Tea

Food and Drink :: The New York Sun
Food and Drink :: Stories from The New York Sun

• JoeDoe Lives Up to Its Name
  When a restaurant bears the name of its chef, be it ill-fated Grayz (whose founding namesake, Gray Kunz, departed this month) or Gordon Ramsay's tepid Gordon Ramsay, the name on the sign often seems like a substitute for — rather than a token of — any personality within. JoeDoe is an unlovely name for a restaurant, but it feels like a true expression of its chef, Joe Dobias. Mr. Dobias has cooked at Savoy, and his menu at JoeDoe has a similar foundation in thoughtfully sourced ingredients. But...
• In a Black-and-White World, Mother's Knows Best
  In the battle of the best black-and-white cookie in uptown New York, there are two bakeries that popularly stand out among the countless that sell this delight: Glaser's and William Greenberg Jr. Desserts, both hailing from the tony Upper East Side, and both gaining mentions in other press for selling superlative cookies. But can a locally known Bronx bakery, Mother's, take on and take out these two titans? This battle royal would be every cookie for itself, each one standing on its own two...
• Danny Meyer's Concrete Take on Shake Shack's Latest Outpost
  Burger lovers on the Upper West Side have been buzzing with anticipation all summer for the opening of the second outpost of Shake Shack, restaurateur Danny Meyer's perennially popular burger stand in Madison Square Park, open since 2004. Earlier this year, rumors had the opening date of the new restaurant, at 77th Street and Columbus Avenue, pegged to the beginning of October; now, mid-October seems more likely. When asked about opening dates throughout the summer, various figures at the Union...
• Sharpening Youthful Skills in the Kitchen
  Food and television fanatics take note: Earlier this summer, Bravo announced the development of "Top Chef Junior," a teenage-focused spin-off of its reality hit, "Top Chef." Hopeful contestants aged 13 to 16 will face off to prove that they can chop, sauté, and broil beyond their years, and best their competition. The show represents Bravo's latest attempt to cater to America's obsession with all things culinary. It also mirrors the growing acceptance of cooking as a respectable, and even...
• Kitchen Dish: Archipelago, the Grand Tier, and Ellis
  ISLANDS IN THE STREAM Archipelago (333 Hudson St., between Vandam and Charlton streets, 212-243-3345) has its soft opening this week, starting tomorrow, for dinner only. The food is by chef Hisanobu Osaka, formerly of Morimoto, and is mostly nontraditional Japanese, but influences come from all over the place, such as France (seared duck breast and confit leg with orange-cumin glazed baby carrots, and shiitake duck jus) and Peru (squid seviche with red onions, pickled cherry tomato, nori, and...
• Sheridan Square's Go-Round Ends With Impressive Results
  The fast churn of the restaurant world can pack a lot of history into a short time. It was only last summer when I enjoyed Central Kitchen and its adjoining tapas bar, Tasca. Central Kitchen closed before I had a chance to commit my enjoyment to print, while Tasca survived only several more months. Sheridan Square replaced Central Kitchen in the space, with chef Gary Robins; I had one of his meals there before he left the position in July. Franklin Becker is now manning the kitchen at Sheridan...
• Marco Pierre White Rises From the Ashes
  Marco Pierre White vanished. At the very point when cooking became rock 'n' roll, the man who created the modern-day British phenomenon of the celebrity chef handed back his three Michelin stars in 1999 and went fishing. But although he quickly adapted to his second career as a country gentleman, he didn't find quiet anonymity entirely becoming. So, he has returned to prominence as the star of the British version of "Hell's Kitchen," which goes prime time on NBC next month with another...
• Kitchen Dish: Double Crown, Bussaco, and Tierra
  ASIAN FROM DOWN UNDER AvroKO, the design firm that owns Public restaurant, opened Double Crown (316 Bowery at Bleecker Street, 212-254-0350) earlier this week. Manning the kitchen is Australian chef de cuisine Chris Rendell, most recently of Mews of Mayfair in London, and the food is intended to reflect an intersection of British cuisine and the culinary customs of the Asian part of its former empire. Dishes included tandoori-marinated foie gras with Earl Grey prunes, and Singapore laksa with...
• At Macondo, Size May Vary
  New York City's streets offer more than their share of miscellaneous food. But somehow, when used in a restaurant context, the words "street food" remain evocative. They conjure not boiled beef dogs and hot roasted nuts but a world of exotic, bargain-priced, authentic treats. Macondo is the latest restaurant to promise its customers the enchantment of pedestrian fare. The name comes from a town in Gabriel Garcia Márquez's magic-realist novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude," and accordingly, the...
• Looking at New York's Liquid Past
  With new cocktail dens such as White Star and Apotheke opening every other week, modern cocktail history is being made on the streets of New York City, even as I write this sentence. But whatever delectable potions today's mixologists come up with, they have much to live up to. There are few cities that compete with Gotham when it comes to cocktail history. The revived cocktail culture of the 21st century has brought along with it a mini-boom of bibulous historians, turning once obscure...
• Kitchen Dish: Bloomingdale Road, de Santos, and Magnolia Bakery
  MILK AND CUPCAKES Magnolia Bakery's Upper West Side location (200 Columbus Ave. at 69th Street, 212-724-8101) has been certified kosher dairy through United Kosher Supervision by Rabbi Yaakov Spivak. UPPER WEST BLOOMS Remember chef Ed Witt from Varietal? He and restaurateur Jeremy Wladis (Nonna, Firehouse, Campo) have teamed up to open Bloomingdale Road (2398 Broadway at 88th Street, 212-874-7400) in the space that once was Aix. It opens today. The food focus is on shared plates, including six...
• Convivio Revamps the Old L'Impero
  'Did you see him?" a customer at Convivio's copper-topped bar whispered excitedly to her companion. "Mario just walked by." She was referring to Michael White, the chef of this newly reconfigured restaurant, who does bear a certain resemblance, in shape and coloring, to his fellow Italian chef. L'Impero, whose dark staidness sat easily in hushed, clubby Tudor City, closed in June, and reopened shortly afterward with the same chef but with a new name, bright Mediterranean colors, and a menu that...
• Kitchen Dish: Tong, Num Pang, and More
  BEYOND THAI ICED TEA Tong (39 E. 13th St., between University Place and Broadway, 212-253-2696), a Thai restaurant by chef Peter Pitakwong, formerly of Peep, is testing its menu on family and friends and plans to open this Friday. Specialties include a set northern-Thai-style lunch and nearly 40 different teas, all available with such sweeteners as chrysanthemum syrup and rose petal jelly. SLICE OF CAMBODIA The people behind Kampuchea Restaurant, chef Ratha Chau and partners Josh Marcus, Scott...
• Locavorism, From Across the Pond
  Some people might think that the local-foods revolution and obsession with ethical eating are a local (or at least domestic) phenomenon, one spearheaded by American personalities such as the former director of New York's Greenmarket, Nina Planck, author Michael Pollan, or restaurateur Alice Waters, and embraced by such big-name stores as Whole Foods Market. Meet Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the face of British local eating, or locavorism, as it's currently known. Popular in Britain, Mr...
• New Tables, New Tastes This Autumn
  The country might be suffering through an economic downturn, but New York's restaurant operators do not seem to have noticed. The three months following Labor Day are traditionally the city's busiest season for restaurant openings, and this year is no exception. Of course, a restaurant is not truly open until it serves its first meal, and the dates for the debuts of these eateries are extremely approximate. But the roster below includes the owners' best guesses for when their doors will open...