Sietsema on Two New Korean Chains

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 3:47 PM, October 9, 2008

Today, Our Man Sietsema goes and checks out two new Korean spots. He weighs in on the trend of foreign chains popping up in New York, (Koreans bringing hot dogs to New York?) and noshes on bulgogi dogs and fried chicken. Get the goods, below.

In a recent piece for the fall preview issue, I inveigled against the invasion of New York by chain restaurants, and more specifically, foreign chains from Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Japan, a result of the weakening dollar and the attractive vitality of the New York restaurant scene to foreign investors. I also complained about the carbon footprint of fast food sourced on the other side of the globe. One signifier of this trend was New York Hot Dog and Coffee, a Korean chain which replaced a longstanding Italian pastry shop on Bleecker Street, posing the question, Can’t New Yorkers make their own damn hot dogs? The place was in what Eater calls the “plywood stage” for many months, but now that it’s finally open, a friend and I had a chance to sample the hot dogs. I’ve got to sheepishly admit, even David Chang probably can’t make hot dogs quite like that. Best was the bulgogi dog ($5.99), a bulging, artificial-skin frank stuck in a puffy bun with pickles, lettuce, and a good quantity of sautéed bulgogi beef dusted with sesame seeds. The dog – a bloated ball park frank, rather than New York’s slender, natural-skin wieners – came in two subspecies: mild and hot, with the hot preferred; the bulgogi beef topping was also spicy. The dak-kalbi ($5.99, shown above), a chicken frank topped with “barbecued” chicken was not as impressive; both dog and topping were bland and undersalted. The plain beef frank with mustard and sauerkraut (also shown) was fairly tasty, and, at $2.99, nearly equal in volume to a pair of New York franks from Gray’s Papaya ($2.50), and not quite as good, with no resounding pop when you bite down on it. On a roll, my friend and I also sought out BBQ Chicken, a Korean chicken joint that recently opened on St. Marks after long delays. In common with similar chains already operating in Flushing, Jackson Heights, Koreatown, and Chambers Street, two types of chicken are offered: plain and hot and spicy. The innovation that BBQ Chicken offers is frying in virgin olive oil. When we arrived at the narrow space (which boasts a comfortable, fashion-forward dining room in the rear and a couple of tables on the street), the air was suffused with the odor of olive oil, so that with eyes closed you might think you were in an Italian trattoria.

The crunchy-skinned plain ($5.95 for two pieces plus baking-powder biscuit) tasted clean and slightly nutty, but we couldn’t help noticing that the skin had been removed, ostensibly for health reasons, which may also be the rationale behind the use of olive oil. (All Korean friend chicken franchises claim to be “healthy.”) Who’s eating the skin? we wondered. It’s the best part. The glazed chicken was terrible, tasting like it had been dunked in corn syrup infused with jelly beans. Sides included battered waffle fries and mac and cheese engulfed in a Cheez Whiz-type sauce. Hard to believe there’s no transfats in there, further undermining the health claims.
Fads aside, neither of these new places offer much of a deal, charging a premium for novelty. Although, at $5.99 plus tax, I guess the bulgogi dog might be considered a relatively cheap meal. Just don’t order sides or a beverage.

New York Hot Dog and Coffee (245 Bleecker Street, 917-388-2608); BBQ Chicken (26 St. Marks Place, 212-982-9616)

New This Week: Naya

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 9:47 AM, October 7, 2008

This is a big week in New York eating. The first New York Wine and Food Festival starts on Thursday, and there have been lots of high-profile restaurant openings lately, like Corton (from restaurateur Drew Nieporent and chef Paul Liebrandt) and A Q Cafe, the new spinoff from Marcus Samuelsson's Scandinavia House spot.

This week, we've got Naya opening tomorrow night for dinner. The modern Lebanese food is by Chef Rafic Nehme, who comes straight from his own 25-year-old restaurant, Iyem Zaman, in Mount Lebanon. The owner, Hady Kfoury, has worked at Daniel, as well as several restaurants in his native Lebanon. The menu is heavy on the mezze, like hommus, baba ghannouj, pan-seared halloumi cheese, kibbe and Lebanese-style steak tartar. (Mezze $6-$10)

Mains run from beef shawarma to kafta kabob to striped bass topped with spicy tahini and walnuts. (Mains $17-27)

Sounds like this could be an interesting spot, but it's in a tough location (1057 Second Avenue at 55th Street). Here's hoping it doesn't die the quick death of Savarona, the high-end Turkish spot (with very good food) that once sat in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge.

Cheap Lunch! Eton Dumplings

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 4:06 PM, October 3, 2008

Dumplings! They come five to an order ($3.50), but I ate one on the way home.

