Savory Tidbits: Restaurant News and Views for NYC, San Francisco, Chicago and LA

Savory New York One Sheet: June 28th - July 3rd

// Recently Opened //

• The General Greene - Nicholas Morgenstern, formerly of Gramercy Tavern and Gilt, has opened this new restaurant in Fort Greene, serving seasonal American cuisine.

// This Week's Restaurant Reviews //

• NY Times:  In what reads like a 1 star review, Bruni gives 2 stars to Murray Hill's Bar Milano. "Italian cooking is about a lot more than pasta, but an Italian restaurant that bungles its pasta dishes is like a Las Vegas resort that doesn’t let you gamble. There’s still plenty to enjoy, but you’re likely to feel that the essential point and signature pleasure of the place have been lost."
• Dining Briefs takes a look at Brooklyn's Clover Club and Pomme de Terre
• The New York Sun's Paul Adams reviews Nolita's Elizabeth and cites their burger as the best dish on the menu, "a $14 cheeseburger capped with a giant Saturn's ring of cheese that's given a crisp edge on the grill before being melted onto the meat. It's a messy affair, spilling wantonly from its bun upon first bite, in a shower of shredded lettuce and juicy beef."
• The New York Daily News: RG rounds up of her picks for the best new restaurants on Long Island's East End. If you're heading out there this weekend, check with the RG first.
• Village Voice's Robert Sietsema visits Cedar Meat House in Astoria Queens for an outer borough meat-on-stick adventure.
• Time Out New York slams Tribeca's Ago for mediocre food and loud atmosphere, "(t)he restaurant is a dream, however, for low-sodium (read: no-flavor) dieters."

// In Other News //

Mark Bittman presents us with 101 20-minute recipes suggested for a pick nick. There are some good easy ideas in here and recipes are packed with Bittman's flavor for humor. No need to constrict these recipes to picnic fare. If you have guests popping in and out this Independence Day weekend, this list provides lots of inspiration.

• Los Angles Times reports on a new theme restaurant which recently opened in a Beirut suburb called, "Buns and Guns" (video included). The theme here is war and you can step up to the counter to order an "M16 Carbine sandwich" or a "Terrorist Meal." If you order the later, just be warned before opening the box; the slogan for the restaurant is "Sandwiches Can Kill You."

// Upcoming Events //

• Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular 2008 will start Friday evening at 9pm. Suggested viewing spots are located on the NYC.Gov site but if you're up for packing a (Bittman style) picnic and camping out for your spot, the Brooklyn Promenade is always a good choice. But if you get there late, the crowds will be packed from the promenade to the street.
• From July 10th - 31st, Savoy will be cooking up their third annual summer Clambake. Price is $50/person and buys you little neck clams on the half-shell, lobster stew and blueberry crumble to end.
• Madison Square Park Conservancy is holding an open air event July 15th, "Celebrate Flat Iron Chefs!" to raise money for the park. The event starts at 5:30pm for VIP entry ($250/ticket) and 6:30pm for general entry ($150/ticket). Some of the restaurants participating are; A Voce, Tabla, Eleven Madison Park, Country, Fleur de Sel and Resto. For more information visit their website.

Savory One-sheet: June 14-27

We're just back from two weeks in SF and Napa Valley where we visited over 30 new restaurants and will soon be posting videos for many of our recommended top choices for eating in the Bay Area.

// This Week on Savory New York //

Elliot Ryan files an update on great wines for the season with a look at the sparkling Italian wine Lambrusco. Ryan makes the case that this fun, refreshing wine makes a great alternative to the more common wines you're likely to see at the beach and in the park this summer. Read the article to find out where to try Lambrusco in NYC.

// Recently Opened //

• Forge - Marc Forgione, the son of celebrated American chef Larry Forgione, strikes out on his own in TriBeCa with his "laid-back     yet high-style approach to New American cuisine."
• Matsugen - Jean-Georges Vongerichten teams up with the Matsushita family of Japan to present authentic Tokyo cuisine in the old 66 space. 
• James - Dining in Prospect Heights just keeps getting better and better. Husband and wife team Bryan Calvert (formerly of Bouley and Union Pacific) and Deborah Williamson are serving European-influenced seasonal New American cuisine.
• Parlor Steakhouse - A new steakhouse and raw bar on the Upper East Side from the owners of the BB&R bar around the corner.
• Alloro - a new traditional Italian restaurant with "a modern flair" on East 77th Street from the chef/owner of Cacio e Pepe, Spiga and Bocca.

