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    Ex-Disney Worker Who Hacked Menus Gets 3 Years in Prison

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    The fired employee admitted that he changed prices, added profanity, and altered menu items so they appeared to be free of certain allergens.A former employee of Walt Disney World who hacked into menus used by its restaurants and edited them — changing prices, adding profanity and altering listed allergens — was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge in Florida this week.None of the changes, including falsified information about food allergens that could have been harmful to visitors, ever appeared before the public, according to court records. The menu alterations were caught and court records show that none of the changes ever reached the printing stage.The former employee, Michael Scheuer of Winter Garden, Fla., was sentenced on Wednesday in federal court in Orlando, Fla., after pleading guilty in January to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.Mr. Scheuer, 40, was ordered to pay restitution of about $620,000 to Disney and $70,000 to the unidentified software company that provides Disney with its menu creation program.While court documents do not mention Disney World, menus that were entered into evidence in Mr. Scheuer’s case are from the hundreds of restaurants at Walt Disney World in Orlando.Disney World representatives did not respond to messages seeking comment.In early June 2024, Mr. Scheuer had returned from paternity leave, court documents show. A few days later, he had an argument with a supervisor about menu creation, according to the documents, and he was told that he would be suspended.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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      Connecticut Shell Recyclers Are Helping Oysters

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      Summer in New England means lobster rolls, fried seafood and, of course, freshly shucked oysters.But there’s a problem. Those empty shells usually end up in a dumpster instead of back in the water, where they play a key role in the oyster life cycle. Oyster larvae attach to shells, where they grow into adults and form reefs that improve water quality, prevent coastal erosion and create habitat for other marine life.Two men in Connecticut are working to fix that. They’ve started a statewide program to collect discarded shells from local restaurants, dry them and return them to Long Island Sound for restoration projects.50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.“We fill that missing piece,” said Tim Macklin, a co-founder of Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration, the nonprofit group leading the effort.It’s one of several shell recycling programs that have emerged to help reverse the steep decline in oyster populations along U.S. coastlines, a drop that experts largely attribute to overharvesting, habitat degradation and disease. Some of the largest programs process more than a million pounds of shell each year.Tell Us About Solutions Where You Live More

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      From peppercorns to plastic forks: US businesses that rely on Chinese products reel from Trump tariffs

