12/01/08

'Stand up' and 'Be counted': The Zagat Site Is Open

Want your well-crafted diss or praise of Westchester restaurants to be quoted in the slim red tome? Want a free Zagat Survey of Westchester/Hudson River Valley? Or do you simply want to make its local editors’ work harder, since they have to sift through sheaves of your long-winded responses?

Whatever your selfish, nasty little reason, the Zagats want you. The survey at www.zagat.com is now open to take your responses, which will be used for the 2009/10 Westchester/Hudson River Valley Survey. From now until January 4, 2009, you can write in and make a difference. Get online and get counted.

Posted at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

11/24/08

Sneeze Guards or Germs: Which Is Worse?

Now that the holidays are upon us and we’re feeling all touchy-feely, we decided to revisit one of our favorite topics. Germs.

I know we’re supposed to be all supportive of the work of the Westchester County Department of Health, but sometimes its requirements run counter to the proper enjoyment of food. Take
Antipasti in White Plains, for instance. Its cool, Carerra-marbled antipasti bar is all about “interactive dining,” to borrow Union Square Hospitality Group’s David Swinghamer’s phrase. Sitting in the front row, diners are supposed to be engaged in the sensual pleasures of food—the smells, the sights, the slicing and shucking. Great—but it...

Posted at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

11/17/08

Director's Cut: Thanksgiving

In this month’s Westchester Magazine, we wrote a piece themed a Locavore’s Thanksgiving; it’s a collection of laborious recipes offered by those fine, farm-supporting chefs that we admire so much. Of course, these recipes are targeted to a select crowd -- those of us who would drive 40 minutes to an exurban farm, pick up a newly dead, beagle-sized bird, only to wrestle it home for a three day brining and roasting marathon. Look, don’t judge us. Our partying days died with cat in the hat caps and glow sticks, and we’re too old for Dungeons and Dragons.

Anyway, let’s say you have more of a life than we do. Here’s a list of five warm and inviting restaurants, many with flickering fireplaces, that manage to make a...

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1

11/10/08

Space-O-Rama

Well…you folks might remember us reporting that Boe@324 tanked -- the spot with a really annoying website and a freestanding structure on Central Avenue? (The website, still up, forces you to wait as a slow, slow, slow set of curtains parts to reveal the restaurant’s site—and sometimes the curtains don’t part. Check it out—it’s maddening.) When Boe@324 vacated, the move detonated one of those not-uncommon restaurant explosions, the kind that leave unemployed waiters, debts, lawyers, and other food world shrapnel scattered all over Central Avenue.

Here’s the scoop. Once upon a time there was a restaurant in New Haven called

Posted at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments: 2

11/04/08

Joe Blogs (and Jogs)

Lest you be confused, this is not the Tarry Lodge restaurant feed—but EATER has been swept along with the excitement.  Plus, we kinda can’t help it.  Have you noticed that Joe Bastianich is everywhere?  We can’t get away from the guy, and we’ve tried.  He’s a slightly gravitas-laden Jack in the Box when we drop by Tarry Lodge; then he’s on the Today Show, talking about hosting cheap wine tasting parties as we groggily sip our coffee. (All we thought was, as if this guy drinks cheap wine.  Still, we loved the moment before the cut to commercial: a shot of Joe trying to look busy digging chunks out of a...

Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

11/02/08

Tarry Lodge: First Taste

Despite our policy of avoiding new restaurants within their first month, we bowed to (persistent editorial) pressure and swanned into Tarry Lodge. Here are some first impressions.

One: we’re baffled by the personal touch. We barged into the dining room still screaming down our cellphone from the sidewalk, only to run bang into Joe Bastianich manning the podium. Whaaat? The man’s got about 30 high-profile restaurants, an olive oil business, an Italian wine shop, book projects, Italian vineyards, multiple wine labels (plus other concerns too numerous to mention), and here he is greeting Tarry Lodge’s diners at the door. Listen, I’ve been to most of the Bastianich/Batali restaurants—many quite frequently—and I’ve never seen him...

Posted at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments: 19