Food

After 10 years of getting bruised and battered by the biggest linemen and linebackers in college and professional football, former West Virginia University and Pittsburgh Steelers standout Amos Zereoue is now trying to finesse his way to success in the smash-mouth New York City restaurant scene.

Which is tougher?

"Life in the New York restaurant scene--hands down," said the 5-foot-8, 200 pound, 31-year-old redshirt restaurateur, looking rather Usher-esque in a white suit and shades, during a boozy relaunch party Wednesday for his 2,200-square-foot eponymously named eatery, Zereoue, at 13 East 37th Street.

Originally opened in 2006, in the former Frere Jacques space, Mr. Zereoue's West African and French fusion restaurant has twice closed down for some needed retooling; most recently, a complete overhaul.  read more »

Grub Street and Eater are reporting that soon-to-be displaced Central Park eatery San Domenico will be reopening in a much bigger, 350-seat space at 19 East 26th Street, right across from Madison Square Park -- Danny Meyer country.

"Right now Danny Meyer is king of the park. We plan to challenge him," as Mr. May told Eater.

The new restaurant will be called SD26.

Anti-bar-sprawl activists used to bemoan the State Liquor Authority's glaring lack of a single voice from New York City.

Now, the state agency is poised to include a bonafide majority of city slickers.

Governor David Paterson today nominated a former legislative aide, Jeanique Green, presently a senior court analyst in the New York City branch of the state Office of Court Administration, to cast the crucial third vote on all licensing matters.  read more »

Joe O's, the casual sports bar and restaurant in the Hotel Pennsylvania and home to the $13 Vornado pizza -- presumably, an ass-kissing tribute to hotel landlord Steve Roth's ginormous real estate company -- has been shuttered.

Its windows along West 33rd Street have been blacked out, with only a sign hanging from the outside scaffolding to remind passersby of its former presence.  read more »

A fierce standoff between two New York titans, both ranked on The Observer's recent 100 Most Powerful People In Real Estate, wrapped up an indecisive first-round yesterday.

Dapper restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani (ranked No. 97) had offered up $500,000 to settle his dispute with the State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.).  read more »

"This is an awesome space, an awesome location," chef Scott Conant said, during a packed-house grand opening party at his new digs in the meatpacking district--er, at least, sort of in the meatpacking district.

"It's not really in the meatpacking, it's on, you know what I'm saying?"

The former L'Impero and Alto cook's latest restaurant Scarpetta opened Monday evening in the former Gin Lane and old Village Idiot space at 355 West 14th Street, just east of Ninth Avenue.

"A lot of the core clientele, a lot of Upper East Siders and a lot of people from Uptown, they're not going to be kind of spooked by going too much into the meatpacking. Too far inside of it, it might scare 'em off. But because it's on it, they feel comfortable coming down.

"I looked everywhere," Mr. Conant said. "But I really wanted it to be a West Village restaurant. It's probably one of the last neighborhoods that is pure New York."  read more »

A panel of appellate judges has rejected the New York Restaurant Association's latest motion to delay enforcement of the city's new calorie posting rule.

“With today's decision, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, and the other big chains that haven't yet listed calories as required by the Health Code have run out of stalling tactics," Health Commissioner Thomas Freiden said in a statement.  read more »

A new city rule requiring chain restaurants to post the calorie content of their menu items actually takes effect on Friday, April 25--not today, as other news outlets are reporting.  read more »

Hotelier Hank Freid can't live on Starbucks alone.

So he's installing a new Thai restaurant at his refurbished Marrakech Hotel at Broadway and 103rd Street.

Mr. Freid has enlisted the proprietors of pad-thai palaces Klong in East Village and Room Service in Chelsea to open a new 1,200-square-foot eatery called Sookk.

Meaning "happiness" in Thai, Sookk will specialize in cuisine inspired by the Yaowarat District, which is Bangkok's version of Chinatown, according to a press release.

“Sookk is in keeping with the unique and eclectic quality that the hotel is known for,” Mr. Freid said in a statement.

Embattled Soho restaurant Lola will just have to make do without live music, the State Liquor Authority informed the eatery's owners on Thursday.

Proprietors Tom and Gayle Patrick-Odeen have said that their business—which has been the subject of a nasty, three-and-a-half-year legal dispute with neighbors, who have protested the place's right to sell booze—is "struggling" without live performances.

