In an exciting week during which Michael Pollan got a world peace award from Yoko Ono, testicles became the new, hot cut of meat, and Alice Waters was terrorized by a mountain lion, we found ourselves sobered by the sad revelation that Berlin's cannibal restaurant was a hoax all along (it was just a stunt pulled by the German equivalent of PETA). So we're really in need of the uplifting schadenfreude of this week's James Weird Awards:

• Biomedical researcher James Gilpin has launched Gilpin Family Whiskey, a whiskey distillery that uses the urine of elderly diabetics as a base for the spirits. Each bottle is labeled with the name of the "donor," and is safe to drink — though Gilpin claims the distillery is a commentary on Britain's water purification systems' usefulness "to harvest the biological resources that our elderly already process in abundance." [Wired UK]

• A now-fired cook at a Marlton, New Jersey, restaurant was held on $25,000 bail for allegedly putting "body hair" in a local policeman's bagel intentionally, possibly in retaliation for the officer giving the cook a traffic ticket. According to the police report, the arrest happened when the officer found "human hairs that had been torn from (the cook's) body" in his breakfast sandwich. [Courier-Post]

• Employees of a Vienna, Austria, restaurant known for its venison (maybe it's Steirereck?) were arrested Thursday for spending the past two years selling over 1.2 kilograms of cocaine to restaurant customers. In the course of the arrest, police also found 55 grams of the drug, plus guns, bullets, and €2,000 hidden away at the high-end spot. [Austrian Independent]

• A hapless burglar in North Charleston, North Carolina, tried to break into a restaurant through a grease vent and wound up getting stuck for nearly seven hours. He was eventually found by an employee showing up early for work, who found his foot sticking out of the vent above the stove. [KWTX]

• A Waffle House patron in Tulsa was arrested for swinging a broom around and striking two people. The cleaning-supply assailant was picked up after a mild police chase, after which he was shockingly found to be intoxicated. [RTT News]

• A brother-and-sister team pleaded guilty to robbing a Popeye's restaurant in Rochester, New York, of over $1,000 and hitting a manager with a golf club. The sister had been fired from a different Popeye's just before the heist. [Democrat & Chronicle]

• An elderly driver who meant to put her car in reverse accidentally put it in drive, plowing at full speed into a south Florida restaurant. Six people had to go to the hospital, and countless tables and pieces of glassware were injuried. [CBS12]

• The owner of Cafe Longo, a mafia-themed venue in Providence, Rhode Island, is being sued by a friend in Fort Lauderdale who owns Cafe Martorano, a similarly gimmicky restaurant. In a fully improbable turn, both restaurants show mob movies on flat-screens, serve meatball salads, and play Frank Sinatra on the jukebox. [ProJo]

• A Food-4-Less employee in San Luis Obispo, California, called police after receiving a suspicious-looking letter addressed to the grocery store manager. After careful opening, it turned out to be a thank-you note for a particularly helpful store employee. [SLO Trib]

Read more posts by Helen Rosner

Filed Under: the james weird awards, chains, crime, fast food, whiskey

If you’re on the fence about responding to one of those Craigslist ads suggesting that you “get pay for looking HOT!!”, the Wall Street Journal reveals that you can make between $300 to $600 a night as a shot girl. Douchetinations like Turtle Bay and McFadden’s make Jell-O shots at a cost of 15 cents, sell them for between $3 to $4 — and the shot girl gets 25 cents for each guy who buys alcoholic gelatin and slurs “I’m gonna marry that girl” (actual quote from a guy wearing a backpack), plus the occasional Benjamin for a tip. Just know that your boss will ask you to “shake what your mama gave ya’”.

The Friendliest Young Woman in the Room [WSJ]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: now hiring, douchetinations, mcfadden's, shot girls, turtle bay

The Post reports that a judge has issued an injunction preventing Capital One from auctioning off Cipriani’s assets next week. [NYP]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: financial woes, capital one, cipriani

• Reminder: The Park Slope ChipShop will fry anything you bring to the restaurant. [NYDN]

• Infused spirits are all the rage right now. [NYT]

• At least one in seven home kitchens would not pass restaurant-level health inspections. [NYP]

• Last weekend's ground beef recall is intensifying a debate over how to keep E. coli out of meat most effectively. [NYT]

• Divers in the Baltic recovered a drinkable two hundred-year-old bottle of beer from a shipwreck yesterday. [France24]

• With the opening of Red Rooster, Marcus Samuelsson wants to brand Harlem to outsiders. [Paper via Eater]

• Pinkberry will soon launch takeout containers. [NRN]

Filed Under: mediavore, ciprianis, park slope chipshop

“I ingest, and then they pay me to write about it,” explains Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten. “I’m not doing an article for the November issue, so I’ve had much more time to eat than I ordinarily do. It's a great time of year for snacking.” Steingarten is co-hosting a whiskey tasting with David Chang for Fashion’s Night Out on September 10. “We’re going to have largely local whiskeys, and I hope lots of it. Four bars, so no one has to wait more than a minute for their whiskey — and I expect them to be poured in liberal amounts.” The enthusiasms and appetites of The Man Who Ate Everything are legendary, and his account of a week's food and drink tips the scales as our most extensive Grub Street Diet yet.

Wednesday, August 25
I started the day with a big piece of cantaloupe, sweet and ripe, from the Union Square Greenmarket. I also had a peach and a cup of coffee.

For lunch I had something I eat quite often. It's a piece of toast, brushed or slathered with olive oil, and then sliced tomato on top. Sometimes I'll put a little herb of some kind over the top, and salt and pepper. It is heaven. It has to be a perfect tomato, obviously. In my experience, heirloom tomatoes are very, very often inferior in taste and texture.

For dinner I went to the press preview of Eataly. [See his full take on the experience here.] After I left I went to Rye House with my wife. For the event at Andaz, I asked Jim Meehan of PDT to get some local whiskeys together and I tasted about six of them — from the Hudson River Valley and from the Finger Lakes. Then I asked the Brandy Library to arrange another whiskey tasting, where we did a blind tasting of ten things, one or two of them from Brooklyn, which I’m afraid did not score well. Whiskeys need to age, and that's something that's almost impossible for the local people, simply because they haven't been in business long enough. So at Rye House, Kevin, the bartender, set out a number of things that I hadn't had before. The really exciting one was a distillery called Laird in New Jersey that makes apple brandy and applejack.

