Jaunted

Tags: Top Chef / Top Chef Travel / New York City / California / Food / Food Travel / Restaurant Travel / → All Tags

Ash Fulk Cooks Up Friendly Swiss Fare at Trestle on Tenth, But Maybe Not For Padma

Northern California native Ash Fulk didn't have it easy during his run on Top Chef. He didn't win one challenge on the show, and was eventually asked to pack his knives and head back to New York City, where he serves as a Sous Chef at Trestle on Tenth. The Swiss-French-American restaurant is a neighborhood-y locale open for breakfast, brunch (on weekends), lunch and dinner, making it a go-to spot for Chelsea diners looking for elevated comfort food. And schnitzel.

Trestle's menus aren't intimidating in the way that many contemporary, haute cuisine restaurants tend to be. Here you'll find familiar dishes with a Swiss-French influence that makes them just different enough to be memorable, without being too perplexing or stomach-turning. We're still wondering why fellow TC contestant Hector would dare include Tofu Ceviche on his menu. No, Trestle is where you'll find a Signature House Burger, Cobb Salad, Roasted Chicken with Seasonal Vegetables in Consommè, and Coriander Hanger Steak.

more ›

Tags: Sausages / Food / Food Vendors / Fast Food / Food Trends / → All Tags

It's War of the Wursts in Berlin as Grillwalkers Battle Imitators

Back in 1997, an unemployed former hotel manager named Bertram Rohloff had a brilliant idea. Unable to obtain the necessary permits to open an outdoor sandwich stand, he found a way to circumvent the entire bureaucracy and wound up making portable food vending history. He invented a wearable propane sausage grill that requires no special permit, as neither the grill nor the food ever touches the ground. Thus, Grillwalker was born, a sausage oven with legs that can bring hot sausages to the hungry masses at some of Berlin's most heavily-trafficked urban spaces. As The New York Times points out, Rohloff's 15 sausage walkers are now fixtures at such sites as the Alexanderplatz, bustling Friedrichstrasse train station, and even outside popular nightclubs.

more ›

Tags: Coffee Travel / Food / Food Travel / Starbucks / Travel Gear / → All Tags

Seattle, Chicago and London Get A Preview Of Starbucks' New 'Via'

How many times have you sat there thinking "you know, I could really go for a cup of Starbucks coffee right now, but none of the corporation's 16,120 locations are close enough for me to get to." If that sounds like a problem you encounter regularly, Starbucks has launched a new line of instant coffee that you can carry everywhere. Problem solved.

The new product is dubbed Starbucks VIA Ready Brew—"via" like "road," apparently—and comes in either Colombia Medium or Italian Roast Extra Bold. Just add hot or cold water. The only brick and mortar stores stocking the mix are in Seattle, Chicago, and London. If you do want desperately to try a cup though, you can order online from their website.

more ›

Tags: Pismo Beach / Cafes / Food / Chowder / Beach Travel / → All Tags

Go For the 'Chowdah' at Splash Cafe

You know you’re in for a treat when the restaurant you’re going to has a line out the door and around the corner, while the neighboring joints are hosting no one but crickets.

We stumbled across Splash Café while walking in Pismo Beach on day four of a five-day jaunt from L.A. to San Francisco and back. We thought we were chowdered-out, after Pier 39 in San Francisco and the Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey—which is apparently involved in some kind of Chowder Wars, cause every single place along the pier has a guy ladling chowder from a giant metal soup tureen in an effort to lure them inside.

We’d had our fill. Literally. And then came Splash Café. This is the type of place where you scavenge for a seat, much like a seagull hovering overhead waiting for discarded scraps on the nearby pier, and wait with the other hungry folks to order at the counter. But get that steaming bread bowl full of chowder (or chili, if you must, along with burgers, tacos, and a bunch of fried stuff) in front of you, and it’s all worth it. It’s more than worth it. It’s chowder porn.

more ›

Tags: Celeb Travel / Santa Monica Restaurants / Cafes / Food / → All Tags

Marcia Cross Pops Into Santa Monica's Huckleberry Cafe

A while back our favorite quick Chinese place, Pick-Up Styx, closed down in Santa Monica on bustling Wilshire Boulevard. But what eventually replaced the joint was a cute little cafe that serves cute little pastries and desserts and cute little cafe specialty items like soups and gourmet sandwiches. The place even has a cute backstory as the two chefs behind the cafe actually met and fell in love while working at the Rustic Canyon restaurant just a few blocks away. All of this of course means the place has a cute name too--Huckleberry Cafe.

The space is appropriately cafe-sized--not too big, not too small--with plenty of indoor seating and a few tables outside as well. Cutesy names and pastries aside, the restaurant's interior space is done up in modern simplicity--blond wood counters and tables and white ceramic dishware and blackboards high on the wall are filled up with the menu options.

more ›

Tags: Santa Monica Pier / Santa Monica Travel / Food / Restaurants / → All Tags

Santa Monica's Lobster Turns 10, The Pier Celebrates Its Centennial

The (lobster) claws come out at the tenth anniversary of a Santa Monica Pier institution

Santa Monica Pier is the heart of the oceanside city's kinetic life force. Amid a flurry of tourists milling toward the neon-lit ferris wheel, shirtless muscle men on bikes, and street performers competing for spare change, The Lobster offers some refuge, not to mention amazing seafood and 180 degree views of the Pacific Ocean.

The pier institution celebrated the tenth anniversary of its reopening on Monday evening with a private VIP reception, drawing a mixed crowd of older locals and young, energetic foodies who clamored straight for the surf 'n' turf spread. Tables overflowed with an assortment of the menu's best: fresh oysters, mini crab cakes, filet mignon, lobster (natch) and seared tuna.

