Andrew Carmellini's Home Kitchen | What You'll Eat at Table 8

	April 27, 2009
Two for Eight Tables Available at Anthos, Benoit, Bouley, Esca, and Falai It's 4 p.m., and that means 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: Certified Geniuses. Read More » Contests This Year’s Taco-Eating Contest Is Just Going to Be Silly This year’s world taco-eating competition, at Zocalo in Grand Central from 10 a.m. till noon on May 5, won’t be a contest so much as an attempt by competitive eaters Timothy “Eater X” Janus, Crazy Legs Conti, and Pete “Pretty Boy” Davekos to devour a record-breaking 36-foot taco made from 82 overlapping tortillas. Which is just kind of dumb. Read More » Openings What You’ll Eat at Table 8 Table 8 will open on May 6, but Govind Armstrong prepared preview meals all weekend long. The airy space has a wall of windows that overlook a garden with outdoor seating. For now, entrées range from $19 to $25 (check out the slideshow for photos), and smaller plates like sweet-pea salad with prawns go for $10 to $15 a serving. Read More » Comic Relief Best License Plate Ever Spotted last night in Nolita. But why no bacon frame? Anyway, as far as awesome tags go, it’s between this and TEQUILA1. Read More » Call for Action Grub Street Wants to Follow Your Blog, and Your Twitter Too! It’s time for some spring cleaning — you may have noticed our blog roll dates back to a time when there were, like, three New York food blogs. Does yours belong on our new one, or should we be following you via RSS? Let us know by e-mailing us, and while you’re at it, tell us if we should be following you on Twitter, in case you break vital news about, say, a miraculous clearing in the Shake Shack line. Or maybe you’re a chef who wants to let everyone know about your new ramps dish? Read More » In Season Inside Andrew Carmellini’s Home Kitchen For this week’s In Season recipe, Andrew Carmellini took a break from transforming the Ago space into a new restaurant and prepared some asparagus for us in his apartment. The chef is not afraid to use his microwave oven to cook, and you shouldn’t be, either. Watch the video, set the timer, and pretend you’re a chef. Read More » Brunch What to Eat at Tonda’s New Sidewalk Brunch While strolling past Tonda this weekend we noticed it has opened its outdoor café of about a dozen two-tops (also new to the East Village–ish outdoor scene: Double Crown!). You can now sit there for brunch from 11 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. on weekends, and we’ve pinched the menu. When you’re done scanning it, check out the restaurant’s new trailer — it’s possibly even more high-end than the Babycakes one! Read More » Booze News Two Liquor Petitions Work Better Than One? The SLA is taking its sweet time to grant liquor licenses these days (or so say the owners of La Superior), so Lower Lower East Side neighbors La Barra Cevicheria and An Choi (where Robert Sietsema was recently forced to BYOB on the DL) are doubling up to beg for theirs. Read More » In the Magazine Platt on Minetta Tavern; Dry-Pasta Taste Test In the magazine this week, Adam Platt eats at Minetta Tavern (no word on whether he used the secret number) and finds the setting “properly chaotic” and the menu a “compact, carefully edited compendium of practiced brasserie favorites.” For the home cook, Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld impaneled four discriminating palates (Cesare Cavella, Mark Ladner, Marco Canora, Steve Schirripa) to rate eight different dried pastas. The winner will surprise you and delight your wallet. Read More » Closings Injera Injustice: Ghenet Closes After Over a Decade That Ethiopian standby, Ghenet, has finally closed. The restaurant opened in Nolita in 1998; last October we heard it was being pushed out by the landlord, and in December it turned up for sale. An employee at Ghenet Brooklyn couldn’t give an official reason for the quiet closing three weeks ago, but said the owner is looking for another Manhattan location. Read More » Mediavore Café Bustelo Goes the PBR Route; After-hours Parties Are Back • The owners of Café Bustelo want to give the bodega staple the hipster cachet of PBR. [NYT] • Though it is technically illegal to serve alcohol after 4 a.m., several bars are serving into the morning. [NYP] • Forthcoming Bowery restaurant Homegrown Kitchen will grow all its vegetables in a rooftop garden. [NYP] • Despite the economy, new-restaurant applications were up 25 percent in the first quarter of 2009. [Crain's] • An East Village doctor has started a health-care co-op for the city's restaurant workers. [NYT] Read More » You're invited to attend Continental International Restaurant Week, May 1-10. Savor signature dishes from top NYC restaurants representing destinations served by Continental Airlines. New for 2009 is the Signature Dish Contest judged by Bravo's Top Chef, Tom Colicchio, where you can help determine the winner. To register, go to continentalrestaurantweek.com