Thursday, August 26
My wife hand-squeezes orange juice every morning. That's the main cooking she does, since I kind of displace her, I’m afraid.

Three or four months ago I prayed, not particularly to any god, that I would not become a coffee geek. Because I was writing an article about coffee and I was spending a lot of time investigating it. The emphasis has shifted to brewed coffee from espresso, and I’m happy about that. I enjoy espresso very much but the intensity of espresso and also these very dark roasts at almost all espresso bars seems to me to make it hard to actually taste the floral and fruity character of the beans, though some of the darker more minerally tastes do persist. The two methods that we've been doing at home are the pour-over, almost always into a paper filter: Grind the beans, put them in the paper filter, use this special Hario water kettle which has a very fine spout so you can aim. See? I have become a coffee geek, and I have to get over this. There's even a disagreement over the proper pattern to pour the water over the grounds. I'm very serious, I thought it was ridiculous but now I’m very careful to follow the spiral method, out to in and in to out.

The other method is the siphon method, which is not entirely appropriate unless you have an assistant who's a coffee fiend, because it takes you twenty minutes and you're just standing there. I don't really get up too much earlier than the absolute moment I have to be at my desk, so it's hard to be able to spare that time to watch the coffee brew. But if you have an assistant who's a coffee fiend — and now, of course, it's no longer an insult to a female employee to ask her to make coffee.

For lunch I had tomato on toast, and also a little cheese that I had bought the day before at the Greenmarket from a cheesemaker called Cato Corner. Their prizewinning cheese is called Hooligan, and I especially enjoy it when it's nice and ripe.

Around four o'clock I was picked up by Josh Ozersky, who has a weekly radio show on the Heritage Food Network, which is located in a shack behind Roberta's restaurant in Brooklyn. Also in the car was the other guy being interviewed, John Fraser, who is the chef at Dovetail, which I believe brought good refined modern food to the Upper West Side for almost the first time. So one incentive for going all the way over to Brooklyn for this radio show is the food at Roberta's, which I just love, even though it's very far away.

During the interview we had a little of their excellent pizza and a glass of wine, but it was mainly afterward that we had a really fine spread cooked by the chef, Carlo Mirarchi. Carlo was extremely generous with making a lot of food for us — I mean in quantity, naturally I paid for it. I'm sure there were dishes among those we tried that I didn't have to pay for, but with the recent controversy about people taking free food and everything … as I told Julia Moskin at the New York Times, who was on the case, she and I and a handful of other people can afford to be sanctimonious about it because we work for publications that are still paying for our food, but otherwise it would be very difficult to keep up.

Carlo made us seared cuttlefish, tender and crisp — I don't think I’ve ever had cuttlefish like that. Naturally we had excellent pizza: one margherita, because that's what I like, and another that I never thought I’d like because I view myself as sort of a purist, it has guanciale and egg on top. There was a dish of sea urchin and shredded burrata, which was unusual and quite delicious. There was seared pork jowl that Carlo makes very well. He roasts it for a long time at a relatively low temperature and it becomes perfectly soft and melting, although it does have some crunch. He then slices it and sears it in the pan. Then we had a big rib steak. I was surprised to hear from Carlo that our particular steak came from Niman Ranch, and this is not for me a usual source of the best rib steaks. I really am addicted to LaFrieda, but this was wonderful, really wonderful.

Our meal took a long time, I don't think I got home until 9, but I had brought home a pizza from Roberta's for my wife, and I was able to have a little midnight snack.

Friday, August 27
I ate fruit all day. I had peaches from the Greenmarket, and also peaches from California — the day before I'd gotten a carton of the Cal-Red variety from Frog Hollow farms. They're organic, which I favor, and perfect. I had some watermelon. I had some squash, because I was trying to duplicate a dish I had had at my favorite new Manhattan restaurant, ABC Kitchen, but the squash is not yet really in season so it was not quite right.

I had some bread to break things up throughout the day. For my bread, I use only homemade bread. I bake about twice a week, usually using my variation that I published in Vogue, of Jim Lahey's method, as introduced to the wider world by Mark Bittman in the New York Times. You have to mix it up the night before and wait 18 to 22 hours, but mixing it takes about two minutes by my watch, and that includes the travel time between the counter and the refrigerator where I store yeast. The only tricky part is forming the loaf; I think that is key to the success of the bread.

My assistant Rachel is a big booster of Brooklyn, where she lives, and I find it a very dangerous thing to be a Brooklyn booster. It's dangerous for friends of mine who work for the New York Times — I’m not naming any names — but the food editor for the magazine, who is one of our best food writers, and the restaurant reviewer of the newspaper all live in Brooklyn, and they are relatively uncritical of things in Brooklyn the way that sometimes — but not often — Frank Bruni became a little uncritical about things on the Upper West Side. It’s because he really wanted to find things, but I've always felt that if you eat out a lot then you should not live on the Upper West Side, or you should have a chauffeur.

But the dangers of Brooklyn boosterism: Rachel had gone to a bakery that has gotten good reviews in Brooklyn, I won't mention the name, but it’s been reviewed as having the best croissant and breakfast pastries. She brought a whole bunch over, and the croissant was only acceptable. I do feel that people should, before they blog about how good something is, they should really take time to think about the best they've had and really compare it to that. Long after the whole croissant craze started in New York, fifteen years ago, I had a little television show with Ed Levine, and part of it was comparing croissants all over the New York area. We had Pierre Hermé on the show, and he showed us what he thought were the important characteristics of the croissant: a very flaky outside, very light in the hand, you had to be able to tear it in half and not have the insides go all in one way or the other, you had to have layers, and most of all, there was the taste. So I asked him what is the main taste of the croissant, and he said "Butter." And what does butter taste like? “Acidity.”

It is not easy to find good oranges these days, sweet and not bitter, even sometimes in the winter. But my wife has discovered them at the new Trader Joe’s on 27th Street. While I was there, I had bought a frozen tarte tatin made in France — I was kind of intrigued by the idea. I made it, and it was okay. I also had a frozen dessert product based on a fudgesicle that's called Skinny Cow. They have a mini-size which is only 50 calories, and I've gotten used to those even though I was against the idea of the artificially sweetened things.

