If you're a bargoer, you know the feeling. At 1:30 every morning, the bartender bellows, "LAST CALL!" and a collective groan erupts from the hangers-on, as they order their last round. The lights go up, and everyone stumbles out.
In New York, it's different. Most bars don't close until 4 a.m., dragging the ruckus and partying late into the night. Turns out, not everyone is a fan of the late-night revelry.
Brad Linder, journalist and writer for sister site Green Daily, recently reported on this issue for NPR. He spoke to one woman who lives in the NOHO district and is a member of a community board that's trying to get liquor-licensed establishments to close at 2 instead of 4.
Community boards like hers now have so much pull that many bars and restaurants must ask permission before staying open 'til 4, like teenagers asking to extend their curfew.
I'm sure we'd all rather not experience loud arguments and car alarms at 4 a.m. But at some point, isn't the noise and general hubbub part and parcel of living in a trendy NYC neighborhood? If you don't like the scene, shouldn't you just...move somewhere else?
Effective immediately, a federal appeals court says that all New York restaurants must post their food's caloric information on menu boards, and should begin no later than tonight at midnight.
The bill will apply only to restaurants with 15 establishments or more, and demands that the calorie counts be printed in the same font and size as normal menu information (even if this means making the rest of the menu's text teeny-tiny).
Fines will be instated beginning July 18 if restaurant owners do not comply with the new law.
Restaurant owners will fight out the case again in court on June 9, when the showdown will likely begin again.
The Museum of Modern Art Store might not immediately pop into your mind as the perfect place to fulfill all your kitchen needs.
Makes sense - much of its items are pricey and elegant, and not appropriate for everyday use. But if nothing else, it's certainly fun to peruse the products and place them on your mental kitchen wish list.
From inside-out martini glasses to panda-shaped pink lunch bags, MOMA's got funky kitchenware covered. Check out some of the fanciful finds below.
We don't usually hear or read too much about food cart vendors. You know the ones - everyone has grabbed lunch from them at some time or another - whether in an unfamiliar city with no immediate restaurant choices, on a quick break from a long meeting, food cart meals are the original "go-to meals," before the term "go-to meal" even existed.
But the anonymity of vendors has changed this week, as articles appeared in both The New York Times and The Washington Post about the food carts and the businesspeople who run them.
In New York, Latin food vendors who have served the players and fans at Brooklyn's Red Hook soccer fields for the past 33 years faced being ousted from their spots if the Department of Parks and Recreation succeeded in "regulating" its permit process. In the end, the vendors were all allowed to stay and were issued a new six-year permit. But despite vendor fees remaining about the same (about $10,500 per year), reps of the vendors worry that the permit's new rule of standardizing equipment will mean vendors paying hefty fees for updated ovens and plumbing.
In D.C., vendors are feeling similar pressure, but for a different reason: instead of cutting back, D.C. wants to expand, but not among the current food options. Instead, citing surveys of citizens who say they want a larger food selection, the city is opening up the market to companies like Zipcar, an electric car company that wants to expand into gourmet and healthy food vending.
Back at the end of January, I spent five days up in New York City, attending a writing conference and hanging out with my cousins in Brooklyn. One of the high points of the conference was the session I attended that consisted entirely of food writers reading from their work. One of the writers was Sara Roahen, and she read a piece about the Sazerac (a drink made from rye whiskey and bitters) from her about-to-be published book about food and life in New Orleans.
The book, officially titled Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, is now available and it should be winging its way to me even as we speak (thanks to the wonder that is Amazon.com). It contains recipes and stories (and we all know that's just about my favorite thing in the whole world). When I heard Roahen read, by the end of the chapter, I was nearly panting for a Sazerac (and I don't particularly even like whiskey). If that is any indication, I am certain the rest of the book will be as vividly descriptive and tantalizing.
• West Coast frozen yogurt stores, led by Pinkberry, descend on Manhattan. Godzilla-style madness ensues.
• The Minimalist cooks with canned tomatoes, with a video on roasted tomato soup.
• Alex Witchel writes about bigos, Polish sauerkraut soup; Elaine Louie discusses a one pot recipe for homemade meatball sausage cooked with tomato sauce.
DeCicco Markets, a small, six store, suburban supermarket chain in New York has joined what may become a trend that Wegmans started earlier this year. They plan to stop selling tobacco products as soon as their inventory runs out and should be tobacco free by April. I applaud you DeCicco Markets in your decision. (DeCicco Markets was one of my local supermarkets when I lived in the NYC suburbs growing up. I had friends who worked in the Chester Heights store in Bronxville when I was a teen and I shopped there often. They had great butchers and an excellent meat department. One of my best friends, Kevin, worked there and still has the nickname, "BEEF", to this day.)
Personally, as an ex-smoker, I think that tobacco products sales should be controlled more and only sold in stores that specifically sell tobacco products. I feel that smoking tobacco is an adult decision. Children and teens shouldn't be exposed to tobacco in grocery stores, pharmacies, deli's, etc. I know that I would never have started smoking when I was 13 if tobacco hadn't been easily available in vending machines and with packs piled high on the counters of deli's and candy stores. I smoked off and on half my life, I even worked for a year or two in the tobacco business as a cigar and pipe expert, and I am so glad I finally quit. I wouldn't have been able to develop the palate and ability to detect fine tastes that I have today if I still smoked. I remember a few weeks after the final time I quit when all of a sudden I was amazed at how good, and intense dinner was. My taste buds had been rejuvenated and food was like something new again.
