Beatrice Owners to Open New Club in … Jersey?At one point Smith and Mills owner Matt Abramcyk was toying with the idea of opening a Skee-Ball bar in the financial district, but now it looks like he has a bigger project on the horizon — in Atlantic City! The Times reports that he and his Beatrice Inn partner, Paul “brother of the actress Chloë” Sevigny, are teaming with Curtis Bashaw, a developer of the Mondrian in Soho, to turn a former Atlantic City Howard Johnson into the Chelsea, a boutique hotel with a Stephen Starr restaurant. A spokesman for the project tells the Times that the Beatrice team is “going to be in charge of celebrity wrangling, including bringing Paul’s sister’s friends down” to a fifth-floor lounge. Chloë has gone to AC for a Morrissey concert, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Our favorite part of the story? When the Times reporter gripes about getting turned away from the Beatrice.
SoHo Meets HoJo In Atlantic City [NYT]
NewsFeed
Smith and Mills Fights for Its Right to PartyLast time the Beatrice Inn was closed down, owner Matt Abramcyk told us that he was renovating to address noise complaints. In the case of his other bar, Smith and Mills, Abramcyk is taking the offensive by suing — and attempting to convince a court to evict — an upset neighbor who, from the Post’s description of her, seems to be as diminutive as the restaurant. A lawsuit claims the woman has tried to prevent construction, barred patrons from entering, screamed inside of the restaurant, and smashed glasses and bottles — and not in a fun, Siberia way. Will other bar owners invoke a similar “Good riddance, neighbor” policy? We’re looking at you, Death & Co.
Legal Bar Brawl [NYP]
Related: To Life For Death & Co. [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Neighborhood Watch
Live Poultry Not Live for Long in Woodside; Champagne at ParadouDumbo: The Japanese publication Mapple released a guide to the nabe and recommends Jacques Torres Chocolate, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, and Grimaldi’s as top picks. [Dumbo NYC]
East Village: You don’t need to hunt down any Danish to track Frank Bruni; he’s a huge fan of Death & Co (and hopes the bar’s not really in trouble). [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Meatpacking District: A $25 Champagne tasting at Paradou next Tuesday also comes with snacks. [Paradou NYC]
Midtown: A rare bottle of scotch fetched $54,000 at Christie’s liquor auction last night. The Rob Roys we made with it were great. [Food and Wine]
Woodside: For a truly hands-on holiday meal, you can head to Bismillah Live Poultry market in the warehouse quarter; choose your “turkey out of a flock of around 30, and off it went in a shopping cart to be slaughtered, scalded in hot water, and plucked by the staff. Fifteen minutes later it emerged in a bag, warm to the touch, its fat tail sticking out.” [The Grinder/Chow]
Mediavore
Bloomberg’s a Cookie Fiend; L.A. Resists Cupcake TrendMayor Bloomberg calls the oatmeal-raisin cookies served up at Gracie Mansion “addictive,” an opinion not shared by Giuliani, who didn’t care for the in-house baker’s sweets. [NYDN]
Fresh owner Eric Tevrow pleaded guilty to pocketing more than $1 million in sales and payroll taxes from his restaurants. [NYP]
Tickets for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s tribute dinner at next year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival have already sold out, despite being $500 a pop. Naturally, scalpers are already reselling them on eBay. [NYP]
NewsFeed
Smith and Mills Enters Brunch Battle With Bubby’s
One good thing to come out of the temporary Bubby’s closure? After lost and confused Bubby’s brunchers came to nearby Smith and Mills looking to get their eggs on, the owners decided to start serving brunch from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. on weekends. Along with carryover items from the breakfast and lunch menus, you’ll find Tuscan eggs, a fried-egg sandwich with pancetta and radicchio, and house-cured salmon with crème fraîche and toasted brown bread. It’s walk-ins only, so will Bubby’s see some of that sweet spillover action when hipsters show up and find the tiny place packed? We’re not opposed to a Sunday live-blogging session over oysters.
Related: Bubby’s DOH Report: Closed Thanks to Mythical Swarm of Roaches
Smith and Mills Now Open for Breakfast and Lunch
NewsFeed
DuMont, Smith and Mills Players Head Toward McCarrenJohn McCormick, the designer behind the loveliness that is Smith and Mills and Tailor, has another project in the works, and it sounds like it’ll be every bit as quirky as his own restaurant Moto. He says that Jud Longell, a bartender at DuMont, and a silent partner have acquired Theresa’s Beauty Salon at 18 Bedford Avenue at Lorimer Street (right off McCarren Park) and are transforming it into what will eventually be a bistro of sorts. McCormick says he has in mind “a nautical design, but very subtle. I wanted to make the place look like it was a sunken transport ferry — there’d be a lot of distressing and rust and metal work.” The owners, meanwhile, have toyed with the idea of an “English-butcher-shop aesthetic.” No doubt that they’ll all meet at some magical halfway point that will be far cooler than anything we can conjure up. Whatever the final look, it’s safe to say that empty bar seats will be rare, especially after those McCarren Pool shows.
