New York City : Trend Watch

The Devil Is in the Eggs

BuzzEditor — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:21:00 GMT

Shoolbred's deviled eggs with candied bacon

Photo: courtesy of the bar

Comfort foods hold that title for a reason, and with the economy still shaky, people seem to be turning to them in droves (se chicken, fried). So it comes as little surprise that the old family-picnic staple, deviled eggs, are currently in the midst of a renaissance. The classic dish is not just on the menu at Southern-accented spots like Hill Country ($3.95), Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (three for $3.95, six for $6.95, 12 for $10.95), Tipsy Parson ($5) and The Redhead (whose new brunch menu includes pickled shrimp and deviled eggs, $6), but also at spots like Lure Fishbar (where the dish is served as an amuse-bouche when you are seated), Little Giant ($6), Centro Vinoteca ($4), Spotted Pig ($3) and the brand-new Café Henri spin-off, Bar Henry ($9). Looking for a twist on your deviled eggs? Resto's rendition comes with crispy pork toast and green onions ($9), while the ones at Shoolbred's are topped with candied bacon ($8).

Chicken 'n' Waffles: Not Just for Breakfast

BuzzEditor — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:47:00 GMT

Chicken and waffles at Buttermilk Channel

Photo: courtesy of the restaurant

It’s been a soul-food staple for years, a pairing so popular in the South it even spurred Gladys Knight to open a chain focusing on the combo. But chicken 'n' waffles is no longer just a Dixieland rage. It's popping up on menus all over town, in preparations classic to creative.

Many restaurants stick to the pair's morning roots. At Blue Smoke, for example, it’s a new addition to the brunch menu, with a classically fried bird atop a whole-grain waffle drizzled with New York State maple syrup ($17.95). Back Forty also serves it as a core brunch dish with a twice-fried chicken and maple syrup ($14). It’s not surprising that the duo is always available at Permanent Brunch; what is surprising is the preparation, a coq au vin leg garnished with wild mushrooms alongside a wild rice and bacon waffle ($14).

Park Avenue Autumn moves the dish to the lunch menu as a sandwich, the crispy fried chicken betwixt the waffles ($16.50). And if you want, you can get them any time of day at Gansevoort 69, with the fried chicken accompanying apple waffles, toasted walnuts and bourbon-spiced maple syrup ($14).

Finally, Stanton Social is serving the duo up for dinner, with brick-pressed chicken and an aged cheddar waffle, corn pudding and balsamic spiced maple syrup ($18), while Buttermilk Channel’s dinner offering is soaked in buttermilk, of course, and served with a cheddar waffle ($18).

–Kathleen Squires

Pickle Me, Elmo

BuzzEditor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:52:00 GMT

Joseph Leonard's pickle jars

Photo: Hernan F. Rodriguez

City restaurants are finding themselves in a bit of a pickle lately, the good kind, as the briny snacks are popping up on menus all over town.

Brand-new West Village Italian Corsino (212-242-3093) offers an assortment of olives and pickles ($5) as an antipasti, while its Village neighbor Joseph Leonard generously garnishes each table, and the bar, with jars of gratis gherkins (646-429-8383). In NoHo, Brad Farmerie’s pickled watermelon rinds ($4) are a popular starter at Double Crown (212-254-0350), although the MePa's Standard Grill goes for a more traditional approach: its “good pickle” ($1) is a classic half-sour sourced from Lower East Side traditionalists The Pickle Guys (212-645-4100). Further Uptown, a side of pickled vegetables, including cucumber, cabbage, carrots, peppers and green cherry tomatoes, complement the Mediterranean dishes at Pera (212-878-6301).

Meanwhile, over in Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens' Buttermilk Channel offers a mix of sweet cornichons and crunchy half-sour dills ($3) as a starter (718-852-8490), while chef Cal Elliot at Williamsburg's Rye accompanies his sandwiches with a plethora of the crunchy treat: sweet, thin-sliced “bread and butters” with mustard seed; garlicky dills with jalapeño; watermelon rinds with allspice, star anise and cloves; and perky pearl onions with ginger (718-218-8047).

–Kathleen Squires

Trendspotting

BuzzEditor — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Standard Grill is at the forefront of a MePa comeback.

