By Apotheker & Co-owner Albert Trummer

A luminary among bar chefs, Austrian born Albert Trummer conceived the cocktail menus for Town as well as David Bouley's Fraiche in Los Angeles.  Before that, and long before it was fashionable, Trummer took the art of the cocktail as seriously as the art of cooking.  At Trummer Home in Greenpoint, New York, he introduced libations in strict accordance with the seasons, quickly earning a reputation for his exotic creations. 

Trummer re-emerges on the Manhattan bar scene at Apotheke located on Doyer Street in Chinatown.  With hundreds of rare and obscure recipes at his disposal, he infuses, stirs and swirls herbs and botanicals into various "pharmaceuticals" for whatever ails you come sundown.    Or in this case, come sunrise...

Morning Glory

Ingredients

• 3 ounces Veuve Clicquot champage
• 2 ounces of Trummer Home elderflower essence (available at Dean & Deluca)
• 1 ounce fresh hibiscus
• garnish with a fresh edible flower

Address: 9 Doyer Street, btwn. Bowery & Pell Sts.
Phone: (212)-406-0400
www.Apothekebar.com

Alex Grunert, the pastry chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, seizes upon his Viennese upbringing in his ardent commitment to the restaurant’s “locavore” philosophy.  Following a stint at the famed Hotel Inter-continental restaurant Vier Jahreszeite in Vienna, Alex sharpened his skills as a chocolate maker for the Austrian patisserie Oberlaa Konditorei.  He then moved to New York City, where he seamlessly weaved his Austrian technique into the classic pastries at Bouley and Danube.  As the executive pastry chef, he worked under David Bouley and learned of the importance of seasonal and local cooking, a philosophy that would follow him from the city to the farmlands of upstate New York.  With an impressive supply of fresh produce and dairy at his fingertips from the restaurant's farm, Alex Grunert conceives desserts that adhere to the restaurant’s signature concept of not a menu, but rather a list of seasonal ingredients that are left to the creativity of the kitchen.  Try any of his peach pastries, which Grunert poaches in a wonderfully fruity olive oil and pairs with young ginger ice cream and a tangy passionfruit sauce.

Single/Married/Divorced?
Single, but in a relationship.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an animal doctor, a vet, but it was just my first stage of thinking.  For the longest time I had no idea what I wanted to do.  But my mother sat me down and we made a list of what I enjoyed, what I was capable of.  I spent a lot of time helping my mother and grandmother in the kitchen.  And that was it.  We decided I should start my career in the kitchen.

What was your first job in food?
I was a trainee at the Intercontinental Hotel in Vienna. I peeled onions and washed lettuce.  You know–how everyone needs to begin.

What did you learn from working with David Bouley at Danube? 
Combinations of flavors.

How do you channel your Austrian upbringing into the recipes you create today?
I often start with classic desserts and cakes and work from there – adding and subtracting ingredients.  But cake-wise, I am in the classic Austrian school.

You began your career at the Austrian restaurant Vier Jahreszeite. What were some of the most important lessons you took from your prestigious training?
My first chef convinced me that I should take every opportunity to learn from those around me.  Okay, I was young and sometimes needed to be put in my place.  He told me, “Learn, so you can make those around you happy.”

How have you incorporated your travels to Asia into your current, seasonal American menu?
I have, but it may not be noticeable to Blue Hill guests.   The use of an herb or spice can help highlight a fruit or even a vegetable in a new way.

What is your favorite dessert on the menu at Blue Hill at Stone Barns?
Right now?  Olive Oil Braised White Peach, Young Ginger Ice Cream and Passion Fruit

What is your least favorite (and yes, you must pick one)?
I wouldn’t serve something I didn’t enjoy.

What culinary trends do you embrace?
Well, obviously local.  Being able to step outside the door and grab ingredients is exciting.  But I don’t think it is a trend. Chefs really know what local farmers have to offer and we want more.

What culinary trends do you wish would just die already?
No culinary trend is bad as long as the chef is executing it well.

Any new projects on the horizon? Spill the beans… 
Nothing right now. I am happy to be a part of Blue Hill.

Address: 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY
Phone: (914)366-9600

54 Prince St., at Lafayette St. (212) 226-0211
Mon.-Sat., 7:30 a.m.-1 a.m.; Sun., 7:30 a.m.-midnight.
CUISINE Creative comfort food.
VIBE Open-air theater.
OCCASION Casual date; group dining.
DON'T-MISS DISH Bangers and mash, Ovaltine pudding parfait.
AVERAGE PRICE Appetizers, $7-$11; entrees, $12-$24; dessert, $8.
RESERVATIONS Recommended.


