Someone’s been doing research through the message boards. What’s up 3sixteen?
Zucco, the face and owner of Le French Diner on Orchard St. in the Lower East Side, passed away from an apparent heart attack on February 13th, 2010. You will be missed. (Thanks for the link, Chris Sojka.)
Image via Bowery Boogie.
Bloomberg just passed a salt reduction initiative that would look to better manage the use of sodium in restaurants. Here’s how some of the most popular venues fared against the daily recommended value of sodium:
At Shake Shack, a Double ShackBurger, fries and a peanut butter shake pack 1,980 milligrams — a lot of sodium, yes, but goodness, a lot of food.
That’s a lot of sodium—but not so bad considering it’s a burger, fries, and shake. The real kicker is Katz’s Deli:
Katz’s justifiably famous corned beef sandwich, with mustard but only two of the six pickles the counter guy gave me (along with his number), came to a truly remarkable 4,490 milligrams of sodium. That’s about two whole days’ worth in one sandwich, nearly the equivalent of 10 McDonald’s hamburgers.
I feel guilty for slamming down so many of those sandwiches while I was in college.
A clever map of the NYC MTA Subway system with the superfluous information omitted. Click to view the full-res map.
Via @JoseRMejia.
Bruce Feiler details his experience as the maître d’ at Union Square Cafe in a 2002 article for Gourmet Magazine.
The restaurant has a number of procedures designed to bring small pleasures. Those going to the theater get a card under their salt shaker to ensure speedier service. If it’s raining, they’ll give guests a free umbrella to take home. If guests are having difficulty deciding between two desserts, the server will often deliver their choice-and the other at no charge. “You are working for a company that is looking long-term at those kinds of decisions,” Meyer tells recruits. “Not ‘Oh my God, we gave away eight desserts.’” This system is even more striking when things go wrong. When a child dropped a Sprite in the bar, the entire family got new drinks. Meyer calls this “writing a great last chapter.”
This was, hands down, the best steak I’ve ever had in my life.
I landed in JFK Friday evening and made my way directly to Minetta Tavern to try their $26 Black Label burger. On top of that, I also tried the oxtail and foie gras terrine, and the roasted bone marrow. Everything was beyond flavorful; it was like shoveling fat that dissolved in your mouth before you even had a chance to chew any of it.
Perfectly cooked, the dry-aged LaFrieda prime meat patty essentially did the chewing for you. It was so robust that I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate the flavor that was packed into the burger. Maybe it’s not worth the $26 price tag, but it’s something to try at least once (though I still prefer the Spruce burger as a more realistic option for every-other-week consumption). I’m going for the côte de boeuf at Minetta next week.
I’m out of town for the next two weeks; expect sporadic updates while I work out of the Self Edge New York offices during my exodus from San Francisco. There will definitely be food pics.
I arrived in New York early Saturday morning to catch the opening party for Self Edge New York. I spent most of the weekend eating, drinking, and bowling with Mr. and Mrs. Self Edge and the 3Sixteen crew. Thank you to 3Sixteen and Self Edge for an amazing time. I’m looking forward to taking a longer visit at the end of August (where I’ll hopefully be eating a lot more food than I was physically capable of consuming this time around). A photo-ladened post after the jump.
Reasons to move back to NYC — Pies ‘n’ Thighs
I’ve been saying that the one thing that would get me to move back to the East Coast would be my former local favorite: Pies ‘n’ Thighs. They closed down a few years back but they’re finally reopened as of today. I guess that means I better start packing my bags.