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      Chang Chang, a Sichuan restaurant in Washington DC, was already noticing that some of its business had dropped off after tens of thousands of federal workers living in the area lost their jobs. But the recent tariff rate hikes mark an even greater blow for the restaurant.Sichuan peppercorns, which create the signature numbing spice of the regional Chinese cuisine, along with other ingredients, face an at least 145% tariff after last week’s tit-for-tat trade battle between China and the United States. The steep rate is an existential threat for restaurants across the country that rely on specialty ingredients imported from China to craft the authentic flavors of their dishes, said operators who were blindsided.“We’re really worried,” said Jen Lin-Liu, the director of events for Chang Chang. The restaurant is part of the Peter Chang restaurant group that operates a dozen Sichuan restaurants across Washington, Virginia and Maryland.The restaurant group sources meats and vegetables from local farmers, including an Amish community in the Finger Lakes region that supplies its shiitake mushrooms and organic pork. Still, it is dependent on imported items such as fermented chili peppers and soy sauce, which give the dishes their unique taste.“Some of the products that we need just do not exist in the United States,” Lin-Liu said.The cost of other items is rising as well. “There are increases in any supply you can think of, from takeout boxes to printer paper to menu printing paper,” she said, adding that if the tariff rates stick, the price of a $20 dish may rise to $35 or $40.View image in fullscreenGeorge Chen, the chef who created Eight Tables, a fine-dining restaurant in San Francisco, said that while some of the items on his menu may be replaceable with options from Taiwan, it undermines the integrity he’s put into sourcing the unique ingredients for his dishes.“Replacements disrupt complex long-term relationships,” explained Chen. “It took me years to find the special spice vendors or the organic tea farmer in China from my many years living and working there.”Eight Tables is part of a larger marketplace called China Live, which includes a dining hall, a cold-drinks bar and a shop that sells wares including chopsticks, glass tea mugs and pots.“The area most concerning is our retail platform,” said Chen. For those items, “it’s not possible to re-order at the tariff rates”.For direct importers, like the Mala Market, an online shop, the tariffs on Chinese products threaten its entire business model. Sichuan peppercorns are popular on the site, but it also sells a number of items produced in their original region using traditional methods. The owner, Taylor Holliday, calls these “heritage products”, which include soy sauce handcrafted in Zhongba, fermented soybeans aged for three years in Sichuan and sesame paste stone-ground in Shandong.“These are products which have been made in that exact area for hundreds if not thousands of years,” said Holliday. “They have such a history, there’s no way these products can be made anywhere else.”While part of Holliday’s business supplies wholesale items to restaurants around the country, the majority of its orders are from home cooks.“A lot of our customers are people who have a cultural or emotional attachment to China,” Holliday said. “It’s more than just the food, it’s a cultural attachment to these products.”EMei, a Sichuan restaurant in Philadelphia, sources not only its peppercorns from China but also items such as chopsticks and plastic cutlery for takeout orders. Similar to many Chinese restaurants, delivery is a major part of the restaurant’s business.“So far, this is the main impact for us,” said Dan Tsao, the owner of EMei, who said the tariff hikes add about $1 to $1.50 to each delivery order.The tariffs may also create a supply issue for these items.“Importers are pausing more of their orders from China. They think 125% is crazy,” Tsao said.While the restaurant sources many of its ingredients from local farmers, it still relies on some imports from other countries. It orders broccoli from Mexico, shrimp from Ecuador and rice from Thailand. Rice is especially critical; the restaurant runs through a supply of about 200 pounds each night, Tsao said. Since Donald Trump’s “liberation day” announcement earlier this month, the price per pound has already risen more than 25%.View image in fullscreenThe frenetic nature of the tariff policy shifts has left owners and suppliers cautious about which steps to take and how to plan for the future.Tsao has plans to open two more restaurants later this year and has noticed some construction estimates for renovations rising. Most of the building materials come from China, too.“I’m hesitating now,” he said. The possibility of a recession while the prices of supplies and renovations keep going up may change his calculation. “There will be all these ripple effects on the system and there’s so much economic uncertainty,” he added.Holliday said she has one container of product already on the way from China that is scheduled to clear US customs in about five weeks, but will not raise prices until she is forced to.“I’m praying that something happens by then,” she said. But if it doesn’t, she’s resigned to paying the tariffs.“There’s no other way we can run our business,” she said. More

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      Fedora Returns to the West Village for an Encore. Again.

