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    Chi-Chi’s, Former Mexican Restaurant Chain, Plans a Comeback

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    The chain, which closed in 2004, is poised for a revival next year after the son of one of the founders reached a deal with Hormel Foods.Chi-Chi’s, the Mexican restaurant chain that closed 20 years ago, is poised for a revival next year after Michael McDermott, the son of one of the founders, announced a deal with Hormel Foods.Under the agreement with Hormel, which owns the brand’s trademarks, Mr. McDermott will be able to use the Chi-Chi’s name on newly opened restaurants in 2025.In a news release announcing the deal, Mr. McDermott said he had “fond memories” of growing up in Chi-Chi’s restaurants.He credited his father with instilling in him “the passion and determination to pursue my own career in the restaurant industry.”Mr. McDermott said in a statement on Friday that the new business venture was “in the early stages of planning by securing funding” but shared that the first two restaurants to open will be in Minnesota.He did not clarify where in Minnesota the sites would be or how many restaurants might ultimately be opened under the revival.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Everyone’s Going to the Book Bar

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      A glass of wine, a snack and a new book is about as good as it gets.Growing up, I was a voracious reader. I loved to crack open a book first thing in the morning and last thing at night. In second grade, I got in trouble for surreptitiously devouring “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” under my desk during other lessons because I couldn’t stand that my class was reading it one chapter at a time.After I went to college, though, other distractions crept in: the internet, peak TV, disposable income. But I’ve never stopped loving the idea of loving books — my apartment is filled with reading material for the day I rediscover the girl who was willing to risk her entire second grade education just to find out what happens next.I believe that a lot of people are trying to find their way back to a simpler time when nothing was more interesting then a new book, and along with that has come the rise of the book bar. These aren’t mere bookstores, they’re cafes, bars and restaurants that invite you to sit for a while and read with no concern about clearing out for the next patron, providing the “third place” we all so desperately crave.Book Club Bar may be the only book-focused spot that’s open until midnight on a weekday.Heather Willensky for The New York TimesWine and the newest releaseThe Lit. Bar in the Bronx, open since 2019, may be the most widely known example of the book-bar hybrid — the walls are lined with books and bottles of wine — but it’s hardly the only example anymore.Down in Alphabet City between Avenue A and Avenue B, there’s Book Club Bar, also open since 2019. Just past the long bar — emphasis on the bar, Book Club is open until midnight or 1 a.m. daily — there’s an entire bookstore filled with the latest releases, a cozy seating area and a sizable (for Manhattan) backyard, where I looked on with just a little of envy at the well-read patrons sipping wine, cocktails and coffee. (Note: Laptops are banned after 6 p.m. on weekdays and after noon on weekends.)The Lit. Bar, 131 Alexander Avenue (134th Street)Book Club Bar, 197 East Third Street (Avenue B)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Are the French Laundry and Per Se Still Worth a Splurge? We Went Back to See.

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      From the earliest days of the French Laundry, you knew to expect a very fine meal as soon as you walked through its signature blue door. What you didn’t see coming were the jokes.When Thomas Keller opened the restaurant in 1994, fancy food in America was in transition, moving away from its staid, snooty and stiffly French past, toward a locally focused ethos and a looser vibe. Like so many other diners, I made a pilgrimage to Yountville, Calif., to experience what the New York Times critic Ruth Reichl hailed as “the most exciting place to eat in the United States.”At my first bite of a dish called “oysters and pearls,” I laughed out loud. Who spoons caviar on top of humble tapioca? It was more than daring, it was madness. But it worked — the soft pop of caviar atop bouncy tapioca pearls and plump oysters, all surrounded by sabayon as light and briny as ocean foam. Not only was it one of the most delicious things I’d ever tasted, but its knowing poke at the “haute” in haute cuisine displayed a sense of humor both sophisticated and sly.Mr. Keller’s signature dish, “oysters and pearls,” was groundbreaking when the French Laundry opened in 1994. It’s still on the menu both there and at Pe Se.Colin Clark for The New York TimesAnd that was just the first of nine courses in a meal so exhilarating and fresh that more than 20 years and countless tasting menus later I can still remember every bite. The silky wobble of the truffle custard as I scooped it with a potato chip from a translucent eggshell. The supple snap of the butter-poached lobster with leeks and beets. The delicate crunch of the salmon tartare cornets, like tiny ice cream cones. Culinary wit and edible puns informed dishes from the “tongue in cheek” (braised beef cheeks and veal tongue with horseradish cream) to the trompe l’oeil “coffee” (actually semifreddo) and real doughnuts for dessert.Mr. Keller brought this precision and sense of fun — as well as much of the French Laundry menu — to New York City when he opened Per Se to glowing reviews in 2004. At the entrance was an oversize blue door, a nod to the one at the French Laundry, except that it didn’t open. Well-heeled diners were left tugging at the knob until, magically, glass panels on the side opened to admit them. The wizard will see you now.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Alice Brock, Restaurant Owner Made Famous by a Song, Dies at 83

