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New York's Best BBQ: Now In Real Restaurant Form
Discerning BBQ fiends know that NYC's best ribs and pulled pork are found far from the trendy new high-end BBQ joints in Manhattan. The best, they know, are at Mo Gridder's, the eatery-on-wheels that has long had foodies trekking to Hunts Point in the Bronx.
Good news: The often hard-to-find BBQ truck has quietly opened up a permanent location in the Belmont neighborhood to complement its truck service. Well, "real restaurant" might be a bit of an exaggeration, as it's more of a trailer park and picnic tables setup, but it's at least permanent.
You won't spot the celebs that frequent those downtown hot spots, but if you're willing to make the trip, Mo Gridder's is about as authentic BBQ as you'll find this side of the Mason-Dixon.
Related Stories:
· Mo Gridder's [Official Site]
· Opening Report: Cult BBQ Favorite Mo Gridder's Opens Sit Down Location [Eater]
· New New York Restaurants Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Adam "Slice" Kuban]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Food Travel / Restaurants / → All Tags
Flex Mussels
New York has plenty of restaurants that focus on just one food item done to perfection—baked potatoes, peanut butter, empanadas, to name a few. So why not mussels?
OK, mussels may not have the broadest appeal of any food, but those who know them love them, and this new entry is the second location of Flex Mussels--the renowned shellfish purveyors whose first outpost is in no less a mussel authority than Prince Edward's Island.
Of course, this is the big city, so Flex comes complete with 20 different varieties of trendified mussel dishes, like the Dubliner, with Guinness, toasted walnuts and caramelized onions; the Geisha Girl, with sake, green onions, pickled ginger, garlic and bird's eye peppers; and the Big Apple, with Ephemere apple beer, button mushrooms and cream.
Wow. We though butter and garlic was pretty good. For the record, the Upper East Side establishment does have a few choices for non mussel-heads, like fish and chips, a lobster roll and seared scallops.
Related Stories:
· Flex Mussels [Official Site]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: peskymac]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags
Sorella
December 2008 is probably not the best month in the history of the world to open a restaurant serving pricey small plates of high-end food in a neighborhood only recently getting accustomed to fancy eateries.
But that's exactly what Lower East Side newcomer Sorella is doing, and we're hoping this is one collection of tiny, fancy plates that's able to weather the storm. The kitchen is helmed by Emma Hearst, the former chef at Union Square Café, and the menu is inspired by her trek though Northern Italy's rustic village cafes.
Sorella does what a lot of similar restaurants attempt to do and fail: It puts a trendy, modern spin on Italian classics without seeming too silly or over-the-top. Crispy veal sweetbreads are served with quince bacon marmalade; risotto is spiked with hazelnuts, sage, robiola cheese and a gooey "squash fondue;" and the pate de fegato is sort of an uber-classy breakfast sandwich—an English muffin smothered in duck fat and topped with chicken liver mousse, a fried egg and, of course, bacon.
Related Stories:
· Sorella [Official Site]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
· Food Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Sorella]
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Baoguette
While it hasn't yet completed the full mainstream crossover of, say, Pad Thai, the bahn mi sandwich has been a hit on the foodie scene and now seems poised for a breakout. This French-influenced Vietnamese staple does a delicious job of turning the basic sandwich staples--crusty bread, spiced meat and crunchy vegetables--into an exotic specialty.
Baoguette, which opened this week in Murray Hill, might be just the place to bring bahn mi to the masses. The new "gourmet sandwich café" (see, not a restaurant!) from the husband-and-wife team behind popular eateries Bu'n and Bao Noodles, offers made-to-order bahn mi sandwiches in a tiny, ten-seat Murray Hill shop formerly home to a Blimpie's.
Baoguette's signature sandwich is a baguette loaded with pork terrine, pate, pulled pork and fresh herbs, and there are also BBQ chicken, corned beef and catfish takes on the bahn mi. The best part is the decidedly mainstream-friendly pricing--$5 to $7 each.
