The Plaza Food Hall expands into a foodie delight with the iconic tastes from No. 7 Sub, William Greenberg Desserts, Luke’s Lobster and much more.
Check out all of the vendors at the hall located at 1 West 59th Street at 5th Avenue
Vermont sits in the #1 spot on the Locavore Index for locally sourced food
May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Nationwide, small farms, farmers markets and specialty food makers are popping up and thriving as more people seek locally produced foods. More than half of consumers now say it’s more important to buy local than organic, according to market research firm Mintel, and Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan called the local food movement “the biggest retail food trend in my adult lifetime.” But with no official definition for what makes a food local, the government can’t track sales. And consumers don’t always know what they are buying. A supermarket tomato labeled “local” may have come from 10, 100 or more miles away. Strict locavores stick to food raised within a certain radius of their home — 50, 100 or 250 miles. Others may allow themselves dried spices, coffee or chocolate.
Two of the more common standards used by locavores are food produced within 100 miles or within the same state that it’s consumed. A new locavore index ranked Vermont as the top state in its commitment to raising and eating locally grown food based on the number of farmers markets and community supported agriculture farms, where customers pay a lump sum up front and receive weekly deliveries of produce and other foods.
Vermont has 99 farmers markets and 164 CSAs, with a population of fewer than 622,000, according to the 2012 Strolling of the Heifers Locavore Index, which relies on U.S. Department of Agriculture and census figures. Iowa, Montana, Maine and Hawaii rounded out the top five.
Corner Bakery Cafe expands to the Northeast with an anticipated 22 locations in Connecticut and Rhode Island
May 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Corner Bakery Cafe, know for its signature line of grilled panini, freshly baked sweets and made-to-order breakfast scramblers, will open 22 new locations in Rhode Island and Connecticut throughout the next eight years.
The agreement, signed by Top Line Restaurants, calls for 16 cafes in Connecticut and six in Rhode Island, with the first location scheduled to open by summer 2013. The new restaurants will help boost the local economy in those states by adding more than 800 jobs into the market over the next eight years.
New York City Food Trucks go Inside your Companies place of work.
April 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Food Trucks head inside to your place of work. NYC food trucks have been traveling up the freight elevator of the 19-story Starrett-Lehigh Building at 601 West 26th Street in West Chelsea, to offer dining options five days a week to some 6,000 office workers and visitors.
“This is the first indoor vertical food-truck court in the city, and as far as I know, the country,”
said David Weber, president of the New York City Food Truck Association, which was asked by
the building’s owner, RXR Realty, to curate the daily “truck collection” because of a paucity of
lunchtime choices in the neighborhood, west of the High Line between 11th and 12th Avenues.
Coffee companies continue to expand into Brooklyn, New York
April 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Brooklyn Roasting Company is expanding, tripling in size, according to an announcement on their blog. For coffee lovers in Dumbo, this is great news. They’ve taken over the space next door at 25 Jay Street and working on adding more production equipment as well as more craftsman furniture:
Considered by many to be the best espresso in Dumbo and Brooklyn, BRC is putting their bets in their Dumbo roasting plant. Congrats to the Brooklyn Roasting Co team and looking forward to the expansion!
Brooklyn Roasting Company expanding to 25 Jay Street
Starbucks Teams up with Opportunity Finance Network to help create jobs
April 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
In November, Starbucks teamed up with the Opportunity Finance Network, a membership network of more than 180 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that provides loans and counseling to community businesses on the Create Jobs for USA Fund. Since November 2011 the fund raised about $2 million, helping to create or retain more than 2,300 jobs, many in poor communities.
The Create Jobs for USA program also provides capital grants to select CDFIs. These groups, in turn, provide loans to underserved community businesses like microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate ventures and affordable housing firms. The goal of Create Jobs for USA is to bring people and communities together to create and sustain jobs throughout America.
Starbucks Founder Howard Schultz makes good on his promise to invest in small business programs.
Local Chef Preparing Authentic Chinese Food in Williamsburg, NYC
April 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Brooklyn Wok Shop opened two and a half months ago in the notoriously hip and culinarily erudite neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y. The restaurant’s most popular dish is General Tso’s chicken.
A preference for the most ordinary of Chinese-American takeout staples could seem peculiar in a neighborhood whose denizens thrive on food like shrimp with house-cured lardo at Betto restaurant or sunchoke soup with pickled shallot, fried rosemary and brandied cherries at Diner. However, Chinese takeout classics are what you’re supposed to get at Brooklyn Wok Shop, where the chicken specialty is on the menu for $10.50, along with typical beef and broccoli for $11.50 — $12.50 with a fried egg on top — and wonton soup for $12.50.
The dishes are served in a 60-seat modern urban restaurant with blond wood slats for walls and 1950s and ’60s pop music playing on the sound system.The average per-person check ranges from $22 to $26, according to chef-owner Edric Har.
Read more: http://nrn.com/article/brooklyn-wok-shops-take-takeout?NL=NRN-03&Issue=NRN-03_20120420_NRN-03_999&YM_RID=%60email%60&YM_MID=%60mmid%60#ixzz1saE63zAd
Local Chef preparing authentic Chinese Food in Williamsburg, NY
David’s Teas Integrates Multiple IT systems for One Platform including scheduling, POS and inventory management
April 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
While the company’s rapid growth is just what business owners want, it has also presented challenges — most notably within the IT systems. The inventory and sales systems were not connected, so the system might show an inventory balance, but not provide any value to it. The warehouse management system lacked the ability to track each store’s inventory to a specific location within the facility. And because the merchandising system lacked effective forecasting or replenishment tools, the buying function was handled via spreadsheets.
Management needed a way to assemble more accurate information in order to reduce stock-outs and increase inventory turns. Choquette and his colleagues began looking for a new system in early 2010, ultimately deciding on Microsoft Dynamics AX.
David’s Tea integrates multiple IT systems to create one platform
New coffee bar, Hungry Ghost, is now brewing Stumptown coffee in Park Slope
April 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
You can have an extensive food and coffee menu which includes breakfast, lunch sandwiches, salads and sides with an interesting selection of baked cookies. Think Sunflower Almond Cherry, Carrot Zucchini with Walnuts and Currants, Molasses Spice with Crystallized Ginger and much more. Sounds delicious!
Hungry Ghost is located on 253 Flatbush Avenue between Bergen Street and St. Marks Avenue
Lebanese Food Comes to Forest Hills, Queens: Wafa’s Opens
April 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Wafa, the owner and cook has been cooking lebanese food for a long time. Now, people are catching on to the delectable vegetables being prepared.
Lebanese Shop, Wafa’s in Queens
paigepapers.com 