Photo: courtesy of the restaurant

In anticipation of Wednesday’s release of our 2010 New York City Restaurants survey results, we offer this snapshot of the hottest trends shaping the dining scene in the world’s culinary capital.

Hot Again: With the recently opened High Line drawing droves and the demise of the 27th Street nightlife strip nearly complete, the Meatpacking District is emitting renewed heat, and the scene’s epicenter is the Standard Grill and its bar siblings housed within the impossibly chic Standard Hotel. Meanwhile, a bit North in Chelsea, a formerly sleepy slice of Ninth Avenue has been invigorated by the arrival of the tapas standout Txikito and the overpopulated pizzeria Co. from Jim Lahey, who plans to open a branch of his Sullivan Street Bakery nearby.

The Impossible Table: The city’s most coveted reservations only seem to grow more elusive. At Keith McNally’s celeb magnet Minetta Tavern, it’s widely held that only VIPs/‘friends of Keith’ possessing a secret phone number can secure a table (unless you’re looking to dine at midnight). And to catch a glimpse of that famous mural – and the even more famous patrons – inside Graydon Carter’s Monkey Bar, would-be diners must request reservations via email (best of luck to them). Downtown at Carter’s original eatery the Waverly Inn, we’ve given up listing the phone number – it’s never yielded anything more than a busy signal. Meanwhile, the self-consciously exclusive newcomer Charles offers no phone number at all (reservations by email only). And reservations for David Chang’s Momofuku Ko remain virtually impossible to nab, though at least its web-only, first-come, first-served system frustrates on an equal-opportunity basis.

Plastic Only, Please: The West Village hot spot Commerce recently announced that it no longer accepts payments in cash. Will others follow suit?

Eating at the Bar: Gramercy Tavern and Aquavit have had them all along, but these days it seems that nearly every top-tier fine-dining establishment is adding a casual, lower-priced, often non-reserving section. Café Boulud is undergoing a revamp that will introduce an eat-in bar area, Per Se has started serving à la carte dinner in its bar/lounge and Chanterelle was gearing up to add a casual component when, sadly, it closed. Still, formal dining lives on – witness the arrival of the Michael White–Chris Cannon collaboration Marea and the Financial District stunner SHO Shaun Hergatt, both offering unabashedly splurge-worthy formal experiences.

Radical Revamps: Other upscale vets are shaking things up even more dramatically: Aureole recently departed its hushed East Side townhouse for airy, modern, Adam Tihany–designed digs on 42nd Street, where the prominent front bar/à la carte dining area nearly overshadows the small fine-dining section. Midtown’s Oceana left its luxury linerlike berth for a sprawling Rock Center space, casting overboard its prix fixe–only menu format in the process; Central Park South stalwart San Domenico morphed into the sleek, cavernous Murray Hill triplex SD26, which includes an expansive wine lounge; and the Plaza Hotel’s circa-1907 Oak Room reopened following a two-year hiatus and now features a French-accented New American menu.

Old School Forever: Even while NYC’s eateries are busily adapting to modern tastes, menus at a few newcomers feature dishes seemingly beamed in from the 1950s. At the Monkey Bar, there’s clams casino and lobster Thermidor; at the West Village’s Hotel Griffou there’s steak Diane and duck a l’orange, while Mari Vanna goes retro Russian with the likes of beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev.

Beyond Sushi: NYC’s ardor for Asian food shows no sign of cooling – if anything, it’s deepening, as New Yorkers move beyond sushi to embrace everything from elegant kaiseki to soba and ramen shops, izakayas, yakitori and robata grills (including the Times Square arrival Inakaya). The most recent addition is traditional vegetarian shojin cuisine, available at the East Village arrival Kajitsu. Likewise, where once there was simply Vietnamese food, now there are a myriad of pho soup specialists and purveyors of the latest sandwich craze, banh mi. Korean mavens now have quality fast-food options from customized bibimbop (b-bap) to lacquered chicken (Boka).

Flying Fish: The city is teeming with new seafooders. Splashier arrivals include the Michael White–Chris Cannon collaboration Marea, David Burke’s Fishtail, the ocean liner–inspired Harbour, and Fulton, from the upscale grocer Citarella. Among the casual new options are the UES’ bivalve fest Flex Mussels, the East Village’s Butcher Bay, Williamsburg’s Sel de Mer, and Jeffrey Chodorow’s latest, Ed’s Chowder House, across from Lincoln Center.

