Union Square Hospitality Group

Mother’s Day

tessa — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:00:52 +0000

8 BEST RESTAURANTS FOR MOTHER’S DAY BRUNCH IN NYC

Mom deserves your gratitude any day of the year, and she should be celebrated especially festively this coming Sunday. In addition to our earlier picks, we’ve rounded up a list of NYC’s eight best restaurants for Mother’s Day brunch, including a “special-night-out” spot in Williamsburg, a UES “class act” and a West Village “hideaway” helmed by a Top Chef winner. Tell us where you plan to take your mother in the comments.

No. 2: Union Square Cafe

Food: 27
Decor: 23
Service: 26
Cost: $71

“Danny Meyer’s original flagship” in Union Square has locked up “forever-favorite” status, accruing perennial “accolades” for its “expertly prepared” “Greenmarket”-driven New American cuisine, “affable, unpretentious” service and “subdued, stylish” digs; the experience is “worth every penny”, and while scoring a rez “isn’t always easy”, you can always “eat at the bar.”

21 E. 16th St.; 212-243-4020

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Big Apple BBQ

tessa — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:55:10 +0000

BIG APPLE BARBECUE RETURNS ON JUNE 8 AND 9

By Jacqueline Wasilczyk

This time next month will mark the return of one of the city’s most joyous times of the year – the Big Apple Barbecue. In addition to attracting over 140,000 attendees, the Union Square Events production draws in serious talent, with a lineup that includes 17 pit masters from 10 different states. The 11th annual event will see Blue Smoke’s Kenny Callaghan joined by Raleigh’s Ed Mitchell, The Salt Lick’s Scott Roberts and Pappy Smokehouse’s Mike Emerson, and many more. Admission is always free, but a limited number of $125 FastPass tickets (which allows for express line access and an $100 food credit) are still available for Sunday, June 9. And for those of you who’d like to try recreating the magic at home, there will be also be classes and seminars offered onsite at a pop-up Weber Grilling School. For a full schedule, click here (11 AM-6 PM, June 8-9; Madison Square Park).

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SOMM CHAT

tessa — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:48:31 +0000

ASK A SOMMELIER: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ROSE WINES?

We could just drink pink from here on out: crisp pale coral wines from Provence, fresh California rosés, magenta-hued bottles from Spain…there’s a whole rainbow of pink to keep our thirst quenched for the warm months. But which wines should we look for? Which are the most delicious? We asked 15 sommeliers from around the country for their favorite rosé wines, as well as tips for what to eat alongside a glass (or three.) Here’s what they had to say.

Clos Sonnenta from Corsica, Montenidoli from Tuscany
“Especially as a spring aperitif, I like rosés with clean bright acidity, crisp, crunchy fruit character and light body; some edgy minerality is a big plus too. Two of my favorites, Clos Sonnenta from Corsica and Montenidoli from Tuscany, have all of that in spades. There are few spring dishes I’d not drink with these, but ingredients like oysters, rhubarb, or the first peas and favas are especially great. Then for heftier fare like burgers and steaks, I do like to scale up the richness of body and flavor to something like the beautiful Bonavita from Sicily or the slightly funky older Lopez de Heredia or splurge on the complex Chateau Simone. There is a rosé for ANYTHING you might put on the table.”—Juliette Pope, Gramercy Tavern (NYC)

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

LivingSocial

tessa — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:41:38 +0000

GREAT FOOD, CRAFT BEER, LEGENDARY ROCK: AEROSMITH TO HEADLINE LIVINGSOCIAL’S BACKYARD FESTIVAL ON NEW YORK’S RANDALL’S ISLAND ON JULY 13

LivingSocial’s Largest-Ever Live Event to Feature Joan Jett; Food by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events including Blue Smoke, Box Frites, El Verano Taquería, and more; 150+ Craft Beers and Wines

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 08, 2013–
LivingSocial, the local marketplace to buy and share the best things to do in your city, today announced that Aerosmith, America’s greatest rock and roll band, will headline LivingSocial’s Backyard Festival on Randall’s Island in New York City on Saturday, July 13(th) .

While Aerosmith, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Yeasayer, and other music stars rock the stage, the crowd will be living every foodie’s dream with a special culinary experience curated by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events featuring Blue Smoke, El Verano Taquería, Box Frites, Union Square Burger, and selections from Creative Juice.

Accompanying great food and great music, LivingSocial’s Backyard Festival, sponsored by Redd’s Apple Ale, will also feature a craft beer and wine tasting with more than 150 selections from the world’s leading brewers and wineries. And in the true spirit of backyard parties, there will be a playground for partygoers of all ages with an array of games, activities, and rides.

“This is the summer backyard party to end all backyard parties,” said LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy. “When the weather gets hot, Americans have always gathered with friends in their yards to listen to great music, eat great food, share cold beers, and create lifelong memories. LivingSocial’s Backyard Festival will propel that beloved summer ritual to the next level with legendary bands, world-class cuisine, top-shelf wine and beer, and games for all ages.”

Tickets for LivingSocial’s Backyard Festival are available exclusively through LivingSocial at http://www.livingsocial.com/backyardfestival. Tickets start at $89 with no additional costs for General Admission, which includes access to the festival grounds and three beer or wine tastings. General Admission Plus tickets are $129 to include nine beer/wine tastings, one tasting plate, and express check-in. Guests must be age 21+ to drink and enter the craft beer/wine tasting area.

