guide

12/ 4/06

9:00 AM

Got $25,000? A Learjet and a Table at Mozza Await

Bananas and grapes? Feh!Photo: Courtesy of Bombardier.

How can a Batali completist visit the chef's new place in L.A. and get back in time to pay the babysitter? Here's one option: Dial-A-Dinner, the concierge service that dispatches tuxedoed drivers to deliver grub from upscale eateries, runs a side business called Jet Dining. Founder David Blum says George Hamilton, Paris and Nicky Hilton, and Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman are among the clients who've requested, on as little as four hours' notice, private jets to take them to far-flung restaurants. We dialed what Blum confusingly calls the "unlisted listed number" (212-643-1222) to find out how much it would set us back to check out some recently opened NYC-restaurant sister eateries around the country. (Blum says you can request an onboard meal from your favorite local eatery, but we discovered that you might have to settle for substitutions.)