12-Hours of Food Trucks

BuzzEditor — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:31:00 GMT

La Cense Beef Burger Truck

Photo: courtesy of the truck

Food trucks are becoming as common a city sight as taxi cabs these days. And thanks to the Internet, they aren't that hard to find. With so many offerings, those who like to eat and run can put together an entire day of dining, and dashing, from truck to truck. You'll even burn a few calories in the process:

Breakfast

Mudtruck. Find it.
Wafels and Dinges. Find it.

Mid-Morning Snack

Cupcake Stop. Find it.

Lunch

La Cense Beef Burger. Find it.
Rickshaw Dumplings. Find it.

Afternoon Boost

Green Pirate Community Juice. Find it.

Dinner

Papa Perrone. Find it.
Endless Summer Tacos. Find it.

Dessert

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck. Find it.
Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. Find it.
Treats Truck. Find it.
Street Sweets. Find it.

– Kathleen Squires

Fun With Fries

BuzzEditor — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:39:00 GMT

Double Crown's daikon fries

Photo: courtesy of the restaurant

Who says you need a potato to make a good fry? Not Brad Farmerie of Double Crown, whose “lap cheong” (dried sausage) daikon fries ($6) come with a side of chili sambal mayonnaise (212-254-0350; reserve online). Hearts of palm are the inspiration for Julian Medina’s “palmitos” fries ($6) at Yerba Buena, which are paired with a creamy red pepper sauce called aji panca (212-529-2919; reserve online). Medina carries the offbeat theme to his Midtown Toloache too, where he breads avocado ($9) and cactus ($6) for the crisper (212-581-1818; reserve online). Craftbar’s chickpea fries ($7) with black olive aïoli are among the house favorites at Tom Colicchio's Flatiron New American (212-461-4300; reserve online). Still, a good root does make for sturdy frites, like the yuca ones ($5) at Macondo (212-473-9900) or the taro version ($7, served only at lunch) at Riingo (212-867-4200; reserve online).

– Kathleen Squires

Doggone It!

BuzzEditor — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Commerce's pretzel dog

Photo: Hernan F. Rodriguez

Recently, Serious Eats’ Ed Levine and New York Magazine’s Adam Platt went snoot-to-snoot on the city’s best “haute dogs.” While we applaud their efforts, there are a few more whimsical wieners we’d like to add to the dog run:

Even though Commerce's $7 pretzel dog with spicy mustard is not on the menu, chef Harold Moore offers it as a nightly special (212-524-2301; reserve online). At new gastropub Gus & Gabriel’s, Michael Psilakis recently unleashed two styles – Chicago hot dogs garnished with banana peppers, raw onion and tomatoes ($10.95), and chili and cheese dogs with sour cream and cheddar fondue, pickled jalapenos, pico de gallo and chives ($12.50). Both come with tater tots, coleslaw and a pickle (212-362-7470).

And you can't overlook that ever-popular breed, corn dogs. Sam Mason’s $10 version at Tailor is made with huitlacoche (212-334-5182); Stanton Social’s $12 take consists of stone-ground blue corn crab cakes (212-995-0099; reserve online); and Marfa’s $6 minis make for a “frankly” addictive Texas snack (212-673-8908).

– Kathleen Squires

Acid Tongue

BuzzEditor — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:19:00 GMT

Vinegar: it's what's for dinner.

Vinegar, apparently, can be made from almost anything. Upscale Austrian producer Gegenbauer makes 70 varieties of vinegar out of everything from pickled peppers to beer. And some of the city’s top chefs are using it not only to enhance their dishes, but to garnish drinks too.

Chef Olivier Muller of db Bistro Moderne spritzes Gegenbauer’s asparagus vinegar on lemon sole to bolster the flavor of the green and white asparagus that accompanies the fish. “It’s a great trick,” Muller says. “Seasoning this way highlights the flavors instead of masking them.” He uses tomato vinegar in the same way (212-391-2400; reserve online).