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      Arlo Guthrie’s antiwar staple “Alice’s Restaurant” was inspired by a Thanksgiving Day visit to her diner in western Massachusetts.Alice Brock, whose eatery in western Massachusetts was immortalized as the place where “you can get anything you want” in Arlo Guthrie’s 1967 antiwar song “Alice’s Restaurant,” died on Thursday in Wellfleet, Mass. — just a week before Thanksgiving, the holiday during which the rambling story at the center of the song takes place. She was 83.Viki Merrick, her caregiver, said she died in a hospice from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Ever since Mr. Guthrie released the song, officially called “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” in 1967, it has been a staple of classic-rock stations every late November, not to mention car trip singalongs on the way to visit family for Thanksgiving dinner.Ms. Brock’s restaurant, the Back Room, does not feature much in the song itself. Over the course of a little more than 18 minutes, Mr. Guthrie — doing more talking than singing — recounts a visit that he and a friend, Rick Robbins, paid to Ms. Brock and her husband, Ray Brock, for Thanksgiving dinner.A shaggy-dog story ensues: Mr. Guthrie and Mr. Robbins take some trash to the city dump, but, finding it closed, leave it in a ravine instead. The next morning the police arrest them for littering, and Ms. Brock has to bail them out.That night she cooks them all a big meal, and the following day they appear in court, where the judge fines them $50. Later, Mr. Guthrie is ordered to an Army induction center, where he is able to avoid the draft because of his criminal record.Ms. Brock helped write the first part of the song, up until the trial.“We were sitting around after dinner and wrote half the song,” she told the writer C.A. Sanders, “and the other half, the draft part, Arlo wrote.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      TGI Fridays Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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      The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Saturday but said its restaurants would remain open while it works on a “restructuring process.”TGI Fridays Inc., the casual American dining chain that for more than half a century served customers happy-hour deals, hamburgers and comfort-food appetizers like mozzarella sticks and loaded potato skins, filed for bankruptcy protection on Saturday.The Dallas-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Northern District of Texas to begin a “restructuring process” to ensure the “long-term viability of the brand,” according to a company statement.The move comes as the company struggles with financial challenges brought, in part, by the Covid-19 pandemic, Rohit Manocha, the executive chairman of TGI Fridays Inc., said in the statement.All 39 restaurants in the United States that the company owns and operates will remain open. Locations owned by 56 independent franchisees are not included in the bankruptcy filing, the company said.The company estimated both its assets and its liabilities are between $100 million and $500 million, according to court filings.TGI Fridays, which stands for Thank God It’s Friday, opened in 1965 in Manhattan. It became popular for creating an environment of flirtation at its happy hours, which catered to single people, and for its large portions.In 2007, the company changed its menu and began offering smaller portions for lower prices, a move that proved popular with customers.The pandemic, though, proved to be a challenge for restaurant chains like TGI Fridays that have large real estate footprints. The chain has more than 461 restaurants in 41 countries. Since the pandemic, customers’ appetites have shifted to faster, cheaper food.In October, Bloomberg reported that TGI Fridays Inc. was seeking financing to prepare for a potential bankruptcy filing.TGI Fridays, which dropped the apostrophe in its logo in 2013, is privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, a New York-based private equity firm. TriArtisan did not immediately respond on Saturday to an email seeking additional comment.The restaurant chain was a cultural touchstone of American casual dining for decades.Famous for its brightly colored beverages, TGI Fridays said its bartenders trained the actor Tom Cruise to make drinks for the 1988 film “Cocktail.” It also takes credit for having popularized the Long Island Iced Tea.Fridays, as the chain is sometimes called, is not the only casual sit-down restaurant chain that has struggled recently.Buca di Beppo, an Italian casual dining chain with more than 80 locations, many in California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May and exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, The Associated Press reported. More