Complimentary wine and cocktails were also circulating as guests toasted ten years of business at the historic locale. If you're in the area and in search of a more upscale—but still relaxed—alternative to other grab-and-go eateries lining the shore, The Lobster is a good bet.

more ›

Tags: Pizza / Phoenix / Food Travel / Food / → All Tags

Our Five Hour Journey For A Single, Spectacular Pizza In Phoenix

Before we felt it right to make our way to one of the country’s best ice cream parlors, we had to backtrack for a moment and hit up one of the country’s best pizza places first. Located in a historic square along Phoenix’s downtown border, Pizzeria Bianco has been the pizza Mecca for crust aficionados across the country.

We knew that Bianco was a must-eat during our visit to Arizona, so we headed to the restaurant at 4:30 pm, as the place opens at 5:00, and only takes reservations for six or more. From what we’d read, we knew we’d have to wait, but we didn’t totally believe that our wait would be as long as it was. When we arrived, the line was already way down the block, and by the time we finally sat down and were rewarded with two delicious pies, it had become a five-hour journey.

more ›

Tags: Baseball / Sports / Sports Travel / Food / → All Tags

Pig Out At Baseball Buffets At Big League Parks Across The Country

Just like going to the movies, the price of attending a Major League Baseball game has slowly crept up over the years. After paying for tickets, parking, and the mandatory two beers, you usually don’t have much left over for chow. Thankfully, there’s several ballparks offering baseball buffets. For a reasonable price, you get a decent game ticket and enough hot dogs, popcorn, and soda to eat yourself sick. Here’s a couple of teams who have transformed their stadiums into places we wouldn't mind getting indigestion.

The Baltimore Orioles have one of the finest stadiums in the whole league; after all, they pretty much started the whole retro-design thing. For only $40 in advance, you’ll get a ticket to Club Level seating along with access to an all-you-can-eat spread.

The O’s offer hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos, soda, and ice cream to finish everything off. Of course beer isn’t free, but you won’t have room for it anyway. Tickets to “prime games” start at $55—like when the Yankees are in town on a Saturday night.

more ›

Tags: Restaurants / Tacky / White Trash / New York Travel / Food / → All Tags

Kitsch Factor Better Than Food At Trailer Park Lounge

The tacky bar has been raised. We'd thought we'd seen it all, and then someone asked us if we'd ever been to the Trailer Park Lounge, New York's only (so far as we know) white-trash-themed eatery. Hey, this is the flyover-state mocking establishment with which conservatives claim NYC is rife! The Fox News Channel's heads are going to explode when they discover this place.

Trailer park decor as explored in this Chelsea restaurant includes '70s country music records, lawn chairs, Elvis impersonator headshots and lots of flickering neon. Stocking this place with mismatched chairs and old diner booths must have made some antique hunter weep with outrage as they bypassed items with taste. Like most places in the neighborhood, it's small -- only about 10 tables, plus the tacky tiki bar selling drinks called "Paradise Hawaiian Style" and "Jim Bob's I.Q."

more ›

Tags: Pizza / Food / Food Fights / Food Travel / Restaurants / Williamsburg / Brooklyn / → All Tags

Further Reflections on Pizza: Brooklyn's Motorino Pizza Napoletana

It takes coglioni to open a fancy new pizza restaurant in an Italian part of Brooklyn, but Motorino is giving it a go in Williamsburg anyway. Just three blocks from the mostly take-out Sal's Pizza - a longtime favorite of mine - Motorino is looking to attract a more upscale, sit-down clientele, with a handsome wood-accented interior, dim lighting, and downtempo techno tunes piped through the sound system. Motorino's claim to fame is its wood-burning oven, which produces Neapolitan-style pizza with its signature fluffy crust that's ever-so-slightly scorched on the bottom. Since Williamsburg was originally populated by Italians from in and around Naples, particularly the town of Nola, Motorino's version of Neapolitan pizza is sure to receive a curious yet skeptical reception.

more ›

Tags: Restaurants / Food / Times Square / Tourist Hell / → All Tags

If You Absolutely Must Hang Out in Times Square, You Could Do Worse than Ruby Foo's

One of the many misconceptions travelers have of New York City is that Midtown Manhattan in general - and Times Square in particular - is the best place to go to get a true sense of the city. This is incorrect. Real New Yorkers spend time in Midtown because they have to. That's where their jobs are located, and certain business and schmoozing simply must be conducted between 34th and 57th Streets. But when the workday is over, most of my friends and colleagues instinctively head downtown, or to Brooklyn, to hang out, hook up, shop, eat, and drink.

There are exceptions. Two weekends ago, we wound up in Times Square to meet a couple of friends who had ridden the bus in from New Haven. They had taken their young daughter to see the Little Mermaid on Broadway, and had only a couple of hours to kill before catching the bus home. We decided to press the easy button and met them at Ruby Foo's on Broadway and 49th. You know what? It was pretty good.

more ›

Tags: Pizza / Pepe's Pizza / Food / Food Fights / Food Travel / Restaurants / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

New Haven's Pepe Pizzeria: Giving NY Pizza Some Serious Competition Since 1925

After we left the Peabody Museum last Sunday, we headed over to Original Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana to pick up a couple of pizza pies.

I knew nothing of New Haven's famous pizzerias until the previous evening, when a friend took me aside to explain the age-old rivalry between Frank Pepe and Sally's Apizza, the two Wooster Street restaurants that have defined New Haven-style pizza for generations. Our friends were partial to Pepe's, so we ordered one pie with "mootz," (mozzarella, which counts as a topping), marinara sauce, sausage, and onions, and another with mootz, marinara, pepperoni, and mushrooms. If it wasn't the best pizza I'd ever had in my life, it was at least in the top five, and I'm left pondering the unthinkable: could New Haven-style pizza be better than New York-style pizza?

more ›