Saturday, August 28
I never get to the Greenmarket in the morning. I think that it's bigoted of farmers to get up so early. I don't think it's necessary; I know farmers in Europe who don't start until 9 a.m. with their market stores. There's no reason for the earliness, it's just machoness. So you get to the Greenmarket, and if you haven’t ordered ahead of time, people are sold out? That's wrong! I happen not to be a morning person, but I deserve to eat as much as a morning person deserves to eat. When you prick us, do we not bleed? Seriously.

Still, I bought peaches from three different growers, and two of them were actually ripe. There were huge cantaloupes, which I’m always suspicious of, but they were very good, and corn of course. And Concord grapes have started! There's little more enjoyable than going to the Greenmarket and everyone has their grapes laid out in the sun. An aroma, almost a perfume rises up all around the market. One thing I discovered two years ago is that there's one real maker of grape juice, Buzzard Crest Vineyards. They have to freeze most of it before getting to the market because it's so sweet that it starts to ferment almost immediately. They only had the white kind, and it's not yet as sweet as it will be, but it's still fantastic. I had ordered a huge pig jowl from Violet Hill farms, where I get a lot of my meat. Carlo from Roberta's had given me his recipe, so almost as soon as I got home from the market I started curing it.

We had a guest from India. He's quite old and he's a very particular eater, so we went to ABC Kitchen for dinner. And he asked me, “Obviously the chef didn't have to do much to the ingredients, so why do you need a good chef?” I tried to explain how the cooking was not as simple as he thought it was, it just looks simple. We had many dishes: the Jersey tomato on bread, certainly the squash that's sautéed with Parmesan.

Sunday, August 29
I had bought the shoulder of a kid on Saturday from a stand at the Greenmarket called Patches of Sky. She’s a goat-cheese maker, but she breeds her own goats. And what do you know, a high percentage — maybe almost half! — of all the kids that are born are male, and a goat-cheese maker has really nothing to do with males. So as a sideline, she sends them to a slaughterhouse. It only happens a few times a year, and then she brings the meat to the Greenmarket. It used to be that I had pick of the litter, as it were, because no one would buy it. But of course goat is really hot now, so I have to lobby to get my share. I'm not particularly good with a knife and I have the injuries to prove it, but I had figured I would break my forequarter down into the shoulder, the neck, the rib, the loin.

I was going to make the shoulder sous-vide. Sous-vide is fading as a method, really. One reason is that the Health Department in New York is brain-dead. You’re allowed to cook something like a chicken or beef or something in a regular oven at the worst temperature for bacteria, they don't mind that, but as soon as you put it in a plastic bag they monitor it. They have extremely incorrect information about botulism. They really should go to jail, those people, they’re just stupid. There are a lot of people doing sous-vide in New York and they have to hide it.

Alain Ducasse is one of the early chefs who used sous-vide for gastronomic purposes in France. He has a recipe for a kid shoulder with what he calls Moroccan spices — the kind of white people's French version, which is a bit bland, but still it's good. So I got all the spices, I ground them in a mortar and pestle, and rubbed the goat with it, put it in a plastic bag with some frozen olive oil, because liquid just gets sucked out of it if you use a food-saver, which is my way of sealing the bag. And I put the bag underwater. That was on Saturday, and on Sunday it was over — we took it out of the water and we seared it, and it was delicious. That was our main food for the day. It was a day, like all days, of peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, and bread with tomatoes, but when it came time for the meat course, it was the day of the goat.

Monday, August 30
I had ordered some squab from D'Artagnan because I wanted to do some experiments with sous-vide squab. You have to separate the breast, because it should be medium rare. People who are squeamish about that shouldn't eat squab, because then it tastes like liver and you might as well eat liver. It has to be cooked very accurately: You really do want it to be medium rare like a steak, but you want the skin to be crisp. The various methods that I was going through would be Thomas Keller in his sous-vide book Under Pressure, and a version from David Kinch of Manresa. And then there's the Ducasse method. He has two methods in his Grand Livre, so those are the ones that I’m trying. The best way to make the legs scrumptious is to confit them, usually using duck fat, and the easiest way to confit is sous-vide.

I had another whiskey tasting at PDT that afternoon, but this time I did not say it had to be local whiskeys, it just had to be small-batch or artisanal, and it didn't necessarily have to be whiskey, just spirits. We had about ten or eleven, and six or seven were excellent.

My wife hates it when I eat in the kitchen standing up, so I view that action as a great luxury. I would imagine that it's better for digestion because it goes right down, aided by gravity. Less work for your organs! She was in Texas, so I was able to indulge. So instead of going home from PDT, I got in a cab and went down to Chinatown, to Great NY Noodletown. There was one dish I wanted to have: the steamed lo mein noodles with scallion-ginger sauce.

David Chang’s cookbook, Momofuku, which is an excellent cookbook and is beautifully written, contains a paean to Noodletown’s scallion-ginger sauce. The restaurant was very unknown until, if I may say, I took Ruth Reichl there and then she reviewed it [for the New York Times]. And someone, probably David Bouley, took Joël Robuchon there — he tried the scallion-ginger sauce, and he was so in love with it that he brought home several quarts to France.

But I got home with my noodles and I don't know, this order of lo mein noodles with scallion-ginger sauce was just not good at all. The ginger was in large pieces, the scallion was poorly cut. I guess under current management it's not one of their signature dishes. To round it out I had got some fried rice with Chinese sausage, and pan-fried lo mein noodles with sliced fish.

Tuesday, August 31
I had peaches for breakfast, and just a piece of my toast with butter.

The New York Times had published a recipe in the Sunday magazine section, an old recipe that had been published in 1985 by Craig Claiborne, for Ann Rosenzweig's corn pancakes. I decided we ought to do that dish, but I didn't have much time, so I asked Rachel to do the whole thing. It was very nice comfort food — we ate that with the pork jowl, which had been in the sous-vide machine for 48 hours. I don't think that my version came out as well as Carlo's. We had some leftover lo mein noodles, and Rachel and I whipped up David Chang's recipe for scallion-ginger sauce, and it was just delicious.

The new bread came out of the oven and I waited for it to cool. Almost everybody agrees that you should not eat it warm, which is hard for my wife and assistant to believe, but I remember a paper that says a lot of the flavor of bread comes from the migration of the odors and aromas from the well-done crust to the insides, and that won't happen well if you slice the bread before it cools. And then if you want more warm bread you can cook it once it’s cooled.