Chef Michael White mixes the cucumber vinegar with lemon to dress oysters at Marea (212-582-5100; reserve online); and Kurt Gutenbrunner of Wallsé uses the red pepper and cucumber varieties along with vegetable juice and gin for his “pepper pepper” and “pepper cucumber” cocktails (212-352-2300; reserve online).

Home chefs can purchase the vinegars at epicurepantry.com, Dean & Deluca and The Food Emporium (bottles range from $19.99–$57.99).

– Kathleen Squires

Attack of the Robo-Restaurants

BuzzEditor — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:51:00 GMT

Diners order via touch-screens at Philippe Chow Express.

photo: Courtesy of Philippe Chow Express

Following the example of the ATM machine and the self-serve gas pump, restaurateurs around the world have increasingly been incorporating automated components into the dining experience. By doing so, they reduce staff needs in these rough economic times – and further prove the prophetic genius of The Jetsons. For example, take Philippe Chow Express, Philippe's new West Village spin-off, where patrons order their dishes from a touch-screen menu. From computerized wine kiosks to sushi-laden conveyor belts, here are some more ways that restaurants are using technology to encourage guests to DIY.

Adour: At the NYC location of Alain Ducasse’s haute French restaurant, bar patrons browse the wine list (complete with tasting notes) via an interactive menu projected onto a touch-screen bar top.

Bamn!: This bright-pink spot in NYC’s East Village brings back the days of the Automat, with coin-operated machines vending pork buns and mini-burgers.

Clo: At this wine bar in NYC’s Time Warner Center, choices are made via a motion-activated list and then patrons fill their glasses from automatic dispensers using prepaid credit cards.

Evo Bistro: Thirty-two wines are available in three different sizes from the automatic dispenser at this Med bistro in McLean, VA.

Inamo: At this quirky London newcomer, diners can choose their own food and drinks, play digital Battleship and even order a taxi home via a touch screen.

Isobune: Diners at this SF sushi spot catch their own fish as it floats by on a moat.

Luckyfish: Lucille Ball would feel right at home at this LA sushi restaurant where patrons snag their dinner as it passes by on conveyor belts.

Pod: Not only does the sushi pass by on a conveyor belt at this Philadelphia spot, diners can choose between nine different colors to illuminate their “pod” seating.

Sakae Sushi: This conveyor-belt sushi chain has already conquered Asia, and now it's set its sights on NYC.

uWink: With locations in SoCal and the Bay Area, this Californian chain by the founder of Atari (and Chuck E. Cheese) lets diners order at interactive tabletops, which double as multiplayer game consoles.

– Justin Hartung

Tipping ’Em Back at Tales of the Cocktail

BuzzEditor — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:27:00 GMT

Home base for Tales of the Cocktail was the revolving Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone.

photo: Karen Hudes

Forget amateur night – the biggest rager in the country last weekend was at Tales of the Cocktail, the annual New Orleans festival that draws the most accomplished, ambitious and creative players in the world of bartending and mixology. The big names were all there (Dale DeGroff, Gary Regan, Pegu Club’s Audrey Saunders) as well as plenty of newcomers soaking up knowledge at scores of seminars, tastings and late-night parties. The Buzz visited the alcohol-fueled scene to distill the latest trends.

In the pink: Scott Beattie's market-driven cocktail

photo: Karen Hudes

Culinary Cues: Cocktails are going “hyper-seasonal,” in the words of one panelist, as bartenders develop relationships with farmers to get the right botanicals for their drinks. That adds up to elements like the lemon verbena–infused syrup and dehydrated peach-chip garnish used by Scott Beattie (Sonoma County’s Cyrus) and refreshing tomato water prepared by Todd Thrasher (Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA) for his Bloody Mary. Two green-minded Brooklyn impresarios told the Buzz they’re going hands-on this year, with a bar in the works where the herbs for infusions and garnishes will be grown on-site.

Micro-Distilling: More and more mixologists are learning their way around a still, and licensed micro-distilleries are popping up around the country, including two producing absinthe in Oregon. For one cocktail, bourbon (made with all-local corn) by the Hudson Valley’s Tuthilltown Spirits was blended with New York apple butter and maple syrup to make a pleasing tipple with a wealth of terroir. And since former Eliot Spitzer signed a bill last year making it legal for farmers to distill what they grow, expect to see more homegrown micros on the way.