For festivalgoers seeking a more exclusive experience, VIP tickets, available for $299, offer access to the VIP section with complimentary food, open beer/wine bar, ferry tickets to/from Randall’s Island, and express check-in. At the highest level, a limited number of Ultra VIP Access tickets, for $999, offer all of the elements of the VIP package, plus an exclusive up-close viewing experience from the side of the stage.

LivingSocial’s Backyard Festival is proud to partner with the Robin Hood Foundation in its efforts to fight poverty in New York City. Onsite donations will benefit hundreds of the best poverty-fighting programs throughout New York City. Learn more about Robin Hood’s groundbreaking work at http://www.robinhood.org/.

About LivingSocial

LivingSocial is the local marketplace to buy and share the best things to do in your city. With unique and diverse offerings each day, we inspire members to discover everything from weekend excursions to one-of-a kind events and experiences to exclusive gourmet dinners to family aquarium outings and more. We help local businesses grow by introducing them to high-quality new customers and give merchants the tools to make our members their regulars. Based in Washington, D.C., LivingSocial now has more than 70 million members around the world.

About Aerosmith

Aerosmith are a living piece of American music history, having sold over 150 million albums worldwide and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They are the recipients of countless awards including four GRAMMYs, eight American Music Awards, six Billboard Awards and 12 MTV Video Music Awards among many other honors. Proving that they can cross genre-boundaries with ease, these rock legends have even taken home a Soul Train Award for Best Rap Single for their remix of Run DMC’s “Walk This Way.” With scores of multi-platinum albums, Aerosmith continues to inspire generations to get their wings, get a grip and just push play. It is no wonder why they are one of the most beloved bands of all time.

About Union Square Events

Union Square Events is the events business from Danny Meyer’s renowned Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). Based in the up-and-coming Hudson Yards neighborhood, Union Square Events is one of the country’s premier fine-dining caterers and producers of large-scale events and experiential activations. Union Square Events has produced compelling dining destination events of all shapes and sizes including our signature annual community event — the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party — a celebration of America’s authentic culinary and musical traditions that attracts over 125,000 barbecue lovers to Madison Square Park. Union Square Events’ large-scale events repertoire also includes the CNN Grill at the 2012 Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the CNN Grill at South by Southwest, and the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic on Governor’s Island (2011). www.unionsquareevents.com/events

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Tasting Menu

tessa — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:38:29 +0000

MAIALINO’S NEW TASTING MENU; FREE JAMON IBERICO AT BOQUERIA SOHO

Maialino is serving up a new late-night offering from 10:30 p.m. each night until midnight: a $15 burger made with black Angus beef on a toasted rosemary roll, and topped with escarole, housemade black-pepper pancetta, and melted gorgonzola cheese. The restaurant’s also introducing a new, $75 four-course chef’s tasting menu — the kitchen gets to choose all courses. [Grub Street]

Organic Avenue is expanding to become yet another source of quinoa: The high-protein grain will be mixed with “Mexi-fresh” veggies, turmeric tomato cauliflower, and sweet yam and celery. [Grub Street]

Today through Thursday, May 9, Boqueria Soho will offer a complimentary tasting of jamón ibérico de Bellota from Cinco Jotas. Can’t make it at time? The free sampling will hit Boqueria Flatiron May 20 through May 22. [Grub Street]

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

Hospitality Quotient

tessa — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:29:18 +0000

CURIOSITY DIDN’T KILL THE CAT, IT CREATED THE MOUSETRAP

By Patrick Hanlon

Chimpanzees do it. Birds do it. Rubberneckers do it.

“Everybody is curious,” declares Dr. Hendrie Weisinger, author of the best-seller Nobody’s Perfect. “It’s an instinct that is hard-wired. To explore or investigate our environment is life-enhancing. Organizations that are interested in what their people are doing, are more resonant. On an individual and organizational basis, people need to ask themselves, when was the last time they did something to spark their interest?”

Think of this is personal terms. “If the parents are not interested in what their kids are doing, it’s hard for children to be curious—the parents effectively squash the curiosity instinct.” The same holds true in organizations.

Entrepreneurial curiosity first requires the desire to be curious. Sure, we are hardwired to be inquisitive. But in the bric-a-brac of daily life, we turn off our curiosity, often replacing it with the short-term, the obvious, the bone-numbingly mundane.

We have to alpha up, says Weisinger. We have to stimulate our curiousness. If companies (and the people that work in them) are not sufficiently curious, they need to be aroused. “Arousal is nature’s Gatorade,” describes Weisinger. “If you look at a situation as exciting, you have changes in your brain.”

People (and companies) with zero energy become wasted. The fleet example is older persons who retire to the storage lockers labeled as retirement homes. Staring backward leads to fewer fresh experiences, looking forward is one of those phrases that expresses its own delight.

Curiosity leads us to discover new geographies, both physical and intellectual. It is what Einstein called “holy curiosity”, what author Michael Ondaatje describes as, “the comfort of being curious and alone.”

Every enterprise has its own baggage, there is no nirvana. But incentives for innovation abound in a swathe of areas: product design and manufacture, distribution, retailing, marketing, finance, systems, wholesaling, affinity, marketing communications, technology, (have we missed anything?).

It is a time for agility. It is a time to pivot. It is a time to be curious. For many companies, it can be the difference between boom or doom.

