Restaurants

Subterms

    Latest story

    125 Shares11 Views

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

    by

    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

    More stories

    • 125 Shares185 Views

      in Elections

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

      by

      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

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

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

      by

      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

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Selma Miriam, Founder of the Feminist Restaurant Bloodroot, Dies at 89

      by

      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

    • 100 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

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

      by

      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

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Everyone’s Going to the Book Bar

      by

      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

    • 200 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

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

      by

      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

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

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

      by

      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

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      TGI Fridays Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

      by

      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