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Air’s Champagne Parlor is All About the Bubbly
Beer, wine and even cider bars abound in NYC, but Air’s Champagne Parlor is one of the few area drinkeries devoted to bubbly. To be fair, the Riddling Widow briefly preceded it, but owner Ariel Arce was actually beverage director during its tenure, as well as Birds & Bubbles before that, and Chicago’s Pops for Champagne (not to mention Grant Achatz’s exclusive, original The Office) before that. Meaning her reputation as queen of Cuvèe absolutely proceeds her.
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Where to Celebrate Oktoberfest 2017
If you’re already mourning the loss of summer, Oktoberfest is a reliable way to get you over the hump. Essentially spanning the duration of fall (kicking off on September 16th this year & extending all the way to October 31st, allowing revelers to seamlessly transition to Halloween), the 16 to 18-day festival is a giddy saturnalia of German culture…
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Spotlight on the Finalists for the 2017 Vendy Awards
As a fun challenge to the James Beard Awards, the Vendy ceremony — now in its 13th year — is dedicated to honoring the very best in street food. So here’s who’s in the running during the September 16th event at Governors Island; from an artisanal twinkie baker to an upstart french toast sandwich maker, to a Chinese meat skewer purveyor, whose been tapped for the Vendy Cup…
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Not So Traditional Turkey Pho
Sandwiches, casseroles and pot pies are great, but why not step up your Thanksgiving leftovers game this year by adding a Vietnamese accent to your standard turkey soup?
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Three Tiered Oven Rack
No matter how many times you swear to yourself you’re going to keep holiday-related fuss to a minimum, chances are you’ll probably be baking up a few batches of sugar cookies, a pie or something else that requires a significant space in your oven this season. Of course, once you factor in holiday parties, that can quickly translate into an entire weekend slaving away in the kitchen. Not an appealing prospect when you have last-minute shopping to do. We’ve...
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First Bite: L’Apicio
It ain’t easy to open a restaurant in this city, nevermind a successful one. First, there’s the task of finding a space with reasonable rent, then liquor licenses to wrangle, and building out the space. Not to mention coming up with an original concept and menu, which ain’t easy either. Yet, Joe Campanale and his partners, August Cardona, Gabe and Katherine Thompson, continue to open successes, which manage packed dining rooms and full reservation books around the clock....
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Post-Thanksgiving Flavors You Can Still Crave
Thanksgiving may be over, but we’re not ready to let go of our favorite holiday flavors just yet. Thankfully, satisfying a lingering craving for turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes is infinitely easier than heading to the stove — these terrific local restaurants are dishing up T-Day inspired goodness all season long.
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What I’m Loving – Ootoya
I had nearly given up on eating at the new Japanese izakaya Ootoya in Gramercy. Every time I tried to stop in for dinner I’d stumble into a fleet of hopeful diners surrounding the hostess stand and come up against an hour or two wait for a table. Having become very impatient in my old age, I’d sulk near the bar for ten minutes, then head to nearby 15 East or another Japanese joint. I’d all but given up, but I thought I’d...
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Thanksgiving’s Dining Out Guide
Whether you’re going home, staying in the city, or braving the kitchen yourself, there’s a good chance you’re hoping for a great meal this Thanksgiving. The good news is that if you don’t feel like cooking, New York is a great place to be on this food-centric holiday. Some of the city’s best chefs will be happy to cook for you. In fact, you may want to reconsider staying home when chefs like Floyd Cardoz will do the cooking...
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BeerTender Keg
As football season gets into full swing, we start thinking of new ways to entertain for game watching at home. At just about any proper football party, you’ll find the essential eats, like nachos, chili and chicken wings. And of course, you can’t host a sporting event party without beer… lots of beer. Sure, you can fill the fridge with a collection of Corona and Heineken bottles, but it’s much more fun to experience the game like you’re right...
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Fall Cocktails We’re Digging
If you think eggplant can only be found in the summer, well, think again. Eggplant’s high season runs through fall, which means these next few weeks might be your last chance to sample this nightshade vegetable grown locally. We like to think we know a lot… but we had no idea that eggplant isn’t a vegetable.
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What I’m Loving – Center Bar
I never thought of the Time Warner Center as particularly warm and cozy. Some people liken it to a cold, glossy mall in the middle of the city. So it was a strange thing to wander into the Time Warner Center on Wednesday night, post hurricane fallout, and feel surprisingly at home. All the restaurants were thankfully open and buzzing with customers — from Bar Masa to Landmarc, A Voce and Porter House New York. But I never thought I’d...
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Seasonal Eats: Digging On Squash
Some people don’t know this, but you can eat almost every part of a Squash — from the shoots to the seeds, flowers and leaves. So the next time a big storm hits, you might consider stocking up on a few squash. Besides, fall is when squash really comes into its own, ripe for roasting, pureeing and whipping into soup. While summer’s ripe with soft squash the likes of zucchini and patty pan, hard-shelled winter squash make for great...
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C-CAP’s 4th Annual Taste of Fall
If you don’t already have tickets, you’ll want to snag a few to attend C-CAP’s Fourth Annual Taste of Fall at Marcus Samuelsson’s beloved Harlem eatery, Red Rooster. C-CAP stands for Careers Through Culinary Arts Programs and the organization’s helped thousands of talented and underserved high school students attain culinary scholarships and job opportunities in some of the best kitchens around the country. (They’ve awarded over 37 million dollars in scholarships!) This coming Monday, November 12th, many of C-CAP’s...
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Fusion’s in Fashion
Say what you will about the evils of globalization, but it’s an amazing accomplishment where food is concerned. Without it, we might never have Vietnamese banh mi, Japanese ramen, Szechuan hot pots and half the world’s foods at our fingertips pretty much any time of day. And we certainly wouldn’t have genius inventions, like Korean barbecue rolled up in a Mexican burrito a la Kogi BBQ. Cultures have been mixing for centuries and things like Indo-Chinese fusion go back...
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Seasonal Eats: Pumpkins
For those of you aren’t familiar with our pumpkin obsession, it’s a serious fetish that we indulge in freely this time of year. With November upon us and Halloween past (and sorely under-celebrated this year!), the timing couldn’t be more perfect to savor this fall fruit well into winter.
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Electric Cocktail Shaker
Give yourself a hard-earned break and pick up one of the Rabbit Electric Cocktail Shakers before you start your entertaining duties this season. Instead of getting carpal tunnel trying to shake drinks all night long, let it do all of the work for you with it’s gentle mixing blade.
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Amali’s Dreamy Vegetables
I have to admit that I get pretty excited when a good restaurant opens anywhere north of 30th street. Sure, we have a few great ones uptown (Dovetail, Boulud Sud, and Marea), but we could always use a few more. I always a had a thing for Periyali, so I was happy to learn that the same owners had opened another civilized and sophisticated (code for pricey) Greek joint on the Upper East Side last year. It was called...
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Restaurant Worthy Salad Dressing At Home
Don’t you hate it when you go out for dinner and discover a great, new salad dressing only to find out that you can’t for the life of you figure out how to recreate it at home? Most of us think to ourselves, “If only we had the recipe,” but that’s just a small part of the problem. What we really need are the tools and techniques that restaurant chefs use, which is why we fell for this Chef’n...
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Seasonal Eats: Apples
Did you know there are over 7,500 varieties of apples in the world? Yep. You could eat a different kind of apple every day of the year and not make a dent in the possibilities. Right now, it’s Apple Picking Season, which means a flavorful spectrum of apples. Sure, you can get those shiny Red Delicious apples all year round, but don’t even bother eating those ’til we’re deep into winter and this season’s juicy crop are long gone....
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