As people and companies default to their less curious comfort zone, one way to stimulate people is to make them uncomfortable. Scramble the desks, force them to regroup and continually rewire their brains to know more. Encourage lateral or associative thinking by rubbing together different groups, cultures, skill sets, and department silos.

If one is to encourage the iterative cascade of innovation, creating pipelines to the curious mind is one of the greatest accomplishments enterprise can undertake. These pipelines allow for all sorts of innovative development and exchange. Senior director of global innovation Michael Perman leads Mindspark, an internal group inside GAP.

“Everything comes from two questions,” says Perman. “‘Why’ and ‘How’? Why are we doing what we’re doing, and how can we make that experience better? Curiosity is about learning. We want to put people in situations where they can learn more. Learning is derived from experiments, which is one of the most important things. You try a rough prototype, and experiment. When you bring things to market you experiment. You adapt, you switch things out. The way to keep learning is to continue to ask why and how.”

Perman funnels the results of group inquiry into three convergencies. “We diverge along the spectrum of thinking, to generate springboards. From about 800 initial ideas, we then select according to criteria: New, Unique, and Not Feasible. We select along Not Feasible. If we could move those ideas from fuzzy to fruition, that would be a remarkable thing.”

Mysteries are what drive us. But this was not always so. In fact, avoiding curiosity is a weighty part of the Western tradition. Seeking knowledge—simply for the sake of knowing—was frowned upon, and criticized by St. Augustine and others. Being curious inferred discontent with established hierarchy and doctrine. (Remember how Galileo Galilei’s curiosity led him to the discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun. Galileo was nearly burned at the stake for that revolutionary idea.)

It was not until the 14th century that Petrarch started hiking through the Italian Alps, just to see what was there. In the 17th century, philosophes like Robert Boyles and Thomas Hobbes began making lists of curious things. Plants, insects, planets, words. They were troublemakers whose gifts of curiosity were breakthrough, nearly heretical.

This same attitude holds today in corporations where, wrapped in the cloak of success, management can be drunk from their birth blood with shrill cries of “this is what has made us successful”, “this is how we do things”, and other anthems as old and vital as the pterosaur.

Being curious could get you burned at the stake in the Dark Ages. Today, it might get you fired.

“In many corporations, curiosity and inquisitiveness are punished,” explains Henry Doss, chief strategy officer and executive in residence at T2VC, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. “Corporations are a classicist measure of outcomes in a predictive, forecast model, with people doing manageable, empirical tasks,” says Doss.

“Why would you be looking for new ways of doing things, when everything is already functioning and working properly inside the system?” he asks. “The paradigmatic structure does not encourage curiosity. This does not mean there are not rule breakers and iconoclasts everywhere, because there are.”

Doss suggests that innovation is more like a rain forest, than a plantation. “In the rain forest, you have this robust quantum explosion of new things,” he says. “Not a predictive, controlled output.”

Craig Dykers is a partner at the internationally renowned architectural firm Snohetta. The firm is currently redesigning Times Square in Manhattan. “We have to ask ourselves what our motivations are—why bother being curious?” says Dykers. Is it to make something more real to you, to open up an area despite the results? People tend to be curious about things they’re comfortable with. It’s harder to be curious about things that are outside of what we agree with. It’s hard to allow curiosity to step over to the other side. It’s easy to be curious about an abstract period of time, like the Renaissance or some future. It’s much less interesting to be curious about the present. The power of curiosity is to make the mundane character of the present more interesting.”

John S. Johnson co-founded BuzzFeed.com, one of the fastest-growing viral media and web trending sites today. He has written, produced, and directed two feature films. He is the founder and executive director of the Harmony Institute, was a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, has a new firm called JR Labs, and is currently a student in the master’s degree program in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at Columbia University.

Johnson is a curious fellow.

“Curiosity is finding dysfunctions,” says Johnson. “When I see dysfunction, it really makes me curious. That has created the narrative arc of my career. So, after filmmaking (the writing directing part), what I experienced was that there was no real great geographic location for independent filmmakers. There was really only the Shooting Gallery and Tribeca Film Center, which was too expensive. So I founded the Filmmaker’s Collaborative on Greene Street.

Johnson also embraces ambiguity. “There is so much to be gained from a little bit of rigor in terms of qualitative analysis. There is such incredible resistance in the old guard, and incredible curiosity and willingness among the new guard.”

In an era of short attention spans, curiosity can also be your downfall. “People who are less curious help you stay focused and execute. If you’re a very curious person, you are constantly in danger of being seduced. That’s the danger,” says Johnson.

More recently, Johnson founded a hotel in Costa Rica. “My wife and I are both surfers and we fell in love with the town. We started to get worried about the kind of development that was happening, and decided we should invest in key pieces of property that will help drive the direction of development in this town. So, we bought a hotel.

“But once we walked through the place, we thought this could be really cool. Then we became curious and we thought, how are hotels generally run—and how do hotels let us down? We thought, how could we make the perfect hotel for us?” Johnson and his wife riffled through their experiences at other hotels to gift their own with best possible services and décor that suited their taste and style.

“Today, our return guest rate is three times the [other local hotel’s] highest rate,” says Johnson. “It’s been one of our most satisfying projects. It’s been fun!”

Charles Ojei is a native of Lagos, Nigeria. He is also a student at Hult International Business School in San Francisco. Ojei is not your typical student. He has already worked at Procter & Gamble, Dupont, and GE. Ojei is part of a team of students who recently went up against students from Cal Berkeley, John Hopkins, NYU, and MIT. And won.

