'Top Chef' Alum Talks Trash | First Look: La Fonda del Sol

	January 13, 2009
Lunch Klee Opens for Lunch Chelsea folk, take note — Klee Brasserie is now open for lunch, from noon to 3 p.m., on weekdays. (Till now, it has only opened in the afternoon on Thursdays and Fridays.) The Alsatian-Austrian-leaning menu, which follows, doubles as the brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.Read More » Food Politics Foie Gras Advocate Supports Faux Gras Challenge Michael Ginor of Hudson Valley Foie Gras is an unlikely supporter of PETA’s faux gras challenge. The chef, who wrote a whole book about goose liver, thinks there’s room for experimentation, but reminds us that there’s no substitute for the real thing. “They're not going to find an alternative to foie gras because there just isn't one. It's going to be some kind of a product like a mushroom-like paté that will possibly be very tasty,” he told Canada’s National Post. Read More » Chef Shuffle Scott Bryan Takes Over at Apiary Apiary, which garnered a lone star from Platt under chef Neil Manacle, tells us it has turned executive-chef duties over to the esteemed Scott Bryan. The former Veritas chef is currently retooling the kitchen and will have a new menu within a month: “Chef Bryan, recognized in the industry as a venerable talent was a Food & Wine Best New Chef (1996) and earned three stars from The New York Times for his work at Veritas. Read More » Openings A First Look at La Fonda del Sol La Fonda del Sol will open on Monday, an update of "New York’s first fine-dining Latin American restaurant," write Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld in this week's openings. Look for food from Josh DeChellis (formerly of BarFry) and a look by Adam Tihany. View the slideshow for a sneak peek at the dining room and some of the dishes. Read More » Top Chef Alumni Newsletter Top Chef Alum Cooks Pork Belly, Talks Trash Mark Simmons, the Kiwi chef from Top Chef season four, is working at Double Crown these days. Delish ropes Simmons into reenacting a Quickfire challenge from this season: making a one-pot dish. Since appearing on Top Chef, Simmons has gone from Public to Double Crown, and also gotten married. The video (not embeddable) is worth watching for his Padma impression alone. Read More » CB Wars UCB in at Two Boots, Panya Bakery Space Doubles Eater hit up Community Board 3’s liquor-committee meeting last night and learned the following: UCB got the nod to open a space in the Two Boots Theater; the Kuma Inn got a thumbs-up for a new license (good-bye, BYO!); and the Panya Bakery space will extend into Around the Clock’s bar area, doubling its size — “making it a viable option for a restaurant (or, of course, a retail store).” [Eater] Foodienomics Rich People Still Finding Funds to Eat at Fancy Restaurants You might be curbing your spending practices, but that doesn’t mean that rich people still can’t spend a lot of money on dinner whenever they want. Business was up in 2008 at Masa, where some big spenders eat twice a week. Per Se is still full every night, though not with larger parties or corporate events. (The restaurant is also planning a “shorter menu at lunch,” reports Ryan Sutton.) Read More » Mediavore Cook Inside Jamie Oliver’s New Store; Bobby Flay’s Dessert Battle Airs • Jamie Oliver's new concept, called Recipease: You buy the ingredients and a professional will help you prepare it in the store. [Evening Standard via Yum Sugar] • The Bobby Flay–Dessert Truck battle will finally air on the Food Network tomorrow at 9 p.m. [Midtown Lunch] • Watch out for King Nut brand peanut butter, which is being eyed by health investigators as a link to a national salmonella outbreak. [WSJ] • Don Callender, the founder of the Marie Callender restaurant chain, has died. [NYT] Closings Rainbow Room Safe for This Month, Caffe on the Green Not So Much As expected, the Ciprianis have filed a lawsuit against their landlord and are seeking $1.8 million in damages, the Post reports. That should offset those tax-evasion charges! Per a judge’s order, the Rainbow Room will stay open until at least January 27. Read More » Foodievent Food-Porn Book to Help the Hungry Back in November, we told you that Citymeals-on-Wheels has lost over a million in donations with the fall of Bear Stearns. Since the economy is even worse now, 2009 isn’t looking much better. As party of the Citymeals relief effort, photographer Jan Bartelsman has compiled some grand food porn into a new book called Dining in New York City. There’s some familiar faces — Psilakis, Dufresne — and some well-known dining rooms — Per Se, Gramercy Tavern — but everything looks so good it’s like you’re seeing it anew. Read More » Lawsuits Trader Joe’s to Trader John’s: Oh No You Didn’t File under “saw it coming,” but Trader Joe’s is suing Gristedes, the company that, it turns out, is behind the mysterious Trader John’s opening just three blocks away. Hilariously, the 51-page lawsuit quotes blog commenters who call the copycat location’s former incarnation “especially crappy” and “one of the filthiest of all the filthy, overpriced Gristedes.” Read More » Empire Building 2nd Avenue Deli Plans Upper East Side Location By year’s end, the 2nd Avenue Deli will open a second location (well, a third one, if you include the East Village original). Owner Jeremy Lebewohl isn’t yet announcing an exact address, but he tells Save the Deli that he’s locking down a space on the Upper East Side. Read More » Menu Changes Amid Absinthe Backlash, White Star Adds Classic Cocktails We sensed that White Star wouldn’t last long as a simple absinthe and spirits bar. Grub Street was among the first to champion the green stuff even before it hit the U.S. market two summers ago, but now Adam Platt is weary of it and even the New York Times has declared it uncool. Read More » Food Politics Obama Chastised for Ignorance of Capital Cuisine During an unlikely appearance on Meet the Press yesterday, Bill Cosby was not pleased to learn that the Obamas would join him on the formerly exclusive free-food list at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C. Read More » Charlevoix - Auberge Des 3 Canards: Ever since it?s beginnings over 50 years ago, the holiday resort at Auberge Des 3 Canards has developed a culinary tradition which has earned it many distinctions over the years. Any visit would be incomplete without taking part in the culinary experience Chef Mario Chabot reserves for his clientele. www.auberge3canards.com