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Red Hook Vendors Need Your Taco Dollars
Posted 07/15/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
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Look for Red Hook Vendors Next Weekend
Posted 07/11/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
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No Red Hook Vendors This Weekend, But Still Plenty to Eat
Posted 07/03/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Maybe the weekend of the 12th?
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Cesar Fuentes Ponders the Effects of Ikea on the Red Hook Vendors
Posted 06/24/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Brian Lehrer talked to Fuentes about what the future holds for the vendors.
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Can I Take My Parents to the Red Hook Vendors This Weekend?
Posted 06/13/08 in Grub Street: The In-box
Maybe not this weekend — or next weekend.
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Red Hook Vendors Three Weeks Away
Posted 05/27/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Mid-June at the earliest, says the vendors' official rep.
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Red Hook Vendors: Safe for Six Years, But in What Form?
Posted 03/10/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
The forces of good have triumphed! The Parks Department has issued a permit to the Red Hook food vendors, ensuring deliciousness at the Red Hook ball fields for at least another six years. But the vendors aren't out of the woods yet. "Two hours ago I got a call from Parks saying we won the bid," Carlos Fuentes, the vendors' leader, tells us. "This has been an uphill battle. It's by no means an end. It's a big victory though. Now the biggest challenge is DOH compliance. In winning the bid we understood that we need to comply with health regulations. It might change the character of the affair — the ethnic, rustic, mercado style. We may have to turn into a more generic type of activity. We need to look at options in hopes of trying to find a way to preserve what we already had."
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Red Hook Vendors Bid for Ball Fields
Posted 01/25/08 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
If Red Hook vendors want to cook at the ball fields, they’ll have to use approved food-preparation carts, according to a report in the Daily News. The city Parks Department is now accepting bids from vendors, but the traditional mom-and-pop stands may not be able to afford the upgrade. Plus, are those carts even suitable for the kind of deliciousness served in Red Hook? One vendor, who requires four grills to make her pupusas, says no: “We’re not just boiling hot dogs.” You said it, lady. The city will award vendor permits at the end of February. New Rules May Grill Taco Stands [NYDN] Earlier: Grub Street's complete coverage of the Red Hook vendors.
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Bourdain to Cook at Les Halles, Yearns for Giant Food Courts
Posted 12/04/07 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Tony Bourdain was at the Union Square Barnes & Noble last night to do a joint reading and signing with Michael Ruhlman, author of The Elements of Cooking. Interviewing Bourdain is effortless: The man is a nonstop font of opinions and bons mots, so we just took out our notebook and started writing. What, for instance, did he think of the reopening of his favorite bar, Siberia? (“When Siberia closed my life as an alcoholic ended,” he said wistfully. “Tracey [Westmoreland] is a man of many mysteries. I’m skeptical. Siberia reopening? [Sarcastically] Yeah, I’d like to see that.” Bourdain also told us that, sometime in the next two weeks, he was going to go back for one night to his old job at Les Halles, personally working the sauté station on a crowded night for his TV show, No Reservations. And he would not be alone back in the trenches: A few feet away, Eric Ripert would be working the grill station, cooking meat all night. Given all of his travels, what does Bourdain think New York needs? A giant food court, of course.
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Another Look at Bar Boulud
Posted 10/30/07 in Grub Street: Mediavore
David Bouley is expanding his Tribeca empire with “an upscale Japanese-themed restaurant called Brushstrokes” which will take over the soon-to-be-former Delphi space. [NYS] Gael Greene was on hand for last night’s first taste of Bar Boulud even though the opening has been pushed back a month or so. [Food Writer’s Diary/Nation's Restaurant News] Related: Exclusive: Feast Your Eyes on Bar Boulud, Coming in November The next Next Iron Chef challenge is “cooking gourmet airline food with all the constraints of airline galleys. Holy smokes. It’s the exact same challenge as Top Chef.” [Serious Eats]
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Red Hook Spokesman Strikes Back, Puts Down Coup
Posted 10/01/07 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
The Times reported dissension among the Red Hook vendors, and we were surprised. But not as surprised as Cesar Fuentes, who was furious when we talked with him over the weekend. “This wasn’t really dissension,” Fuentes says. “It was more of a coup d’état.” Seriously? What's going on in Red Hook?
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Senator Schumer Springs to the Red Hook Vendors’ Defense Again
Posted 08/28/07 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Another weekend went by without incident for the Red Hook food vendors, and don’t think we’re not happy about it. We’re grateful, too, because there’s reason to believe that the intervention of Senator Chuck Schumer halted the bulldozers of the Department of Health, much as he did the incipient threat from the Parks Department some weeks ago. Vendor representative Cesar Fuentes tells us that Schumer wrote Dr. Thomas Frieden, the department’s commissioner, thanking them for consideration and leniency. Fuentes, though, doesn’t feel that the vendors are out of the woods and not just because of the DOH: “As the deadline for our current TUA permit looms near, NYC Parks Dept. has not -as of yet- issued an extension for our operation to continue beyond Sept 8th and until the expected end of our season on Oct. 28th. As we are still hopeful this permit extension will be granted, we trust the Parks Dept. earlier decision to extend such permit is still in place -that it has not backed out of its decision, but just delayed it for unknown reasons...” The Parks Department to the left of them, the DOH to the right, on rode the food vendors. Senator Schumer's letter to the Department of Health [pdf] Earlier: Red Hook Vendors Make It Official: Their Fingers Are Crossed
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Thor Struck Down on the LES; Bruni Rides the Bull in Midtown West?