“Curiosity leads to openness,” says Ojei. “If we stay open-minded and ask, ‘Why is this like this?’, it makes you go deeper. And the more you go deeper, the more insights you have and the more solutions you can actually create. Curiosity leads to open-ness and that leads to better innovation.”

Curiosity allows you to sidestep the overlords of expectant consistency and walk into a world where inspiration is all around you. You can reapply something that is working in one aspect and cross-pollinate that into another area. This is something that Ojei and his fellow students don’t want to leave on the table. “We don’t want it to just end in class, we want to see how we can apply this kind of process and put these skills to solve problems back in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.”

Michael Spoodis is a creative consultant with Disney and Target, and a self-described rabid consumer of the culture—a devoted cinephile, a faithful arts patron, a reader of multiple daily newspapers, an architecture and design geek, a travel junkie, a foodie, etc. In other words, an actively positive curiosity seeker desirous of having memorable and vivid life experiences.

“It’s the fuel,” declares Spoodis. “If you aren’t curious you’re not going to come up with anything fresh. It’s the whole culture, not just one place. You never know where the inspiration is going to come from. It’s the cross pollination and connecting to different things. It’s walking in other worlds. It’s wanting to see the outside world.

“I’ve always had a thirst for new information. I read National Geographic magazine as a kid, and always pestered my parents to travel. I’m a real student of people. We’re all on this planet and we think we know what this planet is about, but then you wake up in Sri Lanka and suddenly see something totally different. Eskimos have all these different words for snow. Hawaiians have 100 different words for rain. It’s inspiring to see how man sees his place in the universe. Curiosity enables me to frame or see the world from multiple vantage points, which enables me to think differently, and remain innovative in the way I brainstorm a brand name or compose a lyric or tell a story.”

Embedded in the connective tissue between data points is that rogue, breakthrough, boom boom idea that could change everything.

And now for the science.

“An idea is simply a specific constellation of neurons firing in sync with each other for the first time,” writes Erez Reuveni from the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. “Such firing requires both that the neural network contain sufficient information from which an idea can arise and that each individual node in the network be connected to a minimal number of other nodes. The network’s ability to produce a creative thought is entirely a function of the scope of these neural networks and the diversity of information housed in each individual node. The more neurons actually containing some bit of information, the richer the network; and the richer the network, the greater the network’s ability to produce a creative thought when the brain’s neurons fire.”

So, it’s good to be curious, because being curious opens portals of new information. The more information, the better your chances for sparking new ideas. Good job, brain.

Along the Pacific coastline of the Mexican state of Guerrero lays a mangrove swamp that is pretty much the same as it was when Sir Francis Drake’s sails snapped in the wind along this tropical shoreline around 1579. At first glance, the muggy interior reveals a tangle of branches, a sewer of murky brown water and, despite being just fifty yards from rolling blue surf, preternatural quiet.
The superficial observer sees only “jungle”: an impenetrable mess of vegetation and water, and moves on. But the curious observer remains, standing motionless in the present.

Because our brains are hardwired to discern patterns, they are also booted to pick out breaks in the pattern. Curiousness spots the odd and the uncommon, the breaks in normalcy. This is referenced nowhere better than by Lewis B. Carroll’s heroine in “Alice In Wonderland”, as Alice wonders at events becoming “curiouser and curiouser”.

Back to the mangroves. In time, inquisitive eyes adjust and see movement. Gradually, an entirely new world emerges from the clutter of jungle leaves, branches, mottled shades of light and dark. Not ten yards away, a night heron sits on a branch. In fact, at least a half dozen more of the blue and green-feathered birds are perched among the branches. A snowy egret fans its feathers in a preening ballet move. A black iguana pokes its head out of a knothole, staring back at you. Forty degrees to the right and above, a tremendous four-foot long iguana about lays along a branch, its underside brilliant lime green. Topside, the iguana is leathered in a camouflage designer’s palette of gray, green, chocolate browns, tan. Gorgeous. An orange monarch butterfly wafts between branches. Cutter ants, nature’s spindly black robotics, march single file down a tree branch at shoulder height, hoisting scalloped bits of green leaves. A termite mound the size of a shopping cart hangs amid a section of tree branches. A red clay-colored hermit crab slowly emerges from black water and totters up a tree trunk. And then. At your feet, at an alarmingly unsafe distance, a crocodile has been floating unseen, suspended in the black mirror water, two eyeballs screwed on you like twin periscopes. Death in a blink.

Biologists would call this stretch of beach in Guerrero an “ecotone”, an area where plant cultures meet. High mountain pine meets alpine meadow. Wooded highland meets mangrove swamp. In real terms, these are kill zones where hunters find and kill their prey. Think of store departments and malls as being ecotones, and the end cap display takes on new meaning.

Step into a store. This moment has been called many things, but for some it is the “inhale”. We stand at the entrance and breathe in the sights, sounds, scent, even how it tastes. Our brain outlines patterns and either signals a series of exclamation points, or flatlines with underwhelming disappointment. We sense immediately if we should approach or avoid.

Curiosity has it’s own kinetic energy. It moves people along paths of improvement, with new perspectives and new ways of seeing. This in turn can result in increased receptivity, presence, creativity, and the stimulus that results in innovative new ideas.

