Grub Street

Sam Mason Trusts John Paul Jones With Tailor’s Playlist

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:34:32 -0500

"Early in the night we play old ragtime, which I like a lot and I think Eben likes too."
Photo: Melissa Hom

]]>When John Paul Jones left his job waiting tables at wd~50 to create playlists for restaurants, hotels, and casinos, his co-workers Sam Mason and Eben Freeman didn't forget him. In between spinning at Macri Park in Williamsburg on Wednesdays and the occasional Friday, JPJ picks up a few shifts at Tailor. If you like what you hear on the stereo, that's his doing, too. We asked him about tasting curious dishes for fall, Mason's new soda-fountain project, and who comes in to order plain steak.

]]>How would you describe your music program at the restaurant?
Rooted in rock and roll. Sam's pretty big into music, and a big country fan. Indie rock, a big mix. I try to put on a lot of his favorites: Waylon Jennings and Townes Van Zandt. Early in the night we play old ragtime, which I like a lot and I think Eben likes too.

Tailor's redoing the menu for fall. What have you been sampling?
They're always working on new stuff in there, but it might just be an idea that's a part of a dish. [Mason]'s been working on huitlachoche corn dogs for the bar menu. They did a dinner for Kellogg's where they used cereal throughout the meal.

Have you tried any unique floats from Mason's new soda-fountain project?
Not his floats, but a lot of his ice cream. He's talked about [the soda fountain] since the beginning of the summer, but he was also talking about an ice-cream cart. He has a lot of ideas, but this one's in motion. I've tried Eben's raisin soda in a cocktail he's working on with a brioche cachaça.

Cocktails alone at Tailor are $12 to $15. Are people ordering less these days?
It just seems like there's less diners in general, but we just added a [$140] twelve-course tasting menu and people have started ordering that, which was kind of a surprise to me because you think people are going to come in and spend less. But they think it out before they come in.

You get a lot of foodies who come in for the unique dishes, but do you get uninitiated diners who take one look at the menu and try to order a steak?
Definitely, we're near a couple of hotels, the Soho Grand or 60 Thompson. Sometimes they're pleasantly surprised or they'll just ask for steaks. Some guy was trying to order a typical New York cheesecake and putting it in terms of slices, but the first cheesecake on the menu is sort of snaked around the plate and the new one isn't conducive to slicing so it's kind of funny to see the reaction. He liked it.

How do Sam and Eben handle groupies?
Sam's sort of used to it, but it's funny to see Eben's reactions sometimes. He's super gracious, but he doesn't really expect it all the time. And you know, if you're a cocktail groupie and you come up at the end of the night, you've probably tried a lot of cocktails.

As Seen on TV

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:29:20 -0500

]]>It remains to be seen whether Jean Adamson’s Vinegar Hill restaurant will keep the “Butcher Shop” signage left over from a movie shoot, but Hope & Anchor (a.k.a. "Holly's Diner") is totes cool with lettering leftover from a shoot of Fringe. [Gothamist]

First Annual Pizza-Eating Contest

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:19:09 -0500

]]>Tomorrow. "Jaws" Chestnut. "Deep Dish" Bertoletti. Military Island. 10 a.m. 'Nuff said. [Slice]

What’s in a $1,000 Paella?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:43:49 -0500

]]>Sigh. We won't bother telling you which restaurant sent us the release ("We feel that in spite of the recent downward economic spiral…"), but the ingredients include "2lb Maine lobster, Alaskan prawns, rare Spanish baby eel, rare Spanish baby octopus, Jamon iberano [sic], Italian truffles, saffron spice, tequilla [sic] peppers, caviar garnish, baby chorizo, and Alaskan King Crab Legs." Now go make it at home.

Pelaccio’s Chop Suey Closes, Tries the Waters on eBay

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:21:33 -0500

Photo: Shanna Ravindra

]]>Chop Suey has closed, apparently because Zak Pelaccio’s menu “wasn’t a big hit,” says Crain's (indeed, the place was cricket city whenever we visited — which is why we’d often recommend it for Friday-night dining). In what has to be the weirdest use of eBay since the old Le Cirque auctioned off its furniture, the space, which, starting this week, will house New American restaurant Two Times Square, is up for bids during New Year’s Eve. For at least $150,000, it can be yours! “We’re thinking that someone from overseas might be interested,” says GM Thomas Foti. Is someone taking the expression “sell it to the tourists” a little too literally?