Posted 08/23/07 in Grub Street: Neighborhood Watch
Clinton Hill: Recent openings: Manee Thai from the owners of Myrtle Thai and Nuevo Latino spot Tamboril. [Clinton Hill Blog] Coney Island: The world’s largest “lollypop” has been installed by an artist to commemorate Philip’s Candy (1930–2001). [Kinetic Carnival] Long Island City: LIC Bar at 45-58 Vernon Boulevard is hosting a BBQ and free concert with local bands this Sunday from 4 to 7:30 p.m. [Joey in Astoria] Lower East Side: Thor gets gutted with no warning. [Eater] Midtown West: Frank Bruni contemplated riding the bull at Johnny Utah’s. [Diner’s Journal/NYT] Prospect Heights: Rye with fresh blackberries, mint, and ginger beer, and gin with peaches and homemade thyme syrup are among cocktails available at Flatbush Farm Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. during a farmer’s-market tasting event. [A Brooklyn Life]
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Red Hook Vendors Make It Official: Their Fingers Are Crossed
Posted 08/22/07 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Cesar Fuentes, the official face of the Red Hook food vendors, released a statement today, detailing some of the specifics of the vendors' arrangement with the Department of Health. Though there’s little here Cesar didn’t tell us about the other day, the upshot of it seems to be that the vendors and the DOH are trying to work it all out and that the former has a shot at not getting shut down before the season ends. We hope so. That isn’t to say it’s a lock, and we would feel better if the statement included word of an actual promise by the DOH not to break out the bleach and shutdown notices. But we’re pulling for them. The full release is below.
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Merkat Busts Out Its Own Secret Room; Red Hook Vendors Safe Through Fall
Posted 06/25/07 in Grub Street: Mediavore
Merkat has its own secret, PDT-style back room, Merkat Negre, with a chalkboard menu and a “young, pleasantly noisy crowd.” [Restaurant Girl] A typical weekend for a Red Hook soccer-fields vendor involves endless prep work, setting up by 7:30 a.m., cooking all day, and breaking the stand down at night … [NYT] But the vendors' rituals are safe until October 28, thanks to the intercession of Senator Chuck Schumer. [Serious Eats]
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Your Limousine-Riding Chef Friends Don’t Impress Me
Posted 06/11/07 in Grub Street: The In-box
Dear Grub Street,
I’m glad that you got all your yuppie-ass chef friends to “vouch” for the ball fields on Grub Street. It’s so nice to see a bunch of privileged jerks who probably take a limo down there slumming it and “gettin’ real” with the working class of New York … It’s funny that I have been going to the ball fields nearly every weekend for seven years and until last summer never saw more than a few Anglos there. I certainly never saw you there or any of these famous “chefs.” Why should I care about what Tom Colicchio, Aaron Sanchez, and Zak Pelaccio say about the ball fields?
Jason -
Senator Schumer Stands Up for the Red Hook Ball Fields; Di Fara Set to Reopen
Posted 06/11/07 in Grub Street: Mediavore
Senator Chuck Schumer visits the Red Hook ball fields and stands up for the vendors in front of rolling cameras: “Removing this for something that might make a little more money for the City of New York makes no sense. We don't want McDonald’s here.” [NYDN] Earlier: Senator Schumer Springs to the Red Hook Ball-Fields’ Defense Di Fara will reopen by the end of the week. But it isn’t clear what owner Dom DeMarco will be doing to prevent another closure. [AMNY] FreshDirect has a rival in tiny, Long Island City–based Bread-n-Brie. Unlike FreshDirect, with its vast inventory, Bread-n-Brie goes to good markets and gets things for you upon request. [NYT]
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Senator Schumer Springs to the Red Hook Ball-Fields’ Defense
Posted 06/08/07 in Grub Street: NewsFeed
Apparently, the righteous outrage over the threat to the Red Hook ball fields has reached beyond Grub Street to Washington, D.C., causing Senator Charles Schumer (N.Y.) to leap into action. The senator, flanked by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and a brigade of top New York chefs, will appear at the ball fields tomorrow at 1 p.m. to criticize the Parks Department’s decision to make the vendors bid for permits. According to a media alert, Schumer feels these vendors “are a Brooklyn treasure … that should be preserved and supported, not subject to the City’s bottom line.” We and our friends in the food world said as much earlier this week. But we’re glad to have Senator Schumer on board. The vendors need all the help they can get. If you’re wondering what the fuss is all about, make sure to check out the Grub Street video tour of the ball fields. Earlier:The Threat to Red Hook’s Street-Food Paradise Unites New York Foodies Tour the Red Hook Ball Fields With Chef Aaron Sanchez
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Tour the Red Hook Ball Fields With Chef Aaron Sanchez
Posted 06/07/07 in Grub Street: VideoFeed
The ad hoc Latin American food court at the Red Hook ball fields is one of New York’s great cultural centers, a place where anyone can go to experience South and Central American home cooking. The ideal person to guide you through it is Aaron Sanchez, one of the city’s top Latin chefs (Centrico, Paladar) and the author of La Comida Del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the USA. Aaron gave us an insider’s tour. If this doesn’t inspire you to get out to Red Hook this summer (here’s a map!), consider the following: The permit for the ball fields, which has been given to the vendors for many years, will be opened up by the Parks Department for bids from all comers in the fall. That means this summer could be your last chance to taste some of the best Latin American food in the city. Related: The Threat to Red Hook Unites New York’s Foodies
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