Feeling Bitter: Ted Haigh (aka Dr. Cocktail, curator of the just-opened Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans) sees a trend in bartenders making their own bitters too. “They want to recreate Boker’s Bitters, Abbott’s Bitters,” he says, and some small companies like Fee Brothers are heeding the call, bringing back previously extinct flavors.

Garnish Recap: Some of the most fragrant and eye-catching toppers of the weekend included a half-fig, a shiso leaf and a sprig of mint smacked in the bartender's palm. Look out for foams, flowers, house-pickled produce and crystallized powders from liqueurs making a statement on the rim.

New Sensation: A standing-room-only crowd squeezed in for a seminar on molecular mixology. Like its gastronomic counterpart, the gist is using science – knowing the chemical properties of the liquids you’re working with and the tools at your disposal – to intensify flavors and re-contextualize familiar notes. Eben Freeman of NYC's Tailor pulled it off with a New Orleans twist, presenting a Ramos Gin Fizz marshmallow and Sazerac gummi bear, while a vodka rep presented the audience with groan-inducing but admittedly amusing Red Bull cotton candy. Among other topics, Jamie Boudreau (Vessel in Seattle) discussed “fat-washing” to get the flavor of bacon without the slickness.

“People are eager to try new ideas and disgusting things,” says Freeman, who thinks the public is “over feeling safe.” Even when he’s not testing palates with hops-infused liquors and the like, he’s keen on stirring up “profound emotional experiences” with memory triggers like scotch infused with pumpernickel raisin bread, and “bringing back the first impressions of flavors,” serving customers perception-bending renditions of rum and Coke in solid form.

LeNell Smothers plays doctor

photo: Karen Hudes

Hangover Cure: LeNell Smothers, the saucy owner of LeNell’s wine and liquor shop in Red Hook, always keeps the tone down-home. At her seminar on using eggs in cocktails, she concluded by asking, “Have you ever had a proper Prairie Oyster?” She then demonstrated the hangover cure by having a buff volunteer take off his shirt and lie down on the table. She proceeded to crack eggs, add salt and pepper, Worcestershire and Tabasco and licked the result off his stomach before a thrilled audience. Which all shows the professionals can get as down and dirty as anyone, they just know how to do it properly.

– Karen Hudes

Where the Actors Are the Owners (Not Just the Waiters)

BuzzEditor — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:01:00 GMT

Have you been to a celebrity-owned restaurant?

Are they worth the hype? Share your thoughts on the Zagat Discussion boards!

With the writers' strike finally over and the Academy Awards just around the corner on February 24th, most of Hollywood is thinking about who will be taking home that little gold guy. But not everybody can win an Oscar, so financially prudent actors might find themselves pondering potential side businesses. And if they want a tried-and-true second gig, the food industry is very welcoming to thespians. We're talking about owning here, not waiting on tables or tending bar.

LA is arguably the capital of the celeb-backed restaurant. The scene-heavy Melrose Italian Dolce Enotca e Ristorante has backing from the likes of Ashton Kutcher; the same group also owns the newish Ketchup,which boasts Wilmer Valderrama and Tara Reid as backers. Then there's Cathy Moriarty's pizza mini-chain Mulberry St. Pizza. Over in Pasadena, Jennifer Lopez opened Madre's, a glamour Puerto Rican dining spot. And, don't forget about Eva Longoria Parker and Todd English's upcoming Beso. Even Steven Spielberg's mother has her own kosher dairy kitchen, Milky Way. Although Johnny Depp no longer owns the Viper Room, the House of Blues, with investors ranging from Dan Aykroyd to Aerosmith, is still going strong.

For Robert De Niro, winning two Oscars wasn't enough – he still wanted to become an über-restaurateur. In West Hollywood, he has Ago, a pricey Tuscan that recently opened a location in Las Vegas and is on its way to New York. He has Rubicon in San Francisco and Nobu, Nobu 57 and Tribeca Grill in New York. Paul Newman, also an Oscar winner, opened the Dressing Room, an organic New American that sits adjacent to wife Joanne Woodward’s beloved Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. Oscar winner Timothy Hutton put some money into the Midtown pub P.J. Clarke's, which now has three locations. And Oscar-winning director (and actor) Quentin Tarantino was an early investor in Korean Barbecue Do Hwa in New York City.