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      The Hard-Shell Taco Deserves Your Respect

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      The version that once thrived at the midcentury fast food stands of Los Angeles is now a regional treasure.Bar A Tí is a serious taqueria: fresh blue-corn masa, a dark and cryptic mole that ferments for a full school year, duck confit, the works. The crispy taco, however, is a crinkled half-moon of braised beef shank flickering with garlic, chiles and cilantro under a heavy fringe of neon orange cheese.This is not, at a glance, a serious taco. Though Andrew Ponce uses thin Kernel of Truth tortillas for his crispy tacos, and excellent tomatoes for the salsa, he also invokes the tacos of Cal-Mex diners, fast-food chains and family meal kits. He calls back, with some nostalgia, to the American hard-shell tacos that thrived in midcentury California and, for better or worse, shaped the iconography of tacos around the world.Mr. Ponce, a Mexican American chef who opened his Echo Park restaurant about a month ago, grew up in Culver City, and when he wanted to go out for crispy tacos at Taco Bell or his local spot Tito’s Tacos, his father disapproved. Hard-shell tacos were a goofy and inauthentic misunderstanding. Besides, the family had real Mexican food at home!”I wasn’t supposed to have it,” Mr. Ponce told me, “and that made it so much better.”Andrew Ponce opened his cheffy taqueria Bar A Tí just over a month ago.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesThe crispy tacos are fried with braised beef shank inside, then crammed with orange cheese.Michelle Groskopf for The New York TimesThe seasoning-from-a-packet, Cheddar-crammed, hard-shell taco was my childhood introduction to the form — an exotic box kit delivered to my family in France by an American relative. But I’ve minimized its once- thrilling effect and long since learned to wave it away as a meaningless speck in the taco universe.So much so that when I stopped recently at Taco Lita, in Arcadia — open since 1967 and conveniently close to my doctor’s office — I realized I’d forgotten the pleasures of this style entirely.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Barbara Lynch Will Close All Her Restaurants

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      She helped put her city on the modern culinary map, but many employees said they paid a price in workplace abuse.Barbara Lynch, the celebrated chef who helped kick-start Boston’s modern fine-dining scene, announced Wednesday that her remaining restaurants were closing, ending a starry 30-year run that was shadowed in recent years by accusations of toxic working conditions in her kitchens.Her flagship, No. 9 Park, popular among the city’s political class since it opened in 1998 on Beacon Hill, will close at the end of the year, according to a statement first reported by Eater Boston. Ms. Lynch also announced on Instagram that the Rudder, a storied seafood spot that she took over and reopened last year in Gloucester, on the North Shore, had already closed. Her company, the Barbara Lynch Collective, did not immediately respond to an email seeking details about the closing of B & G Oysters, in the South End of Boston.In a report last year in The New York Times, more than 20 former and current staff members described a variety of abuse Ms. Lynch had inflicted on employees, including verbal attacks, inappropriate propositions, and touching, shoving and hitting. She denied the allegations, saying they were “fantastical” and “seemed designed to bring me down.”In January, she closed her white-tablecloth restaurant Menton, along with Sportello and Drink, all in the same building in the city’s Fort Point neighborhood, blaming an “uncooperative landlord.” She sold the Butcher Shop and Stir, the South End spots where the chef Kristen Kish began her run from “Top Chef” winner in 2012 to the show’s current host.In her statement on Wednesday, Ms. Lynch attributed the final closings to “the harsh realities of the global pandemic” and other “difficulties.” Last week, her company was sued for outstanding debt by its linen supplier; a 2023 class-action lawsuit by former employees over tips withheld during the pandemic is scheduled to be heard in November.The closings mark the end of a prominent culinary career for Ms. Lynch, whose roles as a Boston native, an early leader among women chefs, and a survivor of childhood neglect and rape won her national attention. She has described physical abuse in the kitchen by her first high-profile boss, the chef Todd English, and campaigned against such practices. But among the hundreds of alumni of Ms. Lynch’s kitchens, her short temper and drinking problem became an open secret, especially after she was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated in 2017.That same year, when her memoir was published, she led seven restaurants and was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential Americans. She trained many young chefs, including Ms. Kish, Stephanie Cmar, Colin Lynch and Jason Bond.Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. More

