Our Interview With Thomas Keller | Details on Tom Colicchio's New Project

	September 30, 2008
Two for Eight Tables Available at the Mermaid Inn and the Red Cat; the Little Owl and Applewood Fully Booked It's time to play Two for Eight! We just asked ten restaurants the best time they can squeeze a couple in for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don't guarantee the results.) Today: Neighborhood Chic. Read More » Reopenings Back From the Dead: Donut Shop, Nam Wah Tea Parlor, Studio B A trio of beloved spots are reopening. First, it looks like Carroll Gardens go-to, the Donut Shop, is reopening, under the same operators, and will now be called the Coffee Shop. Lost City wants the old name back, but for a doughnut-themed diner, there's always the 7th Avenue Donut Shop in Park Slope. That site also reports that Nam Wah Tea Parlor, shuttered by the Department of Health, may open next week. And according to Brooklyn Vegan, Studio B has reopened after its run-in with the buildings department. Booze News Mercadito in the Clear It was a rough road for Mercadito, but a rep from the restaurant tells us the State Liquor Authority has renewed its liquor license despite Community Board 3’s lack of enthusiasm. Sangrita shots all around! Shack Attack Shake Shack’s Opening Date Not Set in Stone, but New Concretes! The Sun (sniff) sits down with Danny Meyer, and though he isn’t giving up an opening date for Shake Shack’s UWS location (mid-October is the consensus), there are some details about a downstairs dining room and new concretes... Read More » Swiss Watch Getting There We hear that Café Select, now open for lunch, is hosting friends-and-family dinners this weekend, meaning it's more than on track for that expected October 10 grand opening. Cheflebrities Thomas Keller Wants to Be ‘Taken Seriously By the World’ With the Bocuse d'Or semifinals completed and French Laundry chef Timothy Hollingsworth tapped to go to Lyon, Thomas Keller had time for a chat yesterday. The renowned bicoastal chef is also the president of the USA Committee for the Bocuse d'Or and has even donated his father's old house in Yountville, California, to be the training center. We talked to Keller about Hollingsworth, his training regimen, and the importance of a victory at the Bocuse d'Or for American chefs. Read More » R.I.P. Pour One Out for the ‘Sun’ We’ve just received a farewell e-mail from the New York Sun — a photo, of course, of the setting sun. Today the paper folded — like, permanently, not just in our lap. Despite its financial woes, the Sun’s coverage was a vital part of the city’s food scene — we’ll especially miss Paul Adams’s reviews and Bret Thorn’s Kitchen Dish column with its exacting coverage of openings, closings, specials, and changes. Grub Street can only do its best to pick up the slack. [NYT] Gentrification Off-Off-Bowery A-Ron Bondaroff, the "downtown don" and former creative director at 205 (who most recently threw underground parties in a ravioli factory on Sullivan Street before that, of course, got shut down), turns up at a Paris Fashion Week party and introduces the concept of “off-off-Bowery.” Yes, folks, this is what it has come to. [Moment/NYT] Dining Dollars Crisis? What Crisis? Not all Wall Streeters are crying into cheap beers at John Street Bar. Sarah DiGregorio hits Harry’s Steak and Delmonico’s (the latter, we have to add, just today published a gorgeous cookbook) and finds them thriving. Read More » Tom Tom Club More Details on Colicchio’s New Project, Tom: Tables Now Available! So here’s the nitty-gritty on Colicchio’s new project, officially titled Tom: Tuesday Dinner. As we told you before, he’ll be cooking in the open kitchen of Craft’s private dining room every other Tuesday, from 6:30 p.m. onward. Our reporter, Alexandra Vallis, now relays these details... Read More » State Dinners Sarah Palin Orders Cheesesteaks Better Than John Kerry For foodies and Philadelphians, John Kerry's 2004 order of a swiss cheesesteak was an iconic political blunder akin to Michael Dukakis in the tank. Sarah Palin was better prepared for her trip to Philadelphia last weekend. She ordered two steaks with Cheese Whiz and onions (she didn't say "Whiz with," but that's forgivable). But the best part is when the Tony Luke's cashier looks right at Palin and says, "Name?" Watch the video and revel in the indifference. Read More » Burger Love CBS Honors God’s Special Sandwich Last night's How I Met Your Mother (the sitcom mirror of a navel-gazing generation) revolved around the quest for New York's most perfect burger... Read More » Tom Tom Club TOM BOMB Our reporter on the scene, Alexandra Vallis, tells us that Tom Colicchio is announcing right this second that he'll open a restaurant called — get this — Tom. Well, not a traditional restaurant so much as a project: Every other Tuesday he'll be preparing dinners in Craft's private dining room, which will have (YES!) an open kitchen. You're the very first to get the reservation number so use it ASAP: 212-400-6495. Read More » Mediavore More Food Magazines Than Ever; Ladies’ Night Lawsuit Dismissed • Despite a crowded market and falling ad revenues, there are now more food- and cooking-related magazines than ever before, which might have something to do with people cutting back and cooking at home more often. [WSJ] • The Wendy's of the future will target older customers, have a new value menu with higher prices, and even offer breakfast. No word about the guacamole burger that's served in Latin America. [WSJ] • A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit alleging that ladies' nights at clubs are discriminatory toward men, stating that clubs are not representatives of the state and are therefore entitled to set prices however they please. [AP via NYP] Foodapalooza Rawr Metromix asks thirteen chefs what they’ll be cooking at the Grand Tasting at this year’s Wine & Food Festival, and Boqueria’s Seamus Mullen recalls being chased by cougars in Aspen: “The thin air and high altitude must make the middle-aged women very aggressive.” [Metromix]