Food

An anonymous restaurateur dishing to Vanity Fair on developer El-Ad's efforts to drum up interest in the Plaza Hotel's swank Oak Room and Oak Bar [via Eater]:

“They said, Well, if you don’t take it, Danny Meyer [owner of Manhattan’s Union Square Café and Gramercy Tavern] is going to take it. And then I’d call Danny Meyer and he’d be like, I don’t want that place. I told them I might look at it, but there’s no way I’ll take it.… And then they’d say, O.K., [renowned chef] Jean-Georges [Vongerichten] is going to take it. So I’d call Jean-Georges. It’s like they’re too stupid to realize that it’s a small community of restaurateurs. And I can just pick up the phone and ask them!”

"Your heart almost gets ripped out every time these things happen," said City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, calling just past deadline on Tuesday to comment on the hallowed P & G bar's looming departure from its longstanding location at the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 73rd Street.

"Many patrons of P & G call me all the time," Ms. Brewer said. "Even though it's not leaving the neighborhood, I hate to have it move -- and I don't know what happens with the sign."

The bar's beaming red, yellow and green "Cafe Bar" sign has illuminated the corner since 1942 and is widely considered a neighborhood landmark; its fate is now up in the air as the bar's owners plan to relocate to 380 Columbus Avenue after a fruitless two-year struggle to stay put.  read more »

On November 19 Columbia University and the Manhattan Borough President's Office held a conference on The Politics of Food. The half-day conference was devoted to one of New York City's biggest challenges: ensuring that the public has ready access to high-quality food. Speakers included Columbia President Lee Bollinger, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and H.E. Father Miquel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the United Nations General Assembly.

At the conference, Mayor Bloomberg linked the food issue to what he considers to be his administration's most important achievement - increased life expectancy for the people who live here. That figure is now greater than the average longevity of the U.  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 »

GQ-crowned "Modern Hotel Maestro" Klaus Ortlieb hosted roughly 60 guests at his Tribeca loft on Wednesday night in a preview of the yet-unfinished Cooper Square Hotel's culinary offerings.

Mr. Ortlieb, 50, a partner in the hotel's management company, MK Hotels, suggested the somewhat divisive 21-story, 145-room, Carlos Zapata-designed lodge may be just weeks away from opening.

Among other permitting issues, developer Matt Moss, who was also on hand for the festivities, said he was still trying to obtain a certificate of occupancy. (Mr. Moss' original partner in the project, Crescent Hotel developer Gregory Peck, did not attend.)

Los Angeles-based chef Govind Armstrong commandeered Mr. Ortlieb's kitchen and home office for the fete, serving up samples of porterhouse, squab and a creamy celery soup with strips of bacon.

The hotel's forthcoming Table 8 restaurant will be Mr. Armstrong's third location after L.A. and Miami.

"I refuse to sell the soul of Oz," a defiant Jennifer Oz LeRoy, the alluring 30-year-old owner of Tavern on the Green, said in an interview with Page Six Magazine.

As The Observer reported last year, Ms. LeRoy is facing a potential bidding war over the iconic Central Park eatery--the second-highest-grossing independently run restaurant in the country in 2007--which she inherited from her flamboyant father, the late Warner LeRoy.

Many of the city's most illustrious restaurateurs are said to be in the running for the lucrative concessions contract with the city's Parks Department, including Gramercy Tavern operator Danny Meyer and Boathouse owner Dean Poll.

Yet, the two possible contenders quoted by the magazine seemed hesistant at best about taking over the sprawling 23,000-square-foot culinary behemoth.  read more »

"I think we've broken the curse," said Dustin Cappelletto, co-owner of the forthcoming Travertine restaurant at 19 Kenmare Street, after a divided Community Board 2 narrowly voted 17 to 14 to support the eatery's liquor license during a contentious meeting on Thursday night.

"It's a dream come true," added his teary sister and partner, Danae Cappelletto, who hoped to open the two-level, 2,800-square-foot Mediterranean restaurant in January.