Eton Chan is making some very nice dumplings at his new shop in Carroll Gardens. The storefront is small, with just a few stools by the window. The small kitchen sits in the middle of the room, behind a counter, so you can watch the cooks smash garlic and dice scallions, and you hear your dumplings when they hit the oil and start to sizzle. There are just three varieties: pork and beef with cabbage, chicken and mushroom and vegetable tofu.

I stopped by today and got one order of pork/beef and one of vegetable. The dumplings are large, almost the size of my fist and come five dumplings to a $3.50 order. One order would be enough for a light lunch, two orders if you're hungrier.

The dumplings are first pan-fried, then steamed, so that one side of the dumpling skin is brown and crispy, and the others are white, soft and slightly chewy. They come to you piping hot, cooked to order (you'll probably have to wait 10 minutes for them to be ready).

I especially liked the pork/beef variety. The homemade wrappers give way into a bouncy meatball that gushes juice under your teeth. The vegetable-tofu were less delicious, stuffed with a dull cabbage-carrot-lentil mixture that was very underseasoned; plus, they fell apart easily, shedding cabbage everywhere. But Eton makes a spicy-sweet plum sauce (you can buy a bottle for $4); dousing the vegetarian dumplings in that sauce improves matters.

There's also Hawaiian shave ice, in sweet fruit flavors, which you can top with things like red beans, marshmallow fluff or condensed milk. Eton's shave ice season, though, is about to be over on October 31st. It will be replaced by noodle soups, featuring hand-pulled noodles augmented with braised short ribs and pork belly. Look for the soups starting in November.

Eton
205 Sackett Street
718-222-2999

Dumpling guts

Black Iron Burger

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:52 PM, October 2, 2008

Here she is, your Black Iron Burger. I stopped in for lunch today to see what all the fuss was over the $8,000 Keating Miraclean griddle. Apparently, this thing doesn't ever get seasoned, so the first burger cooked on it should taste the same as one cooked on it ten years from now. Usually, any cook will tell you that meat sizzled on a seasoned pan tastes better than one cooked on an unseasoned pan, so I was curious about how this burger would taste.

And the answer is...pretty great. It's what I think of as an LA-style burger—a flat-pattied, thinnish, easily wrangled burger that you can eat with one hand. Personally, I prefer messy, fat burgers like you find at Donovan's Pub in Woodside, Queens, but I can appreciate both sorts.

I ordered the Black Iron burger medium-rare. The patty was pink all the way through, with a well-seasoned outer crust. I do think that if the burger were cooked over medium-rare, the patty might dry out because it's thin. As it was, the burger spurted juice, and the bottom of the bun was moistened with its drippings. The bun itself is an unassuming sesame roll. I'd say this is a very respectable burger, and it's $7—not cheap for a burger, but not unreasonable either.

I ordered the fried, pickled green tomatoes on the side. Very tart, very fried, nice.

540 East 5th Street
212-677-6067

Fried pickled green tomatoes

Indian-Pakistani-Spanish-American Food?

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 2:10 PM, September 29, 2008

I've always wondered about the stories behind those wildly improbable dual-cuisine restaurants (like Mexican-Chinese places). Today, I stopped by the most globe-trotting spot I've seen yet—Salt and Pepper, a Indian-Pakistani-Spanish-American restaurant.

The front counter serves New York "Spanish" food (read: pseudo Puerto Rican-Dominican) and some American stuff, like burgers and meatloaf. The back counter serves Indo-Pakistani food.

I tasted a bunch of items here, and your best bet is definitely the shami (chicken) kabobs. They are clearly homemade—oblong fingers of ground chicken, heavily spiced, garlicky and speckled with cilantro. Everything else I tried was unremarkable, although the cauliflower was tasty.

Although I thought the Indian-Pakistani food was better, the Spanish-American counter gets much busier. There's a steady stream of customers ordering things like roast chicken, beans and rice ($7).

One of the employees told me that Salt and Pepper's owner is Pakistani, and one day he was sitting on the train, trying to think of ways to get more business. He decided that adding Spanish and American food would bring in more customers, so he added the extra steam table and doubled the menu. Everything is halal, though, so he had to forgo the porky dishes that you'd find at any other Spanish lunch counter.

Salt and Pepper serves up that Spanish-American-Indian-Pakistani food 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yay, America.

Salt and Pepper
139 West 33 Street
212-268-1919

The kabob's in the middle of all that cauliflower and spinach

The Boom-Bust Restaurant Economy

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:56 AM, September 26, 2008

I recently ate at a new, popular restaurant. This place has gotten a lot of food media attention, and the place was absolutely packed. Very buzzy. The space is gorgeous, but it's clear that no one has put very much care into the food—not disgusting, just meh. Not worth it.

