In 2002, James Freeman gave up on being a professional clarinetist and began pursuing his other passion, roasting coffee.

Mr. Freeman started out in a 183-square-foot potting shed in Oakland, Calif., and named his newborn business Blue Bottle Coffee, after a storied Viennese coffee house. Fifteen years later, Blue Bottle has grown beyond a one-man coffee shop. It is now one of the best-known purveyors of artisanal coffee that, in Mr. Freeman’s words, doesn’t taste like “flea shampoo.”

And it now has a huge new owner: Nestlé, the Swiss food giant, which announced on Thursday that it had bought a majority stake in Blue Bottle.

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This month marks year 180 for Delmonico’s, the classic New York steakhouse that’s also credited as America’s first fine dining restaurant. Opened in 1837, the restaurant has gone through several owners and over eight locations before settling into its current triangular space at 56 Beaver Street. The now-iconic room has several other claims to fame, including allegedly inventing lobster Newburg, eggs Benedict, and baked Alaska.

 

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On Friday, September 15 and Saturday, September 16, the Madison Square Park Shake Shack will serve a $9.99 smoked eel burger topped with bacon, pickled red onion, crème fraiche, horseradish, and watercress, as well as vanilla custard doughnuts ($3.99) and red and white wine produced in France for St. John.

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Caffe Marchio, a new Roman-style stand-up coffee bar in the Redbury Hotel, is opening on Monday.

Like Union Square Cafe’s sister, Daily Provisions, Caffe Marchio is a counter-service operation that’s steps away from its full-service sibling restaurant Marta, the three-year-old Roman pizzeria in the hotel. Its entrance is separate from Marta, with a door at 30 East 30th Street near Madison Avenue. Here, chef Joe Tarasco wants to be able to “feed the masses” for breakfast and lunch, particularly people in the neighborhood, he says.

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School’s back today for New York City kids, and a lunchtime surprise is awaiting them: Public schools citywide will now offer free lunches to every single student.

Thanks to a federal program, meals won’t cost even a penny for the 1.1 million students in America’s largest school system. Right now, about 75 percent of them qualify for free lunches. Officials stressed that this new program shouldn’t cost taxpayers more money, either.

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McDonald’s expansion of its McCafé line isn’t just limited to the company’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants. It starts serving grocery stores with a line of ready-to-drink McCafé Frappé beverages in three flavors: Caramel, Vanilla and Mocha.

The drinks come as a result of an expanded deal with the beverage maker Coca-Cola Company. The drinks will join the whole bean, ground and single-serve McDonald’s coffee available in retail stores nationwide.

The new retail beverages come as the company officially announced its planned expansion of its McCafé line of drinks on Wednesday, with Caramel Macchiato, Cappuccino and Americano. The drinks were available in McDonald’s locations last week. Executives promised more to come.

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