Manhattan: Garment District
Posted by Carey Jones, November 16, 2009 at 12:15 PM
"The people have spoken. And City Bakery is no longer their cookie of choice."
[Photos: Robyn Lee and Sophie Finkelstein]
Last week in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Championship, we went uptown to find the best chocolate chip cookies on the Upper East and Upper West Sides. Having found our favorites, we're now moving to Midtown—between Union Square and 60th Street.*
In this round, there were formidable contenders and surprising upsets: disappointing frontrunners, dark horses, and a chain thrown into the mix.
Our eight contestants: City Bakery, Pret a Manger, Max Brenner, Petrossian, Ruby et Violette, Frankie's (at Stumptown), and Times Square Hot Bagels.
The best chocolate chip cookie in Midtown, after the jump.
*Okay, this isn't all Midtown. But do we really need separate Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Gramercy, Flatiron, and Chelsea cookie tastings? We're sticking with "Midtown-ish."
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, October 27, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Top: Bill's Bar and Burger; bottom, left to right: Shake Shack and RUB. [Photographs: Robyn Lee (Bill's Bar and Burger and Shake Shack) and Nick Solares (RUB)]
Right now, at this moment, it's raining burgers in this burg. And not just any kind of burgers: smashed burgers made from freshly ground, humanely raised beef.
Danny Meyer and company were the pioneers of this style of burger in New York with the now legendary Shake Shack, though the Shackers don't really smash their meat so much as press it down rather gently. In fact, it should be noted that burger lovers owe Meyer a smashing debt of gratitude for the lead role he and his crew have taken in treating the reasonably priced burger with respect and love—and elevating it to serious deliciousness with careful preparation, cheffy techniques, and quality ingredients. But enough about the Shack for now.
Restaurateur Steve Hanson has now stepped up to the (blue) plate with his newly opened smashed burger emporium Bill's Bar and Burger. And RUB's pitmaster Scott Smith and co-owner Andrew Fischel have snuck up on Meyer and Hanson with their burger, which is currently being served only on Monday nights.
A Hamburger Today and Serious Eats have been chronicling Shake Shack's serious deliciousness for years now. More recently in the past few weeks, my man Adam Kuban waxed enthusiastically about Bill's, Kenji Alt told us how to fake the funk of the Shake Shack burger with his amazing Fake Shack post and recipe, and I had a ridiculously fabulous urban burger at RUB.
So what's left, my burger-loving compadres? Why, it's obvious to me: It's the Serious Eats New York–AHT smashed-burger roundup, the ultimate throwdown. Is there one smashed burger in New York City that reigns supreme? Which of these juicy suckers should you pledge your burger-loving allegiance to? Which burger is worth your hard-earned money, your valuable time, and your true burger devotion?
We've got you covered, starting now.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Solares, September 24, 2009 at 1:15 PM
As Serious Eaters become increasingly concerned about the provenance and seasonality of the ingredients that we consume, for ecological and gastronomic reasons—and simultaneously become more interested in eating (figuratively and literally) the "whole hog"—I can think of no better place to indulge both impulses than the Large Format Feast at Resto.
The restaurant's website says it succinctly: Pick a whole animal. Come to Resto. Feast. Feast is what you will do, as Chef Bobby Hellen will break down a whole animal (or two or more) sourced from a local farm and compose an elaborate nose-to-tail extravaganza using vegetables from the Union Square Greenmarket. I recently spent some time in the Resto kitchen with my trusty Nikon during just such a feast, and here is what Hellen came up with.
Pigs' heads, meat lockers, and a veritable sausagefest, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Allison Hemler, September 15, 2009 at 12:00 PM
[Photographs: Allison Hemler, unless otherwise noted]
New York Times readers in 1872 demanded it, just like the coffee-obsessed in 2009 on the streets of New York: "Let us have this one needed reform everywhere...hotel and restaurant keepers, please do give us good coffee." If 19th-century folk were particular about their coffee, why are we not smashing every drip coffee machine to bits in our local bodega or setting fire to bags of Maxwell House? Why are we accepting bitter, over-roasted coffee as a ritualistic drug we pretend to enjoy by adding globs of cream and sugar?
There are certain coffee shops that proclaim the Holy Gospel of coffee—where technique and skill meet fresh grinds and properly maintained equipment, where milky hearts in dark brown liquid meet a smiling cashier and a dollar in the tip jar. The newest spot to add to the roster: Stumptown Coffee's first official outpost on the East Coast, within the confines of the Ace Hotel at 29th and Broadway in Manhattan. This isn't a third Cafe Pedlar operation—even though the staff proudly serves the Frankies' baked goods—but an actual Stumptown Coffee Roasters location, boasting beans roasted six miles away in the newly opened Stumptown roasting facility in Red Hook.