But, like I said, the place was packed, and it probably will be packed for a couple months and then fade away when the next exciting thing opens. I can't imagine that it will have a life of more than five years, and I can't imagine that the owners don't know that.

As Robert Sietsema often says, it's too bad that restaurateurs feel they have to open places that "foodies" will run to immediately and probably never go back to. It means that it's harder to find serious new restaurants that will be perennial favorites—places where the food, rather than the experience or the scene, is worth your money.

So here's what I'm wondering: Why open a restaurant that's tied to the boom and bust cycle of 'the next big thing' in New York restaurant culture? If a 100-seat restaurant is full of people eating and drinking, are the owners really making so much money that it's worth it?

Take Eater's deathwatch list. It's full of places like this: Sheriden Square (which closed today), Kurve, Merkato 55... The cycle: Hire a good PR firm and/or well-known chef or design firm, get a lot of buzz for your opening, maybe don't pay so much attention to the food, and then fade away into the night. Aside from the fact that it's not so good for the restaurant culture, does that sequence of events really make anyone much money?

The 12 Dirtiest, Cleanest NYC Restaurants

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:27 AM, September 15, 2008

Yesterday, State Senator Jeff Klein released his annual list of the 12 dirtiest and cleanest New York restaurants. Klein compiles his lists from Department of Health restaurant inspection info, and he reserves special ire for pest-ridden restaurants. He released his two lists at a press conference outside Del Posto, in the meatpacking district, which failed its inspection in June but has since cleaned up the problems.

Klein wants the city to adopt a grading system (like LA's), in which each restaurant is given a DOH grade, A-D, and must post the grade prominently. That might work better than just shutting down places at the drop of a hat—if your favorite restaurant earns a C, you can decide for yourself whether to go there or not.

Here are the lists (which Klein calls the "Dirty Dozen" and the "Sparkling Twelve.") Heh. Frankly, I think I'd rather eat cockroaches than go to the McDonald's that's listed as one of the cleanest. On the other hand, Sripraphai, the fantastic Queens Thai spot, is also listed as one the cleanest—just another good reason to eat there. 26 Seats is the only relatively high-profile restaurant called out on the dirty list.

The lists are below, with their violation scores in parentheses after the date of inspection.

Senator Jeff Klein’s Dirty Dozen New York City Restaurants of 2008

EL BARRIO RESTAURANT
152 EAST 110 STREET, MANHATTAN
7/24/08 – INSECTS, COCKROACHES (204)

GOLDEN KRUST CARIBBEAN BAKERY
1862 NOSTRAND AVENUE, BROOKLYN
7/09/09 – MICE, INSECTS, COCKROACHES (182)

GUACAMOLE’X
1186 EAST 180 STREET, BRONX
7/25/08 – MICE, INSECTS (126)

MERRY JERRY’S JAMAICAN RESTAURANT
102 SARATOGA AVENUE, BROOKLYN
7/10/08 – RATS, INSECTS (125)

NEW CHOPSTICK HOUSE
102-09 QUEENS BOULEVARD, QUEENS
7/03/08 – MICE, COCKROACHES (100)

NINO’S PIZZA
842 FRANKLIN AVENUE, BROOKLYN
7/29/08 – MICE, INSECTS, COCKROACHES (98)

THE METROPOLITAN GRILL
1 MADISON STREET, MANHATTAN
6/05/08 – MICE, INSECTS, COCKROACHES (97)

CAFÉ CARCIOFO
248 COURT STREET, BROOKLYN
7/29/08 – MICE, INSECTS (97)

JIMMY’S COFFEE SHOP
900 6 AVENUE, MANHATTAN
7/08/08 – INSECTS, COCKROACHES (95)

POPCORN HOF AND BAR
246 EAST 204 STREET, BRONX
4/24/08 – MICE, RATS (93)

ACTION BURGER
513 GRAND STREET, BROOKLYN
4/17/08 – MICE, RATS (93)

26 SEATS
168 AVENUE B, MANHATTAN
8/06/08 – MICE, INSECTS (92)

Senator Jeff Klein’s Sparkling Twelve
Cleanest New York City Restaurants of 2008

ARTUSO PASTRY SHOP
672 EAST 187 STREET, BRONX
1/23/08 (7)

BLIMPIE
85 EAST GUN HILL ROAD, BRONX 10467
4/2/08 (5)

CAFFE ITALIA
12-40 A CLINTONVILLE STREET, QUEENS
10/16/07 (4)

CARIFESTA RESTAURANT
4251 WHITE PLAINS ROAD, BRONX
4/2/08 (4)