Wednesday, September 1
Cantaloupe for breakfast. I was in a real hurry.

I was taking out a young man — I consider him a young man — to lunch. I have a feeling that, unlike me, he has a positive attitude about most things. He’s a student at Columbia Journalism School, and they assign them all to some neighborhood in the city and he was assigned the Midwood part of Brooklyn. I've only been out there to get DiFara Pizza, which — like Tomoe Sushi on Sullivan Street — is way overrated. Anyone who thinks DiFara is a shrine doesn't know what God is. I'm afraid I'm very immoderate in this, and I actually hate people, hate them, really dislike people who worship DiFara's. Still, I had told him to go there because it was the only place I knew in Midwood.

For lunch, I had thought about taking him to ABC Kitchen, because he's from California and might really appreciate that. People from California really are different: They eat avocado on everything. It was proven that day: I took him to Chinatown Brasserie, largely because they have the best dim sum in the city, and there was a new dim sum on the menu that I didn't love and of course my friend loved it, because it had avocado in it and he's from California and they put avocado on everything.

We also had steamed pork and shrimp dumplings, steamed roast pork buns, steamed crabmeat and pork shanghai dumplings — I’m not going to call them soup dumplings, I don't know why they started calling them that, because there's no character in Chinese for soup. I’m a real addict of well-made spring rolls, and they have the best there, their deep-frying is perfect, so we had the barbecued duck spring roll and the vegetable spring roll. And we had their really good seafood and pork fried rice with XO sauce — fried rice being one of my two foods that will save the world — and very thin egg noodles with wild mushrooms.

I had a Tsingtao with lunch. It reminds me a bit of being in France: The first meal right after I get there, you might have just been able to share a whole bottle of wine with your wife, and then you totter back to the hotel. By your third day, you have to order an extra glass of wine at the end of the meal, and by the fourth day or fifth day, I find that you wake up in the morning and the first thing you want is some alcohol. I've been experiencing that a little, though I don't think it's serious, with all the whiskey I’ve been drinking. I’ve accompanied some of the past week’s lunch dishes with a shot of good whiskey, something I would have considered totally degenerate before. I think it is degenerate, but who can blame me?

For dinner, I had some leftover noodles with scallion-ginger sauce, a bite or two of squab, and I found in the refrigerator a burrata, quite delicious, and I had too much of that. But I’d had a huge lunch, you know?

Read more posts by Helen Rosner

Filed Under: the grub street diet, abc kitchen, alain ducasse, andaz fifth avenue, brandy library, chinatown brasserie, david chang, di fara, dovetail, eataly, fashion's night out, frank bruni, great n.y. noodletown, jeffrey steingarten, keste, motorino, paulie gee's, pdt, roberta's, rye house, the new york diet, tomoe sushi, vogue

As part of this week's Grub Street Diet, Jeffrey Steingarten went to a press preview of Eataly. He gave an extensive breakdown that deserves to stand on its own.

I almost never go to press previews because it seems to me that they're not my business, but I go if I want to be supportive or if I'm really, really curious, and here both were the case. It was spectacular. Mario and Joe had brought in their best people from their whole empire, from every restaurant. For example David Pasternack, who's the chef at Esca, was right there at the counter preparing crudo. I had a grouper with pistachio, an Alaskan wild king salmon with capers — I'm not totally sure about the “wild” and the “king,” since we're out of season for that — there was a bigeye tuna with olive oil, I think there were sardines or fresh anchovies as well.

There was a big pasta station with all this handmade pasta, and the person running that was Zach Allen from their Las Vegas restaurant [B&B Ristorante], and they were wonderful, delicious pastas. I had the classic raviolo of Turin, an agnolotti stuffed with pork, veal, mortadella, and covered with spinach pasta, not yellow pasta. It’s served with a brown butter and sage sauce, which is typical of Piedmont, and especially around Alba and Asti, which are the capitals of white-truffle hunting.

I spent an enormous amount of time at the pizza oven. I believe it's a similar pizza oven to the one they have at Paulie Gee's in Brooklyn, and to the one that Donatella Arpaia has built from scratch at her new pizzeria, which is not open yet. I do believe, and long have believed, that pizza is the perfect food. There's no other city like New York, where every block has a pizzeria where they're probably making dough from scratch. It's an unbelievable phenomenon, and I also find it very moving: On every street corner of New York there is someone, usually a man, who is performing a procedure that has not changed very much in 3,000 years. It has in the past moistened my eye to remember that.

The pizza wars — in Manhattan especially, though also Brooklyn — are really heating up. All the new pizzas — Keste, Motorino, Paulie Gee's — they're all making their pizzas in the Neapolitan fashion, which means the dough is almost never fully cooked. I remember when Ed Levine wrote his pizza book, in it he proposes that American pizzas can be better than Neapolitan pizzas. He thought that the pizzas he had in Naples had dough that was too soft, the crust was
too soft, some versions were just inundated with sauce. Even though Ed is my friend I was very skeptical about that — it kind of reminded me of the people who used to go to China and come back and say American Chinese food is better. But then I returned to Naples, and I began to feel that Ed was correct. Still the best pizza in the United States probably is Pizza Bianco in Phoenix — don't worry about that, [chef Chris Bianco] was born in the Bronx — but I think that the new Neapolitan pizzas made in New York are truly great, and Eataly's is wonderful.

I also had a piece of steak; the meat is supplied by Pat LaFrieda. I like their steak very much — they supply the steak to lots of people, among which is Minetta Tavern, which has some of the best steak in New York, certainly in Manhattan. The bread sticks that they had at Eataly were premade and pretty good. They had one made with corn, one regular wheat with lard, and one without lard. I've almost never had good bread in Italy. I suppose that sounds very prejudiced, but by and large, the bread in Italy, especially in the north, has too much yeast, it uses very refined white flour, and it's overkneaded so it takes out all the pigment and all the flavor that comes along with the pigment by oxygenating it. But bread sticks, especially when they're made with lard, are great bread. These little skinny things that you get in some Italian restaurant in a wax-paper envelope are terrible, but the first time that I went to Piedmont, where they were invented, I had real bread sticks. They're baked in these special ovens so they’re six feet long, and often they're served broken in half, two of them put on the table from one corner to the other because they're so long. The best ones are made with lard.