The Cappellettos are the fourth proposed operators to take a crack at the embattled former site of Little Charlie's Clam House.

Hollywood impresario Ivan Kane had initially intended to open an East Coast version of his Forty Deuce burlesque club in the space more than a year ago, before  read more »

What a great week to launch a new restaurant in the Financial District!

“We’re all nervous about what’s happening with the economy, but we’ve got to charge through it,” said chef Todd English, dressed like an urban Johnny Cash in all black, as he celebrated the opening of his latest eatery, Libertine, at the Gild Hall hotel on Gold Street on Wednesday night.

“There’s no right time or wrong time to open a place like this,” added hotelier Jason Pomeranc. “It is our duty as hoteliers and restaurateurs to provide the inns and watering holes where people can celebrate their victories and mourn their losses.  read more »

An ongoing dispute with an upstairs neighbor continues to create more legal headaches for David Kaplan, proprietor of the popular yet embattled East Village cocktail lounge Death & Co.

Mr. Kaplan, who is also suing the State Liquor Authority over its decision to not renew his liquor license, has now filed for a court injunction barring landlord P.V.P. Management from evicting his bar, located at 433 East Sixth Street, over alleged noise issues.

The tenant living directly above the bar, identified in court papers as Joseph Hurley, has claimed that "repeated and forcible closing of the [bar's] front door ... causes a severe and unreasonable amount of vibration" in his apartment.  read more »

Celebrity chef Mario Batali's critically acclaimed Del Posto restaurant earned a more dubious distinction on Sunday, when state Senator Jeff Klein set up outside to announce his second annual round-up of New York City's dirtiest restaurants.

Mr. Batali's three-star eatery on 10th Avenue flunked a city health inspection this past June, racking up a total of 44 violation points for pest problems and spoiled food -- "proving that even world class kitchens cannot afford to scrimp on pest control," according to Senator Klein's office.

If Mr. Batali is interested, this reporter happens to know some good exterminators.

However, Del Posto was far from the city's filthiest eatery.  read more »

After three years of court fights with booze- and noise-wary neighbors over its liquor license and live music program, embattled Lola restaurant at 5-15 Watts Street has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In addition to mounting unpaid legal bills -- nearly $100,000 and counting -- proprietors Gayle Patrick-Odeen and Tom Patrick-Odeen also owe landlord Vornado Realty more than $100,000 in back rent, "as a result of [their] inability to generate significant income from [the restaurant's] trademark live performances," according to court papers.

On Aug. 20, Vornado threatened to terminate the restaurant's 15-year lease if the money was not paid in full. The restaurant has filed for bankruptcy in order to "preserve its valuable leasehold interest," the court papers show.

The restaurant is now "holding 3 nightly performance sets in hopes of successfully rebounding from their financial setbacks."

Back in March, this reporter was dismayed to discover that charming restaurateur Toney Edwards had finally lost his long, drawn-out legal fight to protect his beloved French bistro Le Madeleine from the wrecking ball.

Landlord Mark Scharfman was reportedly planning to tear down the single-story structure on West 43rd Street and replace it with a multi-story residential building.

Now, adding insult to injury, I come to find out, via the blog Lost City, that Mr. Scharfman has installed a new tenant in Le Madeleine's place -- specifically, another French bistro called Le Petit Un Deux Trois. Incroyable!

"...it has to make you wonder by the landlord insisted on kicking Le Madeleine to the curb. Was it personal between the landlord and the restaurant owner, Tony Edwards, who always insisted Scharfman couldn't legally tear the building down. Did the economy foil Scharfman's plans? Or maybe Un Deux Trois just offered more money."

In the current issue of the Observer, Chris Shott takes a look at the people who pull together the concessions at the U.S. Open. In terms of hedonistic indulgences, ya ya yow.

“Last year, we did 230,000 hamburgers and hot dogs, 30,000 pizzas, 5,000 pounds of pasta, 13 tons of steaks, 77,000 pounds of chicken breasts, 4.5 tons of crab and lobster,” said Bill Wilson, director of operations for Chicago-based concessions behemoth Levy Restaurants that runs the Open's concessions.