CHURRASCARIA PLATAFORMA
316 WEST 49 STREET, MANHATTAN
4/22/08 (6)

CORATO PIZZA II
60-91 MYRTLE AVENUE, QUEENS
2/20/08 (2)

MCDONALD'S
119-05 LIBERTY AVENUE, QUEENS
4/9/08 (7)

OCEAN GRILL
384 COLUMBUS AVENUE, MANHATTAN
11/27/07 (5)

PRIMO AMORE
34-33 FRANCIS LEWIS BOULEVARD, QUEENS
10/11/07 (2)

RUSSO'S ON THE BAY
162-45 CROSS BAY BOULEVARD, QUEENS
11/1/07 (4)

SRIPRAPHAI THAI RESTAURANT
64-13 39 AVENUE, QUEENS
11/29/07 (5)

TRATTORIA ALBA
233 EAST 34 STREET, MANHATTAN
2/21/08 (5)

Lola: Alive and Kicking

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:44 PM, September 12, 2008

The Villager reported this week that Lola Is Soul has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy—a sad end, I thought, for a spunky restaurant with good Southern-style food and fun live music. Recently, Lola had been embroiled in disputes with the community board over their cabaret and liquor licenses. (As though Soho is known for being a quiet little residential enclave.) After a heated legal battle, the restaurant finally got both licenses just about a month ago.

I called Thomas Patrick-Odeen, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Lola. He said that Lola is absolutely not closing, but that he's been advised by his lawyer not to get into details about the bankruptcy case. "We've been around since 1985 and fighting for this space for four years," he said. "We're not going anywhere."

Patrick-Odeen did mention that they have hired a new chef, William Stein, formerly of Water's Edge in Long Island City. Stein will be maintaining the Southern soul feel of the menu, and tweaking it to include fall ingredients. He said they've just gotten in some truffles from Georgia, so keep an eye out for fungus with a southern accent.

New Rice Bar Coming to Hell's Kitchen

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 4:09 PM, September 2, 2008

Here's a plywood site that might be of interest to Midtown Lunchers: B Bap, a new "fusion rice bar" (whatever that means) on 9th Avenue between 55th and 54th, on the east side of the street. Bap means "cooked rice" in Korean, so I'd guess a Korean bent.

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 3:22 PM, September 2, 2008

I avoid ordering fresh tomatoes when they're not in season, mostly for selfish taste reasons—pink, hard, mealy tomatoes make me want to gag. But right now is the height of tomato season in pretty much all of the lower 48 states, when almost any old tomato tastes halfway decent.

So why, Gemma, why are you serving these little crunchy pink bits? This would have been a nice salad: warm grilled calamari, radicchio, avocado. But the diced tomatoes tasted like they were from December. And this happens all the time! Bad tomatoes are hiding out in sandwiches and salads as we speak. Doesn't it seem like you'd have to go out of your way to even get a bad tomato right now?

Meh. Carry on.

Whither the Old-School French Restaurant?

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:10 PM, August 18, 2008

One of my first articles for the Voice was on some of the decades-old midtown French restaurants that are still hanging on by their fingertips. These are places that have been around since Hell's Kitchen was a little France, most opening in the 1930s and 1940s. Notably, there's Le Veau d'Or, Tout Va Bien (my favorite), Chez Napoléon and La Grenouille.

When I was doing research and reporting for the story, two places didn't make it into the final draft just for space reasons: Le Biarritz on 57th Street and Rene Pujol Restaurant Français on 51st Street. Now, just in the last couple months, both places have closed. It makes me wonder how long the other places will be able to stay open, especially in this economic downturn.

Obviously, openings and closings are just a natural part of the restaurant world. But there is something wonderfully eccentric and unfashionable about these old French spots. And some of the food is so meticulously prepared and so straight-ahead delicious it makes you realize what you've been missing while eating at trendy new restaurants. When was the last time you had cherries jubilee? Do you remember how boozy and sublime cherries jubilee is, with its hot brandy, half-melted vanilla ice cream and sweet cherries? I suggest you run over to Chez Napoléon for a version that's theatrically flamed table side. But do it soon, before cook Marguerite Bruno (86 years-old) retires, or the Bruno family loses the lease, as they are likely to in 2010.

Not only do they (mostly) serve great food, many of these restaurants are living time capsules that remind us of what was essentially the birth of modern New York restaurants—the 1939 New York World's Fair, where a cook named Henri Soulé ran a restaurant in the French Pavilion. The next year, Soulé opened Le Pavillion on East 55th, hiring fellow French immigrants, and later La Cote Basque. Alums from his restaurants went on to populate New York with their own French eateries. In fact, Grub Street pointed out that the Soulé apprenticeship model is still how New York's restaurant world functions. In 1966, Claiborne wrote that Soulé was "The Michelangelo, the Mozart and the Leonardo of the French Restaurant in America."

