Bradley and Freitag Planning a ‘Lusty’ Menu for the Harrison; HotAstoria: Bar 36 at 36-05 30th Avenue hosts Martini Thursdays, where it’s “$2 off every martini on their menu (or create your own). Can’t beat the free snacks, too!” [Joey in Astoria]
East Village: You’d be hard-pressed find a better, more satisfying “fantastic when it was hot but … made for a mean late night snack as well” deal than bär-bo-ne’s nightly five-course fresh pasta tasting menu. [Gluttoness]
Flatiron: Eisenberg’s has been serving tater tots as latkes, but “the owner talked about getting in some big latkes soon. Let’s hope so … A place like Eisenberg’s deserves to have the best latkes.” [Lost City]
Midtown West: Norma’s has added new breakfast items to its menu, including hot chestnut pancakes and a chocolate waffle with peanut-butter-toffee-crunch filling, but don’t expect to get in and try them until the tourist exodus in January. [Eater]
Tribeca: With chef Amanda Freitag at the helm, Jimmy Bradley plans to strive “for a bold, lusty, soulful menu at the Harrison.” Saucy! [Restaurant Girl]
Upper East Side: On weekdays through December, Zoë Townhouse at 135 East 62nd Street is offering a 15 percent discount off bottles of wine from noon to 7 p.m. [Grub Street]
Williamsburg: From these pictures, the opening of the Peter Luger annex, which would significantly expand the restaurant, seems imminent. [Eater]
Mediavore
Chef Cliques Revealed; More T-Day Dining OptionsFrank Bruni tries to put the chef network together and finds that Jimmy Bradley hangs out with Joey Campanaro of little owl and Jonathan Waxman of Barbuto. David Chang opts to stick with the “WD-50 gang.” [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
Theater-district restaurants, including Barbetta and Kyotofu , are offering 15 percent off their menus this week (except on Thanksgiving) in light of the Broadway-strike breakdown. [NYC Visit via Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Related: Theater Strike Could Drop Curtain on Midtown Restaurants
Masa may be one of the most expensive restaurants in New York, but it’s almost chump change in the rest of the world, considering Tokyo’s Aragawa “an eight-ounce piece of Kobe steak from a sake-fed Wagyu cow” for $400. [Forbes]
Neighborhood Watch
Theater District Restaurant Week to the Rescue; Get Your Lingonberries OnChelsea: Jimmy Bradley says that the best rice and beans in town are at Cabo Rojo on Tenth Avenue, and we agree. [NYT]
Financial District: The long-awaited food market at the Seaport is still on the way, and no, there aren’t any details. [Gothamist]
Midtown East: Get your lingonberry fix with the Scandinavian Church food crawl tomorrow. [Eating in Translation]
Midtown West: To help fight the effect of the strike, area restaurants are going to do a Theater District Restaurant Week from the 17th to the 25th. [NewYorkology]
Red Hook: Layla, the successor to Lillie’s, is coming along nicely. [Eater]
Tribeca: Chanterelle is hosting Poets and Port this Sunday, but you need like neither to want to go there. [TONY]
NewsFeed
Steven Eckler Joins Red Cat, Plans New Restaurant with Jimmy BradleyA new restaurant marriage has been consummated! Lever House GM Steven Eckler has joined the Red Cat’s owner Jimmy Bradley. The two are now operating partners in the Red Cat and are developing further plans. Bradley tells us that he hopes to have the Red Cat open for lunch within the next couple of months and is also looking to add a private dining room to the restaurant. “We’re still working on the lease, but there is space here for us to do it,” he says. And that’s not all! Eckler and Bradley are planning a new eatery, in theory an 80-to-100-seat restaurant “somewhere between the Thirties and Canal Street on the West Side.” So why move on this now? “Steven wants to open his own restaurant, and that’s something I want to do with him,” Bradley says. “We’ve known each other a long time, and now it’s time for us to do something.”
Back of the House
Chefs Continue to Rock, and We Reach for the Earplugs
First the Spin article in which Anthony Bourdain remembers the glory days of CBGB, then Metromix starts a “Kitchen Radio” column in which chefs talk rock (the first subject, Jimmy Bradley, says he listens to Zeppelin in the kitchen and compares his cooking to the drumming of Charlie Watts), and now the Times asks Fergus Henderson for his playlist. We’re glad to see it’s remarkably diverse — including cuts from Handel, Etta James, William Blake, Fela Kuti, and The Jungle Book soundtrack — because this thing of rock-and-roll chefs (and we’re not talking about Kerry “The Rock and Roll Chef” Simon) is getting a little tired. Whether it’s Sam Mason’s Dinner With the Band show, David Chang comparing the opening of his second restaurant to Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, or Mario Batali dancing his ass off at a U2 concert where he hilariously snaps a camera-phone photo of himself singing “With or Without You” with Michael Stipe, we get it. Chefs like to rock. We’re warning you: This will only get worse. Think Joël Robuchon bragging of mixing batter with Lars Ulrich’s drumstick.
Related: Bourdain’s Spin Essay Is Pretty Thin Soup
Living With Music: Fergus Henderson [NYT]
Michael Stipe Beautiful Day [YouTube]
Kitchen Radio: Jimmy Bradley [Metromix NY]
Dinner With the Band [On Networks]
Back of the House
Josh DeChellis Gives the ‘Top Chef’ Contestants High MarksThis season, we’re planning on kibitzing about the show every week with a variety of fellow viewers, all of whom will help us to dissect that episode’s round of flashy dishes and behind-the-scenes treachery.
Back of the House
Red Cat Owner Betting on Ilan to Win ‘Top Chef’Immediately following the penultimate episode of Top Chef, we instant-messaged with Jimmy Bradley, the chef and restaurateur behind the Red Cat, the Mermaid Inn, and the Harrison, and the co-author of The Red Cat Cookbook. Last year’s winner, Harold Dieterle, was a sous-chef at the Harrison, so we thought Jimmy might have an interesting angle on the battle between Ilan, Sam, Elia, and the much-maligned Marcel.
