PETA Wants Frankenmeat; Ramsay Loves Fast FoodPETA is offering $1 million for an in vitro meat solution, Gordon Ramsay eats too many hamburgers, and ‘Playboy’ is searching for some sexy Olive Garden servers.
Ethan Hawke Hits Qdoba; ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ Reunion at D’OrLast week Todd Barry told us he was a Chipotle man and we noted that a couple of respected chefs were too — but it seems Ethan Hawke, for one, prefers naked burritos to burrito bols, if a recent sighting at Qdoba Mexican Grill is any indicator. Are notable New Yorkers embracing casual dining chains? Lizzie Grubman did take her client Tailor Made to, um, the Olive Garden…
Mediavore
Huckabee Loves Salad and Bread Sticks; Domino’s Still Won’t Deliver in 30 orPresidential candidate Mike Huckabee chose T.G.I. Friday’s when a Times reporter offered to take him to lunch anywhere in the city, but Huck ultimately settled for the Olive Garden. [NYT via Serious Eats]
The Food Network’s ratings are hurting, which might help to explain why Emeril Live got canned. [NYT]
How do Thomas Keller and Mario Batali fare against McDonald’s when it comes to calories? Keller’s veal breast and polenta and Batali’s pork loin are worse for you than a Big Mac, but who cares? [WSJ
The New York Diet
Novelist Porochista Khakpour Drinks the Kool-Aid at a Hare Krishna Temple
In Porochista Khakpour’s debut novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, a coming-of-age story that may make its Iranian-American author the next Zadie Smith (the Times Book Review, Radar, and Paper are planning profiles), Khakpour, who grew up in Los Angeles before moving to New York, describes the exasperation of stern father Darius Adam at discovering that his wayward son Xerxes keeps little more than Fruity Pebbles in his Manhattan apartment. “Xerxes offered potato chips,” the passage goes, “which his father looked at as if he had never seen a Pringles can before, awestruck at his son’s supposedly adult living conditions.” Given that the novel is loosely autobiographical, we wondered about the living (and dining) conditions of the young novelist.
Back of the House
Chains Slipping, Child’s Returning, and Restaurant Spy AdvertisingSales are slipping in restaurant chains everywhere, and not even because of E. coli. [Houston Chronicle]
Back from the dead: Child’s restaurant, a booming New York cafeteria chain for most of the twentieth century, is reopening in Coney Island. [NYDN]
For the restaurateur who knows the staff is cheating him, but just can’t quite prove it … [Craigslist]
Synergy at work: Glossy restaurant-branded lifestyle magazines for rich diners at posh restaurants. To no one’s surprise, David Burke has a hand in this. [NYT]
Related: Hawaiian Tropic Zone’s Tina Marino Probably Won’t Be Sharing Her Life With You
Red Lobster and Olive Garden jump on the trans-fat banned-wagon [CNN]