We've lost Rene Pujol and Le Biarritz, but go over to Tout va Bien during the upcoming US Open—where you might run into Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal (no joke, make resys). Or stop by Chez Napoléon for boar stew, a wedge of paté or cherries jubilee. They're still throughly French, completely eccentric and alive, for now.

Ellis Bar Open

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:07 AM, July 24, 2008

Ellis Bar

Aaron's department store occupied the big, windowless white building at the corner of 5th Avenue and 17th Street in Brooklyn for decades. (Tagline: "Unless your husband's in the business, you're better off at Aaron's.") But last year Aaron's closed and a sign went up that the huge space was for rent. Then, another sign went up: "Southwestern American tapas." (Please let the trend of calling everything "tapas" end.)

The conversion of the building (it's been subdivided so that the other half of Aaron's is still vacant) went on for months. Meanwhile the website was up, complete with menu, and it actually looks pretty interesting: four bean chili with Navajo fry bread, cornmeal crusted catfish, zucchini cakes with corn salsa.

Last night, Ellis Bar finally opened, (now calling its food "new Western tapas") and I took a peek inside. It looks like a classic bar-restaurant, with darts and a pool table. Nothing high-concept going on design-wise, just a long, dark wood bar and a second room with a bunch of wooden chairs and tables. Meanwhile, signs outside advertised $5 Bacardi. That seems odd to me: Navajo fry bread and $5 Bacardi? I would think those two things appeal to very different customers (although...I like both).

In any case, kudos to the owners for trying out something a little different, food-wise. I'll go check it out soon.

Ellis Bar
627 5th Avenue at 17th Street
Brooklyn
718-768-0532

The Story Behind the Restaurant Formerly Known as Chickpea

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 2:38 PM, June 27, 2008

Eater reported that Kosher Village had changed its name for the second time in three months (Chickpea to Kosher Village to Tahini), so I stopped by to find out what was going on.

Turns out, owner Nissim Oron didn't realize that there weren't enough Orthodox Jewish people in the East Village to sustain a glatt kosher restaurant, a designation that requires closing on shabbat and for holidays, an expensive proposition.

"After three months I realized that this neighborhood is not the one for glatt kosher," Oron said. "Only about 10 percent of our customers were coming in because it was glatt kosher. So I thought I'd go back to being just kosher, not glatt kosher, and so not to confuse anyone, we took 'kosher' out of the name."

Yes, changing the name again should completely eliminate any confusion.

And as you might remember, the restaurant formerly known as Chickpea ran a contest to find the new name. 10,000 names were submitted, Kosher Village and Tahini among them. Oron awarded $30,000 in prize money to the genius who came up with Kosher Village—a rate that would turn out to be $10,000 for each month the name was in effect.

So would Oron be giving anything to the Tahini submitter? "I want to give him something," Oron said. "But I haven't decided what yet."

Sietsema revisits Landmarc

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 4:29 PM, June 24, 2008

Today another dispatch from Our Man Sietsema appeared in my inbox. This time, he's been reevaluating Landmarc in Tribeca, a place that he loved when it first opened, not the least for its affordable wine list. Is the wine still cheap? Does he still adore it? You'll have to read to find out.

Quoth Sietsema:

