07/28/08

Directors Cut: Dos and Don’ts of Dining Out (Or: Teach Your Children Well)

We regularly use this space to give an expanded version of an article currently appearing in Westchester Magazine. Why? Because, like Francis Ford Coppola, we hate to see our work cut. It physically hurts us to see our precious words drift to the editing room floor, sacrificed in the interest of—oh, let’s say—the reality of selling a magazine. Consider this Directors Cut as our personal five-hour version of Apocalypse Now.

Here’s our theory about diner/waiter signals: we think everyone should learn the language of dining out. In fact, we’ll go even further. We feel that all the high school and college-aged sons and daughters of Westchester should get summer jobs in restaurants—even if they have no interest in future restaurant...

Posted at 04:13 AM | Permalink | Comments: 3

07/21/08

Eeeeew: the Health Code Violation Near You

So we were sitting in a very expensive Westchester restaurant recently, admiring, as we do, the butter bowls. These were some nice butter bowls. They were of the French burrier design, whose most salient feature is that the crock can be inverted in a cup of water to keep its contents fresh without refrigeration. We’ve always wanted a burrier, since we prefer spreadable, room temperature butter, but we’ve never bought one ourselves. Why not? We know our slobby nature. We know that after a few weeks of not changing the water, our quaint little burrier will morph into a toxic, butter-themed death bomb.

While this restaurant’s burriers...

Posted at 05:25 AM | Permalink | Comments: 8

07/17/08

Okra, Beans, and Leafy Greens

We’re stoked. As we mentioned in our July Westchester Magazine feature, “Westchester’s All-Americans”, we feel that the African American contribution to American cuisine is overlooked. While much of Southern cuisine has become emblematic of American cuisine as a whole, most people still think this food was invented by the fainting, petticoated likes of Scarlett O’Hara. Instead, it was really African immigrants (and sons and daughters of immigrants) who invented the Southern American culinary vocabulary. Like Jazz, or Rock and Roll, this cuisine definitely had African roots, but it was still as joyously and irrepressibly American as jambalaya and hoppin’ john.

On Sunday, July 27, Philipsburg Manor and Stone Barns will join up to...

Posted at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

07/14/08

A Liquid Snapshot: Pour Mt. Kisco

Sad to say, at our age, the appeal of bars has waned. Where once we loved the (apparently) teenage crowd, the brain-splitting volume, the beer fug and filthy ladies’ rooms, now we can’t name the last bar we truly enjoyed. (We’re not counting pubs here—they’re quiet, welcome folks over 30, and don’t serve candy-themed body shots. We’re also giving the stunning Yonkers riverside bars a pass—mostly for their lovely outdoor seating.)

We were surprised, then, when we visited Pour  in Mount Kisco as part of an upcoming article on enotecas. Our bar prejudice was shaken as soon as we parked on Mount Kisco’s Main Street. There, across from the Flintstonian stone-veneered...

Posted at 05:22 AM | Permalink | Comments: 11

07/07/08

Eater Survives the Javits Center

Every summer, the NASFT (the National Association of the Specialty Food Trade) moves into the mini-municipality of the Javits Center and takes over. The Fancy Food Show is like the Mall of America for foodies, with five city blocks full of stalls, samples, hand outs and gimmicks. The entire point of the convention is for manufacturers, large and small, to get their product into the hands of retailers, restaurateurs and folks like us—the press. As you can imagine, with big-money deals being brokered, orders flying around, and checks being signed, the press is pretty low on the Trade Show totem pole.

Here are some of most striking things about the Fancy Food Show.

Badge Snobbery
In the past, we have attended the fancy food show as...

Posted at 06:09 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

07/02/08

Chef-O-Rama

What the hell is going on at Crabtree’s Kittle House? First Wine Director Don Castaldo was let go when Glen Vogt joined John Crabtree as partner (see GM-O-Rama), and now “Co-Executive Chef” Anibal Romero has, according to Vogt, “left to pursue other opportunities.” To be honest, the situation always seemed a little crazy to us. Chef Romero, who had worked his way up through the ranks at Crabtree’s, was asked to share Executive Chef duties with “Co-Executive Chef” Kevin Bertrand, after Bertrand was hired two years ago. Currently, Executive Chef Kevin Bertrand is the sole survivor...

Posted at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments: 6