Bed-Stuy Gains a Mediterranean Wine Bar Serving Lesser-Seen Wines in NYC

June 25, 2019 by Leave a Comment

“An ambitious wine bar is now open in Bed-Stuy with a list that covers Mediterranean territory lesser explored by New York City’s wine programs.

Five Italian friends opened Speakvino at 1063 Bedford Ave., between Greene and Lexington avenues, focusing on wines from Bosnia, Macedonia, Croatia, Morocco, Albania, Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon. There are more ubiquitous offerings too, like wines from Italy, France, and Spain.

As for food, the cuisine skews Italian with touches of Spanish and other Mediterranean cuisines. Most of the menu is comprised of preserved foods served in jars, like anchovies ($9), baby artichokes ($8), and mixed Italian mushrooms ($8). There are some small plates, too, including burrata ($14), a little gem salad with avocado and Castelvetrano olives ($11), and octopus served with gigante beans, peperoncino, and celery leaves ($13). On the more substantial side, there is a simple potato gnocchi with sage, cheese, and butter ($12), as well as a thinly sliced pan-roasted strip loin with yuzu koshu and lime ($18).”

Read more here.

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May 31, 2019 by Leave a Comment

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DOT is also seeking proposals for food, beverage and/or merchandise concession in the Café Building at Fordham Plaza. The Request for Proposals for the Café Building is found here: https://a856-cityrecord.nyc.gov/RequestDetail/20190402014. Prospective proposers are encouraged to consider applying to as many of these RFPs as they are interested in.

TERM

In each Kiosk RFP, DOT is seeking a kiosk concessionaire for one (1) five-year term with three (3) five-year renewal options, exercisable at DOT’s sole discretion. No longer term will be considered. This concession will be operated pursuant to a license agreement issued by DOT; no leasehold or other proprietary right is offered.

SITE VISIT

There will be a strongly recommended on-site proposer meeting and tour of Fordham Plaza. The tour will take place on May 15, 2019 and will include a tour of the Café Building starting at 10AM and a tour of the kiosks at 11AM. We will be meeting at Fordham Plaza under the canopy at the Café Building doors in the northeast corner of the plaza near the corner of Fordham Road and Third Avenue. If you are considering responding to this RFP, please make every effort to attend this meeting and site tour. DOT will view favorably proposers that attended the site visit.

PROJECT MANAGER

The Project Manager for this concession is Brandon Budelman. All RFP questions and/or inquiries should be directed to him. He may be reached at:

Phone: (212) 839-9625

Email: concessions@dot.nyc.gov

You are receiving this email because you are on the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) mailing list for Food and Beverage or Merchandise solicitations.

https://paigepapers.com/2019/05/31/17621/

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Innovative Filipino Dishes Come to the Lower East Side

May 29, 2019 by Leave a Comment


“The flavors of the Philippines are interpreted inventively in the hands of Jappy Afzelius, a Filipino executive chef who worked at high-end kitchens in France, Italy and New York. Starters, called pica pica, include pinsit fritos or pork dumplings, fried vegetable spring rolls called lumpia, and kale laing sautéed with shrimp paste and replacing taro leaves with kale. Mr. Afzelius adds Filipino ingredients to a Caesar salad; uses French-cut chicken breasts in his chicken adobo with turmeric soy sauce; includes salmon in sinigang, a typical tamarind soup; and serves traditional Filipino milkfish belly called bangus, fried with chayote and quinoa. His halo-halo dessert uses coconut sorbet in place of shaved ice. Not only does the menu expand your Filipino vocabulary, but you may also note that the name of the restaurant is a play on the Spanish word chisme, or gossip. The intimate room has a tropical feel, a copper bar and a chef’s table with eight seats facing the open kitchen. Philippe Segura, the beverage director, selected the wines and sakes. The owners, Stephen Young and Reggie Aguinaldo, have Filipino roots.”

See more opening here.

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Where to Eat and Drink on the Water in NYC

May 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment

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“New York City is made up of five boroughs and about forty islands, give or take a few. While there’s not a lot of fun stuff happening on, say, Rat Island, or the Chimney Sweeps, the city’s tangle of rivers and bays ensures we’ll always have plenty of waterfront.

Although it’s still too cold to swim in the water off our many shores, it’s certainly warm enough to enjoy some of their sea breezes. And anyways, isn’t it more pleasant to sip a $14 cocktail than to fight off a landfill-fattened Coney Island shark? Whether you’re a Brooklynite, a Manhattanite, a Hog Islander, or just visiting, these are the ten best places in the city to eat and drink while taking in some of our most spectacular waterfront views.”

See more here.

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Joaquin Baca’s Teo and Günter Seeger NY Both Close After Short Runs

May 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment

“(…) Short-lived restaurants don’t get the same treatment, for obvious reasons, but it’s still unfortunate when ambitious places from established players fizzle out fast. There are all kinds of reasons why these closings happen. But it’s still a bummer to hear that Bushwick’s Teo has closed after just five months of serving cast-iron-skillet okonomiyakis.

The closing came out of nowhere, given what the restaurant had going for it. It wasn’t a rookie chef’s project. The owner was Joaquin Baca, who was David Chang’s first employee at Momofuku Noodle Bar and helped right the ship at Ssäm Bar after a rocky start. Baca helped shape Momofuku in its earliest years before going on to open Williamsburg’s the Brooklyn Star, which closed in May after nine years in Williamsburg. He’s a talented chef who was cooking food people want to eat; short rib over kimchee fried rice, oysters coated in cornmeal and then fried, a confit duck-leg ramen. The news was announced on the restaurant’s Instagram and website, but no reason was given.

