FastCasual.com will offer a free one-hour webinar on connecting with guests via mobile devices on Thursday, July 11 at 2pm. Topics covered will include the “why” of mobile outreach, how to measure your return on investment in mobile, and a success story from Rita’s Italian Ice.
For more information and to register for the webinar, click here.
Over the holiday weekend, Merchants Hospitality opened two new food venues at the East River Waterfront Esplanade near Pier 15. Pop-up taco stand Oaxaca Express is the latest addition, opening July 3 at 70 South Street between Fletcher Lane and Maiden Lane. The stand has waterfront patio seating for 150 with views of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges and will be open daily for lunch and dinner through the fall. Oaxaca Express’s fare will include soft-shell tacos, chips, salsa, guacamole and a full bar.
It joins other recently-opened enterprises in the area from Merchants Hospitality, including ice cream shop Cones Cafe, which serves Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and Watermark Bar, which serves classic American fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers, and lobster rolls.
The East River waterfront area was hit hard by Sandy, but has begun developing again and “‘becoming a neighborhood of its own,'” said Abraham Merchant, co-owner of Merchants Hospitality.
For more information about the new enterprises and area development, click here.
Shack Shack’s London location is set to open Friday in Covent Garden. In keeping with their philosophy of adapting each location to its environment, the space looks slightly different from stateside Shacks, and the menu has been adapted.
While many familiar favorites will remain on the menu, Danny Meyer’s team has, as they frequently do, created some new items specific to the new location using local purveyors. Savory items include a Cumberland Sausage, made with a rare breed of pork, and a ShackMeister Sausage, an upgraded Cumberland Sausage with cheese sauce and beer-marinated shallots. Burgers will use Scottish grass-fed Aberdeen Angus. They have also partnered with St. JOHN Bakery and paul.a.young chocolatier to offer some special Concretes, including the Union Shack and Drury Lane Jam.
The Specialty Food Association posted the list of Sofi (specialty outstanding food innovation) Gold Award winners for 2013, handing out top honors to the best specialty food products from around the world at the Summer Fancy Food Show. Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson hosted the ceremony.
Several New York-based companies won Gold, including Chocolat Moderne (Avant-Garde Bar Blood Orange Bergamot Flavor Chocolate Bar), Tate’s Bake Shop (Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies), We Rub You (Spicy Korean BBQ Marinade), Bee Raw (Manhattan Rooftop Honey Flight) and Sarabeth’s Kitchen (Legendary Velvety Cream of Tomato Soup).
See the full list of Gold winners here.
Famed French chef Alain Ducasse plans to expand his Paris-based chocolate line, adding another store at the Galeries Lafayette on July 15. He also plans to sell the chocolates online, and at his restaurants the Dorchester (London), Plaza Athenee (Paris), and Le Louis XV (Monaco).
Ducasse said he has encountered some challenges in setting up production, noting that he is only the fifth chocolate maker in France to make his own chocolate, and the first in Paris. “‘The challenge was to find the craft machines that don’t really exist anymore. It’s a different job and art to make these machines compared with the modern ones. I’m a million times smaller than Cadbury, for example,'” said Ducasse.
Ducasse has always had a passion for chocolate, having worked under renowned pastry chef Gaston Lenotre. In fact, he noted he almost became a chocolatier early his career, rather than a chef. He now works with chocolate maker Nicolas Berger to create a variety of chocolates and confections, from ganaches, pralines, and truffles to single-origin bars.
For the full story on Ducasse and his latest venture, click here.
Eddie Cedeno, 29, opened Strangeways coffee shop at 87 St. Nicholas Avenue in Bushwick this week. Cedeno got his start in the coffee industry roasting at Gorilla coffee eight years ago. Until recently, he was a manager, roaster, and green coffee buyer for Oslo. But when Oslo burnt down in January, Cedeno decided the time was right to pursue his dream and open his own cafe. Cedeno and investors Zachary Nathanson (of Lucky Dog) and Salvator Fristensky (of Skinny Dennis) partnered up to open Strangeways.
The cafe focuses on single-origin coffees and espressos, with a broad array of preparations available, from a pour-over bar to an AeroPress. Their coffee comes from carefully sourced farms in Central and South America and is custom-roasted by Oslo. Strangeways also offers baked goods from Dough.
For more information about Strangeways, check out their Facebook page.
NYC mayoral candidate Christine Quinn announced a new proposal today to limit the calories, fat, and salt in meals marketed to children in the city. The regulations would apply to chain restaurants with more than 15 locations in the city, who are already required to post calorie counts. Children’s meals at these enterprises should be required to meet the same federal standards as meals served in elementary schools, said Quinn, meaning they should contain no more than 650 calories, 7 grams of saturated fat, and 740 milligrams of sodium.
Quinn said she may still pursue the new regulations this year while she is the City Council Speaker, but that if elected mayor, she would either enact the program through the Board of Health or a legislative initiative.
New York State Restaurant Association spokesperson Andrew Moesel issued a statement opposing the proposed regulations, saying “‘The City Council, the mayor, the government shouldn’t be dictating what customers can eat in restaurants or how those restaurants can market to the customers.'”
Read more about Quinn’s proposal and reactions here and here.
Today’s Wall Street Journal featured the knife skills courses at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). Tara Berman, managing partner of TaraPaige Group, teaches in the culinary management program at ICE and is also an alum.
Wall Street Journal reporter Ralph Gardner Jr. took the introductory knife skills course Knife Skills I, which was named the Best Cooking Class of 2010 by New York Magazine. His daughter Gracie is currently an ICE student.
Read his full account of life on the chopping block here.
The 4th Annual Cheesemonger Invitational was held Saturday, June 29 in Long Island City. The event pitted 52 top cheesemongers from around the country against one another, with Justin Trosclair of St. James Cheese Company in New Orleans taking top honors. Nadjeeb Chouaf of Whole Foods Market Mid-Atlantic in Charlottesville, VA took second place, while Kate Carter of Arrowine & Cheese in Arlington, VA took third place.
Cheesemongers competed on various skills and abilities, including pairing, accompaniments, plating, wrapping, and cutting. Check out the full story and photos from the event here.
paigepapers.com