Continue reading »
Posted by Carey Jones, November 16, 2009 at 12:15 PM
"The people have spoken. And City Bakery is no longer their cookie of choice."
[Photos: Robyn Lee and Sophie Finkelstein]
Last week in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Championship, we went uptown to find the best chocolate chip cookies on the Upper East and Upper West Sides. Having found our favorites, we're now moving to Midtown—between Union Square and 60th Street.*
In this round, there were formidable contenders and surprising upsets: disappointing frontrunners, dark horses, and a chain thrown into the mix.
Our eight contestants: City Bakery, Pret a Manger, Max Brenner, Petrossian, Ruby et Violette, Frankie's (at Stumptown), and Times Square Hot Bagels.
The best chocolate chip cookie in Midtown, after the jump.
*Okay, this isn't all Midtown. But do we really need separate Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Gramercy, Flatiron, and Chelsea cookie tastings? We're sticking with "Midtown-ish."
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, October 27, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Top: Bill's Bar and Burger; bottom, left to right: Shake Shack and RUB. [Photographs: Robyn Lee (Bill's Bar and Burger and Shake Shack) and Nick Solares (RUB)]
Right now, at this moment, it's raining burgers in this burg. And not just any kind of burgers: smashed burgers made from freshly ground, humanely raised beef.
Danny Meyer and company were the pioneers of this style of burger in New York with the now legendary Shake Shack, though the Shackers don't really smash their meat so much as press it down rather gently. In fact, it should be noted that burger lovers owe Meyer a smashing debt of gratitude for the lead role he and his crew have taken in treating the reasonably priced burger with respect and love—and elevating it to serious deliciousness with careful preparation, cheffy techniques, and quality ingredients. But enough about the Shack for now.
Restaurateur Steve Hanson has now stepped up to the (blue) plate with his newly opened smashed burger emporium Bill's Bar and Burger. And RUB's pitmaster Scott Smith and co-owner Andrew Fischel have snuck up on Meyer and Hanson with their burger, which is currently being served only on Monday nights.
A Hamburger Today and Serious Eats have been chronicling Shake Shack's serious deliciousness for years now. More recently in the past few weeks, my man Adam Kuban waxed enthusiastically about Bill's, Kenji Alt told us how to fake the funk of the Shake Shack burger with his amazing Fake Shack post and recipe, and I had a ridiculously fabulous urban burger at RUB.
So what's left, my burger-loving compadres? Why, it's obvious to me: It's the Serious Eats New York–AHT smashed-burger roundup, the ultimate throwdown. Is there one smashed burger in New York City that reigns supreme? Which of these juicy suckers should you pledge your burger-loving allegiance to? Which burger is worth your hard-earned money, your valuable time, and your true burger devotion?
We've got you covered, starting now.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Solares, September 24, 2009 at 1:15 PM
As Serious Eaters become increasingly concerned about the provenance and seasonality of the ingredients that we consume, for ecological and gastronomic reasons—and simultaneously become more interested in eating (figuratively and literally) the "whole hog"—I can think of no better place to indulge both impulses than the Large Format Feast at Resto.
The restaurant's website says it succinctly: Pick a whole animal. Come to Resto. Feast. Feast is what you will do, as Chef Bobby Hellen will break down a whole animal (or two or more) sourced from a local farm and compose an elaborate nose-to-tail extravaganza using vegetables from the Union Square Greenmarket. I recently spent some time in the Resto kitchen with my trusty Nikon during just such a feast, and here is what Hellen came up with.
Pigs' heads, meat lockers, and a veritable sausagefest, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Allison Hemler, September 15, 2009 at 12:00 PM
[Photographs: Allison Hemler, unless otherwise noted]
New York Times readers in 1872 demanded it, just like the coffee-obsessed in 2009 on the streets of New York: "Let us have this one needed reform everywhere...hotel and restaurant keepers, please do give us good coffee." If 19th-century folk were particular about their coffee, why are we not smashing every drip coffee machine to bits in our local bodega or setting fire to bags of Maxwell House? Why are we accepting bitter, over-roasted coffee as a ritualistic drug we pretend to enjoy by adding globs of cream and sugar?
There are certain coffee shops that proclaim the Holy Gospel of coffee—where technique and skill meet fresh grinds and properly maintained equipment, where milky hearts in dark brown liquid meet a smiling cashier and a dollar in the tip jar. The newest spot to add to the roster: Stumptown Coffee's first official outpost on the East Coast, within the confines of the Ace Hotel at 29th and Broadway in Manhattan. This isn't a third Cafe Pedlar operation—even though the staff proudly serves the Frankies' baked goods—but an actual Stumptown Coffee Roasters location, boasting beans roasted six miles away in the newly opened Stumptown roasting facility in Red Hook.
Continue reading »