Hey Sarah --

Ever since I first reviewed Landmarc in Tribeca not long after its opening, I’ve been recommending the restaurant to people that wanted an upscale place to celebrate special events. I’ve been touting it for its bucolic location in Tribeca and pleasant brick-clad interior; for its menu that combines steaks and chops with more forward-looking dishes, and, especially, for its low markups on wine. As I noted in 2005, “good bottles are often the same price as mediocre bottles elsewhere.”
As Landmarc nears its three-year anniversary, after it has spun off a Columbus Circle branch and the more down-market Ditch Plains (a sort of surfer hot dog bar) in the West Village, I wondered if the parent establishment had managed to maintain its excellence.
A friend and I arrived in the middle of the tomato scare, a threat that the city’s useless Department of Health and Mental Hygiene could develop no program for preventing. (They’re effective only at promoting the sale of rubber gloves, as far as I can tell.) Seated upstairs with a view of the construction site across the street, we went right for a special of cucumber gazpacho which neatly solved the problem of how to deal with the raw tomato threat (skip ‘em!). The cold soup was perfect in every way, garlicky and tasting of the garden. It was also the most delicate shade of green, with a miniature skin-on dice of kirbies in the center. What qualifies it as gazpacho? The soup was thickened in the old-fashioned Andalusian way with a paste of bread crumbs, which created a texture that was unforgettable.
The other dishes we sampled were just as good, including al dente asparagus spears thicker than most and nicely garnished with tarragon aioli and chopped egg (cryptically dubbed “asparagus mimosa”). The pasta of the day proved just as spectacular as it was on my earlier visits, in this case an orecchiette alla norcina, name-checking the Umbrian town of Norcia, which is famous for its pork products. The rich, cream-laced pasta was dotted with flavorful Italian sausage, and you’re not likely to find a better pasta in Tribeca. Finally, we had one of the steaks cooked Tuscan-style over the flaming hearth on the first floor. Watching the grill guy at work is the best reason I can think of for sitting in the downstairs barroom rather than upstairs or out front among the sidewalk tables. The strip steak was excellent – pink in the middle, almost crumbly in the way dry-aged beef should be, and blackened and smoky on the surface.
But when I consulted the wine menu, I was a bit disappointed. There were few bottles under $40, and the markups seemed higher than they’d been before, though still a good deal by fancy restaurant standards. The bottles I was most interested in came from the Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which are just now receiving their due from wine critics. The Dobbes Family Vineyard Pinot Gris ($36) was light and spicy for a red, with only a little oak shading, and it proved the perfect complement to the meal. Most of the Italian and French wines, though, were too expensive for all but the wealthiest drinkers.
Still, I’m going to keep recommending Landmarc, especially for the excellent food.

--Robert

Sietsema on Crif Dogs' Secret

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:59 PM, June 18, 2008

As Our Man Sietsema and I continue to update the dining listings, we periodically re-visit restaurants we haven't been to for a while. Since the dining listings are, by necessity, short and sweet, it's fun to get the whole story from Our Man on the places he's re-evaluating.

Today: Crif Dogs! And Our Man has discovered their secret.

Hey Sarah:

Two of my favorite chefs in town are Wylie Dufresne (WD-50) and David Chang (the Momofuku empire), so when I heard that each had created his own weenie for Crif Dogs, I ran over there right away to find out how they were garnished.
Trouble was, no one in Crif Dogs knew what the hell I was talking about when I dropped in around midday. A couple weeks later, I visited again, only to have the countergal tell me, “Oh, those. We don’t know how to make them. You’ll have to drop by the bar some evening.” She was referring to the Crif Dogs bar next door, which had apparently become a hang for downtown chefs like Chang and Dufresne.
A friend and I scoured the façade of the bar, but could detect nothing that resembled a door, but, once inside the hot dog merchant, we noted the odd presence of a phone booth in one corner. Though I go regularly to Crif Dogs for the “spicy redneck” (a deep fried dog swaddled in bacon and topped with chili, jalapenos, and coleslaw), I’d never notice the phone booth before. When you pick up the receiver, the hostess answers and buzzes you in through a secret swinging panel in the booth, like one of those damn spy bars popular in the previous century.
Once inside, you’ll discover a swanky subterranean room with a long bar and a few tables, mounted animal trophies, and some bartenders who take their mixology seriously. Funny that a hot dog stand should spawn a swanky bar, we thought. Along with some beers, we ordered the Chang and the Dufresne, priced at $5 each. After a bit of a wait, they were passed through a tiny metal door at the back of the bar by a pair of disembodied hands, very Addams Family.
Both were memorably tasty. The Chang model, like the spicy redneck, began with a frank that had a piece of bacon pinned around it, like a cave girl modeling a skimpy animal skin. The dog was further dressed with kim chi and some species of upscale ketchup, sweet and slightly spicy. The Dufresne features the same dog (sans bacon) with freeze-dried onions, shredded Romaine, and one of Wylie’s science chef flourishes, fried mayonnaise, which had the texture of shaving cream on the night we tried it, which may have been a mis-execution of the chef’s original intent. It was good nonetheless.
In fact, the dogs were so good, we wished you could score them without all the rigmarole of phone booth, cocktail lounge, and waiter service. Please, Crif Dogs, teach the folks next door how to make these for your more plebian patrons.

--Robert

Bruno's Replaced by New York Hot Dog and Coffee (From Korea)

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 10:16 AM, June 17, 2008

Our Man Sietsema just wrote us to say that as he was walking down Bleeker Street this morning, he noticed a banner over the old Bruno's pastry shop. It seems that the space will soon be New York Hot Dog and Coffee, a hot dog, smoothie and coffee franchise from Korea.