Ask a Waiter
Chris Stein at Smith and Mills Is Proud to Be a Luddite
Chris Stein was a server at La Esquina before he started work at the equally atmospheric — if much smaller — Smith and Mills, where he’s the only man on the floor. Does he miss working at a larger spot? “Other jobs there have been managers saying the same shit to you over and over, and trying to get you to sell certain things,” he says. “Here, there aren’t any of the gross vibes. A lot of the times the owner is having a drink also, or we’re all having a drink.” Sadly we weren’t having a drink when we chatted with Stein, but that didn’t make our conversation any less spirited.
The Other Critics
Suba Called ‘Dazzling’; Shopsin’s Called…Shopsin’sSuba, Boqueria’s ambitious sister restaurant, gets two stars from Frank Bruni, who goes so far as to say “the best of the food here is distinctive and exciting. In a few instances it’s even dazzling.” Suba, underbuzzed and on a bad block, needed a big boost and got it. [NYT]
Randall Lane isn’t impressed with the East Village Yacht Club, or for that matter Smith and Mills. Two stars out of six, and it sounds like they were lucky to get that. [TONY]
Peter Meehan’s review of the new Shopsin’s begins with his best lede ever: “Tolstoy had it wrong about happy families, because there are none like the Shopsins.” The food, though beside the point, sounds about as good as before. [NYT]
Related: A Taste of Kenny Shopsin
NewsFeed
Smith and Mills Now Open for Breakfast and Lunch
Grub Street’s offices are moving downtown next month, and as much as we’ll miss cramming into El Rincon del Sabor for strawberry sodas and stewed oxtails, we’re also looking forward to after-work tipples at that equally diminutive (if somewhat hipper) eatery Smith and Mills in Tribeca. Now we can anticipate midday oysters there, too, since the drink den has just opened for breakfast and lunch. We’re already eyeing the menu hungrily, and thanks to our always up-to-the-minute database, you can too!
Related: Smith and Mills: The Smallest Next Big Thing Ever
Smith and Mills menu
Restroom Report
The Lovely Lavies of Moto and Smith and Mills
There are restaurants we love and then there are restaurants we’re in love with — Moto has been in the latter category ever since we had our first pint of Corsendonk there. Among its myriad charms is its WC. But last week, when we visited Smith and Mills, we discovered that our heart has room for more than one restroom — and somehow we don’t feel like we’re cheating. After all, Moto’s owner John McCormick had a hand in designing Smith and Mills, so these lovely lavatories are practically sisters. Hot!
Openings
B Flat, Angel’s Share’s New Basement Boîte, Is Looking Sharp
A while back we reported that the founding bartenders of Angel’s Share were taking their mortars, pestles, and strainers to Tribeca. Now that B Flat has been open for a couple of weeks and we’ve put away pretty much every drink on the list (and all three sizes of ice cubes), we’re looking forward to forthcoming summer specialties such as Giant Steps (sake and wasabi-infused vodka!) and the Cannon Ball (pepper-infused vodka, yuzu pepper, and soy sauce!). If these sound ironically sweat-inducing, rest assured, another martini will include fresh watermelon juice, and the bar menu, created by a chef at Lan, includes refreshing small plates like seviche and clams in white-truffle oil. Furthermore, we’re told the upstairs space will soon be occupied by a Tokyo-style fusion restaurant, run by the bar’s Japanese business partner, that will likely offer Asian takes on pasta, pizza, tapas, and other dishes. Obviously Smith and Mills hopefuls would do well to make B Flat their plan B.
Earlier: Angel’s Share Manager to Make Tribeca a Whole Lot Sexier
B Flat menu
Openings
Smith and Mills: The Smallest Next Big Thing Ever
Last November we were the first to predict that the Beatrice would be the hipstaurant of the season. Um, we told you so? Now from Beatrice (and Employees Only) partner Matt Abramcyk comes another contender — this one occupying a former carriage house in the Tribeca nether lands. Smith and Mills is one of the smallest restaurants we’ve ever set foot in, but on this, its opening day, we don’t think it’s too early to say it may just be the next big thing.