The thing that worries me is that I know that [Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich] are very particular about Italian food, and at a place like this all the people have to be at the top of their game all the time. I just imagine that would be very, very difficult. They're going to have to be on the edge for the rest of their lives, and it's very scary to imagine that. I spent all my time talking to the pizzaiolo, who has to go back to London in week. This is my concern: Many great people are going to have to return to their home bases, some to Italy, this guy to London, other people back to the rest of the empire. I just hope that they can maintain the very high level that I experienced there.

Read more posts by Helen Rosner

Filed Under: the grub street diet, david pasternak, eataly, jeffrey steingarten, joe bastianich, mario batali, pizza, the new york diet

Chelsea: Friedman's, formerly open only for lunch, has added a full dinner menu Tuesday through Saturday. [Grub Street]
East Village: 6th Street Kitchen will be previewing their fall menu at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 17. Seven new dishes will be served at the $45 event, including duck raviolo with Swiss chard and raisins, or sweet-and-sour-tongue tea sandwiches. [Grub Street]
Greenpoint: The Diamond hosts the third annual Brew n' Chew Sunday, September 12, from 2 to 5 p.m. Ten teams will present different pairings of home-brewed beer and snacks to attendees. Tickets, $30, are available online, with 90 percent of the proceeds going to the Greenpoint YMCA. [Greenpointers]

Midtown: Tri-Tip Grill offers free chicken on their signature salads to any customer who says the password "National Chicken Month" at the register, through September. [Grub Street]
Mai Sushi is now open at 16 E. 41st St. [Midtown Lunch]
Woodside: Spicy Mina appears to have closed. [Fork in the Road/VV]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, friedman's, tri-tip grill

Seminal cocktail lounge Pegu Club just turned five, and to mark the occasion, owner Audrey Saunders has launched an "All-Star" menu running through September. The chronological compendium showcases original concoctions of past and present Pegu bar-men and -women, a trove of mixology talent that includes Fort Defiance’s St. John Frizell and PDT’s Jim Meehan. Pictured above: the Lil Jig from Phil (Death & Co.) Ward, who was there in the beginning, and two contributions from current Pegu Club cocktailians — Del Pedro’s Scotch-centric Highland Harvest (above) and Kenta Goto’s gin-based Cucumber-Apple Fizz. Check out the complete menu below.

Pegu Club's 5th Anniversary Menu [PDF]

Read more posts by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Filed Under: booze news, agenda, drinking, nightlife, pegu club

Don’t be jealous because the cast of Top Chef is being flown to Singapore. This month, you’ll get no less than three opportunities to go on Asian eating tours without having to travel — well, in one case, you’ll have to get out to Queens. But you might just want to hail a rickshaw for these festivals.

Asian Feastival
What: Dishes from an array of Queens restaurants (from Sietsema favorite M&T to Flushing’s Sri Lankan, Bownie), panel discussions, and a walking-and-eating tour with the king of Queens, Joe DiStefano.
When and Where: September 6, noon till 5 p.m. at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel (135-20 39th Ave.) in Flushing, Queens.
Tickets: $55 in advance or $60 day of. Buy here.

Malaysian Night Market
What: LUCKYRICE again helps re-create the hawker stands of Malaysia, this time enlisting Todd English, Fatty Crab, Laut, Betel, Café Asean, and others to serve up $4 to $8 street eats like roti canai and nasi lemak.
When and Where: September 14, 6:30 p.m. till 10 p.m., 14th St. and Ninth Ave.
Tickets: Free. More info here.

2nd Annual NYC Dumpling Festival
What: While competitive eaters try to break the record of 66 dumplings in two minutes, the slightly less gluttonous can sample Philippine palitaw, Malaysian kuih koci, Chinese bao, and non-Asian dumplings, too.
When and Where: September 25, 12 p.m. till 5 p.m. at Sara D. Roosevelt Park (at E.Houston St & Chrystie St in Lower East Side Manhattan)
Tickets: Free. See Facebook for more information.

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: foodievents, 2nd Annual nyc dumpling festival, asian, asian feastival, malaysian night market, odyssey

Yesterday, it was the James New York hotel and its restaurant, and today, here’s your first look at the NY Charles Hotel’s new Restaurant i, the virtually Google-proof creation of Charles Chong. When it opens next Tuesday (ahead of the 21-room hotel’s opening in winter), chef Andy Seidel (a native of Germany who was previously chef tournant at Spice Market and executive chef for the group that owns Coffee Shop and Live Bait) will turn out what’s described as “modern American cuisine with Asian influences.” Check out the menu below, and click through the slideshow to see the color-changing ceiling designed by the Studio Salt (also responsible for the funky new Kyochon).

Menu
Raw
Half Dozen Oysters 18
ginger-scallion relish, wasabi infused cocktail sauce
Hamachi “Brulee” 14
scallions, citrus dressing, spicy aioli
Salmon Tartare 12
black tobiko caviar, cucumber, chives, potato chips, lemon oil

Starters
Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Soup 7
Blue Cornmeal Dusted Squid 12
tomato confit, shishito pepper, saffron-yuzo aioli
Pulled Beef Short Ribs 5
kimchi, steamed soft bun
Chicken Liver Pate 11
red onion marmalade, red radish, cornichons, peasant bread
Roasted Cauliflower 7
capers, fried artichokes, yuzo brown butter
Lump Crab Cake 13
sticky rice, red curry-coconut broth

Salads
Seared Tuna and Salmon 15
mesclun greens, olives, haricot verts, fingerling potatoes, quail eggs, white sesame seeds, chive dressing
Golden and Red Beets 13
farm goat cheese, baby frisee, spiced macadamia nuts, caraway vinaigrette,
Chilled Iceberg Wedge 11
saffron poached pear, blue cheese dressing
Warm White and Green Asparagus 12
white truffle oil, parmesan, fire roasted tomato vinaigrette
Chopped Cesar 9
romaine hearts, croutons, parmesan, Cesar dressing
Grilled Shrimp and Chicken 14
mesclun greens, cucumber, tomato, hearts of palm, white balsamic dressing

