Belgian Room Closed for Underage Drinking; Park Avenue Winter Preparing for ItsAstoria: Sweet shop Oleput is now offering a lot more savories in the form of small plates and panini. [Joey in Astoria]
Clinton Hill: Rustik Tavern has a warm interior, but the menu doesn’t sound too rustic: chili, wings, nachos, though for the last one the blogger liked “that it’s cheese sauce rather than real cheese.” [Clinton Hill Blog]
Dumbo: Food writers including Kara Zuaro (I Like Food, Food Tastes Good), Phoebe Damrosch (Service Included) and David Wondrich (Imbibe) and Edible Brooklyn’s Gabrielle Langholtz will talk about — what else? — eating, at Powerhouse Arena next Tuesday. [A Brooklyn Life]
East Village: Belgian Room has been closed for letting minors booze on Lambic. [Down by the Hipster]
Soho: Vosges bacon chocolate now comes in the shape of flying pigs. But they can’t escape. [Snack]
Upper East Side: Park Avenue Winter will turn into spring on March 26, just in time for Easter. [Zagat]
Neighborhood Watch
Duck Necks Compete With Chicken Wings This Sunday; Midtown East Looking forBedford-Stuyvesant: If you don’t want to brave a sports bar Sunday but still want to catch the game, this restaurants-with-flat-screens list includes yet-to-open Rustik Tavern, which will be up and running by kickoff. There will only be a limited menu, but owner Frantz Metellus promises: “If I don’t have nachos, I’m nothing.” [Brooklyn Based]
Chelsea: Trestle on Tenth thinks it has the Super Bowl chicken-wing-tradition beat: braised and fried crispy duck necks with a garlic and anchovy dip. They’re not as adventurous as castrating a sheep with your teeth à la Giant Grey Ruegamer, but definitely easier to get your hands on; just pick up a few pounds on game day. [Grub Street]
Cobble Hill: “The natives are getting restless” that Trader Joe’s hasn’t opened, and the store’s PR company offers few answers. [Brownstowner]
East Village: Gramercy Tavern’s Haute Barnyard guru Michael Anthony is doing a Farm to Chef dinner at the Astor Center tomorrow night. Farmers, writers and activists aplenty will be present. [Grub Street]
Flatiron: Pinkberry on 26th Street at Third Avenue is now open. [Eater]
Midtown East: The Helmsley’s Annual Anti-Valentine’s Day Ball hopes to attract “the recently dumped and ‘disenchanted,’ as well as the happily single and those looking for love,” or you could just come to see the Ice-Carved Anti-Cupid Satan Oyster Bar (and make fun of the desperates). [Grub Street]
Midtown West: “Today, the food you find on most bars is the salty kind: chip, pretzels, etc. As anyone in the bar biz knows, these are … meant to make you thirsty, so you order more liquor,” but Keens is one of the last spots to offer sobering snacks of the bygone era: hard-boiled eggs, and they’re free. [Lost City]