Renaissance Hotel puts Times Sq. bash on eBay [Crain's]

Dems and Republicans Are Antagonistic About Arugula; Lebanon and Israel Fight About Falafel

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:55:07 -0500

]]>We just read two interesting articles about the politics of food (and we’re not just talking about Sarah Palin cookies or debate-watching specials). In the first, John Schwenkler argues that conservatives were wrong to vilify Barack Obama as an elitist liberal for complaining that arugula prices have risen at Whole Foods: “If a guy can’t eat this stuff without being accused of being a latte-sipping closet communist, then what does that say about the state of our public discourse?”

]]>And according to another article, Lebanon is suing Israel for marketing traditional Lebanese food such as tabouleh, kubbeh, hummus, falafel, and fattoush as their own. It seems the country is hoping for an outcome similar to the time the European Union granted Greece the exclusive right to market “Feta” cheese (at the time, France, Denmark, and Germany were producing 12,000 tons of the stuff per year).

All this fighting over food labels? Look: You say “tomato,” I say, “tomah-to,” let’s call the whole thing off. (Sorry.)

Lebanon: Israel stole our falafel [Y Net News]
A country so polarized that consuming arugula has become a political act [Plenty]

Tables Available at Cookshop, Insieme, Rose Water; Blue Hill Nearly Booked

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:00:33 -0500

]]>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 a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Haute Barnyard.

]]>
Barbuto (Menu)
212-924-9700
Two for eight? No
Best available: Closed for private party

BLT Market (Menu)
212-521-6125
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Blue Hill (Menu)
212-539-1776
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

Cookshop (Menu)
212-924-4440
Two for eight? Yes

Esca (Menu)
212-564-7272, ext. 2
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9 p.m.

Insieme (Menu)
212-582-1310
Two for eight? Yes

Mas (farmhouse) (Menu)
212-255-1790
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Park Avenue Spring (Menu)
212-644-1900
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Rose Water (Menu)
718-783-3800
Two for eight? Yes

Telepan (Menu)
212-580-4300
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9 p.m.

Cuttysearch

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:07:07 -0500

]]>As noted earlier, Josh Ozersky has launched a new ~~blog~~ “gastronomic gazette,” the Feedbag, and it’s now live. As one would expect from the author of The Hamburger: A History, the first post is a taste-test of Pat La Frieda’s “black label” burger. In another, Gastrodamus predicts that Joe Bastianich, Mario Batali, and Adam Perry Lang will open a Carnevino steakhouse here next year. And in a first-person narrative, chef Jason Hall describes turning overcooked lamb into a sold-out special at Mia Dona. Not bad, not bad. Congrats, Cutty. [Feedbag]

Unsurprisingly, ‘Food Network’ Magazine Is As Fluffy As Paula Deen’s Hair

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:37:40 -0500

]]>Food Network Magazine has hit our desks, and let’s just say it goes about as deep as the last in-flight magazine we read. The network has, of course, found every imaginable way to plug its talent using an O, The Oprah Magazine–type look — “Food Network stars answer your burning questions,” “Two Food Network chefs are opening new spots,” “some Food Network stars’ new cookbooks.” We’re even told what kind of gadgets to buy Alton, Giada, and Flay (okay, the hamburger Christmas-tree ornament is kind of awesome).

]]>We’ll grant the editors that we were intrigued by certain details about the filming of Iron Chef (announcer Alton Brown leans on Google as well as slides of Japanese foods when, for instance, he doesn’t recognize something Morimoto is cooking), and damned intrigued to hear of a “Fresh Churros” vending machine (à la hot-dog vending machine), though we’re sure the contents are probably about as appetizing as a John McCain Chicken Queso Burger. Are there recipes in here? Oh, yes! 128 of them! But don’t even think about making them till you have the exact Belgian pots that Tyler Florence uses in Ultimate!

