Andrea Strong Hates Her Neighborhood BistroBar Tabac is a “rude, self-important, obnoxious cave (with al fresco seating) for French ex-pats and ubiquitous hipsters in the Brooklyn area.”
Back of the House
Huzzah! More Ramen for the East Village!On the theory that you can never have enough ramen bars in the East Village, Ippudo, yet another Japanese import, will open on March 31. According to Andrea Strong, Ippudo will be in “an urban-styled log cabin hut” (um, okay…) and will serve five kinds of ramen, “including their signature Shiromaru Moto-Aji (white-pork-based broth ramen) and Akamaru Shin-Aji (a bolder-flavored red broth seasoned with garlic olive oil and their secret sauce).” Will Ippudo succeed where Momofuku, Setagaya, Minca, and others have also succeeded? Why not? The liquor license and specialty sake cocktails certainly won’t hurt.
This Just In: Ippudo to Open March 31st! [Strong Buzz]
Related: Best of New York: Best Ramen [NYM]
NewsFeed
Taking a Stand Against Tequila SwagA very strange thing happened today. Things started out quite normally: We got our coffee, read our headlines, wrote some stuff, tackled the in-box — and then we got to Andrea Strong’s The Strong Buzz, a cheerful foodie e-mail filled with her musings about the usual food-blog fodder. But something was very wrong. Her latest newsletter was — and this is quite rare — angry. About swag, of all things:
This afternoon I received a box from UPS so large I thought it might contain one of those mini refrigerators I used in my college dorm room. It was so massive a box and so heavy that I had to get my brother to bring it upstairs for me. I had no idea what it was since I had not ordered a small refrigerator, or a compact car. Inside I discovered a ridiculous number of those Styrofoam “Esses,” (which stuck to me with static fervor) that concealed a large green wooden treasure chest (locked). When I figured out how to open it (the key was also secreted) I found that this massive blue wood box the size of a mini-fridge contained one bottle of tequila. I screamed. One bottle of tequila and all this waste? And that’s when I sat down to write.
Beef
The ‘Wall Street Journal’ Tweaks Food Bloggers, UnjustlyThe Wall Street Journal, having discovered the existence of food bloggers, raises the usual question about them over the weekend, namely: Given that chefs know who they are, and frequently feed them for free, how can their posts be trusted? (The article’s other point, about restaurants shilling themselves in online forums, is valid and then some.) But from our point of view, straddling the line between old media and new, we think the bloggers are getting a bad rap.
Mediavore
Tailor Delayed Yet Again; Bourdain Takes It to HowieThe opening of Tailor has been pushed back to September 1. Another delay? Who would have thought it? [Eater]
Related: Farewell, Sam Mason. Hello, Tailor
Tony Bourdain outdoes himself taking it to Howie in his Top Chef blog: “neither logic, nor the criticisms of chefs as great as Daniel, nor the passing seasons — nor even blunt objects — can infiltrate the inner workings of his space-age polymer nose-cone.” [Bravo]
Andrea Strong details her experience as a guest judge on Top Chef – and gives the full review that was read from on last night’s episode. [Strong Buzz]
Back of the House
Restaurant Sues Critic and Wins; A Study of Pizza for PesosGood news for Jeffrey Chodorow: A restaurant owner in Ireland has successfully sued a critic’s publication for giving him a bad review. [BBC]
A Texas pizzeria riled anti-immigration types with a pesos-for-pizza stunt. This subsequent essay is part marketing communications, part sociology. [NYT]
Fun interview with Drew Nieporent. Question: Is his favorite low-end restaurant really the random Benito’s II in Little Italy? [NYT]
Back of the House
Eating Out With Tim Zagat; the Littlest FeinschmeckersWhat’s it like to eat dinner with Tim Zagat? Something akin to eating with royalty. [Slate]
As Texas and New Haven fight it out for the title of who invented the hamburger, Grub Street’s editor weighs in. [LAT]
How did eating and diet get so complicated? Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and one of the guys who helped make it so complicated, sorts it all out. [NYT]
Back of the House
Andrea Strong on Reproduction, Grits; Internet Buying for FoodiesAndrea Strong and entourage dine at Porchetta: “If I ever reproduce, I am considering naming my kids pancetta, ricotta and egg.” [The Strong Buzz]
Strong, in her non-blogging capacity at the Post, surveys grits in New York. [NYP]
The Daily News lays out a no-frills Internet shopping guide for foodies. [NYDN]
Restaurant Girl hits Klee Brasserie and Ramsay’s London Bar. [Restaurant Girl]
Bruni essays the Waverly Inn’s “coy and misleading” soft-opening pantomime. [NYT]
Leuzzi passes along a pro–foie gras manifesto, pretends to be impartial, though her readers no doubt know where her sympathies lie. [Snack]
Back of the House
Soup Nazi Ladles Out Ego; DiSpirito Waits Tables; ‘Top Chef’• Public hearing reveals support for trans-fat ban and printing of calories on fast-food menus. [NYT]
• And KFC makes it official: minimal trans fats by April — coincidence? [NYS]
• Soup Nazi ponders a self-glorifying museum at the site of his original store. [NYO]
• Alerting us to video restaurant reviews, Andrea Strong somehow fails to nod to America’s Amusingest Food Videos. [NYP]
• Public opens a wine bar; another izakaya, this one with buttons at the table to summon waiters; gourmet pizza on Bedford Avenue. [Strong Buzz]
• Rocco DiSpirito waits tables with Gilbert Gottfried. (A benefit, not our dream reality show.) [NYP]
• Batali goes bi-coastal: Pizzeria Mozza finally open. [Chowhound]
• Absolut, Bacardi, and other reformed booze bizzies fork over $2.3 mil to end Spitzer probe. [NYS]
• “Top Chef” Marisa busts out the bikini. [Chow]
Click and Save
Beer and Chicken, From Moonachie to SunnysideEvery Monday, Click and Save surveys food service journalism from the previous week. Today, shaking the trees for plums, we came up with a collection that ranges from Sunnyside to Seoul, with special attention paid to beer and chicken.
