The New York Wine Expo taking place on February 26 and 27 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will feature seminars and Grand Tastings with over 600 wines to sample. Buy tickets online; one-day tickets are $85 (Friday) and $95 (Saturday), but save $10 by buying before February 19, and Serious Eaters can save additional $10 by entering promotion code SEATS.
Slice just ran into Nate Appleman, who, as you may know, is set to open Pulino's Bar & Grill with restaurateur Keith McNally. Appleman tells us two things:
1) That he's about three weeks out from opening Pulino's, and, perhaps more important,
2) That he's not doing Neapolitan-style pizza there.
Editor's note: In "Apps Only," Ben Fishner will be eating his way through New York's appetizer, bar, and lounge menus as your guide to fine dining on a budget.
Housemade ricotta on fruit bread. [Photos: Ben Fishner]
Five Leaves in Greenpoint specializes in Australian comfort food—a cuisine which, to my mind, conjures up images of Vegemite sandwiches and kangaroo jerky. But I'm no expert in Australian cuisine, so I thought it best to check out Five Leaves for myself before passing judgement.
This being Greenpoint, there is a pronounced hipster vibe to the restaurant, which had Heath Ledger as an initial backer. That said, there's very little ego; it's a dependable neighborhood joint serving simply prepared dishes. The menu is well suited to the Apps Only approach—there are a number of salads, sides, and small plates that are easily shared.
Photos: Ava McAlpin and Robyn Lee
For those who understand the language and the ingredients, Chinese groceries, in Chinatown and elsewhere in New York City, offer incredible variety and value. For those without this familiarity, however, such stores can be profoundly disorienting—unrecognizable, shriveled dried goods; produce that looks like it comes from another planet. And if you're lost, that feeling may not be helped by signs written only in Chinese and workers who speak no English. Compounding the matter? Stores are constantly changing and the signs out front do not always correctly advertise what can be found within the shop.
However, after a tour with Chinese food expert and restaurant consultant Ed Schoenfeld and doing a fair bit of research, the markets seemed much more navigable. Here I highlight the stores that I found most manageable, along with those that experts recommend—helping Chinatown novices get the bearings.
[Photos: Ben Fishner]
On Saturday, at a church on Russell Street in Greenpoint, over 300 people gathered to hang out, drink some beer, and eat a locally sourced meal of homemade tamales while raising money for emerging art and community projects. This was FEAST, a non-profit event that sits at the intersection of foodie culture and arts fundraising, using an interest in food to raise money for a good cause.
FEAST (Funding Emerging Art with Sustainable Tactics) works like this: attendees pay a sliding scale donation to gain admission to dinner, which includes homemade food and beer donated from Brooklyn Brewery. While eating, drinking, and schmoozing, the attendees check out artists' proposals, eventually voting on the project they think should win funding. Proposals range from funding local rooftop farms, to creating "site specific wearable sculptures," to the manufacture of beauty products benefitting the Yucatan peninsula. The door money is awarded to the winning artist in the form of a grant, and the resulting work is presented at the following FEAST. The grant winner at last month's feast was an organization called Green My Bodega, a project that is "inventing the Bodega Supported Agriculture (B.S.A.) Model" by finding ways to get locally sourced produce into the bodegas that already serve huge parts of the communities of New York City.
Serious Eats–Slice overlord Ed Levine here has been on my case about getting to the new Frank Pepe's in Yonkers for a while now. He wanted to see how it stacked up to the original in New Haven, Connecticut.
See, the Frank Pepe family has been on a small tear in the last few years, opening branches of the famed New Haven pizzeria throughout Connecticut—first in Fairfield, then Manchester, then at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville.
Then they opened one in Yonkers, New York. This was sort of a big deal in pizza circles, since there's a fair amount of rivalry between New Haven– and New York–style partisans.
When the New York Times beat us to the punch on blabbing about Yonkers Pepe's, I knew I'd hear it from Ed.
But here's the thing: Nobody has approached this from the correct angle—namely comparing the two head-to-head to see how well Yonkers Pepe's does against the New Haven original. That's where Slice comes in. We're adding some context to this saga. Peep the photo gallery for the comparisons.
Josh and Dorie. [Photos: Robyn Lee]
I stopped into Dorie Greenspan's Cookie Bar pop-up shop at the Mizu Salon on Park Avenue this morning, and all I can say is—man, it's been a while since we've had cookies this good! Dorie's son and business partner, Josh, was there as well, and they make quite a swell team. Cookies are sold individually with prices ranging from $1.75 to $2.50, and the quality is top-notch, as one would expect from Dorie. She made sure to give props to the roster of chefs who helped her make the cookies: Johnny Iuzzini, Bradford Thompson, and Megan Fitzroy, along with volunteers from The French Culinary Institute. We ate our way though the entire selection of cookies, and I haven't a bad word to say about any of them.
The lineup, after the jump.
[Photo: Kathy Chan]
Say hello to the new Mini Cakes ($2.25 each) from DT Works. Pick from among four flavors—or pick them all, as they're really quite small. These cakes meet at the intersection of cupcake, layer cake, and whoopie pie in a swift bite.
Today's special burger at RUB BBQ is the Chili Burger ($7.50), topped with chili and cheese. It will be available for dinner starting at 6 p.m. 208 West 23rd Street, New York NY 10011 (map); 212-524-4300
Tom Colicchio is back in the kitchen—at least, for now—and Ed Levine couldn't be happier.
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