The couple recently told The Villager that they were "hanging on by a thread."

Live music had been a staple of the drinking and dining experience at the couple's prior location on West 22nd Street. But upon moving to the corner of Watts and Thompson streets, the duo initially applied to play background music only.

The owners insist that this was a clerical error and that the application was later "orally amended" by the SLA.  read more »

Meatpacking district stalwart Novac Noury has graciously asked neighborhood restaurateur Florent Morellet to move into his underutilized building on Little West 12th Street once Mr. Morellet's iconic Florent diner closes for good because of a huge rent hike this summer.

"I gave him a call yesterday and we may be in talks to continue his stay in my building," Mr. Noury told The Villager this week.

But Mr. Morellet apparently isn't interested, according to the article.

Instead, the flamboyant restaurateur is planning to go out "with a bang," kicking off the “Final Five Weeks of Florent" over Memorial Day weekend, with each following week given a theme to represent a stage in the "grieving process he’s undergone over losing his restaurant....Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and, finally, Acceptance."

The New York Post is reporting [via Eater] that venerable Central Park eatery San Domenico is shutting its doors this summer.

Owner Tony May told the Post's Steve Cuozzo that the nearly 20-year-old Italian institution couldn't reach a new deal with its landlord, who wanted $1 million in annual rent. (The eatery currently pays around $200,000.)

May said the landlord’s latest offer would cost him $600,000 - "but if we stay here at the rent they want, we’re not going to generate a sufficient amount of income."

May said he hopes to move San Domenico to a new Midtown address he won’t disclose. He said that to survive in today’s environment of high rents and tougher city regulations, he needs a location that will generate more volume - at least $8 million a year, compared to $4 million on Central Park South.

"The irony - business is very strong. Strongest ever!" said Toney Edwards.

When The Observer passed by Mr. Edwards's embattled Le Madeleine bistro on West 43rd Street last week, the joint was packed.

This week? Tumbleweeds. Another French bistro bites the dust. This reporter feels bad for both Mr. Edwards and his beloved ficus tree.

Evicted after a three-year court battle with landlord Mark Scharfman, Mr. Edwards has vowed to carry on: "We have located a possible place to move everyone and open up again within a very short time."

Eater is reporting today that iconic Florent diner is now officially on the market.

Winick Realty is shopping the space for $700,000 per year.

That's roughly $58,333 per month -- a substantial increase from the restaurant's current $6,018 monthly rate and quite higher than even the $43,000 estimate that one broker gave The Observer last week.

Read our previous coverage here.

UPDATE: Eater is now reporting that Lansco is marketing the Florent space -- not Winick. Oh, and the asking rent is more like $50,000 per month.  read more »

Restaurateur Florent Morellet called today to clarify something from last week's Observer article on the fate of his iconic Florent diner on Gansevoort Street.

That $150,000 he's seeking from landlord Joanne Lucas in court? "What we're claiming is not really damage," he said. "It's being overcharged."  read more »

Hallowed cupcake mecca Magnolia Bakery has spawned a second location -- three times bigger -- on the Upper West Side.

For this week's Observer, out tomorrow, I sat down with Magnolia owner Steve Abrams and brother Danny Abrams, owner of the Mermaid Inn, who similarly opened a second location in the same neighborhood.  read more »

The proprietors of Midtown Italian eatery Bice have inked a deal to open a new 5,274-square-foot restaurant called Montenapo in The New York Times Building.

According to Thursday's announcement from Forest City Ratner Companies:

The new restaurant, located in space just next to the building's 41st Street entrance, will feature a casually elegant atmosphere and serve Northern Italian cuisine for lunch and dinner.

If it's anything like its East 50th Street big sister Bice, then expect a rather "good-looking," "Euro"-centric and "loud" crowd, according to the latest Zagat Guide.

With the new signing, the Times Building now has only one retail space left. Other tenants are Dean & Deluca, Japanese furnishings store Muji, and the boisterous robatayaki eatery Inakaya.  read more »

Tribeca seafood restaurant Fresh "doesn't get enough attention," according to the latest Zagat Survey.

Its owner, Eric Tevrow, though, has attracted plenty -- albeit not the favorable kind.