Read more here.

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This New York Restaurant Sets the Standard for American Fine Dining

May 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment

“Their questions might start near where coats are collected, or in the bar. (“Your first time with us?” “Where are you from?”) And their eavesdropping determines whether you might be the sort of diner to welcome lamb chops or lamb brain. Unbeknownst to diners, the intel makes its way back to the kitchen, where an assembly of cooks and servers use it to create one-of-a-kind meals for people who might have booked months ahead for one of 75 seats.

You don’t get a menu when you sit down, in other words. You’re asked to trust chef Dan Barber and associates with your appetite. Barber, 49, opened the dining destination — a 35-minute express train ride from Manhattan, home to the original Blue Hill — with family members 15 years ago, on land donated by the late David Rockefeller Sr. Almost from the start, the one-time dairy barn and its environs, located within the nonprofit Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, have redefined American fine dining.”

Read more here.

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Job Growth in U.S. Restaurants and Bars Jumps in March

April 9, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Image result for Average weekly earnings were up to $427.78 per week, as compared to $425.88 per week in February.

Restaurants and bars in the U.S. added 27,000 jobs in the past month, quieting rumblings of an economic slowdown following February’s unexpectedly low job growth numbers for both the industry and the U.S. economy overall. According to the latest economic report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, March’s job growth numbers more closely align with what the industry had been reporting in previous months: 36,000 jobs added in January and 40,000 jobs added last December.

There were 196,000 total jobs added in March across all industries in the U.S., and the unemployment rate stayed at a steady, low rate of 3.8 percent or about 6.2 million people unemployed. Unemployment rates in leisure and hospitality remained slightly above the national rate, at 5.8 percent people unemployed in the industry.

Average hourly earnings in the leisure and hospitality sector remained essentially unchanged from the month prior, at $16.39 per hour. That’s up about 60 cents from March 2018’s average hourly earnings. Employees in the sector worked an average of 26.1 hours per week, the same hourly average that was reported in March 2018. Average weekly earnings were up to $427.78 per week, as compared to $425.88 per week in February.

Read more here.

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Thailand’s South Gets Its Due in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

April 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Lately, when it comes to Thai food in New York, the spotlight has been on the spice-fueled cuisine of the Isan region, in the northeast. But the restaurateur Kittigron Lertpanaruk, also known as Khun Oh, is from the south, where curries dominate, and he feels it’s time to give that part of Thailand its due. His new restaurant, decorated with red hanging lamps, gilded Buddhist statues, temple bells and carved wood panels, features a long list of curries. They include cua kreang, a dry curry; gaeng kua, a black pepper curry; and tiplah, a salted fish paste curry. But Mr. Lertpanaruk, who founded the chain of Asian restaurants called Spice and who recently became a partner in Arun’s, a highly regarded Thai restaurant in Chicago, also knows what’s popular, so the menu has dishes like crispy spring rolls, tom yum soup, pad Thai, green papaya salad, satays and mango salmon.

See more openings here.

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Thomas Keller’s Hudson Yards Restaurant Is Now Taking Reservations

April 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment

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“Reservations are now live for Thomas Keller’s big Hudson Yards debut TAK Room — but alas, the first three weeks available have already booked up for tables for 2 or more at the mid-century American restaurant. A solo diner has several selections, though. The restaurant, which seats about 180, also accepts walk-ins. Eater has reached out to the team for info on how many spaces are reserved for that.

Perhaps most unexpected, TAK Room’s Resy page claims that people will spend just about $50 per person on a meal at the fifth- and sixth-floor restaurant at the Shops at Hudson Yards. That would be a downright steal for any fine dining restaurant, let alone a Keller one that’s being marketed as glamorous and elegant.

But word is that the TAK Room menu is similar in content and pricing to the one at the Surf Club, Keller’s spendy Miami restaurant that also serves continental cuisine. There, a Caesar salad costs $20 and a ribeye costs $75, according to an online menu. Still, it’s a far cry from the cost of dining at the chef’s other NYC restaurant Per Se, which currently charges $355-per-person for a tasting menu before wine. Eater has reached out to the Keller team for more info on pricing TAK as well.

Keller has insisted that he wants this restaurant to be “fun.” Champagne carts and live music are planned in the dining room, which has views of the $25 billion development, deep green chairs,velvet banquettes, white tablecloths, and a spiral staircase.”

View more here.

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Inside Williamsburg’s New All-Day Restaurant Gertie

March 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Gertie

“In its bright, 70-seat space, Gertie — which opened over the weekend at 357 Grand St., at Marcy Avenue — will eventually serve an all-day menu built around its rotisserie, dedicated to roasted meats and vegetables. The setting and service style are casual: Orders get placed at the counter, but there’s still an element of table service when it comes to refilling drinks and bussing. There’s also a full bar program to come, the restaurant billing itself as both a luncheonette and a liquor bar.

Adler went to business school and was on the finance track when he started dabbling in the restaurant world by starting his own business in college. It was a take-out and delivery-only service for University of Pennsylvania students that mimicked home-cooked meals. After school, he decided to go all-in on hospitality and got a job at Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke, working as a bus boy and then a floor manager. A couple years later, he partnered with fellow Danny Meyer vet Jonah Miller to open Huertas, East Village’s Basque tapas restaurant.”

See more here.

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