So let's see how things shake up. Will this be the start of a supermarket trend for 2008? Are there any other chains out there around the country that are doing the same?
You best believe I was watching the Super Bowl all afternoon (with a few flips back and forth from AnimalPlanet to catch the Puppy Bowl) and though I was supporting the Patriots here all week in our very own Slashfood Bowl, it's the New York Giants who won today!
And since the Giants have won Super Bowl XLII, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino lost his bet with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mayor Menino will send a package of Boston foods to New York: New England Clam Chowder, Dunkin' Donuts coffee, Boston cream pies, chicken sausages and Brigham's ice cream. The food will be donated to local food charities in New York.
Growing up in Portland, OR, there wasn't much in the way of street food available around the city. Sure, there were a select few carts located directly around the big downtown office buildings, but they had very limited hours and were spottily placed. One of the things I looked forward to experiencing each summer, during our annual trip to Philadelphia to visit family, was the all the food carts on the street. They scented the air, lending the aroma of hot dogs, pickle relish and frying beef to the air in their direct proximity.
I'm currently in New York right now, attending a conference and hanging out a bit with some family. When I was getting ready to leave her house this morning, my cousin Betsy asked me where I was going. When I gave her the address, she seemed to shuffle through an index file stored in the back of her brain. Then she said, "There's a terrific Halal food cart on 53rd Street, right off 6th Avenue, with great, cheap food." I was a little boggled at her ability to pinpoint a food cart in a city the size of New York, but as she's lived here for the last 30+ years, I believed that she knew of what she spoke.
The New York Times reported today on a cookie that is apparently so amazing and delicious that it will run you fifteen smackers. But they're so darn cute that it's almost worth it.
The little footballer, his spunky cheerleader friend, and their referee buddy are 10 inches tall and available at the Vinegar Factory and Eli's Manhattan. Eli's is known for its clever little confections; a few years ago, the bakery received a warning letter from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority: apparently, the organization found out the bakery was selling cookies that looked like Metrocards, but did not have the proper permits to do so.
Here's hoping the Giants and the Patriots don't get upset.
In our annual food showdown inspired by opposing team cities in the Super Bowl (now dubbed the Slashfood Bowl), Marisa has gone to pizza. I knew she would, and knew that I would have to come up with something. Now I know that arguing that there might be something better than New York-style pizza (which happens to be my favorite kind) is just asking for it, so since I have to rep-ra-zent for the New England Patriots, I am merely going to say that Boston-style pizza simply exists, because really, I can't say that it's better. I just can't.
I have to admit that when I throw a Super Bowl party, I don't usually serve foods on Super Bowl or football-themed plates and platters. It's usually enough for me to have the game on in the background and let the food just speak for itself. However, because we happen to be hosting the Slashfood Bowl this week, I thought it would be nice to show off Wincraft's Snack Helmets that come in the opposing teams' helmets. Since I play fairly, I'm representing Marisa's New York Giants in addition to the Patriots. (I didn't really care either way for anyone who cares - my heart belongs to the Colts).
The helmets hold snacks on top and in a small section near the face mask. Both are available on Amazon.com for about $45 (depending on the seller).
Looking to save a little money this holiday season? One way to do that is to curb your restaurant habit. However, so many of our social lives revolve around going out to eat with friends and so to eat in is to give up those opportunities to socialize and hang out. Luckily, Catharine of the food blog Not Eating Out in New York (we did a feature about her just over a year ago) has just posted some helpful tips about cooking at home, keeping it fun and making sure you still have a social life while you're doing it. Here are some of her suggestions.
Buy fresh veggies often so that there's a "perishable presence" in your home that you've got to use.
Read cooking sites or food blogs just as you're getting hungry to inspire yourself to feed that appetite
Share your food with friends. You invite them over for dinner, chances are they'll return the favor and suddenly, you're hanging out and doing it outside a restaurant.
She's got lots more useful thoughts, but I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll just stop there. She's certainly got me thinking about cooking at home more than I already do.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
If you're a bargoer, you know the feeling. At 1:30 every morning, the bartender bellows, "LAST CALL!" and a collective groan erupts from the hangers-on, as they order their last round. The lights go up, and everyone stumbles out. 
• Frank Bruni ranks his 
DeCicco Markets, a small, six store, suburban supermarket chain in New York has joined what may become a trend that 
The New York Times reported today on a cookie that is apparently so amazing and delicious that it will run you fifteen smackers. But they're so darn cute that it's almost worth it. 
Looking to save a little money this holiday season? One way to do that is to curb your restaurant habit. However, so many of our social lives revolve around going out to eat with friends and so to eat in is to give up those opportunities to socialize and hang out. Luckily, Catharine of the food blog Not Eating Out in New York (we did 
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