Main
Miso Cod 23
bok choy, carrot-ginger emulsion, steamed rice
Grilled Angus Strip Steak 28
Pea shoot tops, herbed French fries, ginger soy
Organic Chicken Breast 19
corn puree, cranberry-bread “torchon”, beer jus
Crispy Red Snapper 20
potato artichoke asparagus hash, bacon sherry vinaigrette
Bays Scallops and Rock Shrimp 16
egg noodles, snow peas, peanuts, chili infused soy, Thai basil
Herb Crusted Salmon 21
baby spinach, wild mushrooms, caper-yuzo beurre blanc
Aromatic Beef Short Ribs 16
market vegetables, beef short ribs, fried eggs, steamed rice, red chili sauce

Burgers and Sandwiches
Char Grilled Cheese Burger 14
bibb-lettuce, tomato, house pickles, gorgonzola, sesame bun
Lamb Burger 13
bibb-lettuce, house pickle, yogurt, feta cheese, pretzel bun
BBQ Chicken Breast 12
Caramelized red onions, smoked gouda, spicy aioli, peasant bread
Lump Crab Cake 15
baby arugula, tomato, saffron-yuzo mayo, brioche roll
• choice of herbed fries or mesclun salad

Sides
herbed French fries 5
sautéed baby spinach 6
grilled asparagus, parmesan, e.v.o.o. 7

Desserts
7.
Banana Brown Betty
crème anglaise, ginger snap cookies
Flourless Chocolate Cake
vanilla ice cream, whipped cream
Key Lime Pie
whipped cream
Apple Fritters
cinnamon dust, vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce
Assorted Gelatos and Sorbets

Restaurant i, 893 Broadway, nr. 19th St.; 646-398-9663

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: slideshow, charles chong, flatiron, hotels, james new york, kyochon, ny charles, the studio salt

When the latest New York City rom com, Going the Distance, hits theaters tomorrow, you’ll have a chance to step inside Relish once again. The Williamsburg diner, which closed in late July, pops up in the movie’s trailer, and a scene featuring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long was apparently filmed inside. Except this alternate version of Relish is graced by a giant Pulino’s-esque DINER sign. According to IMDB, other scenes where filmed at Antartica, Docks Oyster Bar, and Rasputin — the most fun a Brighton Beach restaurant has had since Jason Schwartzman supped at Tatiana.

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: at the movies, antarctica, docks oyster bar, going the distance, rasputin, relish

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze in a couple for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Notable Italian.

A Voce Columbus (Menu)
212-823-2523
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Babbo (Menu)
212-777-0303
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:15 p.m.

Convivio (Menu)
212-599-5045
Two for eight? No
Best available: 7:45 p.m.

Del Posto (Menu)
212-497-8090
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:45 p.m.

L’Artusi (Menu)
212-255-5757
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9 p.m.

Locanda Verde (Menu)
212-925-3797
Two for eight? No
Best available: Fully Booked

Maialino (Menu)
212-777-2410
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:30 p.m.

Scarpetta (Menu)
212-691-0555
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:30 p.m.

SD26 (Menu)
212-265-5959
Two for eight? Yes

Sfoglia (Menu)
212-831-1402
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Filed Under: Two for Eight

A little over a month after Scott Conant penned an “Open Letter to Toronto” that struck certain Canadians as condescending, the Toronto Star’s critic Amy Pataki has done the inevitable and penned a 1.5-star review in the style of the letter. She says she experienced more than one “WTF moment” at the hands of the service, and is amazed by the “undercurrent of pretentiousness” running through certain dishes (though she finds the spaghetti “irreproachable”). The baby goat “looked like airplane food, with its beige potato garnish and over-reduced sauce as sticky as pancake topping.” Other dishes are described as “soupy” and “flabby.” And: “I don’t think I need to tell you how bad the drinks are, either.” Ouch. To be fair, Scarpetta has received more favorable reviews (a halibut dish that Pataki says has “no spark” was described as “brilliant” in the National Post and “beyond impressive” by Eye Weekly) but this critic, at least, probably won’t be pen pals with Scott Conant.

Scarpetta: Dear Scott: It’s not me, it’s you [Toronto Star]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: the other critics, scarpetta, scott conant, thompson hotel, toronto

Now that the cat's out of the bag that the next season of Top Chef will be an all-star round, sightings are starting to flood in to Grub Street HQ. Yesterday, we rounded up your tips of episodes shot at Marea and the Bowery Whole Foods, but there's much more where that came from. In fact, this very morning one of you saw the whole team shooting at the Red Hook Fairway:

I just came back from Fairway in Red Hook, Brooklyn and I just saw many contestants shooting a episode there (11 a.m.) I can confirm that these people were there:
Marcel Vigneron
Richard Blais
Fabio Viviani
Angelo Sosa
Tiffany Derry
Michael Isabella
Dale Talde
Carla Hall
and Tre Wilcox (season 3?)
There was also 2 other girl that I recognize but don't remember their name, I will have to do research on that and will let you know who … I did not see Spike!

And then there's the matter of Kevin Gillespie. The dude is definitely in town — "My wife and I were having a casual lunch outside at Sea in the Meatpacking District on Monday when Kevin (MIT, tattooed arms) from last season walked by us," writes one tipster. "Definitely saw Kevin Gillespie on Monday in the lobby of 150 E. 42nd Street," adds another — but so far, he hasn't shown up in conjunction with any shoots, nor has he been seen surrounded by TV cameras. But odds are good that he's not part of the show. As Eater National notes, he's been shilling for dog food lately — he's the official chef (?) of bacon-style product Beggin' Strips — so he might just be in town for duties related to his position as Lord of the Dog Treat.

Any more Top Chef sightings? Leave 'em in the comments or drop us a line.

Read more posts by Helen Rosner

Filed Under: top chef, kevin gillespie, top chef all stars

Shaken, stirred, fried, or simply puréed to a pulp, vegetables are cropping up in cocktails across our fair city. Forget measly sprigs that are little more than window dressings — the new drinks put stalks, tubers, and other surprising ingredients at center stage, no matter that vegetables are less predictable and more high-maintenance than almost any other ingredient that might go into a highball. The appeal: bright hues, bold flavors, bursts of refreshment without sno-cone sweetness, and bragging rights among bartenders and mixologists. The challenges: shorter growing seasons, broader ranges in flavor, a steep learning curve, and little room for error. Besides, even the most open-minded barfly might think twice before downing anything that’s spiked with celery syrup. Check out our slideshow for a few boozy veggie tales worth telling.

