Musings of a New York Restaurant/Bar owner

Show your Mussels!

2011-08-10T12:57:00.001-07:00

Here's an interesting way to deal with all those pesky shells!! - Artistic or something a lot more worrying? Picture taken a "Chez Nous" in Lee, MA just before a visit to Jacob's Pillow to enjoy the amazing US debut of 3e Etage soloists and dancers from the Paris opera ballet.

Recognize this place?

2011-07-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Recognize this picture? This is the restaurant that I co-own on the Lower East Side in Manhattan (Alias Restaurant). For those of you who haven't been there it may still look familiar especially if you are fans of "Flight of the Conchords" (HBO - Flight of the Conchords Season 2 Episode 7) or the UK version of "Skins" (Skins Season 2 Episode 9 & 10 - Cassie in New York) - both used Alias as a

Alias Zipcard News: 2nd Floor on Clinton - Dumpling Academy - 1/11/11 ...

2011-01-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

Alias Zipcard News: 2nd Floor on Clinton - Dumpling Academy - 1/11/11 ...: "Tuesday 11th January 2011 -7pm to 9pm 'Hop on the ski lift 4 après ski !'Tricks & tips on how to warm up after a day out ..."

Edison Wins!

2009-02-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

As the economic turmoil swishes around us, quality will often be sacrificed for price stability! Suddenly things don't work as well as they used to, paper is thinner, soap is less soapy, restaurants are using different cuts of meat etc.. Sometimes this is not a bad thing. Take cheaper cuts of meat for example - A talented chef, as long as she/he is prepared to put in the time can produce

Time Out for Hunger and the Tap Project

2009-02-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

Looking for a good cause to support? There are a couple linked to the restaurant industry coming up in March.Check out the Time Out For Hunger on Sunday March 8th when 10% of participating restaurant proceeds will go to the Food Bank of New York City to help New Yorkers at risk of hunger.Many restaurants already offer great deals on Sundays anyway (see 2009 Recession article below) so here's

NYC Recession Dining Tips 2009

2009-02-10T10:55:00.000-08:00

Click on this picture for some cool suggestions on where to get some great deals.This one is doing the rounds and causing quite a stir - not quite sure who Kelli and Eleanor are but they've obviously put a lot of work in to this.

Gnocchi Fever! - it's a tasting not breakfast!

2009-02-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we did a cooking demo at the New York Times Travel show to highlight a trip we're doing to Italy with our travel partners, Context Trips.The trick behind these demos seems to be to:1) Have as much as possible prepared before hand as the facilities are minimal - Filling a pot with water to boil gnocchi-bound potatoes cost $15!! We had to buy bottled water as there were no faucets!2) Get

IN support of many of our customers and friends!

2009-02-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo

Beef before Tango!

2009-01-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Buenos Aires recently. Our guide, German, (the ‘G’ is pronounced like a hard ‘H’) was fantastic. He allowed us to discover a great city in the little time we were there and booked us in to see an amazing Tango show at Piazzolla Tango.The Tango, he reminded us, is not indigenous to the whole of

The Perfect Gift?

2009-01-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

There are some people who are easy to buy for during the holidays. Part of the challenge is just finding something that they’ll enjoy, the real trick though is to make sure that you can renew this gift every year!! My mother now gets flowers and a subscription to ‘The Week’ delivered every month, my brother and sister 3 bottles of wine each month. These all seem very popular and have made

Sugar - cubed or tubed?

2008-11-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

Today we finalized a project that we've been working on for a while.In the past, we've always served the raw cane sugar lumps with coffee. ('la Peruche'), however, we recently identified that what was intended as an upmarket offering was in fact an expensive, time consuming and potentially unsanitory one! The expense isn't only in the product itself but also in the fact that every time a

Goodbye!

2008-11-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

One of our crew has just left to pursue a master's degree in Colorado. He will specialize in all that is vocal. One day we hope that he will have his own voice clinic and be working with household names. Whether he'll remember us or not remains to be seen (or heard!). Our Hollywood actor still does, as does our artist who is about to have his first show in a New York gallery, but will still

How can Cognac be a Fine Champagne?

2008-10-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

How can a Cognac be a fine Champagne? - You may well ask - as did one of our customers the other day. Let's get a few things straight here whilst confusing the hell out of everyone - it's a little bit like the famous tea towel that describes the very English game of cricket You have two sides,one out in the field and one in.Each man that's in the side that's ingoes out, and when he's out he comes

Sit in my lap?

