Wine Glass Shape Affects Tasting Experience

October 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“I take a sip of wine, and it floods across my mouth–a perfectly balanced cabernet that tastes of yeast, fruit, and stone. Then I take a sip from another glass. This wine strikes the tip of my tongue like a dart. It’s pure booze, and, seconds later, I’m left with a dank, bitter aftertaste. This wine has clearly gone bad; I should really pour the bottle out.
In fact, both glasses contain the same 2014 BV cabernet. And both are what most of us would describe as a “red wine glass.” But the first glass was designed to mellow out the big fruit and alcohol of cabernets. The second glass was built to concentrate the fruit and subdue the acidity of a different kind of wine: pinot noir. I just learned the dangers of drinking a great wine out of a glass designed for another varietal.”

“They’re beautiful glasses, for sure, but I wanted to put wine snobbery to the test. And as we sipped wine after wine over the course of an hour, Riedel proved to this cynic how the mere shape of a glass can dramatically change your experience of wine.”

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Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Opportunities Tagged With: , , , , ,

Learn How to Get a Liquor License for Your Restaurant or Bar

October 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment

bartender tricks for mixing cocktails

“Opening a bar is about a little more than choosing the perfect beer and liquor list. In fact, there are a number of restaurant licenses and permits that you need to get out of the way before you can open your doors for business. In getting caught up in dreaming about all the delicious drinks that a new restaurant owner plans to offer, many forget about the extent of the legalities they have to navigate first, legalities that can throw a serious wrench in your grand opening plans if they aren’t executed correctly.

Although alcohol laws will vary from state to state, attempting to open a bar without a liquor license is going to lead down a road of penalties, fines, and shut doors—all of which every restaurateur wants to avoid at all costs (…).”

    1. “How much does it cost to get a liquor license? The cost of obtaining a liquor license can vary greatly depending on the state. Full liquor licenses can range from $12,000 to $400,000. Beer and wine liquor licenses can cost as low as $3,000. The actual cost you can expect to pay really depends. The best way to estimate it is by chatting with bars and restaurants in your local area that are similar in size and scope to yours.
    2. How old do you have to be to get a liquor license? Like all things related to alcohol in the United States, a person must be 21 years of age to work in a bar or obtain a liquor license (…).”

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Filed Under: Openings, Operations, Opportunities Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Restaurants at New York’s Hudson Yards Have a Big Plan to Feed Office Workers

October 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Image result for hudson yards

“More details are emerging about the dining roster at the $25 billion Hudson Yards project, and as a food editor who also happens to be a native New Yorker, I can say that it’s time to get very excited. By mid-March the megaproject’s 25 restaurants and food concepts, from José Andrés’s Mercado Little Spain food hall to the fish temple Estiatorio Milos, should be open.

Hudson Yards anticipates more than 40,000 employees arriving to work daily—a new epicenter of Manhattan supporting companies from Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management to Tapestry, VaynerMedia, and Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs.

The question of feeding all those workers, as well as the thousands of residents and tourists who will be flowing through the 1-million-square-foot space, has obsessed Kevin Stuessi, vice president at Related Companies LP, the real estate company developing the project. He’s determined that most of the restaurants will have continuous service, starting at about 11:30 a.m., with late-night menus planned.

Following an exclusive hard hat tour in early September, Stuessi and Related Urban CEO Kenneth Himmel shared some of the most exciting details of the project’s signature concepts.”

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Filed Under: Events, Heard on The Street, Local Market Buzz, Openings Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Zauo, Diners Can Catch Their Own Dinners

October 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“It’s catch-and-relish, not catch-and-release, at this new Japanese import. Customers can opt for baited hooks to snag rainbow trout, salmon trout, fluke, shrimp, flounder, farmed striped bass, rockfish, lobster or abalone swimming in the pools. Or a staff member can lend a hand. (Prices are $16 to $125 if they do the fishing, and $12 to $110 if you fish.) The chefs then prepare the seafood to order, salt-grilled, simmered in soy sauce, sashimi or tempura. Whimsically instructive menu cards provide guidance. The restaurant, which has 13 locations in Japan, was introduced there in 1993 by a company called Harbor House: The New York restaurant is its first branch outside that country. Takuya Takahashi, whose father was the founder, is president of the New York branch. A narrow but soaring space, the restaurant has a fish tank opposite the bar on the ground floor, and two more tanks on a loftlike second floor. The hull of an immense, hand-built polished wooden boat hangs from the ceiling. In addition to the freshly caught seafood, the menu offers a vast array of Japanese standbys, mostly seafood, including salads, sushi, hand rolls and rice and noodle dishes”.

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Filed Under: Cooking, Events, Local Market Buzz, Openings, Trending Now Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Restaurants Are the Next Big Coworking Trend

October 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Spacious members working at Crave Fishbar in New York City’s Upper West Side.

“If you walk past Crave Fishbar on a weekday afternoon, you might make the mistake of thinking it’s open for lunch. The restaurant, located on New York City’s Upper West Side, certainly looks busy enough. On a recent Thursday visit, I counted a few dozen people sitting in the restaurant’s booths or at the bar. Most of them were hunched over their laptops. A few were quietly taking phone calls. Curiously, no one was talking, no one was eating, and no one was there for lunch.