Read more posts by Elisa Mala

Filed Under: trends, a voce, almond, bar pleaides, cocktails, delmonico's, drinks, nuela, palace gate, poco, rouge tomate, sd26, slideshow, summit bar, the bedford, the mark

Chefs, it’s time to swap out the photo of Steve Cuozzo that you keep on the kitchen wall — the Post critic reveals that after cutting down on sweets and junk food due to a Type 2–diabetes scare, he has lost twenty pounds in the past year (after losing fifteen pounds to the condition), and there’s a photo of him at 160 pounds (down from 195) to prove it. Cuozzo follows Bruni, Sifton, Ed Levine, and other fellow critics in shedding light on his dieting habits, saying that he stifled his lifelong sweet tooth (and beat chronic heartburn) by cutting down on “sugar bombs” and sugary drinks, as well as switching to a diet with more whole-grain breads, seafood, fruits and vegetables, cheese, peanut butter, and Sprite Zero. Congratulations are in order, and chefs might want to think twice about delivering complimentary desserts.

Defeating diabetes -- now that’s sweet! [NYP]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: the other critics, diabetes, diets, steve cuozzo, weight loss

How did Batali and the Bastianichs get a juggernaut like Eataly up and running without epic delays? The city has issued a press release saying the New Business Acceleration Team that Bloomberg announced earlier this year shaved fifteen months(!) off of the opening by working with Con Ed, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and all the other agencies that are the bane of a restaurant owner’s existence. Plus, the city held over 30 recruitment events that helped over 200 people (but not the vegetable butcher) score jobs there. And that number doesn’t even factor in the bloggers who now have fodder for weeks: Gael Greene got stood up by Mario Batali for breakfast, Midtown Lunch takes a look at Eataly's lunch options, Slice weighs in on the pizza, Josh Ozersky says the place is missing only “perverted sex,” and Corby Kummer compares it to the Turin location over the course of about 2,500 words.

Previously: First Look at Eataly, Finally Open to the Public

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: openings, eataly, joe bastianich, lidia bastianich, mario batali, mayor michael bloomberg, new business acceleration team

It’s a good time to own Burger King stock: DealBook and others are reporting that the home of the Whopper will be sold for $4 billion to an investment firm, 3G, that has previously invested in Wendy’s. [DealBook/NYT]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: the chain gang, 3g, burger king

The Times snags a copy of the lawsuit that Laurent Tourondel’s former business partners in BLT Burger have brought against him for opening LT Burger in Sag Harbor, a restaurant they say violates the BLT trademark, and while it’s not quite as entertaining as the Mr. Chow case against Philippe, it’s definitely worth a read for lines like this: “Upon information and belief, BLT Burger was one of the very first dining establishments to offer alcoholic milkshakes.” And these are milkshakes that have been praised by the Onion, the complaint points out. It goes on to insist that LT basically reproduced the BLT hamburger and (more amusingly) milkshake menu, changing the “Berry Me” to the “Berry Good,” the “Campfire Marshmallows” to “the Fluffer,” and (bear with us now) the “Fuzzy the Bear” to the “Red Head” and the “Brunette” to the “Night Rider.” Not only that, but he allegedly hired the publisher of BLT Living to create a copycat newsletter titled LT Living, and then tricked BLT managers into distributing it at their restaurants. Supposedly, they even had to pay for shipping! Don’t miss the complaint below.

BLT vs. Laurent Tourondel et. al. [PDF via Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Related: A Brief History of Restaurant Rip-off Lawsuits

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: lawsuits, blt burger, laurent tourondel, lt burger, sag harbor

Last night's Top Chef continued to bring out the big (judging) guns, as Food & Wine editor-in-chief Dana Cowin (who happens to be Facebook friends with Ed) arrived to judge the Quickfire. She came with wines in tow and asked the chefs to choose a wine and create a dish to pair with it. Ed and Tiffany headed for the Wagyu ribeye, while Kevin, originally convinced he could braise big hunks of pork belly in less than an hour, had to settle for quail. In the end, Padma, wearing a weird suit, gave the win — and a trip to London — to Angelo for his sautéed foie gras with black-salt-and-fennel salad.

Over a commercial break, Padma then drew out the announcement that the chefs would go to Singapore for the finale, which we already knew. Shocking no one, Angelo couldn't contain his excitement to go to Asia. But first, the elimination challenge, which sent the chefs to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/the set they used for Apollo 13. A NASA scientist with very shiny braces and some astronauts via satellite from the international space station instructed the chefs to, sigh, create a dish that was "out of this world." The winner's dish would get freeze dried and sent into space, so the cheftestants had to follow some space guidelines, including use of spices, cutting things into smaller pieces, and cutting back on the sugar.

Ed decided to go Moroccan, Angelo decided to sketch his dish out and crash his shopping cart into a random lady, and Tiffany decided to moonwalk. Back in the kitchen, we finally got to see Tom take some time to chat with the chefs and reflect on their work so far (and also make fun of Kelly for being a space-loving nerd). Tiffany shared an awesome picture of her teenage self working at IHOP, but this happy memory was short-lived once she discovered her mussels had accidentally frozen and died, and that she would have to change her dish. "We have a problem," she said, forgetting to address this remark to Houston.

At service, the parade of impressive guest judges continued, including appearances by Buzz Aldrin, Anthony Bourdain, and a number of other astronauts. Tom asked Buzz Aldrin how the moon was, and Buzz told him "magnificent." DUH, TOM. What else was he going to say? That it was lame? (Though, to be fair, we suppose he could have yelled about it.)

The judges found pluses and minuses with every dish. Kelly nailed the artichokes she served with her pan-roasted halibut, but didn't take risks. Ripert found Ed's yogurt-marinated rack of lamb with eggplant purée and a couscous croquette too complicated, but Bourdain thought he hit the Moroccan flavors perfectly. Tiffany's pan-seared halibut with coconut curry and pea shoots didn't connect, and Kevin's grilled New York–strip steak with bacon-jalapeño marmalade and onion rings was well-cooked but safe, so the win went to Angelo for his ginger-lacquered short ribs with horseradish crème fraîche and pea purée. It turns out that "making love" to your food can give you a challenge win (as well as a copy of Bourdain's book, a trip to Cape Canaveral, and a Toyota Avalon). So, so sadly, Padma sent Tiffany home, who graciously accepted defeat. We wanted to cry with her. We guess we'll root for Ed now, even though we know he's not really from Queens.

