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Grub Street

Edited by Josh Ozersky with Daniel Maurer

All Posts Tagged: ‘tailor’

NewsFeed 

7/22/08

2:00 PM

$5 Margaveza Among ‘GQ’ Top 20 Cocktails in America

eben freeman

Eben Freeman gets his shake on.Photo: Abbe Benson

GQ chooses their favorite twenty cocktails in the country, and, no surprise, some New York mixologists take top honors. Pegu Club’s Gin Gin Mule gets the nod (this is as obligatory as choosing the Shake Shack as a favorite burger), as does Eben Freeman’s Kaffir Collins and Death & Co.’s Cinder (a jalapeño-infused, mescal-enhanced margarita). The real surprise is the $5 Margaveza that Eric Copeland of Black Dice created while bartending at Daddy’s — essentially the thinking man’s Tequiza, it’s a bottle of Sol topped with four ounces of frozen margarita. Hey, if the Michelada (Mexico's spicy beer-and-tomato bevy) can work, so can this.

The 20 Best Cocktails in America [GQ]

Two for Eight 

7/18/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Anthos and Tailor; Jean Georges and wd-50 Mostly Booked

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.



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NewsFeed 

7/17/08

6:45 PM

Sam Mason Thinks Chicago Is the Country’s Best Food Town

The critics had their knives out when Tailor opened.Photo: Melissa Hom.

Today a blog checks in with the Tailor team a year after its opening. Of course, our series the Launch was in large part responsible for the hype surrounding Sam Mason’s debut, so we read the interview with interest. Mason shrugs off the “field day” that critics — who he thinks are increasingly bloodthirsty — had with him, and doesn’t care whether they rereview him: “I'm fine with them going on to their new restaurants to bash.” Chicago, Mason thinks, is the “best food city in the country” because the media isn’t as negative. Aside from Mason’s ruminations about the savory/sweet, small/big plate, booze/food dichotomies, the real news here is that Tailor may start serving brunch at the end of the summer! No new restaurant in the works, though we’re thinking the next one will be in Chi-town.

Update: Speaking of Tailor and negative press, cocktailian Rick Stutz live-blogs a lecture from Tales of the Cocktail, the New Orleans mixology conference. Says Eben Freeman: “I don’t care if you made bad drinks. I don’t care if you steal my ideas. Just don’t talk shit about me on your blogs.”

Two for Eight 

7/ 2/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Esca and Jean Georges; wd-50 Mostly Booked

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.

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NewsFeed 

6/26/08

9:00 AM

Fran Derby Now Cooking at Solex

fran derby

Fran Derby has moved across town and likes it.Photo: Melissa Hom

The last we heard from Fran Derby, he had hit the ejection-seat button from his position as Sam Mason’s co-pilot at Tailor. Now he's manning the stove at East Village wine bar Solex, where he has also upgraded the menu. Solex's old selection was marked by an unappetizing combination of daintiness and heaviness (a tiny ham-and-cheese sandwich with ham, béchamel, Gruyère, and two quail eggs; gruyere-soaked pigs in a blanket, and other such midget gut-bombs). Now it will serve some of the most sophisticated (but cheap) food in the East Village: a cold-smoked scallop carpaccio with radishes for $10, Basque-style deviled eggs with white-anchovy crisps and Bayonne ham for $3 apiece, and even a cauliflower pannacotta with a quail-egg yolk in the middle. (Some of the older items are still on the menu, but not for long.) Derby’s even growing his own herbs out back. “I’ve been here just over two weeks,” he says. “It’s just me in the kitchen, pretty much. I take the orders, make the food, scrub down the kitchen at the end of the night. I’m having a blast.”

Earlier: Fran Derby, Sam Mason's Co-Chef, Leaves Tailor

Two for Eight 

6/18/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Anthos and Esca; Jean Georges and Nobu Mostly Booked

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.

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Two for Eight 

6/ 4/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Esca and Falai; Jean Georges and WD-50 Mostly Booked

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.

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NewsFeed 

6/ 2/08

5:30 PM

Tailor's Absinthe Gummi Bears: Is the Green Fairy Jumping the Shark?

absinthe gummi bear

We're not sure how we feel
about this.Photo: UrbanDaddy

Now that it’s legal, is absinthe doomed to become the new bacon — a sacred product that is endlessly corrupted for the sake of a cheap laugh? We suspected as much when we saw absinthe lollipops get the sort of press attention that bacon lollipops did, and now that UrbanDaddy has alerted us to Tailor’s absinthe Gummi Bear, we’re really worried. Of course, it’s a good sign that the treat, which is served with a cup of espresso, is 85 percent absinthe with just a bit of sugar and gelatin (Eben Freeman wouldn’t corrupt this hallowed drink too much), but to lesser artisans who are planning on serving absinthe cupcakes or turning Tucker Max’s infamous “absinthe doughnuts” into a reality, we beg you to stop the insanity.

