Noise Police Harden Their Hearts for Mr. Softee; Trans-Fat-Free Fryer OilMr. Softee vendor busted for noise pollution: “I am aware of the law, but I need to play [the jingle].” [NYT]
DiFara’s Dom De Marco bows to the Health Department, but he ain’t happy about it. [TONY]
Steakhouse offers a “cut specifically for women,” but Nina Lalli ain’t having it. [VV]
Drew Nieporent tells Baird Jones, with pickle breath, that he’s lost 50 pounds in 100 days. [NYDN]
Ask a Waiter
Guss’ Pickles Vendor Roger Janin Doesn’t Mind Getting Wet and SmellyRoger Janin has been working at Lower East Side institution Guss’ Pickles for six years. “I used to hang out here,” says Janin. “The mother of one of my friends was working here. She asked if I wanted to push some pickles around and I said, ‘Sure, I got nothing better to do.’” These days Janin works at the stand with Pat Fairhurst, his mother and the current owner of the eightysomething-year-old establishment. We asked him what it’s like persevering through frostbite, two-hour lines, a budding lawsuit, 500-pound pickle barrels, and the very stinky train ride home.
Back of the House
A Japanese Gastropub and Other Openings; KFC’s New Recipe Tastes Like Chicken• More on “Japanese gastropub” Zenkichi, Lower East Side brick-oven pizzeria Cronkite, and others; Antoine Bouterin packs it in. [NYT]
• Taste-testers prefer trans-fat-free KFC. [NYDN]
• Cuozzo presses Michael Lomonaco for 9/11 memories, likes the drapes at his new place. [NYP]
• Guss’s in a legal pickle. [NYP]
• Patsy’s, too, fights for its name. [NYS]
• Park Slope sandwich and gelato spot Tempo Presto’s latest locale. [NYS]
• Vendy victor is doing brisk business. [NYDN]
• Emily Sprissler blows the whistle on “rat-trap” conditions (and Padma’s cellulite) on the “Top Chef” set. [Chow]
The New York Diet
Novelist Gary Shteyngart Scarfs Lox, Philosophizes Over SpinachAbsurdistan author and Lower East Side denizen Gary Shteyngart is 40 pages into a new novel about “a guy who eats really well and wants to live forever.” We’re thinking it’s a bit autobiographical, given what he ate during the days between Friday, September 22 and Wednesday the 27th.
