Tag: nyc

Mauled Tourist

wolf packs have survived and even thrived in New York’s labyrinthine tunnels, emerging in local parks only on occasion to hunt in the moonlight for live prey. In fact, the NYPD chalks up the majority of missing tourist reports each year to the city’s subterranean canine inhabitants. Today, The Ed Koch Wolf Foundation in partnership with the NYC Fellowship is erecting monuments in city parks to serve as cautionary reminders to out-of-town visitors. When in NYC, visit our many beautiful green districts. Just let these stunning statues remind you as to why we close our parks at night.

New York Breweries win

7 New York state breweries, including 1 in New York City, took home medals at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver this weekend. Barrage Brewing Co. in Farmingdale, Community Beer Works in Buffalo, Great South Bay Brewery in Bay Shore, Gun Hill Brewing Co. in the Bronx, Heritage Hill Brewhouse & Kitchen in Pompey, King’s Court Brewing Co. in Poughkeepsie, and West Kill Brewing in West Kill all scored wins in the 33rd annual edition of the competition, which featured nearly 9500 beers from nearly 2300 breweries across the country in 107 categories. This was New York’s best showing at the festival since 2013, when the state’s breweries also won 7 medals.

Evil Twin taproom

“The taproom experience is getting more and more important in this competitive market. While you could 5 years ago open whatever taproom and people would show up just because it was a brewery, it’s not the case anymore. You have to make it attractive for people to come out not just for the beer, but something else also.” Thus, the taproom is housed in a glass-enclosed greenhouse designed by architecture firm Kushner Studios, filled with wooden picnic tables and stools around the bar that seat 76. There will be programming like live music, and a basement room will be used for film screenings and other events. A coffee shop with Sey Coffee will soon open at 7:00 so people can make use of the space all day, and a speakeasy-like cocktail bar is also on the horizon. More picnic tables sit outside for 185 people, as will rotating food trucks.

Cheese-Oozing Flatbread

But now we have an actual accurate rendition of crescia and the sandwiches made from them at Cremini’s, a new Italian restaurant in the southern reaches of Carroll Gardens. The crescia sandwich ($10) is really quite amazing. The flatbread is dappled with brown spots and tastes of wheat, and the selection of fillings (pick one meat and one cheese) is identical to the list of cheese and charcuterie listed earlier in the menu

Rolling Stock Costs

Despite this conservatism, costs are very high, consistent with a factor somewhat higher than 2 on commuter rail and somewhat lower than 2 on the subway. But perhaps the conservatism is what increases costs in the first place? Perhaps the reason costs are high is that the world market has moved on and the MTA and some other American operators have not noticed. In Chicago, Metra found itself trying to order a type of gallery car that nobody makes any longer, using parts that are no longer available. Perhaps the same kind of outmoded thinking is present at the MTA, and this is why costs have exploded in the last 10 years.

Caffé Panna

It was in that city, on a sojourn cooking at the American Academy, that Meyer first fell in love with Italian gelato culture — how the product was churned daily and not allowed to harden overnight, the fruit-forwardness of the flavors, the way it was ingrained into the whole of society’s daily life. But especially with panna, or whipped cream, the topping that inspired the name of her new shop, Caffè Panna. There, the high-fat cream of Piemontese cows will be whipped fresh and dolloped freely, as it is in Italy. It will also be used to crown Meyer’s signature dessert, composed affogato sundaes that combine their Italian roots with Meyer’s all-American love of mix-ins, crunch, and swirls. “I just have so much fun pairing coffee and ice cream, and figuring out all the different things that go really well in an affogato. And it tastes like Rome to me. It makes me really happy.”

Lekka

Amanda Cohen has some surprising opinions about veggie burgers: “They’re usually kind of thin patties; they’re mushy; they don’t hold together; there’s a lot of sauces or things accompanying them that I think mask the flavor; they’re always a little grainy.” Most of all, though, they’re just plain boring. Which might make you wonder why she’s gearing up to open Lekka. She worked up a brand-new recipe that takes the original Song-dynasty text purely as inspiration, not scripture. It contains mushrooms, beans, gluten-free grains, and something secret that prevents the thing from disintegrating on the flame grill. She plans to serve it on a house-baked vegan Japanese milk bun; dress it with toppings like Hatch-chile sauce and curry-tamarind ketchup; and offer it alongside crinkle-cut fries, inventive salads, and nondairy shakes.