AXE Caters MOCA Gala; McDonald’s Is Feeling ItselfChairman Jim Skinner boasts of the progressive attitudes at the Golden Arches, while Joanna Moore serves local cuisine to Kirsten Dunst and Rose McGowan.
We May Be Losing a Natalie, But We May Be Getting a Kathie LeeWhen Natalie Morales announced on the Today show this morning that she was pregnant again, we were torn. On the one hand, we love Natalie Morales with all of our hearts (despite her participation in the soul-crushing fourth hour of the show) and think that the higher the percentage of babies in the world that have her for a mom, the better. On the other hand, this means that she’ll probably have to sit out the network’s sure-to-be-bonkers coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August, which saddens us. We were dying to see her forced into a synchronized-swimming competition with Matt or pulling Al around the streets of Beijing in a rickshaw. Our minds raced with questions — who would pick up the slack for her? Giada De Laurentiis? The sometime Today co-host didn’t seem to work out (plus she also got pregnant), so we haven’t seen her in a while. Tiki Barber? The delightful Amy Robach? The less delightful Jenna Wolfe? Not quite.
Neighborhood Watch
Celebrity-Chef ‘Pop-Up’ Café Open in Midtown; Halloween RecipeAstoria: Freeze Peach is hosting a costume party Saturday at 8 p.m. and it’s BYO. [Joey in Astoria]
Boerum Hill: Balsamic vinegar is available as a topping at the new ecofriendly ice-cream parlor Blue Marble, on Atlantic Avenue near Bond Street. [Bergen Carroll]
Chelsea: Tekserv is hosting a Mac OS X Leopard release party tonight with free food and live jazz, and the winner of the leopard-themed costume contest gets an iPod. [Blog Chelsea]
Clinton Hill: New restaurant Mariam at 975 Fulton Street features cuisine from Senegal, Kenya, and Guinea, but even though okra was “cooked down to an indiscernible sludge,” it doesn’t feel overextended; the spot will soon add Jamaican food to the menu. [Eat for Victory/VV]
Flatiron: The Manhattan branch of Boerum Hill restaurant Lunetta opens Monday on Broadway at 21st Street. [Grub Street]
Lower East Side: Essex Street’s newest Shamalian bar may have opened for a night this week, but it’s closed now. [Eater] Just in time for Halloween house parties, the Stanton Social has provided a simple recipe for pumpkin croquettes. [Restaurant Girl]
Meatpacking District: The communal table at Los Dados is supposedly a hot singles scene. [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Midtown West: Bon Appétit’s “Pop-Up” café opened yesterday and features sandwiches and salads designed by Emeril, Giada, Govind, and Pichet Ong, plus desserts from Will Goldfarb. [Midtown Lunch]
Related: Celebrity Chefs Flock to Former Home of Cheesy Celebrity Restaurant
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: Papas & Sons market was busted Wednesday. “Word on the street is that someone in there was running numbers,” but no one’s talking. [Across the Park]
Foodievents
Celebrity Chefs Flock to Former Home of Cheesy Celebrity Restaurant
The building that was the Hard Rock Café at 221 West 57th Street, having committed so many affronts to gastronomy over the years, is about to atone, temporarily. Bon Appétit is turning it into a “pop-up supper club and café” where, from October 25 to November 3, a series of celebrity chefs will do demos and book signings during lunchtime. The names should be familiar ones, ranging from TV chefs like Cat Cora and Giada De Laurentiis to established New York stars like Claudia Fleming and Will Goldfarb. Every day, the café area will feature a different signature dish from that day’s chef. Bon Appétit promises affordability, too: All the dishes at lunch will cost $10 or less.
The roster of chefs is after the jump.