At a recent breakfast roundtable, gifted New York City restauranteur Danny Meyer noted how he sees his business through the lens of hospitality. These days anyone can copy anything, claims Meyer. In the competitive restaurant business, this can even include your recipes. So it’s now what you do, it’s how you do it. Meyer emphasizes the desire to do things for people, not to them. That axiom dictates how he manages his Union Square Hospitality Group’s necklace of deliciously hospitable restaurants. It dictates how they hire people, how they train them, and how they treat their guests. (His organization now also has a learning and consulting group called Hospitality Quotient to help create Union Square experiences for entertainment, hospitals, corporations, and others.)

Our gift of curiosity is ancient, innate, and instinctive. Perhaps it started by poking sticks into holes in search of food. (“Look! A hole!”) Curiosity has an electric nature that is nearly otherworldly. Certainly the desire to go spelunking or to stick one’s hand down a dark hole, or to imbibe a chemical concoction just to see its effects (as 17th century alchemists did) in a time before extreme sports and “Swamp People” can be measured by passions of the spirit multiplied by acts of stupidity and tragic outcomes. The curious mind tries new geographies, new foods, new languages, new devices. It pokes at the hole with a stick. Stop—what’s that!?! Where’d you get that? Curiosity has no end point.

Why does curiosity exist? Because to be in the why, is to be in the know.

“We move throughout our lives in a series of patterns. Curiosity breaks those patterns,” counsels architect Craig Dykers. One of the curious things about Dykers is his preoccupation with language. A U.S. citizen, Dykers grew up in Germany and is fluent in German. His partners are Norwegian. He is currently teaching himself Chinese writing and speaking. So, although an architect dealing in spatial proportions and crowd clusters, his access point is often from the conceptual perspective of language.

“I was in China and alone,” says Dykers. “I was in a market, and asked a fruit vendor if I could have three oranges. He held up four fingers. I said, no three. Again, he held up four fingers. I repeated, three. Finally, he pointed to the spaces between his fingers. The numbers were defined by the spaces between the fingers. He was giving value to the things we don’t see.”

Curiosity is like an instrument. Some leave theirs in a corner. Others pick it up and start playing. Maybe they play “Stairway To Heaven” or Segovia or The Decemberists. But (at least) they’re playing. A distracting but a curious thought: People shouldn’t be looking at Apple. They should be looking at the companies that didn’t become Apple.

Curiousness can be sparked, piqued, promoted, fed, endorsed, incented, nurtured, piped, pinged, and developed. And it can be killed. Companies (and the people within them) have reasons to be curious about just about anything these days, and so it is in their best interest (personally and professionally) to arouse themselves and keep the curiosity pipes open.

Curiosity and receptivity can become their own reward. As Alex (Sandy) Pentland from MIT Media Lab waves to us from his book Honest Signals, “An informed unconsciousness, especially one supported by the experiences of a network of interested individuals, is the most powerful decision-making tool you have.”

“Corporations that aren’t curious aren’t going to be around long,” sums Dan Pink.

We are transparent children in an interconnected universe. We are innately thoughtful and curious, we cannot pretend to tweet our days away, our lives are more than a wiki link. We are here to dream dreams, to discover worlds within worlds. This is no time for flabby brains. We crave magnificent, shimmering ideas. Feed your tired minds, your hungry souls, your poor, huddled masses yearning to be free of strip malls, all you can eat buffets, and reality t.v.

Curiosity is our escape pod.

Push the button.

Here we go.

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

Greenmarket Recipe

tessa — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:57:08 +0000

WARM FARRO SALAD WITH LOBSTER: CHEF MICHAEL ANTHONY

Chef Michael Anthony teaches how to use foraged greens such as nettles and ramps to make this delicious springtime dish.

(ORIGINAL VIDEO)

Tasty Family Meal

tessa — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:50:39 +0000

A TASTY FAMILY MEAL AND SAUVIGNON BLANC FOR MOTHER’S DAY

Celebrate Mom with two great recipes from Union Square Hospitality Group’s new behind-the-scenes cookbook. Plus, notes and scores for 12 Sauvignon Blancs from California and New Zealand

By Laurie Woolever

One Mother’s Day, several years ago, chef Michael Romano’s mother made an unforgettable visit to her son, who was then the executive chef of New York’s Union Square Café.

“She didn’t come to the restaurant that often, but there was a special Mother’s Day meal that she came for. Unbeknownst to me, the staff gave her cards with numbers on them, so she could score the dishes as they came out to the table, like an Olympic judge, saying how well her son had done with her meal,” recalls Romano with a laugh.

Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), where Romano is now culinary director and a partner, is known for fostering a warm, second-family feeling among the staff working in its dozen-odd New York restaurants. Romano says that this legendary warmth naturally extends to the restaurants’ guests—thanks in part to the “family meal” that the staff enjoy each day before beginning lunch and dinner service.

“Just as in any family, what is cooked and put on the table is a sign of the internal health of that structure,” says Romano. “It’s a way of caring. If you produce wonderful food for the people who work in a restaurant, it’s a sign that restaurant cares for them. They in turn will feel taken care of, and they will be much better-equipped to take care of our guests.” Seeking to share some of the best dishes and stories that have come from many, many years of twice-daily family meals, Romano, USHG CEO Danny Meyer and co-author Karen Stabiner have collaborated on a new cookbook, Family Table: Favorite Staff Meals From Our Restaurants to Your Home. It’s full of simple, satisfying recipes contributed by more than four dozen USHG staff members.