All in all, 250 chefs and restaurant managers and 1,500 hourly workers manage to keep it together.

They've also started a new wine bar this year--which we'll investigate later this week--and they already have a big fan.  read more »

Scarpetta chef Scott Conant may be "too modest" to say it, but here's proof that Italian is the new French.

Literally, in this case: beloved former French bistro Cocotte in Park Slope is being converted into some type of red-sauce joint, described simply as an "Italian restaurant," according to some new signage posted on the premises.

Cocotte, one of this author's favorites in the neighborhood, was suddenly shuttered back in February, with chef and co-owner Bill Snell blaming stiff competition along Fifth Avenue, the Slope's premier restaurant row.

Celebrity hotelier Robert De Niro's notoriously secretive Greenwich Hotel has finally allowed another media outlet, besides Vanity Fair, to peak inside its exclusive chambers. Sort of.

Hotel Chatter - which had its own reservation revoked in April - directs us to this recent Newsweek review of Bobby D.'s lodge, which briefly discusses the rooms, the food, and the decor of this supposed "below-the-radar" hotel.

What, no mention of that posh illegal penthouse?

The New York Post's Steve Cuozzo today pleaded with state regulators not to revoke the liquor licenses of seven Cipriani restaurants and banquet halls around town:

It would...cost more than 1,000 jobs, leave our most iconic celebration spaces empty for the foreseeable future, and knock the fizz out of the city's culture of excess - the golden goose that keeps the talent-fleeing, jobs-hemorrhaging "Empire State" afloat.

Apparently, new State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) commissioner Jeanique Green is a big Post reader.

This morning, Ms. Green cast the deciding vote to accept a $500,000 penalty in lieu of yanking the licenses, thus allowing the Cipriani empire to stay in business.  read more »

The Daily News today examines the ongoing retail turnover on Amsterdam Avenue, where rents now hover around $250 per square foot.

"It's no longer full of beer halls and guys with backward baseball caps watching the game," said Rafe Evans, a broker at Walker Malloy.

Oddly, the article makes no mention of the neighborhood's most recognizable beer hall, the endangered P&G Bar, which is expected to take down its iconic (and landmark-designated) signage and move out when its lease expires on Dec. 31, after more than six decades at the corner of Amsterdam and West 73rd Street.

Its latest rumored replacement: Baby Gap.

Salumeria Rosi, an Italian-style specialty foods store, joins trendy chocolatier Jacques Torres as the P&G's new neighbors on the rapidly changing block.

"The stores now have style where, before, they were utilitarian," said Stu Morden, managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, which inked the Salumeria deal.

Banquet king Giuseppe Cipriani may have finally met his match in Daniel Boyle, chairman of the New York State Liquor Authority, writes Page Six Magazine scribe Joshua David Stein.

After losing his valuable lease in a legal fight at the Toy Center, the dapper restaurateur now faces life without bellinis, if archnemesis Mr. Boyle has his way and puts all seven Cipriani establishments effectively out of business by stripping their liquor licenses.

How ironic, writes Mr. Stein, if "a clan that has catered to the haute monde for almost 80 years could suddenly be brought down by a normal, middle-class guy in a regular, old courtroom next month.  read more »

After 10 years of getting bruised and battered by the biggest linemen and linebackers in college and professional football, former West Virginia University and Pittsburgh Steelers standout Amos Zereoue is now trying to finesse his way to success in the smash-mouth New York City restaurant scene.

Which is tougher?

"Life in the New York restaurant scene--hands down," said the 5-foot-8, 200 pound, 31-year-old redshirt restaurateur, looking rather Usher-esque in a white suit and shades, during a boozy relaunch party Wednesday for his 2,200-square-foot eponymously named eatery, Zereoue, at 13 East 37th Street.

