David Chang’s Ando Now Open in Midtown East

David Chang's Momofuku and Christina Tosi's Milk Bar open in CityCenter soon

If you follow this website religiously, you will know that we previously reported on David Chang’s delivery-only restaurant concept. Ando is now open and delivering its nominally Asian-inspired offerings within the borders of Midtown East. Chang spoke about the restaurant on Friday at The New Yorker Tech Festival, offering a bit of insight into the origins of the idea. The entire menu, including the fried chicken and cheesesteak sandwich, was specifically engineered for delivery service. The one item he indicated would never be available from Ando? Ramen noodles. Chang stated that other Asian noodles travel better, but are still a while away from being offered on Ando’s menu.

You can read more about Ando here. To find our previous reporting, click here.

Orwashers to open Second UWS Location 100 Years after First

image1_20_1_.0

Orwashers Bakery, a century-old mainstay on the UWS, will open their second location TODAY at 440 Amsterdam Ave at 81st Street.

The bakery known for its “quintessential Upper West Side” breads such as Pumpernickel and New York Rye was opened by The Orwashers – a Hungerian immigrant family – in 1916  looking to serve decades of family recipes to the Upper East Side’s local immigrant community

In 2008, the Orwasher family sold the bakery to its current owner Keith Cohen, who expanded the company’s wholesale business. Today, Orwashers provides bread to over 100 businesses, including salad mini chains Chop’t and Fresh & Co, as well as markets like Gourmet Garage.

As well as an expanded menu, Orwashers will be serving  Nobletree Coffee.

New Food Hall Planned for Chinatown

CSM_20WINDOW_20DISPLAY.0.jpgFood halls have been popping up everywhere lately, and – love them or hate them – the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The latest addition is the planned Canal Street Market, set to open in November in 12,000 square feet of space on Canal between Broadway and Lafayette. There are 11 confirmed vendors, including bubble tea favorite Boba Guys, Davey’s Ice Cream, and a new concept Yori Nori from the team behind Chelsea Market’s ramen shop Mokbar. There will also be a retail portion to the market including home goods, ceramics and flowers.

Developer Phillip Chong describes the market as a way to appeal to the “gourmet-minded” and “young, energetic downtown creatives.” The space previously housed high-end clothing store Necessary Clothing, and a number of smaller shops before 2012.

To read more, click here.

Ikinari Steak Comes to New York from Japan, with Prime Rib and No Chairs

The popular Japanese steakhouse Ikinari steak, known for it’s unusual ordering style and standing-room-only dining room, will soon come to the East Village. Ikinari currently has more than 50 locations in Japan, and in areas with a large office population some Ikinari outposts feed as many as 500 office workers a day.

The fast-casual concept allows guests to order the exact number of grams of steak they’d like, which are then eaten at standing tables with a precisely calibrated height. Chef and Restaurateur Kunio Ichinose explains that such tables discourage diners from putting their forks and knives down between bites, allowing the restaurant to move guests through as quickly as possible. That throughput allows Ikinari to target workers with lower incomes than many steakhouses; a 7-ounce steak comes to about $16, a particularly good deal in Japan.

If such a fast paced setting doesn’t seem like your ideal way to eat steak, there may be some hope. Ikinari’s LES application for a liquor license indicates they may tweak the concept slightly for the New York market, encouraging guests to stay a moment longer and possibly even giving them a place to sit. After all, it’s hard to hold a fork, knife, and a beer through a full 7 ounces.

To read more, click here.

Angel’s Share Alums Open New Cocktail and Ramen Bar

11-rokc-009.w710.h473.2x.jpgShigefumi Kabashima and Tetsuo Hasegawa, both formerly of the popular speakeasy-esque bar Angel’s Share, have just unveiled the full cocktail menu at their new spot in Hamilton Heights. The bar is called ROKC (short for Ramen, Oysters, Kitchen and Cocktails), and the menu is a playful American twist on the high quality Japanese drinks at Angel’s Share. Examples include a Thai tea spiked with absinthe and cachaça, a matcha latte with Japanese whiskey, and a fruity cocktail called “Flower” with shochu, lavender, elderflower, and cranberry, served in a lightbulb and presented over ice in a trapezoidal pot.

These cocktails are all newly unveiled, but the ramen and limited raw bar have been available for a few weeks during he restaurant’s soft-open. Ex–Maison Premiere sous-chef Jeff Srole has been heading the seafood menu, and Isao Yoneda (formerly of Totto and Hide-Chan) is responsible for the three types of ramen bowls.

To read more, click here.