//This Week's Restaurant Reviews //

• The New York Times: Frank Bruni heads to the popular new wine bars, Gottino and Terroir, and finds "carefully sourced and thoughtfully prepared" food that warrants 1 star for each. 
• New York Magazine: Gael Greene calls Hundred Acres a "worthy work-in-progress."
• The New York Sun: Paul Adams has high expectations for Bar Milano and ends up being disappointed. "Either it will shape up in forthcoming months, or it can be taken as a sign that loud, clumsy, and crowded is just what its creators want Bar Milano to be."
• New York Daily News: RG can hardly contain herself so likes Scarpetta so much."So many chefs in New York are busy serving arguments. Conant serves conclusions."

// Blogs and Newsletters //

• Snack reports that season five of Top Chef will be shot in NYC.
• Kathy Chan over at Serious Eats files a report on NYC's top ice cream sandwiches.
• Sometimes meals at restaurants with big names don't go as swimmingly as one would hope. Augieland documents a Father's Day travesty at Fromagerie in New Jersey.

// Upcoming Events //

What do Alice Waters, Mario Batali and Dan Barber have in common? They're all supporting the creation of the New Amsterdam Market at South Street Seaport. The third meeting of the market convenes tomorrow and brings together dozens of supporting producers, distributors, chefs and other advocates. Find more information here.

Terroir Wine Bar is celebrating its first annual Summer of Riesling Festival. The summer long celebration will explore "all that is great about this grape and its wines." Paul Greico and company will explore the entire world of Riesling, from its German roots to its manifestations in Austria, Alsace, Australia and Canada.

Savory New York One Sheet: June 5th - 13th

// This Week on Savory New York //

This week we've added a video for Danny Meyer's 2008 James Beard Award winning restaurant, Gramercy Tavern. Watch Danny talk about the restaurant's history and the importance of having food that expresses a sense of place and time.

We were fortunate to be able to attend this year's awards ceremony in the role of guest video bloggers as part of the official James Beard Foundation awards live blog. We joined an amazing group of bloggers, including Julie Powell, Snack, The Paupered Chef and Dr. Vino in reporting from the year's biggest and most anticipated food industry event. For a glimpse behind the scenes and video interviews on the red carpet visit the JBF's live blog web site.

Congratulations to all of this years New York winners, including Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali (Outstanding Restauteur), Gramercy Tavern (Outstanding Restaurant), Gavin Kaysen from Cafe Boulud (Rising Star Chef), John Ragan from Eleven Madison Park (Outstanding Wine Service), David Chang of Momofuku Ssam Bar (Best Chef, New York City), and also to Dan Barber (Blue Hill) and Anthony Bourdain who were inducted into the Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.  You can see the complete list of this years winners on the JBF web site .

// Recently Opened //

• Rose Club - Didier Virot of FROG signed on to help fancy up the menu here at this bi-level bar and lounge in the newly renovated Plaza Hotel.
• Talay - King Phojanakong, owner of Savory favorite Kuma Inn in the LES, is co-chef at this Thai/Latin restaurant in Harlem.
• Sheridan Square - Gary Robins, the talented former chef of The Biltmore Room and The Russian Tea Room is cooking by wood burning oven here in the West Village.
• Lookout HIll Smokehouse - Barbecued meat by the pound is now available in Park Slope.

//This Week's Restaurant Reviews //

• NY Times: Frank Bruni gives Ago, Agostino Sciandri and Robert DeNiro's new Tribeca eatery, the Times' lowest rating: 0 of 4 stars (Poor). He writes, referring to the breaded veal Milanese, "The one I had one night was pounded so thin that the breading on top met the breading on the bottom without pausing for much of anything in between. A vegan could have made peace with it." With a reference to Shelly Winters, a mysterious "special rack-of-lamb veal chop," and a sauvignon tsunami, the scathing review is one of Bruni's most entertaining in recent memory.
• New York Magazine: Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite look at pizza in Brooklyn giving 2 of 5 stars to each location: South Brooklyn Pizza, Toby's Public House, and Roberta's.
• The New York Sun: Paul Adams stops in at Moco Global Dining and Greenwich Grill, two Italian-Japanese restaurants. Moco is located in Murray Hill and Greenwich Grill is located in Tribeca.
• The New York Daily News: RG gives 2 of 5 stars to Alain Ducasse's Benoit. "When I think of Ducasse doing bistro, I imagine vivid flavors, complexity, history. But at Benoit I also found myself imagining something less exalted. I imagined fries that were hot and crispy when they came to the table. I imagined steak tartare that was something more than damp. I imagined I wasn't eating the world's most boring salad - the Parisian version of a chef's salad."