A look at the company's website reveals a hot dog selection that is unique to say the least. The bulgogi hot dog (hot dog topped with grilled marinated beef) looks awesome, as does the curry sauced dog. The New York Red Hot Dog is a cypher, seemingly slathered with some kind of ketchupy red sauce, and likewise, I can't figure out what the "Ave Chilij" dog might be. The cheese dog, with its thick coating of yellow goo, terrifies.

Other New York classics by way of Korea include "salad buns" which seem to be egg salad and chicken salad heros; bagels with cream cheese and (savvy!) trendy-now Belgian waffles topped with ice cream.

The coffee portion of the menu is mostly comprised of those coffee drinks that come topped with a mountain of whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce.

Quoth Our Man Sietsema:

Weird how, in the tanking economy, countries with stronger currencies are locating in New York for the purpose of selling our own products—or strange facsimiles thereof—back to us. I can't wait to try the hot dogs, at least, but am skeptical about the espresso.

Our Man's Sietsema's Una Pizza Napoletana Re-Visit

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:34 PM, May 14, 2008

We here at the VV (Our Man Sietsema and myself) are trying to keep our dining guide current by re-visiting places that we haven't been to for a while, to see if they merit a change of heart in one way or another. Today, I got this nice note from Our Man Sietsema, who has recently been back to Una Pizza Napoletana.

(That gorgeous, mouthwatering shot of the pizza was not, sadly, taken at Una Pizza Napoletana, but at a pizza joint that's much less convenient to get to. In Naples.)

Quoth Our Man:

Hey Sarah –

Just got back from revisiting Una Pizza Napoletana in the East Village, which I reviewed – but did not particularly like – almost four years ago. The joint was founded by a pizza wrangler from the Jersey shore who worshipped the pies made in Naples, Italy, the original home of pizza (though a good case can be made for pizza as we know it being invented at Lombardi’s, in Manhattan). To this end, he mounts a very spare menu, comprising only four pies. And, really, that’s the extent of it – no salads or antipasti whatsoever. As in Naples, the pies are personal-size and intended to be eaten with a knife and fork. It seems like pizzaiolo at Una Pizza Napoletana goes out of his way to make his pies uneven in size and shape, as if rebelling against the very circle itself. The place looks Naples-ish enough, all tile and off-white paint, very plain except for a few tasteful prints recalling Campania’s religious heritage, with the austerity broken only by a string of Xmas lights up near the ceiling. A giant beehive wood oven commands the back of the room, waiting to be fed. The pies arrive literally smoking, with charred dough on one side or the other. I ate the standard margherita, which shocked me with its $21 price tag, Sicilian sea salt or not. It was good, but a little too substantially charred for my taste, and the “bone” (the thickest part of the crust) was a little too doughy. Still, as an example of the Naples style, it was about 95% there. The other pizza I tried, the bianca, was a white pie (well, duh!) with a heavy dose of buffalo mozzarella on top. To begin with, Naples pizzerias almost never use buffalo mozzarella, preferring the fiore di latte that is the equivalent of our Italian-American mozzarella. While I don’t usually argue with dairy generosity, this pie had too much cheese, lending a rubbery quality to the pie. In Naples, when they apply cheese, it is in small chunks, as you can see below in a picture I took at Da Michele in Naples not too long ago:

In conclusion, while I find the pies at Una Pizza Napoletana interesting from an intellectual and historic perspective, and a worthy addition to the amazing pizza landscape of New York City, when I crave pizza, I’m likely to go elsewhere.

--Robert

Merkato 55 Deathwatched

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:20 PM, April 28, 2008

Over at Eater, they've deathwatched Merkato 55, Marcus Samuelsson's newish, chi-chi, pan-African eatery in the meatpacking district. That doesn't necessarily mean that Merkato is on its way out, but the folks at Eater are rarely off the mark when they deathwatch a restaurant.

A few weeks ago, I was working on a story revolving around the question: Will New Yorkers pay fancy French food prices for fancy African food? The subject didn't pan out as a long-form story, but it left me curious about how Merkato 55 would do.

After all, with the exceptions of some North African cuisines (like Moroccan), African food is almost never interpreted in a New York fine dining setting. When I interviewed Samuelsson, he responded: “Opening a restaurant, any kind of restaurant, in New York City is expensive and challenging. And people often associate high-end restaurants with certain types of cuisine and not others.”

He told me that he opened Merkato 55 with the intention of changing that notion that some cuisines are inherently high-end and others not. That's certainly a goal I can get behind.

So if Merkato 55 fails, is it because we aren't willing to accept African food in a high-end setting?

Actually I don't think so. I think the restaurant serves some really good food, but there are several serious problems with the way it was conceived that are working against it.