Not many delicatessens require reservations. Then again, Delicatessen isn't a "deli" in any conventional sense of the word.

It's a sleek, open-air theater in SoHo - floating leather banquettes, glossy white tables, a backlit bar and black Escalades parked out front. The restaurant spills onto the corner of Prince and Lafayette, and the corner spills into the restaurant. Waiters walk out onto the sidewalk to bring you your food. Right out front, slim young things smoke cigarettes and stare at their cell phones as if they were compacts. The social electricity lights up the block.

On a summer night when the garage-door windows are open, it's a nice idea for a restaurant. The question is this: Who will want to eat here on a dark, rainy night in November?

The owners of Delicatessen also opened a restaurant called Cafeteria, which isn't a cafeteria. It makes perfect sense. They're serving food that isn't actually food. What they're really serving is a scene...

To read the full review at the New York Daily News

By Partner Peter Kane

 

• 3 cubes of (tequila infused) watermelon  MUDDLED w/
• 1/2 teaspoon of diced ginger
• .5 oz of ginger simple syrup
• 1.5 oz watermelon infused white tequila
• .75 oz of fresh lemon juice
  

Shake and serve over CRUSHED ice in a rocks glass.


Address: 99 Stanton St., between Orchard & Ludlow Sts.
Phone: (212)995-0099

1600 Third Ave., at 90th St. (212) 423-5888
Sun.-Thur., 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m.; Fri. & Sat., 5:30 p.m.-12 a.m.
CUISINE Modern American steakhouse.
VIBE Butcher-shop sleek.
OCCASION UES date; group dining.
DON'T-MISS DISH Tomato and watermelon gazpacho, filet mignon, sour-cream cheesecake.
PRICE Appetizers, $9-$15; entrees, $22-$42; dessert, $8-$10.
RESERVATIONS Accepted.

You need a road map through the menu at Parlor Steakhouse. Here it is: Order the gazpacho, ask for the filet mignon medium rare, and finish with any one of Andrea Bucheli's desserts. If you don't eat meat, order the branzino. If you don't eat meat or fish - seriously, what are you doing at a steakhouse? You can still have a glass of wine and order dessert, which is probably worth the trek uptown.

Did I mention the desserts? Save room, lots of room. They're created by Bucheli, 28, who was a pastry chef at Country and Fresh before coming to Parlor Steakhouse. Her desserts are whimsical. She can't make up her mind, and she doesn't ask you to, either.

Each dessert is really two desserts in one. The sour-cream cheesecake is the tart offspring of cheesecake and panna cotta, crowned with curls of candied lemon. (It's also served with honey ice cream.) The chocolate ganache cake is a collision between fudge and a flourless souffle, which is the best kind of collision you could hope for.

Then there's the hybrid of rice pudding and creme brulée on a crunchy pedestal of candied Rice Krispies. It comes with creme fraiche ice cream. That adds up to four desserts for the price of one. Clearly, too much is never enough.

Now that dessert is out of the way, let's get down to the meat. Normally, I'm a porterhouse girl. The problem with most filets is simple - no bone, no fat, no flavor. Not this one. It's just as tender as other filets, but it has a better burn. That's because chef Lucas Billheimer fires it quickly in a 600-degree broiler. Somehow, that brings out the personality in what's usually an impersonal cut.

Billheimer was the chef de cuisine at Lure Fish Bar. It stands to reason that someone who understands how to grill fish will do a great job with meat - something you surely want in a steakhouse chef. Billheimer knows how to give the porterhouse a volcanic char, with just the right ratio of crust to fat to bone. (I told you I was a porterhouse girl.) A steak this good doesn't need much company. But if you think it looks too lonely on the plate, order the fried onions or the creamed spinach.

As you wander through this menu, try to stay on the dry side. Almost anything with a sauce is way too damp. The lobster roll is positively murky with mayonnaise. The steak tartare is bathing in béarnaise aioli and topped with mouth-puckering pickled shallots. It's also a little too prim and fussy - steak tartare in a doll's dress. You'd expect the heirloom tomato salad to be simple, all about the tomatoes. These tomatoes arrived in a quicksand of gorgonzola mousse, having already nearly drowned in a red onion confit.

What Parlor is really saying is that it doesn't have to be a steakhouse at all, if you don't want it to be. It doesn't look like a steakhouse - the interior is sleek, bright and modern. It doesn't offer a Caesar salad or even an iceberg wedge. It just so happens the best thing on the menu is steak. And did I mention the desserts?