Earlier today, one of our eagle-eyed readers noticed Top Chef filming outside of Craft, and now an Eater tipster reports that they got a glimpse of the contestants loading food into large white vans outside of the Whole Foods on Houston Street last night. Their description of the cheftestants is as follows.
All Posts Tagged: ‘whole foods’
Dave Martin of ‘Top Chef’ Is Banking on Mac and Chee$$$e
The mac daddy.Photo: Getty Images
The Return of NYC ICY; Chelsea's Latest Wine Bar
Astoria: A Brazilian spot called Samba Grill is opening soon at 29-17 23rd Avenue. [Foodista]
Chelsea: The waiters at new wine bar Bar Baresco could use a bit more training; somehow "the older one is probably better" doesn't really cut it. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Clinton Hill: Boca Soul on Fulton has closed, and a restaurant called Dajeh will take its place. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Flatiron: When ordering a pizza topped with chicken, bacon, and chipotle from Waldy's, you might want to try placing "two slices cheese side together" to pretend you're eating a sandwich, since the crust there is so tough. [Slice]
Gowanus: Work hasn't been done on the Whole Foods site in a year. [Gowanus Lounge]
Hell's Kitchen: NYC ICY opens Wednesday at 628 Tenth Avenue between 44th and 45th Streets with "flavors such as wild strawberries and cream (the berries, like the icy-making equipment, are imported from Italy), banana and dairy-free grape made from fresh Concords." But they've had an even larger shop open in the Kensington section of Brooklyn since last week. [TONY]
Lower East Side: Adam Kuban appreciates a slider list as much as the next burger lover, but "Shopsin's sliders are as good or better than many on Danyelle Freeman's list." [A Hamburger Today]
Tribeca: Matsugen's "menu ranges from the affordable (soba for $14) to the excessive (wagyu for $135)." [Eater]
Sam Talbot Finds His Groove in Montauk; Whole Foods Unpacking in Tribeca
Astoria: Tonight at Mojave (and every other Thursday), you get a free margarita and tequila tasting with dinner. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: The owners aren't out at Los Pollitos (now called La Stalla), but they did take a new business partner. Il Torchio, however, has changed hands. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Dumbo: Farmers-market season starts June 15 at the Main Street entrance of Brooklyn Bridge Park. [Dumbo NYC]
Little Italy: La Esquina has changed its secret reservation line. [Eater]
Montauk: Sam Talbot seems to be off to a running start at Surf Lodge, which looks like a "throwback to seventies surf culture and Bruce Brown’s iconic Endless Summer movie." The summer-style food and sophisticated cocktails are serious, and the spot's already hosting after-parties. [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Tribeca: Workers have already started unloading products at the new Whole Foods opening on Warren Street by the West Side Highway. [Grub Street]
Competitive Eater Crazy Legs Conti Experiences ‘Deja Chew’
Crazy Legs Conti practices eating at Robert's Steakhouse.Photo: Melissa Hom
Crazy Legs Conti, the world’s eleventh-ranked competitive eater and bon vivant about town, describes his diet as “benign gluttony — everything in moderation, including excess.” He has tried the master cleanse — but only to prepare his lower intestines for one of fifty or so eating competitions each year. During his eight years as a gurgitator, his weight has remained more or less the same, until last summer. “I found myself jogging only to donut shops,” he says. Now, though, he’s training for the New York City marathon and, of course, for the Nathan’s hot-dog-eating contest, where he aims to popularize “reverse bunning.” Before you decided whether to order your next ballpark frank with an inside-out bun, you might want to read what Conti ate this week.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey Returns to the Blogosphere
Everyone is talking about former Gawker editor Emily Gould’s overshares (in her review of Queen’s Hideaway, she facetiously congratulated the owner for “giving a fat Puerto Rican teenager a job”), but if there’s one blogger who really put his foot in his mouth, it was John Mackey. You’ll remember the Whole Foods CEO triggered an SEC investigation when he was accused of sabotaging the stock of his competitor Wild Oats (Whole Foods went on to buy the company) by posting anonymously on a Yahoo bulletin board. Now that the SEC has cleared him, Mackey is back to justify his doings, and his arguments are as follows: His comments about Wild Oats made up very few of his 1,400 posts over an eight-year period; competition is only natural; he wasn’t used to being a public figure, and so made an error in judgment (not an ethical error); and anonymous comments don’t have an effect on stock prices (he ignores one comment in which he wrote, "Well if you really believe I’m John Mackey you should probably pay more attention to what I say on this board. I would be the ultimate Whole Foods Insider!"). Finally, Mackey concludes his entry by asking for a price check in aisle five.
