Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 1:45PM 
Welcome to First Bite, in which Digest NY brings you a look at some of the city's newest restaurants shortly after they open. We'll go, eat some food, take some pictures, and report back to you. This go round it's Porsena Extra Bar, the third project from chef Sara Jenkins that opened on East 7th Street last week.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:21PM 
The highly anticipated new project from the fellows behind Littleneck is opening tonight at 6pm. The Pines is located at 284 3rd Ave, just two storefronts down from Littleneck, Aaron Lefkove and Andy Curtain's New England-style seafood shack at 288 3rd Ave. If Littleneck is "of the sea," Lefkove has said, The Pines will be "of the land." Chef Angelo Romano, formerly of Roberta's, Lupa, and the shortlived Williamsburg hit Maston Lake, has created a concise menu of dishes like squash with house made tofu, smoked tomato, and bottarga, and cavatelli with trotter ragu. Here's a few pictures of the backyard and bar, chairs were up when we were there but Eater got some great shots of the place all setup and ready for service.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 12:57AM 
Le Cirque is going to have a hard time recovering from the beating Pete Wells gave it in this weeks review. He had been visiting Sirio Maccioni's home away from home since late spring. He found, "The kitchen gave the impression that it had stopped reaching for excellence and possibly no longer remembered what that might mean." Many of the dishes were lacking in three categories: "conviction," "rationale," and "seasoning." Wells noted that, "Anyone with a bottle of olive oil and access to a supermarket produce aisle might easily prepare an heirloom tomato salad that surpasses the one I was served at Le Cirque in August."
Service was the saving grace, "So accomplished that I could almost believe it was all worthwhile up until the minute the check arrived." The restaurant opened in 1974 at the Mayfair Hotel. Le Cirque called the New York Palace Hotel home from 1997 to 2006 before settling at the Bloomberg building on East 58th Street. Le Cirque's nearly forty year relationship with New York City certainly helped with Wells' decision to stamp at least one star on his review.
The Le Cirque experience may not be what it once was, but Maccioni's charm is unchanging. He turned 80 this year and continues to be a presence on the dining room floor. His gracious smile shines from a face Wells refers to as "a comic pantomime of constant suffering that instantly made clear why he has long been called one of New York’s most charming hosts."
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 1:23PM 
Summer is (unfortunately) over. September will sometimes hang on to the warm weather and allude to an endless summer, but the cool breezes of late carry the rigorous truth. It's time to get back to work. The last quarter will be a busy one for restaurateurs, many of whom are approaching the remaining months of 2012 with a double-or-nothing attitude. Michael White has The Butterfly and Ristorante Morini on the horizon, Andrew Carmellini will add The Library in the Public Theater and a yet-to-be-named French place to his resume, and the Torrisi guys will introduce The Lobster Club and Carbone to Thompson Street. In addition to the double features, a slew of other restaurants are opening by the end of the year and we're excited. Here's a look at a few storefronts with news about the restaurants moving into them.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at 11:28AM 
Before opening Angolo SoHo at 53 Grand Street, chef Michael Berardino familiarized himself with Italy and all things meat during his time at dell'anima and neighboring sister restaurants The Cannibal and Resto. Berardino was replaced by Preston Clark, a Jean Georges vet who has since revamped the menu at Resto.
The menu at Angolo SoHo is true to Italian format: antipasti, primi, secondi, and a handful of contorni. Standby's like fritti misti and spaghetti alla vongole will appease the curious, out of town passersby. Dishes like housemade stracciatella with bottarga and basil seeds and the Sardinian lamb loin with fregola sarda and mint showcase Berardino's knack for Italian ingredients. The piece de resistance may be an 8 week dry aged ribeye for two with bone marrow, radish, arugula, capers, and lemon for $130.
Angolo SoHo is the third Italian restaurant in a five block radius to open in SoHo in the last two months. Galli and Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar both opened at the beginning of August and added two new Italian options to the neighborhood south of Houston Street. Galli, at 45 Mercer Street, serves Italian comfort food in a rustic, exposed brick room designed by owner Steve Gallo's wife Karen. Many of the dishes come from Steve Gallo's family recipes. Isola Trattoria opened in a 5,000 square foot greenhouse at 9 Crosby Street and serves a fish-heavy menu inspired by southern Italy and the Amalfi Coast. The triumvirate of Italian restaurants would be overkill in any other town but this one.
Galli | 45 Mercer Street
Angolo SoHo | 53 Grand Street
Isola Trattoria & Crudo Bar | 9 Crosby Street
Monday, September 17, 2012 at 11:33AM 
Tickets for the first half of the 21st Century Limited switch between Alinea and Eleven Madison Park went on sale Friday via the Limited's Facebook page and sold out in a matter of minutes. From September 26th to the 30th, Grant Achatz and the team behind his Chicago restaurant Alinea will be cooking at Eleven Madison Park.
The event takes its name from the 20th Century Limited train, which ran passengers back and forth from Chicago to New York from 1902 to 1967. The $495 ticket price includes a multi-course dinner, reserve wine pairing and, we're guessing, an assortment of flowers. It was tradition to give men that rode the 20th Century Limited carnations and women flowers and perfume.
No mention yet as to when tickets will go on sale for October 10th to the 14th, when Alinea will host Daniel Humm and the Eleven Madison Park team in Chicago, but something tells us when they do they'll go fast.
Friday, September 14, 2012 at 4:13PM 
Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, we'll pick a restaurant and post its address for you every Friday. The catch is, that's all the information you get. No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling! Before we get to this week's DD, let us reveal last week's restaurant.
Last week's address:
552 Vanderbilt Ave = Bar Chuko
This weeks spot 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 don't have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:
29 East 2nd Street (@ 2nd Ave)
Donde Dinner? Friday, September 14, 2012 at 12:18PM 
ottoFlorence Fabricant writes a column for the Diner's Journal titled "Dear Flo Flab," in which she takes questions and "gives advice on the fine points of entertaining at home and eating in restaurants." The (usually) sound advice comes from someone who is clearly experienced and well versed in all things food. One question in the column's return yesterday addresses the issue of seating incomplete parties:
Seating incomplete parties does zero good for a restaurant. Restaurants like Otto and Balthazar serve well over 2,000 people during the weekend alone. Plenty of other restaurants match these numbers, numbers that would not be attainable if incomplete seating policies were not in place. The policy is even more understandable at small places like Mission Chinese Food, where, "You're looking at two hours" for a wait for two on Saturday night. If parties are allowed to sit and hold a table for X amount of time while they wait for their friends to "park the car," "come back from the bathroom," or "close the bar tab," dinner cannot commence. A party sat incomplete raises the wait times for everyone else. Every square inch of real estate in NYC is valuable and restaurants, down to the tables and chairs, are no exception.
A recent article in the New Yorker titled "Check, Please" explores the challenges fine dining restaurants face making money. Fine dining aside, every restaurant faces the same challenges. In "Check, Please," John Colapinto explores different ways in which restaurants maximize the diner's experience while turning the table in the quickest time possible. Turn tables, turn a profit.
Not every restaurant should adhere to a strict incomplete seating policy. If the dining room is only half full, sit the incomplete party. But, if the restaurant is on a wait, it makes complete sense, and should be expected, that priority will go to groups that are "all here."