If you’ll be cooking for your family this Mother’s Day—Sunday, May 12—we suggest two recipes from the book: holiday roast pork, a traditional centerpiece of a USHG holiday staff party that’s great any time of year (and makes plenty of leftovers), and a crisp, flavorful escarole and apple salad. Round out the table with a big pan of cornbread or a stack of toasted corn tortillas, and mom’s favorite dessert. To pour with this Mother’s Day meal, try a medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc, such as those from California or New Zealand, whose fruit and herb flavors reflect the elements of the salad and the pork brine seasoning. We have put together a list of 12 recently rated Sauvignon Blancs below.
Holiday Roast Pork

(Recipes and text excerpted from Family Table, © 2013 by USHG, LLC, and Karen Stabiner. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.)

At Union Square Events, this is what’s become known as “holiday pork,” a brined and slow-cooked roast with a citrus-and-apple-cider tang. You can slice, shred or cut it into chunks and crisp it in a skillet for instant carnitas. Ask for Boston butt or pork shoulder at your market; they are the same cut.
Holiday roast pork by Marcus Nilsson.

The herbs and citrus fruit in this pork shoulder’s brine recipe reflect the flavors found in the California and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs listed below.

For the brine:
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2/3 cup kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups coarsely chopped onions
• 2 heads garlic, cut horizontally in half
• 12 fresh thyme sprigs
• 6 fresh oregano sprigs
• 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped apples (not peeled)
• 1 1/3 cups apple cider
• 2 oranges, halved
• 2 limes, halved
• 2 lemons, halved
• 1 6- to 8-pound bone-in pork shoulder

1. To make the brine, combine the brown sugar, salt, pepper, onions, garlic, thyme, oregano, rosemary, bay leaves, apples and apple cider in a container or pot large enough to hold the pork and brining liquid. Squeeze in some juice from the citrus halves and then add the lemons and limes to the container.

2. Add the pork and enough water to cover. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight.

3. About 1 hour before you want to start roasting the pork, remove it from the refrigerator.

4. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Remove the pork from the brine and pat dry. Transfer to a Dutch oven and roast, covered, for 4 hours.

5. Uncover and continue cooking until the pork is browned and meltingly tender, 20 to 30 minutes more. The pork is done when it can be shredded easily with a fork. Carve and serve. Serves 12 to 15.
Escarole and Apple Salad

There is no oil in the dressing for this salad, just maple syrup spiked with smoked paprika. This may make you skeptical. But the allure of the salad lies in its surprising combination of ingredients—and in the simple preparation, which requires only toasting pecans, some chopping and slicing, and mixing the dressing. It will make you wonder how you never thought of it yourself.

For the salad:
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 head escarole, cored and coarsely chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple, halved, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced

For the dressing:
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon Sherry vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh mint

1. Spread the pecans in a large dry skillet and toast over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring and watching carefully so they do not burn. Transfer to a plate to cool.

2. Combine the escarole, apple, pecans and onion in a large serving bowl.

3. To make the dressing, combine all ingredients except the mint in a small bowl and mix well.

4. Toss the salad with the dressing, sprinkle with the mint, and serve. Serves 4 to 6.

RECOMMENDED SAUVIGNON BLANCS

Note: The following list is a selection of outstanding and very good wines from recently rated releases. More wines can be found in our Wine Ratings Search.

MERRY EDWARDS Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley 2010 Score: 92 | $30
A smooth and silky white, showing spicy details of nutmeg and quince that are joined by pure, ripe honeydew melon and cantaloupe flavors. Pear, lemon zest and apricot notes are elegant, lithe and nicely juicy on the finish. Drink now through 2015. 9,005 cases made. From California.—M.W.

CHALK HILL Sauvignon Blanc Chalk Hill 2010 Score: 90 | $33
Equal parts delicious and intriguing, with spicy, smoky and floral notes. Meyer lemon, apricot and nectarine flavors end with a juicy, spicy finish, with touches of spice box and crushed rock. Drink now. 9,500 cases made. From California.—M.W.

LOVEBLOCK Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012 Score: 90 | $24
Supple and smooth, with a nice punch of acidity to the orange zest, lemon, green apple and fresh thyme notes. Intense and delicious, offering a very long, juicy finish. Drink now. 7,000 cases imported. From New Zealand.—M.W.

DUCKHORN Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2011 Score: 89 | $29
Apple blossom, pear and tangerine flavors are at the core of this wine, with a nice acidity to give the flavors plenty of intensity and freshness. Drink now. 27,120 cases made. From California.—M.W.

BRANCOTT Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012 Score: 89 | $14
The spicy quince and Asian pear flavors rest on a crisp, juicy body, with plenty of lime zest and grapefruit notes, especially on the finish. Drink now. 100,000 cases imported. From New Zealand.—M.W.

CLOUDY BAY Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough Score: 89 | $27
Marked by intensity, precision and focus, this delivers peppery details to the juicy lemon, apple and lime zest notes supported by a crisp frame. Offers a refreshing finish. Drink now. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 40,000 cases imported. From New Zealand.—M.W.

KONO Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2011 Score: 89 | $11
Lemon curd, fresh ginger and ripe apricot flavors are in harmony, with refreshing acidity and a light but smooth body. Drink now. 96,300 cases made. From New Zealand.—M.W.