Served Up: Absinthe Gummi Bears [UrbanDaddy]

Engines of Gastronomy 

5/30/08

6:00 PM

Tailor's Liquid-Nitrogen Dispenser Is Very, Very Cold

sam mason

Sam Mason in full mad-scientist mode.Photo: Melissa Hom

The Dewar liquid-nitrogen dispenser at Tailor is no simple kitchen tool. A tank filled with a substance so cold that it boils at -327 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s used by Sam Mason and the other cooks at Tailor to flash-freeze foods without changing their cell structure. “I hit grapefruit sections with it,” explains Mason, “and in a few seconds they’re broken down to their most basic structures. And it can make ice cream in two minutes!” Like a lot of molecular gastronomists, Mason uses liquid nitrogen because it can change the structure of a food without changing its flavor at all; it dissipates almost instantly, leaving no aftereffects other than a radical shift in texture. “There aren’t a lot of limits of what you can do with this,” he says. “Just don’t get it on your hands for too long.”

NewsFeed 

5/21/08

5:00 PM

Fran Derby, Sam Mason's Co-Chef, Leaves Tailor

Sam Mason and Fran Derby, prior to last Friday.Photo: Josh Ozersky

Tailor’s co-chef, Fran Derby, has left the restaurant. Derby and Sam Mason were a cooking tandem since the restaurant opened late last summer, but Derby says he wants his own kitchen: “I left on Friday. Everything between Sam and I is great. I liked being the co-chef at Tailor, but I want to find my own place, my own niche.” The Gilt and wd-50 alumni says that he’ll take some time away from the kitchen before starting a new venture. “We’re good with Fran,” says Mason. “We know he’ll succeed with whatever he does.”

Related: The Launch

Two for Eight 

5/20/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at BLT Market and Merkato 55; Allen & Delancey Mostly Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Reviewed by Adam Platt.

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Two for Eight 

5/ 2/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Accademia di Vino and Bar Stuzzichini; Allen & Delancey Fully Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Reviewed by Adam Platt.

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NewsFeed 

5/ 2/08

1:14 PM

Ice, Ice Baby: Gleaming the City's Best Cubes

ice cubes

Daniel's orchid ice.Photo: Melissa Hom

Sure, it sounds funny when Eben Freeman tells us that Angel’s Share was “the first place I started to see ice.” What he means, of course, is that not until recently have the city’s mixologists been giving frozen water the attention it deserves. Twelve years ago, Freeman recalls, Angel’s Share used a hand-cranked grinder to make their crushed ice. When Milk and Honey opened, Sasha Petraske began making larger cubes from vintage trays. His bartenders still famously cut their ice from a large block before each night’s service. Recently, machines previously available only in Europe have brought clearer, colder, larger cubes (perfect for agitating a drink in the shaker and decreasing dilution in the glass), and some mixologists have started freezing everything from orchids to raspberries. Let’s take a look in the freezer, shall we?

Slideshow: Ice, Ice Baby

Two for Eight 

5/ 1/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Café Gray and 15 East; Jean Georges and Per Se Mostly Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.

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Two for Eight 

4/15/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at 15 East and Bouley; Masa Fully Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses

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Two for Eight 

3/28/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Tailor; Nobu and Masa Fully Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Certified Geniuses.

Read more»

NewsFeed 

3/21/08

12:00 PM

Tailor’s Menu Reborn, Again

Mole churros

Definitely better than the churros on the subway platform.Photo: Melissa Hom

There are two things that have been true about Tailor since it opened: Sam Mason and Fran Derby's food is often brilliant, and the city hasn't really warmed up to it yet. But the restaurant’s menu has evolved, first with bigger portions in December, and it is organized into course “one,” “two,” and “three.” More importantly, both the kitchen and Eben Freeman's bar downstairs have added some characteristically inventive new items.