Subscribe to Food Network Magazine [Food Network]

Gluten-Free Heaven on the Upper East Side

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:50:04 -0500

Sea bream at Opus.
Photo: Zach Desart

]]>You don't need celiac disease to be psyched that Opus opens tomorrow night on the Upper East Side. Chef Giuseppe Lentini's gluten-free dishes, including pastas (spaghetti with sea urchin, saffron, and lemon; gnocchi with sweet sausage and porcini-tomato sauce), apps (mini calzones, shaved fennel salad), mains, and house-made gelato, are a relief to those with gluten allergies or irritable bowel syndrome. Sure, think "ew" now, but you'll be thanking Lentini when you need a late-night snack. His restaurant is open till 5 a.m. [Strong Buzz]

Grub Street Editor Daniel Maurer’s ‘Brocabulary’ Pubs Today

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:14:08 -0500

]]>Grub Street readers may not know that their humble editor, Daniel Maurer, moonlights as a manthropologist, and has set forth everything you ever wanted to know about bros and the bros who love them in a new book, Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk. The New York Times calls it “an anthem to the joys of male bonding,” and of course much of that bonding occurs at bars and eateries. Here are some words you can use next time you’re at an impresstaurant and you bust out your shred-it card (a credit card that will likely be shredded by the maître d’ when it fails to cover the chef’s tasting).

]]>Bar par – The number of drinks that it’s appropriate to consume at a given drinking establishment: “Dude, drink up, we’re at Off the Wagon — the bar par is five Jäger shots and a beer funnel.”

Dimbibement – Drinking in a dimly lit place such as Elettaria — a good idea on a first date, but during a bromantic rendez-dudes, it’s not about mood lighting, it’s about dude lighting: frat-screen TVs and Miller Lite signs all the way.

Maximum cockupancy – When you walk into a place, usually a douchetination, and it’s all guys: “Dude, where did all the girls go? This place is at maximum cockupancy.”

Peanuts envy – What you suffer from when bar-nacles attach themselves to the bar and hog all the bar food.

Shamburger – A veggie burger that also qualifies as a ma’amburger because chicks are the only ones who’d order it.

Smashedication – Eating while drunk, like David Hasselhoff trying to pick up a cheeseburger.

For more (highly satirical, and definitely R-rated) advice on the manly arts — including how to be a taparator (a total player who operates on the gaggles of girls at tapas bars), buy Brocabulary online or wherever fine books (as well as this one!) are sold.

Brocabulary: The New Man-i-festo of Dude Talk [Amazon]
Dudes in Guyland [NYT]

Brick-oven Pizza Delivers in Cobble Hill

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:20:41 -0500

]]>Need something to eat during the debate? La Pizzetta at 145 Atlantic Avenue near Clinton Street in Cobble Hill begins delivery of its brick-oven pies tonight. [Slice via NewYorkology]

Will the Palace Be Rebuilt As a Turkish Hot Spot?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:49:52 -0500

Photo: Dan Wynn,Courtesy of Frank Valenza

]]>Gael Greene's fond recollections of her fine meal at the Palace in the mid-seventies prompted owner Frank Valenza to visit the former space in midtown. Savarona, the current tenant, is closed, but Valenza thinks a restaurant could live there again. "He enchanted Arcukmac with his idea for a contemporary Turkish-Mediterranean concept," Greene writes on Insatiable Critic. "It might even become a new Turkish Palace, the two men agree." Valenza doesn't know much about Turkish food, but he does have the support of Savarona's owner, Temel Arcukmac. The two are now looking for a cash infusion to revive their restaurant dreams.

Frank Valenza [Insatiable Critic]

Celebrity Bake Sale in Rock Center Today

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:17:46 -0500

T-Boz
Photo: Getty Images

]]>Magnolia Bakery at Rock Center didn't open yesterday as planned, but a sweet surprise is in store for anyone around Radio City this afternoon: celebrity cupcake-shilling! TLC's T-Boz, reality star Khloe Kardashian, and Playboy Playmate Brande Broderick will all sell cupcakes to raise money for charity and promote the Donald Trump vehicle, Celebrity Apprentice. [Midtown Lunch, Cupcakes Take the Cake]

Coolio’s Cookbook; Does Starbucks Waste Water?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:40:44 -0500

Chef Coolio
Photo: Getty Images

]]>• There's no release date for rapper Coolio's cookbook, but it's never too soon for a tie-in to his online series, Cookin' With Coolio. [Guardian]

• Looking to cook more at home and save money on groceries? Join a food club with friends and neighbors and buy food at wholesale prices. [Chicago Tribune]

• Book publishers are hoping cookbook sales during the holiday season will boost revenues. [WSJ]

• Environmental experts are going after Starbucks for leaving taps on all day. [UK Sun]