Food & Drink

Glenn Bunger, a 38-year-old teacher from Manhattan, was driving in rural Pennsylvania last month when he saw a roadside farm. Screech! Mr. Bunger had been seeking a plump pumpkin into which he could carve the Barack Obama sunrise logo, but as he perused the crates of fresh produce, something more impressive caught his eye: an enormous, perfect-looking butternut squash, placed on a table between pots of mums and some perennial herbs.

“I just knew I had to try it,” he said, still sounding a bit awed.

Back in the city that evening, Mr. Bunger, who is decidedly not a vegetarian (he’s from Texas), roasted the squash, which had cost $3.  read more »

The first year I came to New York from my native England, I had Thanksgiving dinner with an Italian-American family in Queens. I was used to frugal Britain, where my mother would wash out plastic bags and pin them up to dry, and a leg of lamb was eked out for three consecutive meals, ending up as shepherd’s pie. We ate turkey only at Christmas, a week-long marathon that lasted until the bird made its final appearance diced in a thick white sauce with carrots and onions.  So the amount of food that was consumed in just one afternoon in Queens came as a shock.  read more »

Mark Bittman, the New York Times food columnist and best-selling cookbook author, was ambling unnoticed through the tight aisles of the Fairway at 74th Street and Broadway on a mild Friday evening earlier this month, shopping for dinner. He nosed briefly around the fish counter before settling on a two-pound slab of monkfish. He had some Savoy cabbage at home, but he wasn’t sure what else. This seemed to fortify rather than trouble him. “If you can go get whatever you want,” he said, “there’s no challenge left at all.”

It was a quick cab ride 25 blocks north to his kitchen, which, as Times health blogger Tara Parker-Pope noted recently, is exceptionally small: 7 feet by 8 feet, Mr.  read more »

"A winery in New York City. I can already see the expression on their faces," says Shlomo Lipetz, programming assistant at City Winery, explaining the difficulty of convincing vineyards to take an urban vintner seriously.

It's launch night for Michael Dorf's ambitious new wine and music venue, and the space does seem a little incongruous. It runs nearly the full length of a Soho block. The south windows are filled with gleaming fermentation vats, flashing a degree of industry generally departed from Manhattan. The back views inside are of oak wine barrels, suggestive of a Burgundy or Napa backwater, not the outskirts of the Holland Tunnel.  read more »

Top 10 Date-Night Dinners for a Recession, #5

To enjoy Oktoberfest year-round, step into pint-sized Austrian tavern Café Katja, where patrons gorge themselves on homemade sausages and raise frosty mugs of beer seven nights a week. For those whose German skills are elementary at best, the menu offers a glossary (note that doppelgänger is not a dinner option, it’s just a joke). Start off with a warm, chewy, freshly baked pretzel, a convincing argument against the street cart variety, and some creamy paprika-laced liptauer cheese, a superior Austrian take on orange beer cheese, served here with toasted rye bread. Because everything is better with bacon, there’s bernerwurstel, a wrapped hot dog that’s also stuffed with emmenthaler cheese.  read more »

On Wednesday night, former Knitting Factory owner Michael Dorf unveiled his new 21,000-square-foot City Winery in the former El Diario space at 143 Varick Street.

The refurbished building, now housing some 250 barrels of wine, is owned by Trinity Church. And, as part of his lease agreement, Mr. Dorf said he is committed to providing the church with one big barrel of custom-made sacramental wine each spring.  read more »

TORONTO—On a cold, cloudy November afternoon, celebrated chef Susur Lee sat quietly in the back room at Madeline’s, one of two chic restaurants he owns and operates in the fashion district here, pondering over the final details of his boldest menu yet. “The Chinese always say, eating is heavenly,” he said. “That is the way of life for us. It doesn’t have to be glamorous food, but good food.”

For more than two decades, the tall, handsome, ponytailed cook from Hong Kong has been making dishes good enough to lure devout New York gourmands some 500 miles across the Canadian border to try his Chinese-based, French-infused cooking.  read more »

State regulators aren't letting up on posh Chelsea club Marquee owners Noah Tepperberg and Jason Strauss.

The New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) has denied the club's request for an all-night permit on New Year's Eve, according to the New York Post.

The agency is "cracking down on applicants" for the permit -- which allows bar operators to skip the usual 4 a.m. last call and keep selling booze an extra four hours on the Jan. 1 holiday -- "denying permits to nightspots that haven't reported their plans to the NYPD, as mandated, or that have serious charges on their records," the Post reports.  read more »

Top 10 Greenmarket Restaurants, #7

Market Table is a misnomer now that its sparsely stocked grocery is history. A lone deli case still retails Pat LaFrieda meats, but the front space’s general store motif has been axed in favor of a comfy banquette and bar to complement the back room’s smattering of black-lacquered chairs. Those who use their oven mainly for extra closet space can rejoice in the dual sit-down service where Chef Mikey Price does all the heavy lifting for you. Like whipping local clover honey into a butter and proffering it as a spread for a piping hot side of hush puppies.  read more »

Restaurateur Chris Cannon hosted an intimate wine dinner for Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave and a small group of food and beverage writers at Alto in midtown on Wednesday night.

During the eight-plate, 16-glass meal prepared by Michelin-starred chef Michael White and sommelier Eric Zillier, featuring Bering Sea king crab, sautéed veal sweetbreads, and hand-rolled maccheroni with braised duck, Mr. Cannon was raving about a delicious dinner of "horse cheeks" that he enjoyed during a recent trip to the Piedmont region of Italy.  read more »