Next week: We're going to Singapore! Cooking on the street! Padma yells at Kevin! Tom yells at everyone!

Read more posts by Alexandra Martell

Filed Under: top chef, anthony bourdain, buzz aldrin, nasa, overnights, pea puree yet again, recaps, Singapore, top chef d.c., tv

• White Castle is currently testing three new restaurant concepts, which focus on barbecue, sandwiches, and noodles, respectively. [NRN]

• Most of the restaurant-labor lawsuits filed recently come out of two law firms. [WSJ]

• A judge ruled yesterday that "ladies' nights" at bars and restaurants are perfectly constitutional. [NYP]

• The Underground Lobster Pound's Dr. Claw is out of business unless/until he goes legit. [Fork in the Road/VV]

• Contrary to consumer belief, the "Grade A" stamp on eggs has nothing to do with safety and just means the eggs are the right size and color. [WSJ]

• Uptown Juice Bar applied for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. [Crain's]

• The Waverly Inn now offers brunch, complete with an open-to-the-public reservations line. [Eater]

• At least four were killed during a protest over rising food costs in Mozambique yesterday. [NYT]

• British supermarket chain Tesco is now making movies, which are only sold at its stores. [Time]

Filed Under: mediavore, white castle

We’re told that when Bay Ridge’s Little Cupcake Bakeshop opens its first Manhattan location at 30 Prince Street in mid-September, it’ll have a full Illy espresso bar. It won’t be the only European coffee brand on Prince — shortly after opening its 200th boutique, Switzerland’s Nespresso has finally opened its Soho store and café about a year after it first put up signage.

Step past the hostess (yes, there is one), and your barista will give you a spiel about Nespresso’s 16 “crus” (those little flavor pods) and coffee machines, both of which line the walls and are available for purchase upstairs. Choose a cru, and she’ll use a cocktail shaker (also available for purchase) to make you a $6.50 iced cappuccino. Other drinks include the Liégeois (iced coffee over a scoop of vanilla ice cream) and the Iced Vanilla Caffe (coffee blended with vanilla ice cream and poured over crushed ice). The café also serves $9 plates, such as a grilled chicken salad, a smoked salmon Napoleon, garden pea velouté, mini cheese burgers, prosciutto panino, and a smoked turkey club, plus $7 desserts like a tiramisu, chocolate soufflé, Grom sorbet, and gluten-free macaroons.

Nespresso, 92 Prince St., nr. Mercer St.; 212-966-1825

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: slideshow, bay ridge, coffee, little cupcake bakeshop, nespresso, openings, soho

Chelsea: Fatty Crab, Laut, Café Asean, and Spice Market celebrate Southeast Asian cuisine during the Malaysia Night Market on September 14. Events kick off at 6:30 p.m. in the Chelsea Triangle at 14th Street and Ninth Avenue, and food will be available for between $4 and $8. [Grub Street]
Ditmas Park: On Saturday, Sycamore hosts the last installment of its summerlong Brewery and BBQ series with California's Stone Brewery. Pints of craft beers are $5 from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m. and come with a free hot dog. [Grub Street]
East Village: Plum Pizzeria and Bar is open on Second Avenue in the former Café Brama space, while Ruben's Empanadas is closed. [EV Grieve]

Financial District: Open Door Gastropub is now serving breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner at 110 John Street. [Grub Street]
Fort Greene: Hot Chix Charcoal Grill & Café has moved into 110 DeKalb Avenue, although an opening date has not yet been announced. [Brownstoner]
Lower East Side: Bisous Ciao, a mail-order dessert company, opened the doors to its first storefront at 101 Stanton Street; the sweets shop is open daily until 7 p.m. [Bowery Boogie]
Upper West Side: Good Enough to Eat offers a special prix-fixe menu for Rosh Hashanah, featuring smoked salmon potato pancakes, horseradish braised brisket, champagne, a variety of rugelach, and more. Dinner is $25.50 per person and is available September 8 and September 9. [Grub Street]
Williamsburg: Mean Red Productions hosts Snout 'N Stout, a pig roast and sidewalk party, on Saturday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at 50 N. 3rd Street. There is no cost to attend, but plates of food will cost $10 to $15. [Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog]

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, good enough to eat, sycamore

Again with the bánh mì ripoffs? The recently opened (and even more recently temporarily shuttered) V-Nam Cafe appears to have taken a page from the Henry's playbook: According to Eater, V-Nam's owner is a former employee of Michael "Bao" Huynh's Baoguette, and his menu is so similar to his former place of employment that Huynh is threatening to sue.

To be fair, there's only so much variation a bánh mì menu can really have, but V-Nam had the audacity to actually include items called the Baoguette and the Sloppy Bao — that's basically the Vietnamese sandwich equivalent of putting up a burger shingle and selling a ShackBurger. For his part, Huynh is out for blood: For the next 45 days, he's offering would-be V-Nam Cafe customers 20 percent off and free soft serve for anyone who brings the rival menu into Baoguette.

Baoguette Alum Opens Suspiciously Baoguette-Like Restaurant [Eater NY]

Read more posts by Helen Rosner

Filed Under: beef, banh mi, banh mi wars, baoguette, menus, michael bao huynh, v-nam cafe

It's 4 p.m., and that means it's time to play Two for Eight. We just asked nine restaurants the best time they can squeeze in a couple for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Mediterranean.

Alta (Menu)
212-505-7777
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:15 p.m.

Craftbar (Menu)
212-461-4300
Two for eight? No
Best available: 7:45 p.m.

Estiatorio Milos (Menu)
212-245-7400
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Il Buco (Menu)
212-533-1932
Two for eight? No
Best available: Closed for vacation until September 8.

ilili (Menu)
212-683-2929
Two for eight? Yes

Le Caprice (Menu)
212-940-8195
Two for eight? Yes

Picholine (Menu)
212-724-8585
Two for eight? No
Best available: Closed for vacation until September 9.

Taboon (Menu)
212-713-0271
Two for eight? Yes

Travertine (Menu)
212-966-1810
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Filed Under: 2 for 8,