Originally opened in 2006, in the former Frere Jacques space, Mr. Zereoue's West African and French fusion restaurant has twice closed down for some needed retooling; most recently, a complete overhaul.  read more »

Grub Street and Eater are reporting that soon-to-be displaced Central Park eatery San Domenico will be reopening in a much bigger, 350-seat space at 19 East 26th Street, right across from Madison Square Park -- Danny Meyer country.

"Right now Danny Meyer is king of the park. We plan to challenge him," as Mr. May told Eater.

The new restaurant will be called SD26.

Anti-bar-sprawl activists used to bemoan the State Liquor Authority's glaring lack of a single voice from New York City.

Now, the state agency is poised to include a bonafide majority of city slickers.

Governor David Paterson today nominated a former legislative aide, Jeanique Green, presently a senior court analyst in the New York City branch of the state Office of Court Administration, to cast the crucial third vote on all licensing matters.  read more »

Joe O's, the casual sports bar and restaurant in the Hotel Pennsylvania and home to the $13 Vornado pizza -- presumably, an ass-kissing tribute to hotel landlord Steve Roth's ginormous real estate company -- has been shuttered.

Its windows along West 33rd Street have been blacked out, with only a sign hanging from the outside scaffolding to remind passersby of its former presence.  read more »

A fierce standoff between two New York titans, both ranked on The Observer's recent 100 Most Powerful People In Real Estate, wrapped up an indecisive first-round yesterday.

Dapper restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani (ranked No. 97) had offered up $500,000 to settle his dispute with the State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.).  read more »

"This is an awesome space, an awesome location," chef Scott Conant said, during a packed-house grand opening party at his new digs in the meatpacking district--er, at least, sort of in the meatpacking district.

"It's not really in the meatpacking, it's on, you know what I'm saying?"

The former L'Impero and Alto cook's latest restaurant Scarpetta opened Monday evening in the former Gin Lane and old Village Idiot space at 355 West 14th Street, just east of Ninth Avenue.

"A lot of the core clientele, a lot of Upper East Siders and a lot of people from Uptown, they're not going to be kind of spooked by going too much into the meatpacking. Too far inside of it, it might scare 'em off. But because it's on it, they feel comfortable coming down.

"I looked everywhere," Mr. Conant said. "But I really wanted it to be a West Village restaurant. It's probably one of the last neighborhoods that is pure New York."  read more »

A panel of appellate judges has rejected the New York Restaurant Association's latest motion to delay enforcement of the city's new calorie posting rule.

“With today's decision, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, and the other big chains that haven't yet listed calories as required by the Health Code have run out of stalling tactics," Health Commissioner Thomas Freiden said in a statement.  read more »

A new city rule requiring chain restaurants to post the calorie content of their menu items actually takes effect on Friday, April 25--not today, as other news outlets are reporting.  read more »

Hotelier Hank Freid can't live on Starbucks alone.

So he's installing a new Thai restaurant at his refurbished Marrakech Hotel at Broadway and 103rd Street.

Mr. Freid has enlisted the proprietors of pad-thai palaces Klong in East Village and Room Service in Chelsea to open a new 1,200-square-foot eatery called Sookk.

Meaning "happiness" in Thai, Sookk will specialize in cuisine inspired by the Yaowarat District, which is Bangkok's version of Chinatown, according to a press release.

“Sookk is in keeping with the unique and eclectic quality that the hotel is known for,” Mr. Freid said in a statement.

Embattled Soho restaurant Lola will just have to make do without live music, the State Liquor Authority informed the eatery's owners on Thursday.

Proprietors Tom and Gayle Patrick-Odeen have said that their business—which has been the subject of a nasty, three-and-a-half-year legal dispute with neighbors, who have protested the place's right to sell booze—is "struggling" without live performances.

The couple recently told The Villager that they were "hanging on by a thread."

Live music had been a staple of the drinking and dining experience at the couple's prior location on West 22nd Street. But upon moving to the corner of Watts and Thompson streets, the duo initially applied to play background music only.

