Vegetarian Cuisines
It’s All About the Lettuce at Local Leaf
Love a good sandwich, but want to avoid carbs? Lettuce has been a longtime diet substitute for bread and buns, more recently adopted by gluten-free diners as well, for a way to enjoy sandwiches without wheat. Local Leaf and their build your own sandwich concept aims to turn lettuce into a bonafide lifestyle, by spotlighting roughage at their new, Murray Hill location…
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Inside AbcV: Jean-Georges Rhapsodic Ode to Vegetables
It seems Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s AbcV just missed inclusion on our Restaurant Preview list yet again; having finally debuted after three solid years of anticipation! Carving out still another corner of Flatiron’s ABC Carpet & Home, it ably advances a recurring ABC theme by constructing a menu entirely around vegetables…
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Q & A with Nix, Dovetail and Narcissa Chef, John Fraser
“Vegetable-forward” has become part of the standard dining lexicon in NYC. But if you’re looking for the genesis of today’s widespread, produce-focused movement, consider the legacy of transformative chef John Fraser, who forever altered the definition of fine dining when he introduced “Meatless Monday” at Dovetail back in 2010, and recently opened veggie-bent Nix in Union Square…
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Nix – First Bite
Me, I don’t do meatless Mondays. In fact, I don’t do meatless any day. I’m a carnivore through and through. If it’s not meat, I crave poultry or fish… or eggs. If I don’t have one of the above, I feel like I haven’t really eaten. It’s still fascinating (at least to me!) to walk into a vegetarian eatery, like Nix, on a Friday night, and find every table and bar seat taken, with a noticeably fashionable crowd no less. But there’s nothing “granola” or hippy about Nix…
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Restaurant Spotting: Dirt Candy (2.0) is Dandy
Dirt Candy’s tagline is, “Leave The Vegetables to the Professionals.” And to be sure, chef/owner Amanda Cohen has done wonders to change the way the restaurant industry looks at meat — seriously, how many “vegetable-focused” concepts have you seen debut over the last few years?
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Restaurant Spotting: Superiority Complex
If you thought the mayhem surrounding Fuku was insane — in the form of up-to-the-minute reports on lines wrapping around 1st Ave. — it can’t hold a candle to the commotion surrounding Superiority Burger and its killer veggie burgers…
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New York’s Best Vegetable-Focused Restaurants
“Vegetable-focused” has become a real buzzword in the dining world, used to describe restaurants that aren’t vegetarian, necessarily, but use produce in interesting, entrée-worthy, and entirely delicious ways. And here are eight places that are scrumptiously spearheading the veggie revolution in New York — From Amanda Cohen’s game-changing, newly expanded Dirt Candy, to Semilla in Brooklyn…
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L’Arpege
When I think of French food, I think of creamy sauces, rich reductions, and decadent meats. Vegetarian fare? Now, that’s not something I’d ever associate with France. But I recently had over twenty, mind-blowing courses at L’Arpege and most of them were vegetarian, and every one was divine. You see, the chef, Alain Passard, is like the vegetable whisperer, teasing maximum flavor our of nature’s produce, plucked from Passard’s own garden and farm. He earned three Michelin stars at L’Arpege and he deserves every one of them. (In fact, he earned two stars elsewhere at the tender age of 26.) His Onion & Parmesan Gratin with Black Truffles is perfectly caramelized; sweet and savory Cevennes Onions and just plain unforgettable. So is the Vegetable Consommé with Four Ravioli, each tucked with a different vegetable from Passard’s garden; a delicate...
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Dirt Candy’s Corn Grits
Corn is one of summer’s undeniable superstars; picked fresh from the cob and delivered straight from the grill with little more fanfare than a sprinkle of salt and a slathering of butter. It reappears again — albeit briefly — on the Thanksgiving table, taking the form of Native American dishes, like corn bread or corn pudding. Thanks to the veggie-adulating eatery Dirt Candy, however, we can appreciate the sweet starch any time of year. Experience corn in multiple forms in Amanda Cohen’s entree of Stone Ground Grits topped with Corn Cream, Pickled Shitakes, Huitlacoche, and a Tempura Poached...
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