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      America’s Best Restaurants 2024

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      We have finished our annual search for America’s best restaurants. Over the last 12 months, reporters and editors traveled to nearly every state scouting restaurants for our annual list. This year, it was about spaces as much as places. We ate hyperlocal dishes served out of a trailer in a rural Virginia field, experienced one […] More

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      Kellogg’s Diner Lives On With Jackie Carnesi at the Helm

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      The co-owner of Miriam opens Rafael, Brass enlists Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra, and more restaurant news.OpeningKellogg’s DinerThe 1928 original, a classic of the genre, has been reborn. The restaurateur Louis Skibar has put Jackie Carnesi, formerly of Roberta’s and Nura in Greenpoint, in charge of the kitchen. (“I love diners,” said Mr. Skibar, whose portfolio includes a few.) At 37, Ms. Carnesi said she no longer had to prove her chops and could concentrate on a menu notable for approachability and affordability. At the same time, you’ll find herbed mayo and marinated tomatoes in the BLT; guajillo-braised short rib hash, a nod to Ms. Carnesi’s Texan roots; huevos rancheros; and nachos. A highlight on Amanda Perdomo’s dessert menu is strawberry pretzel salad. The design, an updated restoration, is by Nico Arze and Matthew Maddy. (Opens Friday) 518 Metropolitan Avenue (Union Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, kelloggsdinernyc.com. Rafael The chef Rafael Hasid brings Mediterranean and Middle Eastern to neighborhood settings. Having successfully planted Miriam in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a sibling on the Upper West Side, he has now turned his attention to the Upper East Side. This time his name is on the awning; Miriam was for his mother. The townhouse space on several levels is simply done with pale wood, blue accents (a thing this year), some rough-hew stonework and Middle Eastern design touches. The repertoire of the executive chef, Francisco Da Silva Rosa includes shakshuka, Israeli chopped salad and lamb in a burger. (Opens Thursday) 917 Lexington Avenue (71st Street), 646-918-7971, rafaelues.com. BrassA challenge when opening a restaurant is the name. Here’s one that has been hiding in plain sight — clever for an American brasserie. The place in question is in the Evelyn Hotel in NoMad, where the entrepreneur Nick Hatsatouris has already opened the Tusk Bar. He has again enlisted Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske Valtierra as partners for a menu that talks brasserie with an American accent. Mussels with chickpea fritters, an onion tart in a buckwheat crust, Amish chicken rolled around a mousseline of herbs and truffles, and a profiterole masquerading as a banana split are what you’ll find in a room with a vintage piano centerpiece that will be put to use. (Thursday) 27 East 27th Street, 212-971-9746, brassny.com. Corner Store Michael Vignola, Catch Hospitality’s culinary director, and Paul Castro, the executive chef of this spot moving in to a space on the edge of SoHo once occupied by Dos Caminos, dress some American classics with luxury touches. Wagyu is in a French dip. A two-pound lobster is escorted by frites, and an apple hand pie comes encased in buttery shortbread. Drinks include martinis, like a sour cream and onion version served with dip and chips. A bar, two dining rooms done in green velvet and leather, and a glass-enclosed patio define the premises. 475 West Broadway (West Houston Street), 212-271-9240, thecornerstoresoho.com.Dilly Dally Dilly Dally serves up unpretentious fare like lasagna.Teddy WolffA white storefront and a red awning announce this newcomer to Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. There is a chef’s counter but the place is better defined by unpretentious fare like meatballs, lasagna, ravioli with sage, crackers and dip, Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail and crisp steelhead trout. Dave Patry’s goal is comfort and familiarity, and he is working with the culinary director Diego Moya, a chef with pedigree. 626 Vanderbilt Avenue (Prospect Place), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, 646-481-0754, dillydallybk.com. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More