Gowanus Whole Foods Finally Happening

The Times brings us the above picture of a once industrial wasteland that will finally become home to a proposed Whole Foods.

Whole Foods bought the 4.2 acres in 2004.  After eight years of community board meetings, reworked plans, and naysaying, The Board of Standards and Appeals finally granted Whole Foods permission to open at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn.

The Whole Foods will be 56,000 square feet (that's bigger than Eataly!), and reps say shovels will be digging "as soon as possible," according to Brownstoner.

Back Forty West Open for Lunch

Peter Hoffman closed his Savoy space last summer after a 20 year run.  Now, after a lengthy hibernation and a face lift, the space is home to Back Forty West.  You can get in for lunch now, dinner will start in a couple of weeks.

The menu is laid out in categories, broken down by what you use to eat what; i.e. your hands are for the flash fried rock shrimp, a spoon and laddle will take care of the green curry fish stew, and a spoon should work nicely with the devil's food cake.

Check out the menu.

Eric Asimov Shines a Light on Sicilian Wines

Italian wines are drastically different from region to region.  The wines of Sicily are unique in that they represent a hot climate, though manage to retain a minerality that comes from a volcanic soil that has been composed over years of influence from Mount Etna.

NYTimes wine guy Eric Asimov helps further explain the beauty and uniqueness of Sicilian reds.

There's Something Fishy Going On at Frankies 570

When Dave Pasternack left Esca to head up Eataly's Il Pesce restaurant in 2010, Chef de Cuisine Katie O'Donnell got a littler busier.  Eater brings us the news that now, after seven years at Esca, she heads to Frankies 570 on Hudson Street in Manhattan, the newest addition in the Frank and Frank empire.

Fonda East Village Now Open

Roberto Santibanez, the man behind Park Slope's Fonda, opened a Fonda outpost in the East Village and hopes to get the same neighborhood vibe as the Brooklyn locale.

Originally slated for a February 21st open date, Fonda opened for dinner yesterday.  Brunch plans are in the near future.

40 Avenue B (btwn 3rd and 4th)

Let the Countdown Begin; Back Forty, Back Thirty-Nine, Back Thirty-Eight...

Peter Hoffman's Back Forty West is going to open next thursday, March 1st.

Back Forty West will first be open for breakfast and lunch.  As Grubstreet points out, a new bar and a smoker have been added to the former Savoy space and dinner will come later in the month with a focus on one pot dishes. 

Frank Bruni Profiles the Alex Stupak

Alex Stupak is the executive chef/owner of Empellon Taqueria and Empellon Cocina.  Neither place is a year old, though both are bringing  plenty of buzz and a new vision of Mexican cuisine to New York City.

Former NYTimes restaurant critic Frank Bruni profiles the chef and takes us through his brief (Stupak is only 31) career, which apparently started with getting yelled at for putting cream in scrambled eggs when he worked at Denny's.

I'll Have a Shack Burger and a Star, Please

It sounds like Pete Wells got up on the wrong side of the bed before he wrote the  Shake Shack review.  He left the house with a star in his pocket and decided he'd give it to the Danny Meyer chain.

The Shake Shack empire has brought hundreds of jobs to NYC.  Positions that are filled mostly by the city's youth, a point that has worked for and against the burger chain as Pete Wells marks inconsistency as the recurring theme.