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      After closing in 2020 following a revival by Gabriel Stulman, it’s now backed by the partners of St. Jardim.OpeningFedoraThe Village, West and Greenwich, are neighborhoods that hang onto historic restaurants. They may close, but then someone rides to the rescue. Dante, Waverly Inn, Minetta Tavern, Figaro and, with an encore, Fedora. Gabriel Stulman revived it for 10 years, until 2020. Now the partners from St. Jardim nearby, Andrew Dete and Christa Alexander, with Basile Al Mileik, St. Jardim’s wine director, have stepped in. They’ve refreshed the cozy interior, and are reopening it with a European-inspired menu by Monty Forrest from Le Rock, who’s offering asparagus tempura, pierogi with alliums and peas, tilefish in bourride, and black bass Provençal. The wine list leans French. The original sign still tips its hat to Fedora Dorato, the owner from 1952 until 2010.239 West Fourth Street (West 10th Street), 917-740-5273, fedoranewyork.com. DubuHausSharing the sprawl of 28,000 square feet with Howoo, a Korean barbecue spot, and soon to be joined by Musaek, all by Urimat Hospitality Group, DubuHaus specializes in tofu (dubu in Korean). It’s turned into soft tofu stews, dumplings, bibimbap and braised dishes, some forcefully spiced, though tofu doesn’t figure in every preparation. The setting is minimalist, designed to replicate a hanok, the traditional Korean home. (Opens Thursday)6 East 32nd Street, 917-509-5967, dubuhaus.com. Maison PasserelleHeather Willensky for Printemps New YorkLeafy, as in flooring, upholstery and other decorative elements, describes the new Printemps New York store and its dining options, most of which opened a couple of weeks ago. Now the pièce de résistance, the fine-dining component, is ready. Like the others, it’s the work of Gregory Gourdet, the store’s culinary director, who is including flavors from former French colonies in West and North Africa, the Caribbean and Asia for his menu. Salt cod fritters, grilled white asparagus with Creole cream, roast chicken with Moroccan condiments and, for dessert, coconut chiboust with makrut lime cover the territory, all rendered with French techniques. Even the inevitable New York strip speaks Creole with a Haitian coffee rub. (Thursday)Printemps New York, One Wall Street (Broadway at Exchange Place), 212-217-2291, maisonpasserellenyc.com. Banh Anh EmBanh Vietnamese Shop House on the Upper West Side, with seats still a challenge to score after five years, now has a downtown sibling (anh em means brotherhood or sisterhood). What distinguishes John Nguyen and the chef Nhu Ton’s latest effort is that the bread for the banh mi, a Vietnamese take on a French baguette, is baked in-house. The noodles for pho are also homemade. The space is larger.99 Third Avenue (13th Street), banhanhem.com. Little FinoTaking their cue from Italy, breakfast items like cornetti and a spinach frittata, followed by all-day snacks, small bites and sandwiches like a roasted artichoke, polenta tots, prosciutto and a chicken muffuletta, are served at this cafe and bar. It’s headed by Anthony Ricco, a chef in Andrew Carmellini’s NoHo Hospitality Group, and has been added to the ground floor of the William Vale in Brooklyn.The William Vale hotel, 111 North 12th Street (Wythe Avenue), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 718-581-5900, littlefinonyc.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

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      Phuket, Thailand Has a Fine-Dining Scene That Rivals the Beach

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      Plus: the neighborhood to know in Athens, Japanese-made sunglasses and more recommendations from T Magazine.Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Each week, we share things we’re eating, wearing, listening to or coveting now. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides, and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com.Eat HereThe Restaurants That Make Phuket, Thailand, a Fine-Dining DestinationLeft: Terra, a new restaurant in Phuket, Thailand, serves Italian food in the former Ban Nai Hua Ang Mo (British Merchant Association) building, built in 1898. Right: Royd’s Phuket lobster tail with dipping sauce.Left: courtesy of House of Tin Baron. Right: courtesy of RoydLocated on the Andaman Sea at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand, has long been known for its splashy beach resorts. But lately, its food scene has become just as much of a draw. It was named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015 and has evolved over the past decade with a set of fine-dining destinations. The most recent addition is Terra, a modern Italian restaurant in a renovated 1898 Sino-Portuguese mansion built during the island’s tin-mining boom. It opened in January with two tasting menus featuring dishes like langoustine and shellfish emulsion with chestnut quenelles, and sole and sea urchin in an Amalfi lemon beurre blanc. It joins Royd, which in 2022 began welcoming visitors to a 12-seat table in a stylish 1970s shop house, where the Phuket-born chef Suwijak Kunghae riffs on traditional southern Thai cooking with dishes like tofu skin tart with smoked pig’s head and tamarind sauce, and squid with Phuket pineapple and southern Thai sour curry. At Pru, founded in 2016, the Dutch chef Jimmy Ophorst cooks dishes like durian and caviar, roasting the notoriously odoriferous Southeast Asian fruit, then turning it into a mousse that he garnishes with local roe. When you’ve had enough courses, try one of Phuket’s many small, inexpensive restaurants specializing in just one or two dishes. Krua Baan Platong uses local ingredients to produce Phuket comfort food like steamed pork belly with a southern Thai budu dipping sauce made with fermented anchovies; and Niyom Salt Grilled Duck is a simple roadside place serving juicy charcoal-roasted duck with a choice of spicy sour or tamarind dipping sauce.Wear ThisGlasses That Combine California Cool With Japanese CraftsmanshipLeft: a selection of Garrett Leight Blue Kinney and Hampton glasses in various hues. Right: Kinney sunglasses with their case and packaging.Courtesy of Garrett LeightWhen it comes to manufacturing quality eyewear, no one does it like the Japanese. But finding and trying on great pairs outside of Asia can be somewhat challenging. As a daily glasses-wearer, I’ve long relied on Mr. Leight, the limited-edition range of luxurious, Japanese-made pairs designed by Garrett Leight in collaboration with his father, Larry Leight, who’s best known for founding the brand Oliver Peoples in 1986. But now there’s a new, slightly less rarefied option if you’re looking to pick up a springtime pair of optical or sunglasses handcrafted on the archipelago: Garrett Leight Blue, which upgrades two of the company’s most popular, California-inspired silhouettes (the Kinney and the Hampton) with premium details like adjustable titanium nose pads, subtly filigreed metal arm-detailing and quality acetate that’s less likely to whiten or fade over time. Offered in a few off-kilter colors — think light pink or opal frames, with tinted, UV-protective lenses that have contrasting shades of deep oceanic blue or moss green — they’re also just plain fun, down to the cerulean faux snakeskin case that’s so bright it ought to prevent you from misplacing them. From $465, garrettleight.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