// Blogs and Newsletters //

Ruhlman posts a reaction to Kim Severson's NY Times story on Recipes from his friend, CIA instructor Mike Pardus. It's an interesting read on a less superficial opinion on what it means to be a chef.

Mouthing Off gives a sneak peek into the upcoming Aspen Food and Wine Festival

// In Other News //

Top Chef may be over but the juggernaut continues. The LA Times is featuring a profile of Padma, the self-described "anti-Martha Stewart."

// Upcoming Events //

Donna Lennard, the owner of popular Italian restaurant Il Buco, is premiering her film, La Raccolta (The Harvest) at the NYC Food Film Festival on June 18. The 30 minute film presents a touching portrait of a small community in Umbria, Italy during the annual olive harvest. If you love Il Buco or if olive oil plays an important role in your cooking you'll definitely want to head over to Water Taxi Beach this Wednesday to check it out. Find out more info on the NYC Food Film Festival web site.

Chanterelle is having their 10th annual rare artisanal sake dinner on June 25th (the 24th is sold out). This nine-course dinner with sake pairing is $275/person and include tax and tip.

Live blogging the James Beard Awards

Wow, what a night. Last night we had the honor of helping the James Beard Foundation live blog this years awards at Lincoln Center. We were joined by a group of extremely talented bloggers who shared a wide range of fascinating perspectives on the night. Visit the James Beard Foundation web site to read behind the scenes reports from Snack, Julie Powell, The Paupered Chef and Dr. Vino.

You can also catch our short videos from the red carpet with Snack interviewing the likes of Tom Colicchio (Craft), Jose Andres (Cafe Atlantico), Michael Anthony (Gramercy Tavern), Wylie Dufresne (wd-50), David Chang (Momofuku Ssam Bar), Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill & Topolobampo), Yosuke Suga (L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon) and Bruce Sherman (North Pond).

Update: Check out our awards ticket giveaway winner Grace hobnobbing with Tom Colicchio on her blog, Gracenotes.

While We Were Away Stuffing Ourselves with Foie Gras...

A lot can happen in 10 days. While we were off gallivanting around Lyon and the Hautes-Pyrénées in search of gustatory edification and attempting to consume foie gras for 10 straight days, the NYC restaurant world shifted ever so slightly and the food blog chatter continued without pause...

Gary Robins reemerged from the shadows to open Sheridan Square in the West Village. A major league chef shuffle went down over Memorial Day weekend, including the swapping of Jody Williams at Morandi for Tony Liu of August, no doubt in a bid by Keith McNally to entice Frank Bruni to stop in for another 3 to 4 visits. Eater Deathwatched Beer Table, a Savory favorite, and Burger Shoppe (in our humble opinion, there's a big difference between scoring a single case of rare Italian ale and concocting a kobe/gold flake/foie gras/truffle hype-burger). Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud announced their intention to build a culinary dream team to compete at the upcoming Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon. The Daily News dropped the rumor that a Shake Shack truck is destined for Downtown Brooklyn. "Scallopgate" unfolded on the blogs in the wake of Spike's dismissal from Top Chef and the Observer called out the latest, and increasingly tiresome, ingredient trend sweeping the culinary landscape--wit and irony.

As for our trip, we had the honor of meeting the legendary Chef Paul Bocuse just prior to dining at his outrageously priced three-star temple of gastronomy outside of Lyon, feasted on andouillette, poulet aux morilles and Baba au Rhum at Comptoir Abel, picked up a fine selection of Comte, Saint Marcellin and Camembert cheeses at Les Halles de Lyon, learned how to properly prepare poulet au vinaigre and saucisson briochée with an amazing cuisinier in the mountains and shared in a fabulous magnum of 1964 Salon Champagne. We even managed to have foie gras on 6 or 7 different occasions.

L20 Restaurant: First Pics & Reactions

Photo credit: npinto on flickr

Chicago's newest seafood restaurant, L20, has enjoyed a quiet buzz in the restaurant world over the past few months, largely due to the in depth blog written by executive chef and partner Laurent Gras, GM Serge Krieger, Chef de Cuisine Francis Brennan and Dining Room Manager Anthony Cournia. Written primarily by Gras, the blog has provided a fun and informative way to learn about the many facets involved in opening a highly anticipated fine dining restaurant, from menu planning to taste testing to equipment sourcing.

