Tag Archives: Restaurants

Future Of Eating: “Virtual Restaurants” And “Ghost Kitchens” Are Being Fueled By Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub

From a New York Times article by Mike Isaac and David Yaffe-Bellany:

Online DeliveryNo longer must restaurateurs rent space for a dining room. All they need is a kitchen — or even just part of one. Then they can hang a shingle inside a meal-delivery app and market their food to the app’s customers, without the hassle and expense of hiring waiters or paying for furniture and tablecloths. Diners who order from the apps may have no idea that the restaurant doesn’t physically exist.

The shift has popularized two types of digital culinary establishments. One is “virtual restaurants,” which are attached to real-life restaurants like Mr. Lopez’s Top Round but make different cuisines specifically for the delivery apps. The other is “ghost kitchens,” which have no retail presence and essentially serve as a meal preparation hub for delivery orders.

“Online ordering is not a necessary evil. It’s the most exciting opportunity in the restaurant industry today,” said Alex Canter, who runs Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles and a start-up that helps restaurants streamline delivery app orders onto one device. “If you don’t use delivery apps, you don’t exist.”

To read more click on the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/technology/uber-eats-ghost-kitchens.html

Landmark Restaurants: Frank Fat’s Has Served Sacramento Politicians Great Food For 80 Years

From a KCRA.com article and Frank Fat’s website:

Frank Fat's 1939 - 2019Walk into Frank Fat’s and you’ll find people today of all political stripes, with a love for authentic Chinese food — cuisine that attracted politicians like former Gov. Jerry Brown. As a bachelor governor in the 1970s, he loved to hang out in the kitchen at closing time, where he might find a free meal, according to California State Librarian Greg Lucas.

It’s not often that a restaurant celebrates its 80th anniversary. It’s even more uncommon when that restaurant happens to be a political landmark. But in August of 2019, the city’s oldest eatery, Frank Fat’s, will celebrate eight decades of business.  A short walk from the Capitol, Fat’s established itself from the beginning in 1939 as a place where politicians could meet with colleagues and discuss business, as well as enjoy a bite to eat and have a nice conversation. Frank Fat was known for a simple mantra: You give people good food, a nice place to eat it in and make them happy. Pretty simple, really.

Frank Fat's Logo
https://frankfats.com/

To read more click on following link: https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-frank-fats-80th-anniversary/28705042

Top Travel Destinations: Portland, ME Is A “Food-Lover’s Paradise” And Cultural Experience

From a Wall Street Journal online article by Margot Dougherty:

Peaks Island by Greta Rybus for the Wall Street Journal 2019
Peaks Island
GRETA RYBUS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

JAMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANTS   line cobblestone streets, breweries turn out serious suds and the lobster roll is in a constant state of upscale reinvention. Portland, Maine, is a food-lover’s fantasyland, but the culture goes well beyond the plate. Works by Renoir, Homer and Picasso hang at the Portland Museum of Art, and Mother Nature puts on an all-seasons show. Set on the water—the Casco Bay islands make for picturesque day trips—the former capital of the state is rife with trails winding through its parks and promenades. Visitors are prone to mid-hike epiphanies: Why not live here? Soon after novelist Richard Russo and his wife, Barbara, moved to town, daughters Kate and Emily followed. Emily opened PRINT, a bookstore in artsy Munjoy Hill. “Our roots in Portland are very deep,” said Mr. Russo, whose new book, “Chances Are…” was written there. “I can’t think what would get us out of here now.”

Click on following link to read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/portland-maine-an-incomparable-insiders-guide-11565791068

Restaurant Experiences: The Dream Away Lodge Is “Hearty And Happening” In The Bershires, MA

From a Boston Magazine online article by Scott Kearnan:

1553289_10152793727262400_21608897905869281_o-1536x1300 (1)To find the Dream Away Lodge—an eccentric, roadhouse-like restaurant I’d heard whispers about for years—we blind-trusted our GPS to lead us deep into the western Massachusetts woods, down dark lanes where gnarled limbs from tall trees reach to grab at low-floating headlights. The place has long attracted mountain beatniks seeking folk-music hootenannies in its wood-paneled den and enclosed porch, but current owner Daniel Osman, a former theater artist with ties to the Radical Faeries, a global gay-hippies collective, has painted yet another layer onto its long history.

What’s not camp is the entirely serious food from chef Amy Loveless, an area native who inherited a gift for rustic-American cuisine from her mother, a one-time cook for Norman Rockwell. Here, the genre is burnished with international accents: Local lamb, chicken, and pork are respectively given Greek (tzatziki!), Mexican (tomatillo-chipotle salsa!), and Korean (cucumber-ginger salad!) treatments. The food is hearty, the place happening. As we share a mezze plate by tapered candlelight, a jam band’s tunes waft over to the dining room.

http://www.thedreamawaylodge.com/

To read more click on the following link: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurants/2019/07/30/dream-away-lodge/

Restaurant Nostalgia: “Musso & Frank Grill” Featured In “Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood”

From a NY Times article by Jill Cowan and 

history-img-2If you are among the significant number of people who’ve seen Quentin Tarantino’s latest love letter to a bygone era, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” then you’ve seen the Musso & Frank Grill.

It’s the spot where Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Brad Pitt’s characters commiserate about their lives over a whiskey sour and a bloody Mary. They also share an emotional moment in the restaurant’s parking lot as they wait for the valet, and a Musso & Frank sign looms prominently over their heads.

It’s clear Mr. Tarantino has an affection for the place, which will have been open for a century on Sept. 27, and has been a favored industry haunt for almost that entire time.