JOEL GOTT Sauvignon Blanc California 2011 Score: 88 | $12
Lemongrass, Meyer lemon, apple and tangy apricot flavors are aromatic, bright and very refreshing, with fresh ginger on the finish. Drink now. 34,562 cases made. From California.—M.W.

MOMO Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012 Score: 88 | $18
The vivid grapefruit, lemon and green apple flavors are fresh and aromatic, showing plenty of persistence on the finish. Drink now. 25,000 cases made. From New Zealand.—M.W.

HANNA Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley 2011 Score: 87 | $19
Juicy tangerine and melon flavors are accented by zesty lemon-lime notes and a succulent finish. Drink now. 19,000 cases made. From California.—M.W.

KIM CRAWFORD Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2012 Score: 87 | $18
The citrus flavors are balanced by fleshy notes of peach and nectarine, with a spicy finish and plenty of pop from the vibrant acidity. Drink now. 425,000 cases imported. From New Zealand.—M.W.

DANCING BULL Sauvignon Blanc California Winemaker’s Reserve 2009 Score: 86 | $12
Light-bodied, offering an appealing mix of pineapple and spicy pear flavors, with a chorus of citrus notes and a juicy acidity in the background. Drink now. 83,600 cases made. From New Zealand.—M.W.

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

Coddled Egg

tessa — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:44:43 +0000

2 IN THE KITCHEN: CODDLED EGG WITH BACON & CRAB GRITS

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It’s not your ordinary egg dish. Executive Chef Floyd Cardoz from North End Grill in Manhattan’s Battery Park City stopped by the CBS 2 studios to make coddled egg with bacon and crab grits.

CODDLED EGG WITH BACON, CRAB & GRITS

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive oil or bacon fat
3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
¼ cup celery root, diced
1 one inch piece of Pasilla de Oaxaca or chipotle chile
1 cup leeks, washed, cut in half, and sliced half moons
1 whole stem of thyme
1 two inch piece of rosemary
¼ cup bacon lardons
½ cup Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes, diced
1½ cups grits, cooked with chicken stock, butter and salt
½ cup crab meat, picked of shells
1 sprig tarragon, chopped
Salt & pepper
4 eggs

Method

For the Grits

1. Mix ½ cup grits with 2 ¼ cups chicken stock, 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ teaspoon salt in a saucepan.

2. Set the stove to high and bring the grits to a boil.

3. Cover the post and lower the temperature to simmer.

4. Simmer the grits until all the water is absorbed and the grits develop a smooth and creamy texture – about 45 minutes.

Coddle Egg

1. Place a stew pot over moderate heat, add the olive oil and garlic and cook slowly

2. When the garlic is light gold in color, add the ginger, celery root, and pasilla or chipotle and cook for 2 minutes

3. Next, add the leeks and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes

4. Add the thyme, rosemary, bacon and fire roasted tomatoes and continue to cook for about five minutes

5. Add the grits, plus a couple of spoons of chicken stock, and continue to cook. Please note that the mixture should be slightly thick, not runny

6. Fold in the crab meat gently, making sure not to break up the meat. Add tarragon and season to taste with salt and pepper

7. Take off heat and remove pasilla, thyme and rosemary stems. This could be done up to a day in advance

8. Fill 4 oven-proof baking dishes with the warm mixture. Top each baking dish off with one egg and place in a 400 degree oven. When the egg white is cooked, remove from oven. Finish the dish with coarsely cracked black pepper and sea salt

(ORIGINAL VIDEO)

“We Chat With”

tessa — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:17:15 +0000

WE CHAT AMARI WITH MAIALINO’S BAR MANAGER, ERIK LOMBARDO

You might have experienced a cheese cart or a chocolate cart, but what about a tableside basket of after-dinner bitter liqueurs? At Maialino in the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC, bar manager Erik Lombardo recently introduced amari service, including a 16-bottle list and a few digestif bottles offered tableside for post-dinner sipping. The list, which includes a few familiar bottles (such as the delicious Nonino and Montenegro, Cynar and Zucca) but also some you might not have tried (such as Amaro Braulio and Lucano) rewards adventurousness, and sampling flights are available along with individual glasses. We asked Lombardo a bit about the program and his picks for amari novices, plus the weirdest bottles and his personal favorites.

You recently introduced an extensive list of amari at Maialino. What prompted the addition?

Tasting amari is like taking a sensory tour of Italy.
We wanted to encourage our guests and staff to learn more about the drink and what makes it so unique. The idea of having something that is specifically intended to aid digestion and to drink after a meal. Also, it’s hard to get more authentically Italian than amaro. The best part is that the variety in amari mirrors the myriad of regional differences all over Italy. Amaro from Lombardia is pensive with focused blasts of mint, entirely reflective of its alpine origins. Amaro from the Marche regions is heady with floral and citrus notes, it’s not hard to imagine obnoxiously fit and tan Italians sipping it while the Adriatic sea crashes dramatically in the background. Tasting amari is like taking a sensory tour of Italy.

How did you get interested in amari?

Like many people do, as a dare. My first introduction to amaro was Fernet Branca, which is a bit being introduced to someone who punches you in the face with a boxing glove full of menthol, myrrh and eucalyptus. To the uninitiated it can be like having a prankster tell you to put a ton of wasabi on your first piece of sushi, it completely overrides everything happening around you. Fortunately for me, it has another similarity with wasabi: when the attack fades it leaves an almost endorphin-like feeling; it’s not difficult to become hooked. From the gateway of Fernet I started trying others, actively seeking out places that had amari I’d never heard of. If I sit at a bar and they have an amaro I’m unfamiliar with, that’s the one I’m ordering.

