Mile End Cookbook Coming in September

Mile End is the quickly growing restaurant concept of husband and wife Noah and Rae Bernamoff.  Their Hoyt Street location in Brooklyn has been on the receiving end of great reviews since it opened in January of 2010.  The success called for expansion and Mile End Sandwich opened a few weeks ago on Bond Street across the river. 

With an expanding empire, the Bernamoff's leased out a space in Red Hook from The O'Connell Organization this spring and use it to pump out smoked meat, cookies, pickles, and bread for both locations.

On September 4th, Mile End will get its very own cookbook, The Mile End Cookbook: Redefining Jewish Comfort Food from Hash to Hamantaschen.  It's broken down into Part 1: Do-It-Yourself Delicatessen and Part 2: To The Table.  It provides holiday entertaining menus, breakfast and brunch recipes, and advice on how to slice smoked meat.  Here's a sneak peak via Grubstreet.

Andrew Carmellini Plans French Restaurant in Former Chinatown Brasserie Space

The owners of Chinatown Brasserie announced they are closing their six-year-old restaurant on Lafayette Street today. Josh Pickard, John McDonald, and chef Joe Ng have plans to reopen in a smaller venue in the same neighborhood, where they feel the restaurant can be a better experience. Joe Ng will continue his duties as executive chef at West Village hotspot Redfarm. 

Josh Pickard is a partner with Luke Ostrom and Andrew Carmellini in Locanda Verde and The Dutch. Diner's Journal reports today that the powerhouse team is taking over the old Brasserie space and planning a French restaurant.

Mum will be much of the word while the project is in its infant stages, but we know Carmellini is well-versed in French cuisine. He worked under Gary Kunz at Lespinasse and with Daniel Boulud at Cafe Boulud.  It will be interesting to see what the partners do with the two floors at 380 Lafayette Street.

Two Stars for Chef Mads Refslund's Acme

Acme is the Cajun-turned-Nordic restaurant on Great Jones Street.  Mads Refslund is the chef and he's very locally minded.  He's also half of the chef team that opened Noma, the 44-seat restaurant in Copenhagen that San Pellegrino has dubbed the best in the world for the past two years.  (If you're lucky enough to have a reservation at Noma, don't pull a no-show).

Mads was present for the beginning of New Nordic Cuisine, an ideal that restricts kitchens to ingredients that can be grown, caught, or locally foraged.  "My whole philosophy is to tell the story of where you are," he says.

Mads Refslund is a man of his word.

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. 

Pete Wells Awards Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria 3 Stars

Pete Wells heads to Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria for this weeks review and leaves quite happy.  While the 3 stars put the restaurant at the same caliber as Babbo, Craft, Marea, and Gramercy Tavern, it also leaves many a bit concerned.

Ellabess to Close After Valentine's Day

Less than a full week after the walls of Ellabess were filled with bloody mary's, and plenty of people to drink them, we learn today that the restaurant will close after service on Valentine's Day this Tuesday. The space will act as a private events locale for the Nolitan Hotel in the interim, and will reopen after a reconfiguration sometime this spring.

Time's are tough when the team behind Dell'anima, L'Artusi, and Anfora have to shutter a concept that's less than a year old.

Eat, Drink, and be Bloody Mary

Tyler Drinkwater, friend and beverage director at ellabess, took home the drinkers choice award with his Mexican Mary at the sold-out bloody mary contest held at ellabess over the weekend.  Judges choice was awarded to the Peels/Freeman's team.

Mexican Mary:

Crop organic vodka, roasted tomatillo, serrano, jalepeno, onion, garlic, lime juice, smoked chipotle salt, pepper, cilantro.

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