Crave has gotten into the coworking business. In April, the restaurant partnered with a startup called Spacious to transform its dining room into a weekday workspace. After all, in an age where everyone seems to have a side hustle, why shouldn’t a restaurant? Founded in 2016, Spacious bills itself as a cheaper, more flexible alternative to traditional coworking spaces like WeWork.”

“Brian Owens, the restaurant’s owner, said the Spacious partnership has been a welcome source of revenue in an industry where profit margins are tight. Crave has another location, in Midtown East, which is open for lunch because it’s near offices and other businesses. But the Upper West Side, Owens said, is a dead zone on weekday afternoons.”

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Filed Under: Enterprise Insight, Local Market Buzz, Operations Tagged With: , , , , ,

Great News for Restaurants as IRS Reaffirms Deductions for Entertaining

October 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“The Internal Revenue Service is giving businesses a tax break they thought they had lost in the tax overhaul last year — write-offs for wining and dining clients.

The agency said Wednesday companies can still deduct 50 percent of meals while entertaining clients and customers, clearing up confusion about whether tax law changes last year had completely eliminated that benefit.”

“Kathy Petronchak, the director of IRS practice and procedure at Alliant Group and the chair of the meals and entertainment task force at the CPA group, said that the guidance and examples “align with what we had hoped to see with the clear distinction between entertainment and allowable business expenses for meals.”

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Filed Under: Operations Tagged With: , , , ,

The Red Cat, a Pioneering Chelsea Restaurant, Will Close

October 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“The Red Cat, an unpretentious neighborhood restaurant in Chelsea that became a destination, will close at the end of December after nearly 20 years in business. The reason is none of the usual suspects: a big rent hike, slumping traffic or the need for a costly renovation, said the chef, Jimmy Bradley. He has simply decided to quit.”

“(…) “My goal was to have my own business by the time I was 30,” Mr. Bradley said. He was 31 when he became the chef and an owner of the Red Cat, on 10th Avenue.
Chelsea was a much different place back then, with no High Line, art-gallery scene or sleek high-rise condominiums. London Terrace had elegant apartments; nearby there were, and still are, public housing projects. Gentrification has not had a huge impact on the Red Cat’s business Mr. Bradley said. The condos often have absentee owners who don’t come in for a bowl of lentil soup or a plate of local skate, and tourists plying the High Line are not particularly tuned in to the restaurant’s presence.

“It’s difficult for small businesses in New York now,” Mr. Bradley said. “My staff can’t afford to live nearby like me. They get home at 2 a.m. and have to be back at work at 9.”

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Filed Under: Closings, Cooking, Enterprise Insight, Meet The Owner(s) Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Seafood Chain Opening First NYC Restaurant in Kips Bay

October 2, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Image result for seafood

Food truck-turned-restaurant chain Cousins Maine Lobster is opening its first brick-and-mortar location in New York City after inking a lease at 77 Lexington Avenue in Kips Bay, Commercial Observer has learned.

The seafood franchise signed a 12-year deal for 2,700 square feet at the base of the four-story, mixed-use residential building at the southeast corner of East 26th Street, according to a release from Newmark Knight Frank, which represented Cousins Maine Lobster franchisee Yunus Shahul in the transaction.

The restaurant, slated to open before the end of this year, will occupy 1,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and an additional 1,200 square feet of lower-level basement space, NKF said. The location was previously occupied by gluten-free Italian restaurant Tali.

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Filed Under: Cooking, Events, Openings, Trending Now Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Restaurants Struggle to Eliminate Tips

October 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“It’s been three years since Danny Meyer became the unofficial leader of a movement to abolish tipping at restaurants, in an effort to level the playing field for front-of-house and back-of-house employees, among other things. In the process of converting his own restaurants to his so-called Hospitality Included model, he convinced a number of major restaurateurs to adopt similar pay structures. The upside, of course, is that these tip-free models theoretically decrease pay discrepancies between people who work in the dining room and the kitchen, and don’t rely on diners to essentially supplement workers’ incomes.

But after giving it the ol’ college try, two major restaurants have returned to the old way of doing things. The Wall Street Journal reports that Agern, the Nordic restaurant from Claus Meyer, and Michelin-starred Cafe China in midtown have both returned to the traditional tipping model and have seen great results.”

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Filed Under: Enterprise Insight, Operations Tagged With: , , ,

How Hudson Yards Chose Its 25 Restaurants

September 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“On March 14, 2019, Hudson Yards will fully open its eastern portion. Twenty-five restaurants will fire up the stoves. More than 100 stores will fling open their doors. Marquee companies like BlackRock, Wells Fargo, and HBO will occupy office space. An entirely new neighborhood will spring into existence in what seems like an instant.

In reality, though, it’s taken mega-developer Related Companies over a decade to get to this moment. In that time, Hudson Yards — the stagnant rail yard area between 30th and 34th streets and 10th and 12th avenues — has turned into a modern adult playground of luxury retailers and restaurants, park space, and public events that have come to fruition through the vision of Related Urban CEO Kenneth Himmel.”

“Everything is designed to pull people in and up: the escalators, the open floor plan, Neiman Marcus starting on level five, the Keller and Estiatorio Milos flagships on five and six. Restaurants on higher floors are common in other countries, especially in Asia, but the format has not quite caught on in the United States — yet, if Himmel has his way.”

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Filed Under: Events, Local Market Buzz, Openings, Shopbuzz Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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