Ice Cream gets Honored With Its Own Museum

MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM .jpgBeginning in August, the meatpacking district will be home to a new museum dedicated to the wonderful world of ice cream, where guests can play in an ice cream-themed playground, learn about the history of the cold treat, and of course try samples. Co-founders Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora originally embarked on the project last year in order to fulfill Bunn’s childhood dream of being able to swim in a pool of sprinkles. That specific fantasy will be available to all visitors at the museum, where the pair have filled a life-size pool with sprinkles that may not be edible, but are designed to look and feel exactly like the kind usually seen on sundaes.

The rest of the exhibit, which is sponsored in part by Tinder, features a playground with equipment like an ice cream scoop seesaw and ice cream sandwich swing, a tasting lab with weekly rotating flavors from New York ice cream shops, plus sculptures, paintings and murals throughout the maze-like space. Black Tap and Oddfellows have already been announced as partners.

Tickets are $18 for single admission or $30 for a couple. To read more, click here.

Le Coucou Opens Today

16-le-coucou-007.w600.h400.jpg

Le Coucou, the first American restaurant from Chicago-born chef Daniel Rose, will open tonight for dinner service. Rose currently has two restaurants in Paris, and has made a name for himself with classic French dishes. The new restaurant promises to offer similar cuisine, but Rose has said that he is looking for American-made products that remind him of France.  On the menu are items like pigs’ feet with caviar, pike quenelles, veal tongue, fish stew bourride and poached chicken for two or four.

Le Coucou is the result of a partnership between Rose and Restaurateur Stephen Starr, with Daniel Skurnick as head pastry chef. So far, the restaurant has earned as much press for its interior design as for the menu. Design firm Roman and Williams is responsible for the beautiful buildout, including chandeliers, velvet banquettes, and a gorgeous mural behind the bar.

To read more, click here.

 

 

Brooklyn Winery Team Opens New Crown Heights Restaurant

brooklyn-made-wines-01.w600.h400.jpgCrown Heights now has another new restaurant to add to its list – this time, it comes from the team behind Williamsburg’s Brooklyn Winery. Owners Brian Leventhal and John Stires will open the doors to BKW on Tuesday at 747 Franklin Avenue. They’ve brought on chef Michael Gordon, formerly of Bouley, to design the pared-down menu. Some highlights include konbu-cured mackerel with whipped feta and roasted grapes, root beer glazed pork ribs, and homemade donuts with butterscotch and lavender. The wine list will of course be well curated, with flights offered for those who are feeling indecisive and full bottles available to take home.

To read more, click here.

 

New Co-Working Start Up Is Partnering With Restaurants

space

New coworking start-up Spacious launched earlier this month by using DBGB Kitchen and Bar as a meeting and office space. They are now also adding L’Equipe in East Village and Public in Soho to their public work space portfolio. According to founder Preston Pesek, they plan to announce partnerships with restaurants in Williamsburg, Chelsea, Tribeca, Upper West Side, and even San Francisco and Los Angeles soon, but Pesek says they’re not targeting just any restaurant. It must be beautiful, and even though they won’t be serving food immediately, the menu must be delicious, he says. A good restaurant, he says, works perfectly as a good meeting space.

Besides being dinner-only restaurants, the restaurants involved with Spacious also need to be near public transit, be well-designed, and be big. DBGB has about 180 seats, and L’Apicio offers about 190. All of the eventual participants will have a minimum of 60 to 100 seats. Spacious members pay $95 per month to work in the spaces during the day, and restaurants are part of a profit-sharing partnership with the start-up.

Eventually, Spacious users will be able to order limited small plates at some of the restaurants through an app on their phone and pick it up themselves so as to avoid table service. “Most of the kitchens open early for prep work anyway, and it would be a way to showcase what they’re working on”, Pesek added.

Read more here.

The Wizard Retools His Lab

David Bouley dreams of engineering a whole different concept of a restaurant.

The famous chef’s eponymous restaurant opened at 165 Duane Street, Tribeca in 1987.  According to Bouley, the restaurant will be going “on sabbatical” and then reopening in a smaller space (planned for Tribeca) with a mission of healthful eating.  The new space will accommodate only 20-25 seats and open five days a week.  The Bouley that New Yorkers have come to know over the past thirty years will be gone in a few months.

In recent years, Mr. Bouley has become obsessed with health issues.  Towards the end of the year, he will engage in a deep study of the relationship between health and food.  He plans to take nutrition classes at New York University and consult with doctors and experts, internationally.

The new restaurant’s mission will be to optimize health.  Tasting menus will be developed to address a variety of dietary restrictions and medical concerns.  “Food should give you calories that you burn off, not calories that you store,” said Mr. Bouley.

David Bouley plans to rejuvenate his restaurants and projects (Bouley, brushstroke, Bouley Test Kitchen and Bouley Botanical) and himself.  He is quoted as saying “Gastronomy and science, meeting together.  I want to learn how to do that better”.

Please click here to read more…