Hot-Chocolate Frenzy in Flatiron; Know You’re Eating Sperm in MidtownAstoria: Sunswick is having an Abitas beer promotion on Sunday with drink specials, but if you’re less concerned about game day, you could check out the renovation at Il Bambino. [Joey in Astoria]
Carroll Gardens: Naturally Delicious caterers, who also did this blogger’s wedding, will deliver a V-Day menu that includes baked oysters, lobster bisque, tenderloin, a cheese plate, and a Valrhona flourless chocolate cake to those who want to stay in but aren’t able to whip up our sexy stash of recipes. [A Brooklyn Life]
Flatiron: City Bakery kicks off its monthlong hot-chocolate festival tomorrow, which highlights rotating “additional flavors, from Caramel or Banana Peel to the Chili Pepper or even Beer varieties.” [Restaurant Girl]
Midtown East: If you show up at Sakae Sushi and find that it’s closed for a couple of days, you can stop into nearby Yakitori East on 44th Street. Just remember: The winter specialty shirako that their menu dubs as “soft cod roe” is “rather beige globules of sperm sacs.” [Gothamist] On February 12, eliminate “menstrual and sexual health concerns” through food at D’Or; let’s hope there’s chocolate involved. [Love Your Femme via Gridskipper]
Union Square: Mesa Grill impresario Bobby Flay just got back from Greece and would fly there again for all that “delicious Greek olive oil and some lemon and some potatoes and Greek salad,” but if he would just stay in New York, maybe Mesa Grill would have been able to hold on to more of its stars. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Foodievents
Another New Orleans Event, You Say? Why, Yes, I’d Love to Attend!In case you missed last month’s New Orleans tribute party at 5 Ninth and can’t be bothered to experience it secondhand here, fret not. Jimmy’s, one of the cooler bar-cum-gastropubs in the city, will be having its very own N.O. bash this Saturday. It’s called Up All Night, and it’s a food-and-music shindig benefiting the reconstruction of New Orleans. From one o’clock through six o’clock, a $20 donation will get you Abita beer, red wine, Rick’s Picks pickles, Louisiana “triple creme” cheese, five different kinds of gumbo, jambalaya, and vegetarian red beans and rice. After six, there will be an eclectic mix of live music including New Orleans blues band Underpaid Robbie-Say and cult power-pop dude Mike Viola.
Up All Night, Jimmy’s, 43 E. 7th St., nr. Second Ave.; 212-982-3006.
Sat., Nov. 18, starting at 1 p.m.