Elizabeth Falkner's Presence in New York is Starting to Krescendo

[elizabeth lippman for the times] finocchio flower powerAt the end of 2011, San Francisco chef Elizabeth Falkner announced she was closing Citizen Cake and Orson. The former had been open for 15 years. If you see a pattern in the restaurant names it's because Falkner, a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, was an aspiring fillmmaker before she became a chef. After 25 years in San Francisco, Falkner set her sites on New York City, where she landed on Atlanctic Avenue in Brooklyn and opened Krescendo in the former Downtown Atlantic space. The restaurant has an Italian menu with a heavy lean towards pizza and it showcases her ability in the kitchen as a chef and baker.

Falkner has appeared on Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and The Next Iron Chef for the first time on season four, where she lost in the finale to Geoffrey Zakarian. The last out-of-town chef to have spent time on TV and open a restaurant in the city didn't fair so well, but today, history doesn't repeat itself. Pete Wells awarded two stars to Krescendo.

"The Finocchio Flower Power is the pizza version of the sparkly oven," writes Wells, "a lavishly constructed detail that lets you know that Krescendo is much better than the neighborhood Italian joint it is trying to pass for. I do not know why Ms. Falkner and Nancy Puglisi, the restaurant’s owner, camouflaged the place so thoroughly, but the result is that not enough people are talking about Krescendo." Wells is a big fan of the restaurant's consistency and thorough execution. "The quality of a restaurant’s pizza often correlates negatively with that of its pastas and salads. Ms. Falkner," he reveals, "brings the same quiet focus to all her cooking at Krescendo."

Brooklyn Owes the Charmer Under Paul Liebrandt

Sally Rowe was wowed by the food Paul Liebrandt was cooking at Atlas in 2000. Liebrandt was 24 at the time. As a result, Rowe, a documentary filmmaker, was inspired to follow him around for nine years thereafter. The footage came together in 2010 as a documentary called A Matter of Taste: Serving up Paul Liebrandt, and it provides a candid look at Liebrandt's career.

After menu disputes at Atlas, Liebrandt quit and found work at Papillon in 2001. He left less than a year later. "I like to think of myself as a culinary mercinary," Liebrandt says in the documentary while between jobs, "on hire to the highest bidder." Liebrandt started his own consulting company after Papillon and it wasn't until 2005 that he returned to the kitchen: working as the Chef Director at Gilt, a position he held for less than a year. A short stint making cocktails for a large beverage company followed, and in 2007, Liebrandt was approached by restaurateur Drew Nieporent to be chef and partner in Corton, opening in the former Montrachet space in Tribeca.

On the collaboration with Liebrandt, Nieporent says in Taste, "The reason I want to work with Paul Liebrandt comes from the basic instincts that I've had from the beginning, which were, if I'm going to distinguish myself, if I'm going to do a better job than everybody else, then I have to be associated with the best people." Nieporent's instincts earned Corton three stars from the Times, two from the Michelin Guide, and kept the spark dormant that burns within Liebrandt to constantly seek out new challenges. Six years later, that spark has caught fire and the Siberian-born, London-raised chef will soon be splitting his time at Corton and the Elm, opening late spring in the King & Grove Hotel across the river on North 12th Street in Williamsburg.

The current space in the hotel will undergo a complete renovation, so we were asked not to share our pictures of what used to be Pillar & Plough, but the open, lofty, garden-level space that will house the Elm when it opens in late spring is going to be an exciting stage for Liebrandt's new act.

In the hype surrounding Brooklyn restaurants, Liebrandt reveals in a recent interview with Grub Street that he isn't concerned with a restaurant's location, "To me there are only two kinds (of food): good and bad. I mean, Williamsburg is so close, proximity-wise. We're all in the same city; we're all part of it, and it's not really at all like going to the West Coast. It may sound a bit corny, but we're all New Yorkers — I consider myself a New Yorker. For me, it all comes under this "New York" umbrella. I'm proud to be here, and I'm very, very thrilled to be doing this project in Williamsburg." [GrubStreet]

Lafayette Preview Party this Wednesday at the Dutch

Fresh Eggs is a series of special dinners thrown from time to time in the private dining room downstairs at the Dutch. The room is called PS 131, and this Wednesday, Andrew Carmellini and Damon Wise will be serving a six-course dinner of dishes that will be on the menu at Lafayette, Carmellini's highly anticiapted French restaurant, when it opens in a few weeks in the former Chinatown Brasserie space. Dishes include a mushroom and bacon tart, sardines, raw beef with marrow cressonniere, chevre ravioli, and a seafood mouclade with sea urchin amongst others. Bubbles a la Champagne chosen by beverage director Josh Nadel will accompany each course. See the rest of the menu and get yourself a ticket here. At $250, it's a hefty price tag, but the restaurant's going to have a hefty impact on New York when it opens.