Related Stories:
· Baoguette [Official Site]
· Restaurant Openings [NYM]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Jef Poskanzer]
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Corton
Holy hype alert! It's been a while since a non-Momofuku restaurant has had every critic in Manhattan simultaneously foaming at the mouth, but it looks like Corton has done the trick.
The new Tribeca restaurant represents an enticing team-up between Drew Nierporent, the owner behind such hotspots as Tribeca Grill and Nobu, and 32-year-old British wunderkind Paul Liebrandt, a chef who New York magazine calls:
A tempestuous diva of the old school who has a reputation for conjuring up impractical, brilliantly abstruse recipes, then bolting (or being fired) from the kitchen shortly thereafter.
You'd better get your meals in before Liebrandt bolts from this one, because the critics are just about calling it the second coming of Per Se. New York, in fact, gives it a rare four stars. The Observer concurs, calling Liebrandt's dishes:
Extraordinary, putting him in a realm with the city’s greatest chefs.
And Time Out New York gave the spot it's first ever six-star review. Holy hyperbole alert?
The best part is the not-nearly-Per Se prices. For $76, diners can choose a three-course prix fixe, choosing anything from Liebrandt's inventive menu of what he calls modern French fare, with offerings like red kuri squash soup with tempura of crab tail, and veal sweetbreads in chestnut crisp and juniper oil. Not exactly recession restaurant pricing, but with this kind of buzz, we’re sniffing a deal.
Related Stories:
· Corton [Official Site]
· Corton on Hudson [NYM]
· Mais Où Est Montrachet? [NYO]
· Corton [TONY]
· Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar [Jaunted]
[Photo: Corton]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / Dessert / David Chang / → All Tags
Momofuku Bakery And Milk Bar
Chef David Chang has been delighting and perplexing New Yorkers for the past few years with the insane twists on Asian comfort food he serves up at his Momofuku restaurants, as well as with the insane online-only reservations policy he dreamed up for Momofuku Ko, home of Manhattan’s 12 hardest-to-get bar stools.
Now Chang has expanded with a fourth outlet, opening Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar adjacent to Momofuku Ssam, and he (along with pastry chef Christina Tosi) is hoping New Yorkers will go as crazy for his sweet treats as they do for his legendary pork buns.
The small East Village restaurant serves up offerings like the compost cookie: pretzels, potato chips, chocolate morsels and other unidentifiable delectables all rolled up in one cohesive cookie. Then there’s a selection of inventive breads like kimchi foccacia and chorizo challah and soft serve ice cream featuring flavors like grapefruit and salty pistachio caramel. Plus, you can even grab some of the famous Momofuku pork buns here as well.
Oh, and the milk. Go back to grade school by washing everything down with a glass of chocolate or strawberry flavored milk, or even cereal milk--yep, that’s milk that’s been steeped in corn flakes so it tastes like the bottom of the bowl.
Related Stories:
· Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar [Official Site]
· New NYC Restaurant: Momofuku Ko [Jaunted]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Momofuku]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Vegetarian Restaurants / Restaurants / → All Tags
Dirt Candy
Vegetarians used to be some of the most insufferably self-righteous eaters around. Even if they weren’t preaching ethics and environmental footprints, they were still serving the blandest food going. Not so much anymore.
One of the most exciting restaurant trends of recent years has been the growth of exciting, creative vegetarian restaurants. Not fake-meat tofu dishes, but crazy, over-the-top, unhealthy concoctions that instead of being stand-ins for meat, actually make the vegetables themselves enticing.
A great new example is East Village hole-in-the-wall Dirt Candy, which goes by the motto "Anyone can cook a hamburger, but leave the vegetables to the professionals."
You can start with jalapeno hush puppies served with maple butter, move on to watermelon radish kimchi doughnuts, have asparagus saffron broth paella for a main and finish it off with hazelnut caramel popcorn pudding.
Everything on the menu can be made vegan by request, but even meatheads will leave with full bellies.
Related Stories:
· Dirt Candy [Official Site]
· New NYC Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Recession Restaurants / Recession-Restaurants-Map / New New York Restaurants / Mario Batali / → All Tags
Bon Appetit Supper Club & Café
What’s a foodie to do when times get tough? Jaunted has you covered with our list of high-class restaurants with recession-era pricing.
