Ko Reservation System Almost Online; Banks’ Cafeteria Workers StrikeMomofuku Ko’s online reservation system will go live sometime before Saturday. Here’s hoping the inevitable Web traffic doesn’t kill the server. [Eater]
Cafeteria workers for many of the city’s largest investment banks have been on strike since Tuesday, since they’re taking home an average of $21,000 a year, which is what the average Goldman Sachs employee makes in less than two weeks. [NYDN]
Hallo Berlin! Germany has more three-Michelin-star restaurants than any other country — except France, of course. [NYT]
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Lombardi’s Takes a Couple Days Off to Show Some Lovin’ to Its Oven
Nolita stalwart Lombardi’s was closed yesterday and is closed again today for what a phone message says is “oven maintenance and repair” — in case you had clam pies on the mind. The rebuilt coal oven dates back to 1905, and if you’ve ever stood next to it while waiting for takeout, you know it’s a beast, so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that it takes two days to repair. In the meantime, we recommend you walk over to L’asso where the wood-fired brick oven is in full effect.
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Bourdain to Cook at Les Halles, Yearns for Giant Food CourtsTony 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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L’asso Ropes in a Full Liquor LicenseWe didn’t think things could get any better at L’asso, the hipster’s go-to pizza place in Nolita. After all: Nutella pies! Marshmallow pies! But after over three years of tossing them into the wood-fired brick oven, L’asso finally has a liquor license. They’re adjusting from wine and beer slowly (last night our server didn’t know what a Dark and Stormy was, though it was on the menu), but once they come around, we’re confident there will never again be a reason to join the line at Lombardi’s.
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Whole Foods CEO’s Online High Jinks Unmasked; Magnolia Bakery ReopeningJohn Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has been going online anonymously on Yahoo Finance bulletin boards for seven years to blast rival Wild Oats and talk up Whole Foods stock. [NYT]
Related: Did Michael Pollan Throw the Whole Foods Debate? (Just Asking)
Magnolia Bakery, closed for less than a day for having only one sink, has now been reopened after promising to install another one. [Eater]
Related: A Sad Day for Overhyped Pastries: Magnolia Shuttered [Daily Intel]
Anthony Bourdain is warming up to The Next Food Network Star. As a matter of fact, you could say that he’s become a devoted fan: “Whether it’s the butterfly mobiles dangling from my ceiling, the onset of early dementia, or long delayed side effects of past drug use drawing me to the tube Sunday nights, I’ll be watching.” [Ruhlman]