To read more click on the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/us/california-today-musso-frank-grill.html

Top Restaurants In Maine: “The Shop” Serves Oysters, Caviar & Tinned Seafood Spreads, Fabulously

From a Bon Appetit online article by Alex Delaney:

The Shop MenuIf you do something simple the wrong way, that’s a one-way ticket to boredom. Case in point: Unsalted potato chips. (Just, why?!) But if you do something simple the right way, it’s like the world just makes sense. The folks at The Shop in Portland, Maine, understand this, and absolutely nail it.

There are no elaborate seafood stews or grilled whole fish or ambitious desserts at this seafood joint from the crew at Island Creek Oysters in Massachusetts. It sells oysters, caviar, and tinned seafood spreads. That’s it. The oysters, usually local Maine and Massachusetts varieties, are just $1.50 each and come on large trays of ice with the classic fixings: lemon wedges, horseradish, cocktail sauce, and shallot mignonette. The caviar is also produced by Island Creek and best enjoyed on top of said oysters (not to mention very affordable). The tinned fish—smoked mussels, oil-packed tuna, beautiful sardines—is served with slices of sourdough bread, spicy mustard, butter, chives, flaky salt, sauerkraut, pickles, onions, and saltines, and is arranged in such a way that you almost don’t want to disrupt the harmony of the composition. Almost.

To read more click on the following link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/the-shop-portland-maine

Gastronomic Events: The Eiffel Tower’s “Le Jules Verne” Restaurant Reopens With Spectacular Makeover And Menu

From an Architectural Digest online article:

Le Jules Verne Eiffel Tower Restaurant Menu 2019Eating well on the Dame de Fer, a.k.a. the Iron Lady or Eiffel Tower, is tradition. When it first opened in 1889, there were already four restaurants on the first floor, tucked away in wooden pavilions. And to celebrate the landmark’s 130th birthday this year, three-Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Anton (of Le Pré Catelan in the Bois de Boulogne) will take the helm of the City of Light’s highest gastronomic destination, soaring 410 feet above the city.

Located on the second floor, with direct access via a private elevator on the south pillar, the Jules Verne Restaurant—named for the celebrated French novelist, poet, and playwright—is reopening on July 20, entirely refurbished by architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman, founder of Culture in Architecture. With some six million visitors every year, around 80 percent of whom are foreigners, Chef Anton wants his cuisine to mirror France’s “culinary excellence,” he says. Revisiting the great classics with seasonal and local products, Anton intends to create a gastronomic experience in the arts décoratifs tradition, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

To read more click on following link: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/eiffel-tower-jules-verne-restaurant-redesign

Top New Restaurants: Selby’s In Atherton, CA Boasts Top Chef, Old Hollywood Style

From an SFChronicle.com online article:

Selby's Restaurant Black Label Burger“I was really focused on the idea of a burger, but taking it to the next level in terms of quality and flavor. I wanted to make it this kind of luxurious dining experience,” said Sullivan.

He’s already made a name for himself at the Bacchus Management Group’s sister restaurants in San Francisco, Spruce and the Saratoga, both known for their burgers, which cost $21 and $16, respectively.

Selby’s, a swanky new Silicon Valley restaurant styled after Old Hollywood, opened Tuesday near the Atherton border at 3001 El Camino Real…

…The Black Label Burger took chef Mark Sullivan six months to develop. Each order includes roughly 5 ounces of shaved Australian black truffles.

To read more click on following link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/New-Silicon-Valley-restaurant-opens-with-50-14120219.php?psid=effhg

Top Roadside Restaurants: “B.T.’s Smokehouse” In Sturbridge, Mass. Is “Astonishlingly Good”

From a Bon Appétit Magazine article  by Amanda Shapiro:

B.T.'s Smokehouse logoWhile it may be unassuming, B.T.’s is hardly undiscovered. The lines get long, so time your trip to hit the smokehouse when it opens at 11 a.m. or during the late-afternoon lull. Order your meat to go, grab a beer at the convenience store next door, and park yourself on the hood of your car, the curb, or anywhere you can find a spot. It isn’t glamorous, but it is astonishingly good.

Situated between I-84 and I-90, B.T.’s is an ideal pit stop for any drive that takes you up to (or down from) Boston, New Hampshire, or Maine. Brisket is the thing here—smoked for 24 to 30 hours on local apple and hickory wood. You can order it à la carte, in a Reuben-style sandwich, or—my favorite—on a platter with classic sides like collard greens and mac and cheese.

To read more from article click on following link: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/bts-smokehouse-sturbridge-massachusetts

B.T.'s Smokehouse
https://www.btsmokehouse.com/

B.T.'s Smokehouse Brisket Rueben

 

 

 

Culinary Arts: The Highly Specialized World Of A Water Sommelier

Water Sommelier Article“How would he describe water, then? It’s the stuff of life. A fantasia of flavour. It is the world in a glass. Riese’s water menus (yes, there are such things) offer everything from water “harvested from icebergs freshly carved off glaciers in the remote fjords” of Norway, to 600m-year-old prehistoric water from Australia. It is also, on occasion, a trifle pricey. A bottle of that glacier water will set you back $150.

He’s not a tap-water man then? On the contrary. To shun tap water is, Riese thinks, a snobbism. He himself drinks a lot of “the tap”. Unless he’s in New York of course. Or California. Or Majorca. And he didn’t much like it in Barcelona, either. Copenhagen, however, apparently has “incredible” tap water. As a general rule of thumb, Riese says, northern taps taste better.”

Specialized Water Menu The Economist 1843 Magazine

Economist 1843 Magazine

Read more in 1843 Magazine: https://www.1843magazine.com/and-finally/firstworldproblems/do-you-know-a-good-water-sommelier