06/29/09

Greenmarkets in Westchester

Greenmarkets are the greatest addition to the fresh food scene since the invention of the refrigerated produce case. Where else can you help stimulate the local economy, minimize your carbon footprint, support small, artisan farmers and producers, live up to the “locavore” label, get inspired by the bounty laid out before you, and eat the freshest ingredients available?

When I go to our Pleasantville Greenmarket on summer Saturday mornings, I get motivated by the variety and abundance on display before me. My creative juices begin to flow looking at and tasting the season’s bounty of the Hudson. When I tell the customers at my restaurant,

Posted at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1

06/22/09

Grandma Pies: the Square Peg

It’s pretty simple. Westchester pizza is usually divided into two types, Sicilian and regular, with thick and thin crust, square and round pies. These are the geometric, clear, elementary distinctions that make the average diner feel comfortable...there’s no culinary gray area on these pies.

Until now. That Long Island regional pizza, Grandma pie, is hitting Westchester at Chubby’s Express. Square, and of medium thickness, it blends the two basic New York pizza styles. According to Erica Marcus of New York Newsday (as re-told in Ed Levine’s Pizza: A Slice of Heaven), “among the men who left Southern Italy to find their fortunes making pizza on...

Posted at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1

06/15/09

French Bistro Opens in Scarsdale

The elegant Scarsdale space formerly housed by Backals has a new occupant. Bistro Citron, open since April, is offering French cuisine similar to its two other locations in Long Island and Manhattan.

The restaurant’s landmark stone building at Scarsdale’s Five Corners has remained predominantly unchanged, save for a few cosmetic touches. The stunning décor combines reds and yellows, wood, marble tables, French doors, an ornate fireplace, and warm lighting, evoking a homey Parisian bistro, and highlighted by an eye-popping vaulted ceiling with white-arched rafters. Terraces and alcoves offer a variety of seating areas, including balcony tables that overlook the dining room, and a separate room on the second floor. Five outdoor tables are available for lunch or...

Posted at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

06/08/09

First Taste: Sweet Grass Grill

To be honest, Westchester is not challenged for bars and grills, and they’re only getting thicker on the ground as bitten restaurateurs re-tool niche-y concepts with dependable, recession-proof menus. So it’s a common phrase around town—“grill” or “bar and grill”—but what does it actually mean? No one would call Alfred Portale’s NYC Gotham Bar and Grill a burger joint, just as it would be a misstatement to call Union Square Cafe a coffee shop. Upon hearing the term “bar and grill,” beer, bargains, and burgers would probably pop into most people’s minds, but...

Posted at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments: 0

06/01/09

Dining in the Dark: Eating with Smell, Touch, and Sound

At a recent dinner, I exhibited such poor table manners, I practically turned into a caveman: Tie tucked into my dress shirt, slouched posture with my face hovering closely over the plate, I’d abandoned my knife in favor of stabbing at the meat and bringing it up to my mouth in one chunk. I spoke to other people at the table without any effort to make eye contact. I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing everyone else was doing the same.

There was a reason for our collective lack of grace.

We were eating in total darkness.

This wasn’t a blackout—it was all part of Foundation Fighting Blindness’s Westchester-Fairfield Dining in the Dark event, held in a ballroom at the...

Posted at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0