Eat the Week; Jan 14th - 18th

Boulton & Watt opened in the former Nice Guy Eddie's space | We chowed down on the Luger Burger at Peter Luger | Pete Wells awards two stars to Arlington Club; Laurent Tourondel's new steakhouse on the UES | A sneak peek at Suzume; sushi and ramen in Williamsburg from an ex-Bond St. and Noodle Bar vet | Danny Bowien chats food, music, and inspiration in a short video from Nowness | Donde Dinner? - 358 Third Ave

Donde Dinner? - 358 Third Ave

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, every Friday, we pick a restaurant and post its address for you. The catch is, that's all the information you get. No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling. Here's last week's address:

103 Second Avenue = Mighty Quinn's

This week's restaurant follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion. Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account. You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails and you never have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

358 Third Avenue (@ 26th St)

Practice Makes Perfect (Americanized Oriental Food)

Mission Chinese Food became an instant hit when it opened on Orchard Street last May. The restaurant introduced New Yorkers to Danny Bowien's unique cuisine, one he refers to as "Americanized Oriental Food," and revealed his generous approach to hospitality. In this short video from Nowness, Bowien cites Spicy Village on Forsyth in Chinatown as a source of inspiration, "I probably ate here 20 times and we honestly totally knocked off a few of their dishes because they're so delicious."

He also draws comparissons in cooking to music, explaining that, "As a cook you have to cook and you have to cook a lot; sixteen hours a days sometimes and it's very phsyical. Same with being in a band, you have to record, and you have to tour. You have to practice a lot." [EN]

Suzume Opening Tonight in Williamsburg

Michael Briones and Sam Barron are opening a humble restaurant on the corner of Devoe and Lorimer. Suzume, which means sparrow in Japanese, is bringing sushi and ramen to Williamsburg via 30 seats set in a cozy room rife with Eastern influence. Barron is a carpenter with two other Brooklyn projects to his name in Maggie Brown and The Emerson. Briones honed his ramen skills in the kitchen at Momofuku Noodle Bar and learned his way around fish filets during his time at Bond St. In addition to sushi and ramen, Briones' menu at Suzume is one of izakaya-inspired small plates and everything on it shares a focus on sourcing the freshest ingredients possible. The restaurant opens tonight at 6pm.

We were lucky enough to get invited to a soft opening earlier this week. Here's a look at what to expect from Suzume.

Click to read more ...

Wells Pops Over to Arlington Club

[piotr redlinski for the times] popovers at arlington clubLaurent Tourondel was working at Cello when the restaurant earned three stars from the Times in 1999. Five years later, Tourondel partnered with Jimmy Haber and the BLT empire was born. BLT Fish, Prime, Burger, and an eventual split with Haber would all unfold by 2010. At the end of last year, the Upper East Side welcomed Tourondel via Arlington Club; a collaborative effort with the nightlife gurus of Tao Group. In his review today, Wells reveals an unconventional steakhouse worthy of two stars.

“When he’s in the zone,” Wells writes of Tourondel, “as he is most of the time at Arlington Club, his cooking is as ingratiating as it is skillful; it wins your affection right away and then your respect.”

Sushi makes an appearance on the menu, but Wells hints that you might want stay away from it, “Do not, I beg you, get involved with the sushi rolls. The rice is cold and tightly packed; the fish is dull. The sushi menu is so out of place that it’s a little embarrassing, in the way of a Hawaiian shirt bought on vacation and worn to the office.”

Arlington Club strays from traditional steakhouse routine in many ways. “But,” Wells explains, “like many such things at Arlington Club, it’s memorably good. The restaurant doesn’t know how to follow the script, but its improvisations are inspired.” [NYTimes]