Back to Blogging [Whole Foods/CEO's Blog]
Model Taylor Fuchs Has to Fight His Love of the Slice
"Me and my friends like to go to Pipa for brunch and get the pancakes."Photo: Melissa Hom
Park Slope Gets a Pinkberry (Clone); Meatphilia Alive and Well in Williamsburg
Fort Greene: This handy guide compares prices and selection for the neighborhood coffee options. [General Greene via Clinton Hill Blog]
Park Slope: The latest Pinkberry clone, Yogo Monster, has opened on Seventh Avenue. [Gowanus Lounge]
Tribeca: Brushstrokes will serve delicious, healthy food, so give David Bouley that liquor license already! [Shecky's via Eater]
Union Square: Trader Joe's beat out Whole Foods in a store-brand tortilla taste-off. [Serious Eats]
Williamsburg: The Fat Pack doesn't seem to be losing any tread just yet. Brooklyn Brewery is hosting Scott Gold on Thursday to read from his book, The Shameless Carnivore, which "documents eating feats like a 31-day carnivorous feast of goat, guinea pig, ostrich and snake." And Brooklyn Kitchen's April 1 class on pig butchering, led by meatspert Tom Mylan of Diner, Marlow & Sons and Bonita, still has a few spots left (the first date already sold out). [Brooklyn Based]
LeBron James and Anna Wintour Cozy Up at Waverly; Moby Makes Out at R Bar
Courtside at the game?Photo Illustration: Getty Images, johnnyz's flickr
Kobe Dines on Kobe at Kobe; Nobu Gives Manning a Standing O
Fashion Week brought the usual celebrity infestation to town last week for glitzy after-parties, but we’ve already covered those. The real question is, where did the “normals” catch a bite? And of course by normals we mean billionaires, Nobel Prize winners, and Super Bowl champs, all of whom made the scene this week.
Sushi Eaters Face Tuna Fears
Before it was caught, this bluefin tuna ate only
mercury.Photo: Getty Images
6 p.m.: Whole Foods, Chelsea
Rebecca, a redheaded Web editor, is picking up salmon sushi. She’d noticed that the Times report found the highest mercury levels in tuna from Blue Ribbon and the lowest levels at Fairway. “People who eat high-class sushi are more at risk for poisoning than people like me who eat ghetto sushi from Whole Foods,” she said with some satisfaction.
Per Se Raises Prices; Shill for Whole Foods, Win Food
You’re going to regret not going to Per Se the last time you had a chunk of change to burn: Thomas Keller’s luxe restaurant has raised prices for both the regular and vegetarian menus to $275 for nine courses. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Violence continues in the Flatiron club district, as two men were arrested for stabbing a patron and a bouncer at Club Spy after a fight erupted in the VIP room. [NYP]
As part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Green the Capitol project, the cafeterias are getting a locavore makeover, with the goal to sell as much locally grown, organic food as possible. [WP]
Keith McNally Sued; Huckabee Serves Clam Chowder in New Hampshire
According to a new class-action suit being brought against Keith McNally, servers at Pastis and Balthazar were forced to foot the bill for customers who walked out on their checks, in addition to being denied minimum wage. [NYP]
Frank Bruni, like many other critics, believes a restaurant’s chicken dishes speak volumes about its overall quality. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
E-mails sent by Starbucks Corp. managers reveal their efforts to prevent unionizing among their employees, although labor experts say the activity is not illegal. [WSJ]
FDA to Beef Industry: Send in the Clones
They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike…Photo Illustration: iStockphoto
Chef Cliques Revealed; More T-Day Dining Options
Frank Bruni tries to put the chef network together and finds that Jimmy Bradley hangs out with Joey Campanaro of little owl and Jonathan Waxman of Barbuto. David Chang opts to stick with the "WD-50 gang." [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Theater-district restaurants, including Barbetta and Kyotofu , are offering 15 percent off their menus this week (except on Thanksgiving) in light of the Broadway-strike breakdown. [NYC Visit via Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Related: Theater Strike Could Drop Curtain on Midtown Restaurants
Masa may be one of the most expensive restaurants in New York, but it's almost chump change in the rest of the world, considering Tokyo's Aragawa "an eight-ounce piece of Kobe steak from a sake-fed Wagyu cow" for $400. [Forbes]
Cipriani Still Living High on the Hog; Another Mechanical Bull Comes to New York
The nation can rest easy in the knowledge that Giuseppe Cipriani is still cruising around in a Rolls-Royce, has kept his private jet, and may even build another yacht in addition to the one he already owns. [NYP]
The Shamalian boys opened their rockabilly bar on Essex last night even though it's unfinished, and there really is a bull! [Eater]
The Federal Trade Commission has launched a second attack against the Whole Foods–Wild Oats merger, vowing that even though money has already exchanged hands, the integration can still be stopped. [NYT]
Frying Pan Secure for Next Five Years; Whole Foods Selling Flat Beer on the LES?