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NewsFeed 

3/14/08

2:15 PM

DuMont Barkeep’s McCarren Project to Be Celeb-Funded

A while back, we brought news that Jud Longell, of DuMont, was teaming up with the designers of Tailor and Smith and Mills to create a bistro that might have either a “nautical design” or an “English-butcher-shop aesthetic.” Now BlackBook brings us an early interior shot along with news that a “well-known celebrity” is a silent partner. Hmmm — who could it be? Either way, it's good to know, with the Rusty Knot poised to open in Manhattan, that Brooklyn will have a celeb-studded faux boat of its own.

Who's the Silent Celeb Partner at 18 Bedford Ave.? [BlackBook]
Related: DuMont, Smith and Mills Players Head Toward McCarren

Two for Eight 

3/13/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Bar Stuzzichini and Tailor; Allen & Delancey and Kingswood Fully Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: reviewed by Adam Platt.

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Neighborhood Watch 

2/29/08

3:00 PM

Catty Males Shake Beatrice; Charcuterie Mania

Clinton Hill: There are a few places in the nabe to find gluten-free products, but one celiac sufferer would like to find out about any others. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Lower East Side: Video of a Tailor bartender doing his thing. [Snack]
Midtown East: Former Savoy chef Matt Weingarten's year-long plans to start dinner service at Café St. Bart’s will come to fruition on May 5. [Zagat]
Upper West Side: Bar Boulud may claim the top charcuterie in town (though Mia Dona’s stepping up), but you can also find some tasty stand-ins at Café d’Alsace and elsewhere, including Fort Greene’s Stonehome Wine Bar. [Citysearch]
West Village: Spencer Morgan of the New York Observer supposedly slapped Hud Morgan from Men’s Vogue at the Beatrice Inn on Wednesday night because the latter didn’t respond to the former’s apology e-mail. A true New York noble. [Gawker]

Two for Eight 

2/26/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Fiamma and Tailor; Allen & Delancey Mostly Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: reviewed by Adam Platt.

Read more»

NewsFeed 

2/20/08

4:15 PM

French Mixologists Push ‘Cointreau Caviar’ to Local Cocktailians

mixology

Cocktails by Mr. Wizard.Photo: Courtesy of Cointreau

Rest assured the “solids” at Tailor are just the start of the molecular madness. Esteemed French mixologists Fernando Castellon and Richard Lambert are working with Cointreau to bring what they call “caviar” — sort of like tapioca pearls, but with about half an ounce of liquid booze inside — to your next drink. Tomorrow they’ll show a select group of 40 bartenders (from Per Se, wd-50, PDT, and the like) how to prepare the spheres by mixing Cointreau and alginate and then using a syringe to drop the flavor combo into a calcium bath. Castellon tells us a mixologist using an immersion mixer would normally have to wait six hours for air bubbles to disappear, but their kit equips bartenders with a magnetic agitator so they can set up in eight minutes at the beginning of the night and make each drink in 30 seconds. The procedure took a year to research (finding an alginate that gets along with 80-proof liquor ain’t easy), but let's hope it proves worth it when you take your first sip (and bite) of a “Cointreaupolitan.”

Related: Eben Freeman Turns His Cocktails Solid Just for the Hell of It

NewsFeed 

2/ 6/08

9:30 AM

Tailor’s Location No Longer a Well-Guarded Secret

Could it be that our beloved godchild, Tailor, whose gestation we chronicled so patiently last year, is taking its first steady steps? After absorbing the blows of the blogosphere for its first months, it has made adjustments. First, mixologist Eben Freeman’s cocktail program acquired its own identity and made the downstairs bar a destination; then Sam Mason and Fran Derby got the message that nobody wanted to eat food the size of Kit Kats and expanded the portion size; and now, at last, Tailor has thrown in the towel on its pretense of low-key anonymity and put an honest-to-God sign up on the door. What's next? Big-screen TVs? Once the philistines get ahold of you, there's nothing left but prosperity and degradation.

Two for Eight 

1/25/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Centro Vinoteca and Tailor; Kingswood Fully Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: reviewed by Adam Platt.

Read more»

Two for Eight 

1/24/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Café Gray and Tailor.; Masa Fully Booked

It’s just past 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: certified geniuses.