Indeed, NYC has no shortage of celeb-backed ventures. Justin Timberlake (yes, he's an actor too) recently brought Memphis BBQ to the Upper East Side via Southern Hospitality. Chris Noth's nightspot in the Flatiron, the Cutting Room, offers a performance space for all types of acts. The first Planet Hollywood even landed in Gotham and although the chain has lost some of its swagger and some of its original backers (most notably the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger) it still has Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone to stand behind the 18 locations around the world, plus a recently opened Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

While the majority of actor-backed restaurants are in the celeb-infested environs of New York and LA, they do pop up elsewhere. In 2006, Sandra Bullock teamed with chef Brenton Childs to open Bess in Austin. Don Johnson and Cheech Marin are both backers behind San Fransisco's French-Vietnamese Ana Mandara. And in Paris, Gérard Depardieu has two restaurants: the Classic French La Fontaine Gaillon and the raw bar L'Ecaille de la Fontaine.

Lean Times for the Meatpacking District

BuzzEditor — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Uneasy Street: Gansevoort and Washington

photo: Emily Capo

The new year is off with a thud in the Meatpacking District, with a slew of closings both real and rumored. The downturn began with last year's shuttering of Markt, probably the most populist (and popular) venue in the high-flying neighborhood, which was razed to make way for an Apple Store. This month, the nightclub PM went dark after its liquor license was suspended, and word is it won't reopen at all. There's a similarly uncertain future for the Inn LW12, currently "closed for renovations" and also alleged to be gone for good. Across the street, the Japanese restaurant Ono is set to fold in March (to be replaced by a Maxim magazine–branded steakhouse), while long-reported plans to transpose former hotspot Double Seven to Gansevoort Street have also been scuttled.

It's all part of the roller-coaster ride that is the Meatpacking District, a once gritty industrial zone that became a dining/clubbing destination in 2000 following the opening of Lotus, the "it" club of the millennium. Soon the district was drawing big-name chefs (Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Zak Pellacio, Sue Torres), big-name restaurateurs (Jeffrey Chodorow, Steve Hanson, Keith McNally), a swell hotel (the Gansevoort) and every kind of nightlife imaginable from dive bars to boutique lounges. But even during the boom times, one street seemed jinxed – the stretch of Gansevoort between 9th and Washington, where most of the current closings are clustered. Over the last eight years, this strip has seen one major flameout (Sascha) as well as a number of lesser ones (Chinghalle, Hell, Meet, Rhône, Zitoune).

Still, there's some hope for this unlucky block. Los Dados, a newish Mexican cantina is gamely holding down the fort on its western perimeter, and Merkato 55, Marcus Samuelsson’s new African eatery, is on the way. And when in doubt, there's always Florent, the circa-1985 granddaddy of the boulevard, where you can still get a hamburger and a martini at 5 AM.

– Curt Gathje

LA to NYC: Keep Your Cupcakes!

BuzzEditor — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:14:00 GMT

Crumbs in Beverly Hills

What we desperately need here in LA is New York pizza, a fine taste of which recently appeared at Joe's Pizza in Santa Monica, reminding those of us who know the difference that New York pizza really is in a class of its own. But instead of pizza, New York seems determined to send us cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes.

We're drowning in a sea of Magnolia Bakery clones (Sprinkles, Susiecakes, etc.). And we're also being inundated with branches of New York cupcakeries – Babycakes is set to open on Beverly Boulevard in a few months, and Crumbs just opened in Beverly Hills. Yes, the Reese's Peanut Butter cupcake is awfully good, even sinfully so. But please – we don't have the streets of New York on which to walk off our cupcakes. Our exercise consists of walking from the bakery to our cars parked next door. Feed us cupcakes and we'll look like floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (another import that we could use, though it probably doesn't travel all that well from coast to coast).

– Merrill Shindler

Whipped, Shaken & Stirred

BuzzEditor — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:12:00 GMT

By Karen Hudes, ZAGAT.com staff editor

A Voce's boozed-up baba

photo: Karen Hudes

There's nothing like having a dessert and a drink to cap off the night, and if you can roll them into one sumptuous treat, all the better. We took a hop around town to discover the best confections with a buzz.