Which amaro would you say is the best for beginners?

I would say Meletti or Averna are good for beginners. They’re softer than some of the big dogs, both of them have a good amount of sweetness to balance out the bitterness. Their also relatively low in alcohol, so you can try them in different formats. Amari change drastically when they are enjoyed in different ways. I prefer many kinds sipped neat, but I also enjoy some, like both of the ones I mentioned, topped up with club soda and finished with a twist of lemon. Completely different drink, the effervescence and citrus oil makes them incredibly refreshing.

Which is the most bitter bottle you’re serving? What about the most unusual? The most rare?

Sibilla is easily the most bitter we have, the finish can drag out for minutes. Most unusual may go the fernets, not many people are used to drinking the alcoholic equivalent of Vap-O-Rub, although trust me, it works! The most rare currently is the Braulio which we had a small part helping get shipped to the country—shout out to our Wine Director Liz Nicholson for getting that ball in motion! Until recently only one pallet had been shipped to the country and we had a good chunk of that. We were certainly one of the first restaurants in NYC to feature it.

What do you look for when you’re selecting new bottles to include?

Some amari fly under the radar. I like complex and nuanced flavors that develop slowly and help tell you a story. It’s one thing for me to say that Cio Ciaro has root beer, smoke, and orange notes and quite another thing to tell you it tastes like someone was burning oranges in a campfire then decided they wanted to eat them so they put it out with sarsaparilla. We have everything from light and fun to dark and brooding, low-test to boozy. The idea is to have something for everyone. If you have someone scared of bitterness, you can suggest one that’s sweeter; for someone who craves spice, there’s one redolent of baking spices.

Do you have a personal favorite or two? Which bottles and why?

My relationship with amari is a quintessentially Italian romance. I fall in and out of love with all of them but I will never forget my first. Fernet for sure, and then maybe Braulio. The story of Fernet and Braulio is one of two twins separated at birth. One of them grew up on the mean streets of Lombardia and learned to speak with her fists. She’s rough and tumble, she’ll use and abuse you and you’ll love every second of it. The other got adopted by a rich family and went to finishing school and learned to fence and speak Latin. She plays the cello and is incredibly well-read. Braulio is a polite introduction to the very same flavors Fernet has, but instead of having all four shout at you at the same time vying to be heard they parade one by one in front of you making gentle conversation. But ask me again tomorrow…

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

Chef’s Story

tessa — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:53:10 +0000

CEHF’S STORY – EPISODE 40 – KENNY CALLAGHAN

With summer quickly approaching, get into the spirit of the barbecue season! Hear the story of pit-master Kenny Callaghan of Blue Smoke, one of the premier BBQ restaurants in New York City on this week’s Chef’s Story. Kenny’s story is an unconventional one: after starting work at the age of 14 cooking fast Italian food, Kenny found himself in Florida where he learned the true nature of Barbecue and gained a true passion for it. Then moving to New York, he worked a series of jobs in fine dining, moving up the line in the kitchen and in the world of chef’s, earning credibility and experience that would eventually land him a job at the Union Square Cafe. After eight years of running a kitchen, Callaghan became a known name, and he joined up with a team of BBQ enthusiast’s to see if they could bring the spirit of this southern cuisine to New York City. Blue Smoke was the result. Their goal is to pay homage to all the different regional styles of southern BBQ, and bring the knowledge of fine dining into the BBQ world. Don’t miss this fascinating story of hard work, honest training, and mouthwatering anecdotes!

(ORIGINAL RADIO SEGMENT)

Taste of the Nation

tessa — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:52:06 +0000

TASTE OF THE NATION TAKES MANHATTAN WITH A-LIST CHEFS, BARTENDERS

By Gabi Porter

One of the most anticipated fundraisers in the New York culinary world is the annual Taste of the Nation shindig, which drew the A-list of the city food and beverage scene to 82 Mercer. Last night guests not only gathered to raise money to end childhood hunger for Share Our Strength, but were also treated to multiple floors of amazing food and drink (numerous attendees shared their thoughts that this was easily the best year yet). The bash was chaired on the food side by chefs Marc Murphy & Alex Guarnaschelli, and on the drinks side by master mixologists Julie Reiner and Dale DeGroff. All of them were on hand to work the crowd, dish out drinks and sign books.

Chefs from most of New York’s best restaurants served up small plates by the dozen. We particularly enjoyed the theatrics from Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria’s Justin Smilie’s; the man brought a blow torch that he used to melt/incinerate bone marrow for his bone marrow bruschetta with fava beans. On the opposite end of the decadence spectrum Amanda Cohen at Dirt Candy was serving gorgeous tomato tarts with smoked feta when she wasn’t taking her turn at the book signing station.

And if drinking was more your speed, the choices were endless with virtually every New York cocktail bar of note pouring booze by the punchbowl. The Pouring Ribbons team really knocked it out of the park with their Cherub Rock cocktail. And the boys at Employees Only were holding down the VIP fort with the Jones Act. We’re just sad we missed Eben Freeman’s fernet stout that he was serving on tap in the second floor room, but we look forward to having that once his and Michael White’s new joint The Butterfly finally touches down. Oh, and if the staff at your favorite restaurant seems a bit slow tonight – be forgiving. Sure they had a blast last night but it was for a good cause.

(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)