Chelsea: The Frying Pan has signed a five-year lease that will begin next May. [Chelsea Now via Eater]
Clinton Hill: Get your Oktoberfest on with a beer, cider, and sausage fest at 55 Lexington Avenue on September 29. [A Brooklyn Life]
East Harlem: Italian Americans are still mourning the August closure of Morrone & Sons bakery on East 116th Street. Especially the 72-year-old matron who opened the shop in 1956. [NYT]
Fort Greene: Crisp artichokes make a great burger topping at 67, even when the beef is greasy and overcooked. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Jackson Heights: Jackson Diner and Rajbhog Sweets are among some 85 restaurants participating in Queens Restaurant Week running September 17 to 20 and 24 to 27. [About.com]
Lower East Side: Whole Foods should top off beer-container refills with CO2 if they care about customers getting home to find flat beer. [Eat]
Park Slope: Frank Bruni was inundated with responses to his feature on handicapped-accessible restaurants, including one about his “beloved Franny’s” who wouldn’t slice “a pizza for someone who had just undergone neurosurgery on her (writing) hand because ‘the chef doesn’t do that.’” [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Soho: Barcelona’s artisanal-candy chain Papabubble has settled on a U.S. location at 380 Broome Street and an opening date of October 18. [Papabubble via Down by the Hipster]
Picholine Lures Café Boulud Alum to Upper West; Fiesta de Red Hook Vendors!
Astoria: Soleil Coffee Shop and a 7-Eleven are opening soon. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: Heineken is filming a commercial today at 313 Clinton Avenue. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Corona: Enjoy a pirated DVD with your dinner on Roosevelt Avenue. [NYT]
East Village: Support Willie’s cause while getting buzzed this Saturday at Counter’s organic beer tasting. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: The beer room at Whole Foods even sells PBR with a pitch to keep hipster interest alive. [East Village Idiot]
Midtown West: Daniel and Oceana alum Scott Ekstrom has been tapped to run the kitchen at Brasserie Forty Four, the restaurant destined for the redesigned Royalton hotel. [Eater]
Randall’s Island: The concessions at Farm Aid were stocked with local, organic, or family-farm-raised fare, but nothing really tasted that great. [Diner’s Journal/ NYT]
Red Hook: The vendors are celebrating their season’s extension with a “livelier than usual weekend event — more soccer games, piñatas, music, and a two-day art exhibit featuring photographs taken by the food vendors.” [Eat for Victory/VV]
Upper West Side: Terrence Brennen has overhauled his culinary team at Picholine appointing Scott Quis formerly of Café Boulud as Chef de Cuisine and Jason Hua from Jean Georges as executive sous-chef. [Grub Street]
Novelist Porochista Khakpour Drinks the Kool-Aid at a Hare Krishna Temple
“Café Sabarsky is obscenely soothing.”Photo: Melissa Hom
U.S. Open Stadium Eats; Red Hook Vendors' Bread and Butter in Jeopardy
Astoria: Get your feet rubbed while eating ice cream at Freeze Peach this Saturday — or maybe just stick to sampling the variety of flavors at this $9 tasting event that will also feature reflexology and tarot-card reading. [Joey in Astoria]
Flushing: New reasons not to fill up before a match: Five serious restaurants including a steakhouse, seafood restaurant, and Cuban café flank the U.S. Open stadium, all under the supervision of Charlie Palmer–trained chef Michael Lockard. [NYDN]
Hell’s Kitchen: Mitchel London Pizza from the owners of Burgers & Cupcakes has been open for a couple of weeks, but they’re still working on good char. [Slice]
Lower East Side: Whole Foods’ beer room, which stocks over 200 international, domestic, and local beers, opened this morning. [Gridskipper]
