DOH Now Against Cats, Too; Poor Man’s Guide to New Year’s EveBodegas are keeping themselves free of vermin thanks to their trusty cats. But naturally the Health Department has to give them a hard time about it, even though they admit that the cats are doing a good job. [NYT]
Running Tavern on the Green is something like running an ocean liner – an ocean liner that feeds 700,000 people a year, has a staff of over 500, and makes more than $38 million annually. [AMNY]
Gordon Ramsay wants lights for his backyard soccer field for Christmas. [The Glasgow Herald]
Openings
Market Table Already Bumpin’ Market Table has opened for both lunch and dinner with little fanfare, and what we hear today predicts future success. Chef-owner Joey Campanero tells us that he did two and a half turns at lunch today (roughly 100 customers). Plus, the retail counter is cha-chinging away. The biggest seller, Campanero says, is the burger. No surprise, given that it’s made from the same magic meat found in burgers at the Spotted Pig, Stand, Borough Food and Drink, City Hall, and even (though not exactly) the Shake Shack. Expect a tough table: the place is even smaller than the Little Owl, Campanero ’s perpetually packed West Village favorite.
Related: Shop Like a Chef (Preferably in His Own Store)
Neighborhood Watch
Aquavit Releases New Menus in Midtown EastEast Village: Stand offers ice cream and liquor? Yes, please. [NYP]
Flatiron: A ‘wichcraft has popped up on 20th Street and Broadway. [Grub Street]
Fort Greene: June has been closed by the Department of Health; the presence of mice less surprising than the low turnouts for their tasty enough fare. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Kensington: Newbie residents get scolded for desiring cafés and restaurants, which disturb the peace and wreak havoc, as in Park Slope. [Brooklyn Record]
Lower East Side: Tonic is closed; you may have missed Friday’s last gig. [NewYorkology] But Shopsin’s is about to open in the Essex Street Market. [Eater]
Midtown East: Aquavit has new menus, lots of new menus. [Grub Street]
Nolita: InTent has closed after only ten months. Remember? That was Payard’s downtown sibling? No? [Eater]
The Other Critics
Nobody Truly Loves Varietal; Pera and Dennis Foy Only Marginally AppealingBruni one-stars two restaurants, damning both with the faintest of praise: “Pera is a restaurant good enough at what it does best to argue for at least a moment’s consideration,” he says, carefully calibrating the knocks everyone else has given the place. Dennis Foy is too,” he throws in. [NYT]
Meehan is downright enthusiastic in his praise for East Village mini-chain Chickpea, which he considers the epitome of cheap eats, if not the final word in falafel and shawarma. [NYT]
Alan Richman reviews a more or less random steakhouse, Harry’s in the financial district, and delivers the news that the sides are lame, the steaks are fair to good, and that the place isn’t especially pretty or pleasant. Who’d have thought? [Bloomberg]
In the Magazine
Two More on the Burger Bandwagon; Hardly Any Space for BunsA blizzard of burger openings has recently hit the city: BLT Burger, Royale, the new Goodburger, and Fort Greene’s 67 Burger. And there are more on the way: Heritage Burger, the concept for which we recently sketched out, and the still-secret chef-driven East Village place that we announced in late October. This week, Rob and Robin introduce two more newbies — Stand and the convenient-to-text-message brgr — breaking them down by beef, bun, and condiments. It’s all practically enough to make you forget the name Shake Shack.
Burger Madness [NYM]