For one thing, there's the meatpacking district itself. One one visit, I witnessed the following scene:

A paunchy man in a blue oxford shirt was snuggled into a corner table with his younger blonde companion, who sported a black skirt slit up to her hip. He raised his eyebrows at the waiter, and said, “African-inspired? I’ve been to places in Africa where you don’t want to eat the food.”

It's a short jump from that kind of attitude to bad jokes about Ethiopian food being composed of empty plates. But that's also the sort of crowd that frequents the meatpacking.

Then, there's the fact that this is a tricky economic moment to open a 150-seat restaurant.

And it's true that many of us simply don't know as much about African food (it is an entire continent...) as we do about other cuisines. To give a mildly embarrassing example, I thought that the foie gras chutney on Merkato 55’s menu was a contrivance for suckers (like me) who will order anything with foie gras in it. It never occurred to me that foie gras might be an ingredient actually eaten in Africa, until I was leafing through Marcus Samuelsson’s African cookbook, Soul of a New Cuisine, and came across the tidbit that foie gras originated in Egypt.

The restaurant seems to be trying to split the difference between serious restaurant and clubby, trendy place in ways that are sometimes jarring. It offers injera bread (meant to be used as a utensil as well as a side dish) in a setting in which few feel comfortable eating with their hands, and serves absurdly expensive cocktails that are named after African tribal dances. (“We can’t call it an African cosmopolitan, so why not?” asked Samuelsson.)

Samuelsson was at the restaurant both times I went to Merkato, but many have commented that he seems disconnected from the project. However, when I spoke with him on the phone, he seemed devoted to the restaurant. And Soul of a New Cuisine, is a fantastic cookbook, well-researched and passionate.

But it may be that Samuelsson lost control of the concept to the other owners. Looking around Merkato, you have to wonder whom the repeat customers will be. If it’s the people who come for the flashing multi colored lights, those folks might not order, say, the tripe—one of the best items on the menu. A restaurant this large and ambitious has to fill seats to stay profitable.

I'm curious what you think. Is Merkato flawed, or are New Yorkers not ready for a high-end African restaurant?

YourAsian Crashes and Burns

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:38 PM, April 22, 2008

I went by YourAsian for lunch today, the new place opened by Jerry Joseph, lately of Jerry's in SoHo, thinking I'd put it in the dining guide. First of all, the sign is terrifying. Second of all, the food is such an unmitigated disaster that I can't justify wasting the newsprint for a dining guide blurb. The waste of a perfectly good mealtime, sadly, can't be undone.

This is a case of a decent concept that's badly executed. Basically, the place is meant to be like a salad bar with Asian noodles. You know, like PAX (not very good either, but you get the idea)—you tell the guy behind the counter what toppings and dressing you want, they toss it together, end of story.

At YourAsian, first you choose a base from among a number of different Asian noodles and rice: soba noodles, jasmine rice, nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice), Thai noodles, fried rice noodles, and so on. Then you select your topping—stir fried chicken or beef, shredded pork, bbq roast pork, among others. Finally, you choose a sauce, which ranges from spicy red curry to sweet and sour or teriyaki.

You can also get those selections in a bowl of soup, rather than in a sauce, with either miso or chicken broth.

I liked the conceit of YourAsian, but I wasn't expecting miracles. Just some fairly good noodles and tasty toppings—a good fast food option for the neighborhood. I mean, Asian street vendors make amazing versions of this stuff with hardly any equipment at all, so you'd think that a restaurant with skilled workers (the chef is formerly of Yumcha) and basic amenities could whip up an adequate pile of noodles.

No. First of all, when you choose your noodles or rice, the counter person grabs a cold plastic container filled with your selection. Then, they throw your choice of meat on top (there are no veggies). They glop on the sauce, and proceed to stick the plastic container in the microwave.

So what you get is a plastic container, the lid dripping condensation. The pile of noodles or rice is stone cold in the middle and searingly hot on the edges. The noodles themselves are mushy and overcooked and the sauce is heavy and manages to have almost no flavor.

The only nice thing I can say is that the summer rolls are decent. Maybe they'll get their act together, but I think that their microwaving system is flawed—I'd rather eat something that has been sitting in a steam table than have it zapped into gummy, hot-cold oblivion.

After a few bites, I fled down the block to BonBon Chicken. Now that shit is good.

Park Slope's Barrio

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 10:04 AM, April 11, 2008

Not really. It's the name of a new restaurant opening next week on 7th Avenue at 3rd Street, in the old Tempo Presto space.

A guy working on the patio outside informed me curtly that the restaurant will be "Mexican." Kay. The food is unlikely to be as good as Tacos Nuevo Mexico down on 5th Avenue, but here's hoping for good margaritas and a nice outdoor seating area.