Malt Shop Liquor

The newest burger joints are adding a grown-up kick to their thick milkshakes. At Stand near Union Square, customers suck down a multicolored array of fountain drinks ranging from shortcake-y strawberry ice cream with vanilla vodka to an elevated reincarnation of the Shamrock Shake – light green with fresh mint and a hit of bourbon. A few blocks west at Laurent Tourondel's BLT Burger, old-fashioned glasses, complete with fat straws and syrup all around the sides, deliver a serious shot of hooch. While the Night Rider – chocolate ice cream, Oreos and Kahlua – makes a tempting combo, it's Grandma's Treat – a caramel-drizzled vanilla shake spiked with Maker's Mark – that really packs a punch. And when you're in the mood for some Fox's U-Bet the way Gram never had (or maybe she did?), head downtown to Schiller's for a liquored-up egg cream.

Shakes with a shot at BLT Burger

photo: Karen Hudes

Sugar in Your Cup

Tipping the balance, the East Village's new Back Forty mixes a little dessert with its alcohol in the form of a float made with a pint of malty, slightly sour Irish stout topped by a scoop of vanilla. As sweets go, the ice cream does more for the beer than the beer does for the ice cream, so it's best reserved for brew aficionados in the mood for a twist. Offering even more immediate imbibing, Chocolat Michel Cluizel at ABC Carpet does away with the glass altogether, serving shots of liqueur in petite dark chocolate cups as well as in the pre-filled, ID-required bonbons – a serious challenger to those 85-percent cocoa bars. And at Park Avenue Winter, pecan biscotti can be dipped into a steamy mug of cider with hot buttered rum, nutmeg and cinnamon

Wombat's tipsy trifle

photo: Karen Hudes

Drink Like a Sponge

In the European school of alcohol-drenched desserts, A Voce, bolstered by new pasty chef Joshua Gripper, leads the pack with its baba Napoletano, a cream-filled, brioche-like cake brightened by a citrus salad and served with a glass of aged rum to pour over it yourself. Fluffy, aromatic and hands-on, it's a knockout combo. (Watch out for old-school purveyors like Veniero's that only use rum syrup in their baba.) Meanwhile, at Williamsburg's Aussie restaurant Wombat, the kitchen whips up a wallop of a Brit-style trifle, layered with whipped cream, custard, currant jelly and sponge cake soaked in Harvey's Bristol Cream. So why shouldn't a woman – especially one who remembers its retro ads – invite a man out for a sexy nightcap like that?

Nightlife's Newest Block

BuzzEditor — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:38:00 GMT

Electric Avenue: Pop Burger is coming to 58th Street.

photo: Ryan Charles

Forget West 27th Street and the Bowery. Gotham’s latest nightlife boulevard is the unlikely stretch of 58th Street lying between Park and Fifth Avenues. The lynchpin of the burgeoning block is the imminent Pop Burger, a Meatpacking District transplant that aims to bring its Downtown formula – a burger joint fronting for a hip nightclub/lounge – Uptown. It’s hard to miss: three stories tall with an appropriately pop facade that wouldn’t feel out of place in SoHo but instead lies opposite FAO Schwarz and the Apple Store. And it just might jump-start a new late-night scene.

Make way for 58th Street, a longtime blip on the nightlife radar screen thanks to the venerable Eurotrash magnet Au Bar, and now looming larger than ever. Au Bar is no more, replaced by The Grand, a more egalitarian lounge catering to a younger, Flatiron-esque demographic. Across the street from The Grand is Tao, an Asian fantasy of a restaurant with the heart of a nightclub that’s been a late-night hit from day one. And just across Fifth is the new Jour et Nuit (fka Fredericks), an underground spot still in soft-opening mode that features a front dining room backed by a semi-private lounge à la Cipriani in SoHo (8 W. 58th St.; 212-752-6200).

Will 58th Street catch on? Well, that depends entirely upon fickle nightcrawlers. But the Downtown-moves-Uptown trend is already a foregone conclusion in the restaurant world, with boho stalwarts like Blue Ribbon, Clinton St. Baking Co., Fatty Crab and Mermaid Inn all migrating north.