New York Restaurants

One bad potato spoils the whole bin. He previously went to the press when he had issues with the Health Department, but Joe Germanotta was apparently so angered after Joanne Trattoria on the Upper West Side was inspected last week that he decided to vent and offer his side of the story on Twitter. In some nineteen-odd tweets spanning everything from rotten potatoes to ice scoops, the restaurateur singles out "corrupt" officials by name and badge number, and even implores Bloomberg to give him a call so they can advance the cause of food safety together, or something like that. [Daily Mail via Eater NY, Earlier, Related] Read more posts by Hugh MerwinFiled Under: one bad potato, critical violations, health department, joanne, joe germanotta, lady gaga

Christopher Kostow, chef of the three-Michelin-star Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena, has announced the chefs that will take part in his annual 12 Day of Christmas dinner series this winter. The star-studded lineup includes several New York representatives: Momofuku's David Chang, Del Posto's Mark Ladner and Brooks Headley, Pok Pok Ny's Andy Ricker, and Blanca's Carlo Mirarchi. 20 percent of the proceeds go to charity. [Bloomberg]

Be afraid. Most people know that a McMuffin's perfectly rounded egg has little relation to anything found in nature. Same goes for Kraft's identically shaped oval turkey slices — and the square burger patties at Wendy's. This is why companies are now intentionally making their products look less perfect and more rustic and wholesome: Kraft hired researchers to study the way people cut their meat so that its products appear "home-cooked," and Domino's workers received instruction to make pies look a bit sloppy. Customers are smart enough to know that processed food is bad for them, but companies hope that a "natural" appearance will trick them into thinking something's actually healthy. But, if anything, now the food's ugly on both the inside and the outside. [AP] Read more posts by Sierra TishgartFiled Under: rude, fast food, food news, health, kraft, mcdonald's, nutrition, obesity, wendy's

Where's the rum? Over the weekend, Dan Pashman of the Sporkful took to the airwaves and discussed the sorry state of the late modern piña colada with "Weekend Edition" host Rachel Martin on NPR. The gist of it is that the rum cocktail is traditionally based on Coco López, a stabilized and emulsified product that apparently scares some people off, and that it's never been improved. Until recently: The MSNBC host apparently developed a hack a while back that replaces the cream of coconut with orgeat, and the result is a less sickly sweet drink. The Maddow Colada recipe — which may or may not be crucial to a more bearable summer — is straight ahead. The Maddow Colada 1.5 oz light rum 1 oz 8 year old Bacardi or other nice medium-bodied amber rum 1.5 oz unsweetened coconut milk 1.5 oz orgeat (almond syrup — Maddow recommends Teisseire. Torani is most common.) 4 oz pineapple juice Blend with ice. Don't strain, serve in a short glass, garnish with pineapple wedge, tiny umbrella serve with short, stubby (fat) straws. Cocktail Moment by proxy: The Maddow Colada [Maddow Blog/MSNBC] Read more posts by Hugh MerwinFiled Under: getting caught in the rain, cocktails, pina colada, rachel maddow, the sporkful

New Amsterdam Market is returning to South Street Seaport this Sunday, but for a more limited run than in years past. Sunday's market will be the only one of the summer, to be followed by a series of monthly markets some time in the fall. New Amsterdam Market is doing some regrouping after a disappointing loss to the Howard Hughes Corporation, but they're looking to put up a fight with this weekend's market, which will include a special dairy section, a local grains bread pavilion, and a rally for the market at noon. [Gothamist, New Amsterdam Market]

Why is this man running away? Last month, Dallas, Pennsylvania, resident Natalie Gunshannon stopped working at her local McDonald's after three weeks on the job, not necessarily because the pay was bad (at $7.44 an hour, though, it was), but because the local franchise holder repeatedly told the 27-year-old that the only way she could be paid was in the form of a prepaid Chase Bank debit card that basically made the single mother pay extra any time she wanted access to her earnings. The Times-Leader reports that after taking into account the multitude of charges and assorted service fees, including a "$1.50 charge for ATM withdrawals, $5 for over-the-counter cash withdrawals, $1 per balance inquiry, 75 cents per online bill payment and $15 for lost/stolen card," Gunshannon was left with the funny feeling she was earning far less than the $7.25 minimum wage. So she never signed the card, and now the former McDonald's employee is suing the franchise holder for unspecified damages. Though Gunshannon is apparently not part of a larger movement, activists argue that cases like hers are typical of the spectrum of unfair working conditions throughout the fast-food industry. For almost a year, organizers have led a series of strikes across the country to give workers a platform to demand better pay across the board. McD's Worker Sues: Don't Pay By Credit Card [Times-Leader] Earlier: New York's Fast Food Workers Resume Citywide Strikes Read more posts by Hugh MerwinFiled Under: lawsuits, fast food, mcdonald's, pennsylvania, the chain gang