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      In Ukraine’s Frontline Town of Sloviansk, a Taste of Normalcy Beckons

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      Serhii Kovalov doesn’t like sushi. Nor does the sushi chef at his restaurant in eastern Ukraine.But when customers started asking for it, Mr. Kovalov navigated both enemy shelling and ordinary supply-chain issues to get fresh fish for Philadelphia rolls to his frontline town, Sloviansk.Now, as Russian forces have drawn closer and life gets more bleak, many Sloviansk residents are weighing whether to flee. Not Mr. Kovalov. He’s determined to keep serving sushi to soldiers and civilians who are seeking comfort, sustenance or a taste of something special after more than three years of war.“I know I’m needed here,” the 30-year-old Mr. Kovalov said, gesturing at the restaurant and the town outside that has long been in Russia’s cross hairs. “So I stay.”Sushi has long been wildly popular in Ukraine, and for people in Sloviansk, this treat provides a sense of much-needed normalcy.When Sloviansk came under attack in February 2022 when Russia’s full-scale invasion began, sushi wasn’t even on the menu at Mr. Kovalov’s restaurant, Slavnyi Horod, or “Glorious City.”Serhii Kovalov, the restaurant’s owner, in front of an apartment he was living in with his wife when it was hit by a Russian missile in 2022.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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      Selma Miriam, Founder of the Feminist Restaurant Bloodroot, Dies at 89

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      She and Noel Furie had just come out as lesbians when they opened an unusual gathering place for women in Connecticut. Nearly half a century later, it is still thriving.Selma Miriam and Noel Furie were unhappy housewives, as they put it, when they met at a gathering of the National Organization for Women in Connecticut in 1972. Soon after, they divorced their husbands, came out as lesbians and set about creating a place for women to congregate.Ms. Miriam was a talented and adventurous cook, and at first they held dinners at her house, charging $8 for a weekly buffet of lush vegetarian dishes — a culinary choice they made because a friend pointed out that a feminist food enterprise should not contribute to the suffering of animals.In 1977 they opened Bloodroot, a feminist restaurant and bookstore tucked into an industrial building on a dead-end street in Bridgeport. They had no waiters, no printed menu and no cash register, and they did not advertise. Against the odds, the business thrived.Ms. Miriam, center, with Samn Stockwell, left, and Betsey Beaven, two of the original members of the Bloodroot collective, in 1977, the year the restaurant opened.Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times“The people who need us, find us,” Ms. Miriam always said.Selma Miriam died on Feb. 6 at her home in Westport, Conn. She was 89.The cause was pneumonia, her longtime partner, Carolanne Curry, said.“We don’t just want a piece of the pie, we want a whole new recipe,” Ms. Miriam declared in “A Culinary Uprising: The Story of Bloodroot,” a feature-length 2024 documentary about the restaurant. (Another documentary, “Bloodroot,” came out in 2019.)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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      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