Read more»

NewsFeed 

1/24/08

11:00 AM

Eben Freeman Turns His Cocktails Solid Just for the Hell of It

From left, Cuba Libre, Ramos Gin Fizz Marshmallow, White Russian Breakfast Cereal.Photo: Melissa Hom

Cocktail master Eben Freeman of Tailor, having already taught us the secrets of the Hard Shake, has gone back into his cocktail lab and created one of the most compelling forms of liquor we’ve seen in a while: Tailor’s new “solids,” a series of edible cocktails. There are currently three on the restaurant’s menu: a Cuba Libre, consisting of rum and coke gelatinized into a cube (hence the name); a Ramos Gin Fizz Marshmallow (“the drink made properly is all meringue anyway, so why not make it a marshmallow?”); and his crowning achievement, the White Russian Breakfast Cereal. The last amounts to a Rice Krispies treat made by soaking the cereal in Kahlúa, dehydrating it, repeating that process, and then soaking it in vodka, sugar, and half-and-half. “Cocktail geeks are coming in and asking me all these questions,” Freeman complains. “This is just to have fun!” And, he adds, soberly, to “push the boundaries” of mixology. No wonder they’re curious.

Related: Video: Eben Freeman of Tailor Imparts the Secrets of the ‘Hard Shake’

Two for Eight 

1/ 8/08

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Barfry and Tailor; Primehouse Mostly Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Reviewed by Adam Platt.

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The Other Critics 

1/ 2/08

11:15 AM

One Star Seals the Deal for Irving Mill; Ilili Surprises in a Good Way

The story on Irving Mill was written before Frank Bruni delivered the coup de grâce — an ambivalent one-star review that pointed out the restaurant's odd inconsistencies. At this point, a one star was probably a best-case scenario for the place. [NYT]

Speaking of best-case scenarios, we bet that Gordon Ramsay had higher hopes for Bruni's rereview of his big restaurant than the one that runs in Dining Briefs. Bruni finds Gordon Ramsay at the London still excellent but boring, and Peter Meehan isn't too crazy about Bun. [NYT]

We heard that Ilili was a disaster, with bad service and worse food. So did Paul Adams, who was surprised to find that the word on the street was dead wrong. Adams even calls the food was “far, far better than it needs to be.” [NYS]

Read more»

VideoFeed 

12/20/07

8:00 AM

Eben Freeman of Tailor Imparts the Secrets of the ‘Hard Shake’

Eben Freeman of Tailor isn’t just a bartender. He isn’t even a mere mixologist. We’ll go ahead and say it: Eben Freeman is a cocktail guru. Who else could have imported the secret maneuver of the "hard shake" to our shores from its hiding places in Japan and Slovakia? No one. And that’s why we present this video, of how to perform the hard shake, for your viewing pleasure.

Two for Eight 

12/12/07

4:00 PM

Tables Available at Barfry and Tailor; Fiamma Mostly Booked

It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls, but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Reviewed by Adam Platt.

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Mediavore 

12/12/07

10:09 AM

Win a Date With Thomas Keller; Year-end Lists Abound

Mix up your holiday charitable giving by entering a raffle for a coffee date with Per Se’s Thomas Keller or Ferran Adrià of Spain’s El Bulli. [NYT]
Related: Ferran Adrià, Molecular Gastronomist—Who, Me? [NYM]

On his No Reservations holiday special, Anthony Bourdain spoke with a veterinarian who explained that foie gras production is not the demonic act it has been portrayed as by animal-rights groups, so eat up! [Eat for Victory/VV]

If Amy Sacco didn’t convince you of the growing synergy between restaurants and real estate, consider that Centovini has just struck a deal with luxe condo Soho Mews that offers not only delivery to the building but also the option to have executive chef Patti Jackson provide in-home cooking. [NYP]

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Neighborhood Watch 

12/ 6/07

3:30 PM

Le Bernardin Pastry Chef a Fan of Mason; Tour East Village Dumpling Master's Lair

Astoria: A new wine bar on 35th Avenue at 30th Street called Rest-au-Rant features about 30 wines and beers — from Germany, New Zealand, Hawaii, Belgium, and France. [Joey in Astoria]
Dumbo: Waterstreet Restaurant and Lounge hosts carolers and expects dancing till late tonight as part of a holiday shopping promotion throughout the nabe. [Dumbo NYC]
East Village: A photo tour of the magical workshop of "Sun Le, the dumpling master who makes TKettle’s juicy little masterpieces." [Eat for Victory/VV]
Lower East Side: Le Bernardin pastry chef Michael Laiskonis just had a great meal at Tailor and has "always been a fan of Sam Mason’s food." [Restaurant Girl]
West Village: The Bowery Hotel’s Eric Goode and Sean McPherson are rumored to have closed a deal on another boutique hotel, at an unknown location. [Down by the Hipster]