[Daniel Krieger] A series of cushy consulting gigs in the '90s convinced the Italian chef Cesare Casella to settle down here for good. He had started out at his parents' restaurant in Tuscany, where he earned a Michelin star, and when he came to New York, he brought his talents to Coco Pazzo, the seminal and glamorous Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side. In the following years came Beppe, Maremma, and other projects. Now, he's got Salumeria Rosi on the Upper West Side, a small restaurant where you drink wine and eat small plates and salumi, and Il Ristorante Rosi, an elegant spot for the Madison Avenue crowd where the chef can revisit a lot of the cooking that made him famous. In the following interview, Casella talks about coming to New York, why he's always got rosemary in his pocket, and what he does at his restaurants. Can you tell me about coming to New York in the early '90s. I used to have a restaurant in Lucca. Your family's? Yes. I grew up in the restaurant. My life was only about restaurants and cooking, since I was four-years-old. I went to cooking school, and after that I became more involved with the restaurant and we got a Michelin star and all that. I started having lots of American customers, so I would visit here. I got offered jobs here, but I said "no." I did say yes when they asked me to come consult once a month, since that sounded cool. Where I was was mountains, rosemary, and cows. Little by little, I started coming to New York more, until I took the job at Coco Pazzo. Then came Maremma, Beppe, and all of that. What was it like cooking back then compared to now? It was completely back different then. The '90s was so different. I would go back home and tell my friend, "You know who was here this week? Oh, Madonna, the Stones was there, Frank Sinatra." My friend would call me a bullshitter. Then I would go back the next month and tell him, "Oh, I saw Bruce Springsteen, Kennedy, et cetera." Every time I would visit he would ask me, but I stopped, because he would just tell me to go fuck myself and that I was lying. After a few months, though, my friend who worked in Italian TV came to New York to do a program on famous Italians living outside Italy. I wasn't famous, but he was my friend. He came in on the night before Shirley MacLaine won the Oscar, then the day Julia Roberts came in, and the day Tom Cruise came in. So he gets all this footage of these stars, so the show becomes basically all about me! [laughs] Then my friend noticed. Working here back then was like a high every day. It was all new to me. I had been working in the mountains and suddenly I was flying on the second floor of the TWA plane and a car would pick me up at the airport to take me to the hotel. What about Italian food in the city now compared to then? Today Italian ingredients are more accessible. When I was at Coco Pazzo, we had the best, but it was very expensive. There are so many good Italian restaurants today in New York. You can get so many great things now. Would you say they are better now? Yes. There are so many different ones. We have a very nice representation of Italy here. I think a lot of the places here could be in Italy and do very, very OK. You have a lot of great Italian chefs who are American. And you're happy about that, yes? To be the dean of the Italian Culinary Academy and see that is wonderful. I'm proud. These chefs love Italian food and and are making other people love Italian food. Look at Mark Ladner and Michael White — they are great Italian chefs. They could cook in Italy and be in the top of every guide. How did Salumeria Rosi come about? One night while I was at Maremma, I went to dinner with an Italian journalist friend of mine and a man I found out was the owner of ROSI PARMACOTTO, the company that makes these very good products. We talked and quickly realized we wanted to do something similar, and we started working on this. The idea is very simple and very old: the

We already have, like, three of these in Bushwick. Last week, Theme Park Insider cited "multiple sources" and posted a report that claimed that a spectacular Star Wars–themed attraction will be a main feature of Disney's overhaul of its Florida theme park. While a Disney World spokesperson says they've got "nothing to announce" at the moment, that hasn't stopped others from speculating about what might go on inside the Mos Eisley Cantina–themed restaurant that's said to be a key component of the rumored attraction. Think Jedi-mind-trick happy hours, craft cocktails with Greedo, and lots and lots of blue milk. [Theme Park Insider, The Force, Disney Food Blog] Read more posts by Hugh MerwinFiled Under: greedo shot picklebacks, disney world, mos eisley cantina, star wars, theme parks