The owners insist that this was a clerical error and that the application was later "orally amended" by the SLA.  read more »

Meatpacking district stalwart Novac Noury has graciously asked neighborhood restaurateur Florent Morellet to move into his underutilized building on Little West 12th Street once Mr. Morellet's iconic Florent diner closes for good because of a huge rent hike this summer.

"I gave him a call yesterday and we may be in talks to continue his stay in my building," Mr. Noury told The Villager this week.

But Mr. Morellet apparently isn't interested, according to the article.

Instead, the flamboyant restaurateur is planning to go out "with a bang," kicking off the “Final Five Weeks of Florent" over Memorial Day weekend, with each following week given a theme to represent a stage in the "grieving process he’s undergone over losing his restaurant....Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and, finally, Acceptance."

The New York Post is reporting [via Eater] that venerable Central Park eatery San Domenico is shutting its doors this summer.

Owner Tony May told the Post's Steve Cuozzo that the nearly 20-year-old Italian institution couldn't reach a new deal with its landlord, who wanted $1 million in annual rent. (The eatery currently pays around $200,000.)

May said the landlord’s latest offer would cost him $600,000 - "but if we stay here at the rent they want, we’re not going to generate a sufficient amount of income."

May said he hopes to move San Domenico to a new Midtown address he won’t disclose. He said that to survive in today’s environment of high rents and tougher city regulations, he needs a location that will generate more volume - at least $8 million a year, compared to $4 million on Central Park South.

"The irony - business is very strong. Strongest ever!" said Toney Edwards.

When The Observer passed by Mr. Edwards's embattled Le Madeleine bistro on West 43rd Street last week, the joint was packed.

This week? Tumbleweeds. Another French bistro bites the dust. This reporter feels bad for both Mr. Edwards and his beloved ficus tree.

Evicted after a three-year court battle with landlord Mark Scharfman, Mr. Edwards has vowed to carry on: "We have located a possible place to move everyone and open up again within a very short time."

Eater is reporting today that iconic Florent diner is now officially on the market.

Winick Realty is shopping the space for $700,000 per year.

That's roughly $58,333 per month -- a substantial increase from the restaurant's current $6,018 monthly rate and quite higher than even the $43,000 estimate that one broker gave The Observer last week.

Read our previous coverage here.

UPDATE: Eater is now reporting that Lansco is marketing the Florent space -- not Winick. Oh, and the asking rent is more like $50,000 per month.  read more »

Restaurateur Florent Morellet called today to clarify something from last week's Observer article on the fate of his iconic Florent diner on Gansevoort Street.

That $150,000 he's seeking from landlord Joanne Lucas in court? "What we're claiming is not really damage," he said. "It's being overcharged."  read more »

Hallowed cupcake mecca Magnolia Bakery has spawned a second location -- three times bigger -- on the Upper West Side.

For this week's Observer, out tomorrow, I sat down with Magnolia owner Steve Abrams and brother Danny Abrams, owner of the Mermaid Inn, who similarly opened a second location in the same neighborhood.  read more »

The proprietors of Midtown Italian eatery Bice have inked a deal to open a new 5,274-square-foot restaurant called Montenapo in The New York Times Building.

According to Thursday's announcement from Forest City Ratner Companies:

The new restaurant, located in space just next to the building's 41st Street entrance, will feature a casually elegant atmosphere and serve Northern Italian cuisine for lunch and dinner.

If it's anything like its East 50th Street big sister Bice, then expect a rather "good-looking," "Euro"-centric and "loud" crowd, according to the latest Zagat Guide.

With the new signing, the Times Building now has only one retail space left. Other tenants are Dean & Deluca, Japanese furnishings store Muji, and the boisterous robatayaki eatery Inakaya.  read more »

Tribeca seafood restaurant Fresh "doesn't get enough attention," according to the latest Zagat Survey.

Its owner, Eric Tevrow, though, has attracted plenty -- albeit not the favorable kind.

Mr. Tevrow, who also owned the now-shuttered downtown eateries Coast and Shore, pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing sales taxes collected from all three restaurants.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney's office this afternoon:  read more »