“Every cart or truck will be getting (a) newly designed decal, and when the inspector finishes the inspection, an ‘A’ looks just like the restaurant A,” says Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Health Corrine Schiff.
Beginning in December, all of the city’s 5,500 mobile food vendors will be graded on their food safety and will receive a corresponding alphabet score. A tracking device will also be attached to every unit so inspectors can keep track of each business.”
Read more here.
1. Flora Bar
945 Madison Ave., nr. 75th St.; 646-558-5383
Sure, the location is a little eccentric by local standards (the dining room sits on the semi-bunkered basement level of the Met Breuer museum on Madison Avenue). The decor is a little spare, too (did we mention that it’s in the basement of the Met Breuer?), and local gourmets will complain that the chef, Ignacio Mattos, is an interloper from the wilder, much more unruly culinary regions further downtown (he operates two popular restaurants below 14th Street). But we’d argue that the mingling of high culture and high cuisine at this unlikely three-star establishment creates the kind of alchemy which is unique not just on the Upper East Side, but to the city as a whole. Throw in Mattos’s refreshingly ingenious brand of high-low cooking (where else on the block can you get your crème fraîche and caviar served with house-frizzled potato chips?), the elegantly accessible lunchtime service (yes, there’s a Wagyu burger), the exceptional all-day coffee-and-pastry bar, and one of the better brunch menus in this brunch-crazed part of town, and you have the ideal Upper East Side restaurant for this unfussy, post-gourmet age.
See more restaurants here.
“It’s not impossible to find — I get asked about Taiwanese food in New York a lot, by both visitors from home who are in town and those who learned about Taiwanese food thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Taipei in 2013. I’ve satisfied my cravings in a variety of ways: eating a lot of spicy Sichuan food as a replacement; traveling to Flushing, Queens, for a hearty Taiwanese breakfast of fried crullers and soy milk; and ordering delivery from Taiwan Bear House, which specializes in bento boxes with Taiwanese-style fried chicken or braised pork belly.”
Read more here.
“Pizza Hut is fusing two of America’s favorite pastimes — pizza pies and pickup trucks — in a bid to cut delivery times as fast-food competition heats up.
As part of the restaurant’s latest partnership with Toyota Motor Corp., Pizza Hut has unveiled a robot-operated mobile pizza factory in the bed of a modified Toyota Tundra. The prototype will use automated technology to cook pies on-the-go in six to seven minutes, letting the chain expand its delivery area without the pizzas getting cold.
“We’re bringing the oven closer to the consumer’s door; nobody is doing that,” Pizza Hut’s chief customer and operations officer in the U.S., Nicolas Burquier, said in an interview. “We are pretty obsessed with improving the customer experience. The more we can get closer to their homes or the point of delivery, the better and hotter the product will be.”
View more here.
Preparing Thanksgiving dinner in a cramped New York City kitchen is the opposite of festive, and with so many excellent restaurants open on Thanksgiving Day, there’s no reason to clear out your oven-turned-sweater-storage to roast a turkey. Especially when you can outsource the cooking, and cleaning, to a renowned New York City restaurant.
Cote
Simon Kim’s Michelin-starred, hyper-trendy Korean steakhouse Cote will be serving a prix-fixe Thanksgiving feast. The menu includes four selected steak cuts from Cote’s dry-aging room, grilled tableside with classic Korean accompaniments. Chef David Shim will also be offering traditional sides like pomme aligot, roasted vegetables with maple syrup, butternut squash soup and cranberry and gravy sauces for the meat. A supplemental vension loin will be available a la carte. Festive sweets like pecan and pumpkin pie will end the meal. $72/person
View more restaurants here.
“Tim Ho Wan has received a bunch of international hype throughout the years as it was dubbed the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world a year after it opened in 2009 and subsequently earned one star. The first NYC location launched in the East Village in 2016 to very long lines, serving its signature baked BBQ pork buns, steamed shrimp dumplings and pan-fried turnip cakes, all priced in the single digits.”
“The new location will serve these specials from head chef Yinghui Zhou, in a space inspired by 17th-century French salons, with Chinese accents like an embedded bamboo steamer and the Tim How Wan dragon logo.”
View more here.
Prime 13 Wood Fire Grill and Bar, Brielle
“Earlier this month, two Jersey Shore restaurateurs came together to open the second location of Prime 13, a steakhouse in Point Pleasant known for its prime rib and 40-ounce rib-eye for two.
The restaurant opened in the space previously occupied by Brielle Ale House, owned by Chris, Frank and Matt Gullace. The brothers run the bar, and Gerard Tortora, owner of the Point Pleasant Beach restaurant, leads the kitchen. The menu is similar to Point Pleasant Beach: wood-fired filet mignon, dry-aged strip steak and rack of lamb with the option to add seared scallops, lobster tail and foie gras ($29.99 to $76); seafood dishes, and cocktails, plus 10 beers on tap, more than a dozen bottles, and nearly two dozen wines.”
See more here.
“With Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day all taking place during the winter, restaurants have several holidays they can leverage to increase business. Valentine’s Day in particular, and the weekends surrounding it, are an especially popular time for couples to dine out. According to the National Restaurant Association, Feb. 14 is the second busiest day of the year for restaurants. To capitalize on the popularity, restaurants should accommodate diners by offering a special experience. Whether it’s by changing décor or providing a unique menu, going the extra mile will help your restaurant draw in more customers.”
“Cold weather results in reduced business since diners are more hesitant to leave the comfort of their homes. However, there are certain steps restaurants can take to limit the negative effects of winter.”
Read more here.
“The rise of Sichuan food in New York has made the past decade or two a glorious era for prowlers of Chinese restaurants. Chongqing chicken and mung-bean jelly proliferated as skilled chefs flocked to the city. But while the miles of dan dan noodles and mountains of Sichuan peppercorns have been exhilarating, they have tended to overshadow the cuisine of another great chile-haunted region, Hunan.”
“When people in Hunan get hungry for a bowl of noodles, what they have in mind are mifen: long, white strands made from pounded rice, so smooth they may slither right out of the chopsticks of inexperienced slurpers. Chances for New Yorkers to practice their antiskid chopstick techniques have been limited, generally speaking, to the rice noodles of other parts of Asia. When you could find Hunanese noodles around town, they tended to be tucked away on larger menus with so many other Hunanese opportunities that they were rarely given a chance to slither.”
Read more here.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61838347/CwbiSl5XcAEm0X_.0.jpg)
“Popular Bushwick seafood restaurant Sea Wolf will set up shop this spring in a new luxury real estate development rising on the Williamsburg waterfront — a much more high-end locale compared to the restaurant’s original digs in Bushwick.
Sea Wolf has plans to swing open within the residential and commercial project under development at 420 Kent Ave., at South Eighth Street, in a “polished,” nautical-inspired version of its original outpost, according to a news release. Owner Daniel Cipriani says the “boat-like,” low-ceilinged space has a windowed front, making the view of the East River, three bridges, and Manhattan skyline a main draw.
The upscale waterfront spot is a prime slice of Brooklyn real estate that has attracted big-name chefs like Danny Meyer, who launched taco stand Tacocina this past summer in nearby Domino Park. Cipriani’s personal connection to the water — his lifestyle revolves around fishing and surfing — attracted him to the space, which he says will have a more “refined” menu than his Bushwick location.”
Read more here.
paigepapers.com 