--!> Great story of NYC making progress, money and corruption. We had a bad potato in a bin with 40 good potatoes.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 Joanne Trattoria, the year-and-a-half-old restaurant from Lady Gaga's dad Joe Germanotta, received 19 violation points on its DOH inspection last week. That was enough to downgrade it from an A-grade to a B-grade. According to the DOH site, the restaurant had three "critical violations" related to the cleanliness of food surfaces, equipment storage, and food that was "adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan." As the Daily Mail notes, Mr. Germonatta took to Twitter on Wednesday to unleash a torrent of complaints about the Department of Health, the grading system, the inspector that visited the restaurant (which he names), and her boss (which he also names). According to Germanotta, the violation that did him in was related to one "bad potato" that was mixed in with a bunch of good potatoes. Here's a look at some of Joe's Twitter rant: Great story of NYC making progress, money and corruption. We had a bad potato in a bin with 40 good potatoes.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 It wasn't being served to a customer, it was raw, and when the inspector pointed it out we threw it away. How many bad veggies do you toss?— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 I'm sure Bloomberg should toss more than 1 a day.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 Regardless, the inspector gave us 7 points for a bad potato in a storage bin on our health department inspection,— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 Here's my violations at 10:40 pm after the kitchen has been closed for 40 minutes. Potato Peeler 5 points -- We were cleaning— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 Ice Scoop not in a storage holder, it was in the dish machine - 5 points— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 He took our A and left B or Grade Pending sign, our choice to display. Seems a little harsh.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 You really need to assess your role and service to NYC. I guess Bloomberg assigned you a quota, just wait till I see him or Scott again.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 What do you think? Post your messages to Mike Bloomberg, the root cause.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 Sorry guys and gals, Mister G is angry.— Joe Germanotta (@germanottajoe) June 13, 2013 · @germanottajoe [Twitter] · Lady Gaga's Parents' Restaurant Downgraded to B Hygiene Rating [Daily Mail]

Sexy time at Montmarte. On the off chance that it's not pouring rain in the city — a depressingly frequent occurrence this year — you'll want to act quickly and enjoy the nice weather by eating outside. But since this is New York, "outdoor seating" can mean that you're at a table that overlooks traffic and you're breathing in fumes and shouting over honking just for the sake of getting some fresh air. That doesn't have to be the case: It should be pleasant and relaxing to sit outside in the summertime, and the good news is that there are a lot of new restaurants that understand this. Here are fifteen spots where you can enjoy various meals in the sun, ensuring that no matter who you're with or when you're eating, you can properly savor the season. The Meal: Weekend Brunch The Cleveland: The Nolita restaurant's outdoor garden is filled with fresh flowers, foliage, and neon chairs. It's a delightful setting to enjoy new chef Tal Aboav's banana pancakes. Buvette: The small outdoor patio tucked in the back of the restaurant only has room for a handful of two-tops, creating a feeling of privacy that you don't often find in the city. There's a new brunch menu that includes dishes like steamed scrambled eggs with caviar and almond-butter toast with raspberries. Gran Electrica: Breakfast tacos, chilaquiles, and horchata make for an awesome brunch — especially when you're sitting on the pretty outdoor patio. The Meal: Weekday Lunch SmokeLine: BrisketTown's Daniel Delaney is behind this new spot on the High Line. He's serving smoked-meat sandwiches (with pepper-smoked brisket!) and ribs. This pop-up's only around until October 18. Fritzl's Lunch Box: Dan Ross-Leutwyler’s (formerly of Roberta's and Fatty ‘Cue) is behind this casual Bushwick spot. The backyard cement patio can seat 25 diners and is decorated with colorful floral tablecloths. Order the fried chicken or soft-shell crab sandwich and spend the whole day lounging. The Plaza Café at Rockefeller Center: It's easy to escape your midtown office for a business lunch at this al fresco café. Laurent Tourondel's overseeing the menu. The Meal: Romantic Dinner-Date The Backyard at the Pines: Angelo Romano is offering a special menu of wood-fired dishes, so you can enjoy your date's company while eating lobster with lardo and vanilla butter. Montmartre: Pete Wells deemed Gabriel Stulman's spot the "most-improved" restaurant, and now the pretty outdoor space, which is a lot less crowded than the dining room, is open. L'Apicio: Linguine with clams, roasted chicken, and a bottle of rosé will pretty much seal the deal — but a good Italian meal is even better when enjoyed at one of L'Apicio's outdoor seats, sectioned off from the sidewalk with heavy-duty planters. The Meal: Dinner With Friends Blue Ribbon Beer Garden: The LES Thompson Hotel now has a terrace complete with board games, Ping-Pong, barbecue plates, and a selection of international beers and cheap wines. For $15, you get a choice of barbecue Cornish hen, ribs, or market vegetables, which are all paired with cornbread, coleslaw, and bean salad. Distilled: Momofuku Noodle Bar alum Shane Lyons is making fried duck and waffles and beer-battered onion rings at this new Tribeca restaurant. The hearty bar food is perfect to enjoy on the restaurant's huge elevated outdoor patio. Hawker Bar: This Southeast Asian restaurant in Prospect Heights has an intimate patio with Chinese lanterns and rustic wood benches. Go with a group and share pad Thai, pork-belly buns, and grilled chili Montauk squid family-style. There's an impressive cocktail menu, too. The Meal: Drinks and Late-Night Snacks Pod 39 Hotel Rooftop: This penthouse bar has been around since last year, but this summer, it's offering Salvation Taco's guacamole and chips, too. The Standard Plaza: New this summer is an open area in front of the hotel, where the Best Pizza team is making wood