Up next is Bon Appetit Supper Club & Café. The food magazine is sponsoring this pop-up restaurant, which recently took off for it’s second annual outing in midtown Manhattan. The supper club part consists of by-invitation-only dinners, but for the rest of us, the cafe is serving up lunches from celebrity chefs at pauper prices--but only through October 31.
Stop by this week to sample offerings like Mario Batali’s empanada with chorizo, pancetta, peppers and onions ($8); Charlie Trotter’s grilled beef tenderloin and blue cheese salad ($9); and Cat Cora’s chickpea and roasted red pepper soup ($5.50).
And check out our other frugal foodie ideas on Jaunted’s Recession Restaurants Map.
Related Stories:
· Bon Appetit Supper Club & Café [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants Map [Jaunted]
[Photo: Bon Appetit Supper Club]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / Hot Dogs / Street Food / → All Tags
New NYC Restaurant: Dogmatic Sausage Systems
The New York food scene is always looking for some fancy-free food to gourmet-up, be it Gorgonzola burgers, duck-fat French fries or thin-crust artichoke pizza.
This year's candidate for yuppie-fication is the simple hot dog, currently being fancified at Dogmatic Sausage Systems, a new Union Square-area eatery run by the former chef at West Village hot spot Employees Only.
Tags: Restaurants / New New York Restaurants / → All Tags
New NYC Restaurant: Naya
New York has an annoying tendency to take every rustic ethnic cuisine and turn it into a high-end eating experience. Sometimes it's completely unwanted--do we really need $1000 paella?--but sometimes it works.
On the "it works" front: Naya a "futuristic" Lebanese restaurant just opened in Midtown East. The shimmery white-and silver design is so nightclub-y that you're forgiven for being skeptical of their food credentials.
But the menu makes it clear that the East Side is ready for Lebanese. Look for pan-seared halloumi cheese seasoned with pomegranate sauce, tomatoes and olives; Lebanese-style steak tartar with bulgur, onion and mint; and Lebanese milk pudding flavored with orange blossom water.
Related Stories:
· Naya [Thrillist]
· New New York Restaurants: Inside Park [Jaunted]
[Photo: Naya]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / → All Tags
New NYC Restaurant: Inside Park
We knew space for restaurants was tight in NYC, but is nothing sacred?
Apparently not, as the latest hot spot restaurant just opened inside St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. The church's community house was converted into the 140-seat Inside Park, a modern dining room that retains details like the 15-foot-high stained glass windows and the 86-year-old wood floor.
Inside Park has built up some buzz due to the presence of executive chef Matthew Weingarten, formerly of Savoy, who has the audacity to call his dishes "simple plates," despite the fact that most diners will need a dictionary and an encyclopedia to decode the menu, with items such as chiogga beets in poppy cream, limousin veal roast with chanterelle preserves, and sizzled rouget in corn cream.
Related Stories:
· Inside Park [Official Site]
· New New York Restaurants Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Inside Park]
Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / → All Tags
New NYC Restaurant: Archipelago
Usually we're wary of anything billed as a "fusion" restaurant, as the culinary world played out the trend some time ago. (Was there ever really a need for British-Malaysian cuisine or Chinese-Italian?)
But once in a while a chef comes along and offers up a fusion-y menu so different that gets us excited again. In this case, the chef is Hisanobu Osaka, formerly of Morimoto, and his menu, at new SoHo eatery Archipelago, puts French-prepared spins on traditional Japanese dishes.
Everything is backwards at Archipelago, where the appetizer menu is full of playful faux-dessert dishes like a "panacotta" made from lobster, curry and uni, and a scallop-Japanese eggplant "flan." Then the appetizers are reconceived as dessert: Goat cheese gnocchi is served with truffle honey and gorgonzola dulce, while the vanilla ice cream is topped with green tea sabayon and sweet black beans.
Related Stories:
· Archipelago [OpenTable]
· New New York Restaurant coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Archipelago]