Meatpacking District: Los Dados from Sueños chef Sue Torres opens Monday. [Eater]
Red Hook: Department of Health inspectors are now turning a critical eye to restaurants associated with the ball-field vendors. Honduras Maya is already closed. [Brooklyn Eagle]
More Buzz Over Restaurant Liebrandt; A Meatball for the Ages
A second trivial press release (uh, the Oregon Museum of Science gala?) alludes to Restaurant Liebrandt 2007, and the chef’s chef is suddenly besieged with questions, which he vows to answer “in due time.” [Mouthing Off/Food & Wine]
Related: Vegetables Suggest Liebrandt’s New Restaurant Is a Reality
After a nerve-racking two-day delay, a judge has cleared the way for the $565 million Whole Foods–Wild Oats merger. [NYT]
The ruination of Times Square is now officially complete, with news of an IHOP on the way. [NYP]
A counterterrorism detective has been fired for what might be the best defense for failing a drug test ever: marijuana-spiked meatballs. [NYT]
Whole Foods Plot Still Grimy in Gowanus; Tony Bourdain on Ina Garten
Whole Foods has only one more building to demolish to clear out its plot by the Gowanus Canal for its 2008 opening, but there are still no signs of environmental cleanup. [Brownstoner]
Related: Has the Benevolent Whole Foods Betrayed Its Health-Obsessed Customers?
Anthony Bourdain didn’t waste much time agonizing over the expulsion of Tre from Top Chef before laying into Casey, who slices slower the “Ina Garten on Thorazine.” [Bravo]
Related: The Gay Side of ‘Top Chef’ Comes Out
Amalia chef Ivy Stark hates chicken. So why is there chorizo-stuffed crispy chicken on Amalia’s menu? [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Immigrant Pickers Scant for Apple Season; Whole Foods–Wild Oats Deal Delayed
Apples, apples everywhere, but not an immigrant to pick them, New York growers fear. [NYT]
A federal appeals court has postponed the Whole Foods–Wild Oats merger "arguing that it would reduce competition and increase prices in the marketplace for natural and organic foods." And here, we thought "Project Goldmine" would benefit the customer. [NYT]
Let us weep for the carnies: Trans fats have been banned in Indiana. State fairgoers ate deep-fried Snickers and Oreos cooked in “healthier” oils. [NYT]
Actress Jackie Hoffman Grocery-Shops Like a Soccer Mom
Jackie Hoffman cannot wait to eat that chicken.Photo: Melissa Hom
Whole Foods’ Master Plan Revealed; Chodorow Back on the Warpath
Whole Foods’ master plan for local domination, code-named (no kidding) Project Goldmine, is accidentally released to the public by federal regulators. [NYT]
Jeffrey Chodorow’s war against Frank Bruni continues with another Times ad. [Eater]
Buddhists buy $7,000 worth of eels, frogs, and turtles from Chinatown markets and then release the fortunate animals into the Passaic River. Where they immediately died from toxic shock. (Okay, we made the last part up.) [NYP]
Hot Dogs Out, Halal In; More on Flor de Mayo’s Alleged Abuses
“The hot dog now is for tourists,” and halal food has taken its place as New York’s signature street fare. Watch the video. [NYT]
Related: Cartography [NYM]
Flor de Mayo allegedly paid one of its workers $90 for 72 hours of work in one week — and made him provide his own bicycle for deliveries. [Newsday]
The Chinese government now realizes that exporting bad food is in fact bad for business. [Forbes]
Whole Foods Is the New Pickup Scene; Ramsay Helps Ruin Another Restaurant
New York’s cheesiest singles go to Whole Foods on the Bowery to pick up cage-free eggs — and each other. [NYS]
Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant-rescue record takes another blow: Dillons is on the brink, and now the British restaurant “helped” by the truculent chef is going into liquidation. [Evening Telegraph]
Next season’s Top Chef will take place in Chicago. [Chicago Tribune]