2008-10-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

Why would it matter where I sit? Well normally it doesn't. Believe me, I'm not one of those who assumes that I can choose any table I like when I step into a restaurant early and there seem to be lots of empty places. I know it would be great if the two of us could sit at that lovely round top in the window that's laid up for 6 but that's not going to happen - or if it does, I doubt this

Le Beaujolais Nouveau va arriver - in plastic bottles!!

2008-10-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

I had a great conversation the other night with some guests over the whole Beaujolais Nouveau thing. We all agreed that it had done little to promote those great Beaujolais such as Brouilly, Fleurie, Moulin a Vent etc., but it had put Beaujolais on the map for good or for bad! Some time in the 1980s what had traditionally been a local passion and interest in what the latest production of the

Scooter Power

2008-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

This really has very little to do with restaurants, bars or food except that I ride my scooter to work every day and it's amazing what you can carry on a scooter - produce from the farmers' market, cases of wine, bags of bread, printers from Staples etc.... My scooter may also be responsible for this blog since I started on this project just after I was knocked off the bike and received 'light'

Lazy Waiter Technique

2008-09-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

The lazy waiter is the best waiter! I can't remember where I first heard that but it's stuck with me and that's how I start off many of my training sessions - It's often greeted with glee from those who'll actually suffer from this mantra and with confusion by those who'll live up to it!The whole idea behind the lazy waiter technique is quite simple and you could apply it to most jobs - it's

New York Wine and Food Festival

2008-09-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Yes it's on it's way - the New York City Wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine (Hmmm! - did someone change the order on purpose?) is here to delight us from 9th October to 12th October. In the footsteps fo the highly succesful Miami event, this I'm sure is set to become a regular New York moment, full of stars, tinsel, fancy parties and huge charity events.Anyway, if you dig deep enough

Tepid Tilapia!!

2008-09-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Something interesting happened that other night when I was out to dinner - having finished the meal a customer mentioned that their fish had been a bit tepid! Obviously this was reported back to the Maitre D' who came up to the table to apologise.When she suggested that next time the customer might want to mention this earlier so that the mistake could be rectified, the guest quite understandably

To serve or not to serve

2008-09-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

The other evening we hosted a private dinner at the restaurant to celebrate a couple's 55th wedding anniversary. That is itself is something to write about, but we'll leave that for another time. Before the evening began there was, as always, the usual pandemonium that ensues when we are asked to do something that is out of our usual routine. Add to this the fact that the flowers hadn't arrived,

Coffee!

2008-09-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

So these little thoughts whipped through my mind today after I'd spent $3.50 on a Latte that proceded to burn a lasting memory on the roof of my mouth. Didn't they hear the milk screaming at them in agony? Should they have warnings on their cups - careful Barista in training! Should I take it back and complain that it's too hot, especially as the person before me thought their's was too cold?

Dinner on the Farm - September 27th 2008

2008-08-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 27th September Chefs Maryann Terillo (Jarnac Restaurant - chef/partner) and Elisa Sarno (Babbo) will be cooking the monthly Farmfresh dinner at Guy Jones' Blooming Hill Farm in upstate New York. (By upstate we're talking 1 hour away - Blooming Grove not Niagara Falls!)This, as always, is going to be a blast - the tour of the farm starts at about 5.30, followed by a 5 course vegetarian

Rooftop Eating

2008-08-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

So here come the last days of summer and my thing is, where can I eat on a roof? - I'm done with sitting outside on sidewalks breathing in the fumes from the traffic.I remember this being a big thing in Istanbul of all places - it's quite something, you arrive at these dingy looking apartment blocks hidden down equally squalid streets. In the hallway is a doorman cum bouncer who calls for the 2

Closed for Vacation

2008-08-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

We've just closed the restaurant for a week as we do every year on the week before labor day. Ironically, but not uncommonly of course, we had our busiest 3 days of the summer before we closed - go figure!The reasons for closing are mixed. It forces us all to take a break from each other which is well needed especially after the summer doldrums. It allows us to make repairs and repaint the

What's with that Bottle?

2008-08-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

So last night we had an interesting situation. We ordered a bottle of Burgundy which was absolutely delicious ( we preceded that with a Chinon Rose - also worth a try) and then ordered another bottle of the same wine - a Chenas 2006.The second bottle did not have the same quality of taste as the first and all four of us at the table agreed - the somelier then tasted it and said it was fine.In a