Early word from the friends and family preview indicates that L2O's food tastes as good as it looks. See early photos on the L20 flickr pool, where the first sets of guest pics were just posted. Hungry Magazine has also weighed in with the first blog review, which has more photos and a link to the opening night menu.

Savory New York One Sheet: May 10th - May 16th

// This Week on Savory New York //

This week Elizabeth S. Bennett visits Bar Masa to round out her 'Best Chicken Wings' Destination Dish series. Find out whether or not master sushi chef Masa Takayama has the chops to turn out some of NYC's best wings.

The 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards are coming up in three weeks and will be hosted by none other than Sex and The City star Kim Cattrall. The awards ceremony will be held at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center on Sunday, June 8th. See the full list of award nominees here and watch Savory Cities videos of nominated chefs. Tickets are $450 for the general public and $400 for James Beard Foundation members.

Through a special arrangement with the James Beard Foundation we have a pair of tickets to give away to the awards. To be entered into a random drawing to win,  sign up for a Savory Cities account between now and May 31st. The winner will be announced on June 1st.

// Recently Opened //

• Scarpetta - Scott Conant, former executive chef and co-owner of Alto and L'Impero, has opened this sleek new Italian restaurant in the Meatpacking District.
• Hundred Acres - If at first you don't succeed, try try again. That's the motto of Cookshop and Five Points owners Vicki Freeman and Mark Meyers. They closed their recently revived Provence and reinvented it in a much more familiar format--homey seasonal American.
  

//This Week's Restaurant Reviews //

• NY Times: Frank Bruni gives 2 of 4 stars to Upper West Sider, Eighty-One. "Call it ego food — that may speak less to the satisfaction of customers than to the self-regard of proprietors, who want you to marvel at the effort-per-bite ratio and the variety of techniques at play." Peter Meehan visits East Village low ambiance all-stars Punjab and Polish G. I Delicatessen for the delicious curries and homemade soups, respectively.
• New York Magazine: Adam Platt visits Olana and Mia Dona and gives both restaurants 2 of 5 stars. About Olana, "The location might be a killer, and the décor is slightly overwrought. But we’ll give one star for the ambitious cooking and another for the desserts." About Mia Dona, "One star for the hearty Italian food, executed with flair. Another for the reasonable prices."
• The New York Sun: Paul Adams dines at Duane Park and notes some Southern touches that the chef brings to the cuisine as well as some unevenness in the execution.
• Bloomberg: Ryan Sutton visits Bar Q and I Sodi for cheap post-shopping eats.
• The New York Daily News: RG gives 1 of 5 stars to Ago. "But the pasta dishes - a bellwether of any worthwhile Italian restaurant - charted a much bumpier course. The veal-stuffed spinach cappelletti arrived in a greasy puddle of butter-sage sauce; the gnocchi tossed in a lamb ragu tasted like Play-Doh pelted with gravel; a bowl of spaghetti with clams and broccoli rabe was horribly oversalted."

// Blogs and Newsletters //

• NY Journal checks out the new BBQ joint, Wildwood Barbecue
• The Girl Who Ate Everything throws her opinion into the ring on Momofuku Ko (great pictures included).
• Midtown Lunch looks into the free McDonald's Chicken sandwich.

// In Other News //

May 14th was a big day in Chicago - Laurent Gras' much anticipated restaurant, L2O opened in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and the ban on foie gras was lifted. Champion of civil disobedience, Doug Sohn of Hot Doug's can resume sale of his foie gras dog without fear of $500 penalty (related: Sohn pays fine).

Over here at Savory, we're big fans of The Paupered Chef. While it's not a blog that covers restaurants, per se, we like to give them a shout out whenever they post something that tickles or fascinates us. This week, Blake takes us through curing his own guanciale. It's not something we're likely to do at home but it's definitely worth a quick read.

// Upcoming Events //

Prune is hosting a special dinner Thursday May 22nd honoring and celebrating wine importer Neal Rosenthal on his recently published book, "Reflections of a Wine Merchant." There will be two seatings; 6:30 and 9:30pm. Enjoy "delicious dinner, lots of excellent wine, a signed copy of the book, and conversation with Neal." Cost: $150. Call 212-677-6221 for reservations.

The lineup for this year's Big Apple BBQ Block Party was just announced and it looks like it'll be another great year. The event will be held, as always, in Madison Square Park and will run from noon to 6pm on Saturday, June 7th and Sunday, June 8. Get more details and watch our video interviews from last year featuring several of this year's pitmasters, including crowd favorites Mike Mills and Ed Mitchell.