Mr. Tevrow, who also owned the now-shuttered downtown eateries Coast and Shore, pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing sales taxes collected from all three restaurants.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney's office this afternoon:  read more »

The Real Deal is reporting that the Lebewohl family has finalized its purchase of 162 East 33rd Street -- the new site of the clan's hallowed Second Avenue Deli, which will now be closer to Third Avenue.

The new deli, which opens next week, will seat at least 75 people in a renovated space that was the site of a tapas restaurant. ...The old deli, which closed on Jan. 1, 2006, had 128 seats.

Ed Levine of SeriousEats.com last week called the deli's forthcoming resurrection "the most eagerly anticipated new restaurant opening of the year in New York."

But he wondered, "which Second Avenue Deli will it be: the deli that served the best all-around deli food, which is what it was when the late, beloved Abe Lebewohl was around, or the very good but not great deli it became after Abe was senselessly gunned down while making a bank deposit and his lawyer brother, Jack, took over?"

Perhaps neither. The new deli reportedly will be run by Abe's twenty-something nephews, Jeremy and Joshua Lebewohl. "The restaurant will operate 24/7," according to a recent Times Magazine story, "serving its same enormous menu."

UPDATE: A deli spokesperson has informed The Observer that, contrary to the Real Deal article, the hallowed eatery will not open next week.

The reincarnated Second Avenue Deli -- soon to open on 33rd Street near Third Avenue -- will be open 24/7, according to yesterday's New York Times magazine.

And so the battle for bragging rights as Murray Hill's top matzo-ball-soup maker heats up!

As The Observer reported last week, the new Second Avenue Deli is moving in just four blocks south of another historic (albeit less storied) Jewish deli, Sarge's, at 548 Third Avenue between 36th and 37th streets, which already operates around the clock.

"It will be interesting," one Sarge's server told this reporter last week, noting that the old Second Avenue served kosher fare, whereas Sarge's does not. "That doesn't bode well," she said.

The results of the latest Zagat Survey of New York restaurants are in, with input from a record 34,678 diners, and respondents have issued a resounding mandate to the city’s Health Department: Stay the course!

Asked “Do you think the recent temporary shuttering of some NYC restaurants for health violations is…?” only 15 percent answered “[a]n overreaction,” while a whopping 65 percent said “[w]arranted.” (Another 20 percent were undecided.)

The overwhelming support for the continuing Health Department crackdown on the city’s food-service sector comes on the heels of last month’s New York Post report, which found that city health inspectors had flunked 25 percent of all 28,955 eateries they inspected during fiscal year 2007.

Other findings from the brand-spanking new Zagat 2008 New York City Restaurants guide:  read more »

As the fall chill sets in and the thought of bundling up in ski gear to stand in line at Shake Shack sounds less appealing, Goodburger offers a sleek, climate-controlled alternative.

For a slight price hike, of course: $10.75 for a double cheeseburger? Even Danny Meyer isn’t that shameless.

How odd that proprietor Nick Tsoulos chose J. Wellington Wimpy, the barrel-bellied beef addict from the Popeye cartoons, as the venue’s mascot.

If the down-and-out burger bum were an actual person, we bet Mr. Tsoulos’s goons would have him promptly escorted from the premises.

The premium prices likely account for the joint’s upscale décor, with flat-screen TVs, merlot-colored walls, dark-wood tables, and a marble countertop featuring gooey desserts in glass-covered cake stands.

House music thumps in the background.

Large wall-length mirrors allow diners to watch their waistbands expand while wolfing down fudge brownie shakes and cheese fries.

What might a modern-day Wimpy say? “I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a liposuction sesh today.”

More on that Crain's report about sexual and racial harrassment charges levied against iconic Central Park eatery Tavern On The Green.

Court papers assign blame to the famous restaurant's former operations director, Leon Drogy, who allegedly made "frequent sexual comments" to female employees, such as "wanting to 'fuck black pussy' and wanting to know whether 'black pussy' was 'smooth'."

The suit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, further accuses Mr. Drogy of repeatedly playing grab ass with one female employee, in particular, and also making many derogatory remarks toward "fucking bitches," "fucking niggers," and "fucking immigrants."

Certainly not the kind polite dinner conversation we've come to expect from the late Warner LeRoy and company, especially since his young daughter, Jennifer Oz LeRoy, now runs the place.

In a statement, the restaurant told Crain's that management learned of the allegations about two years ago and an internal investigation determined the claims to be baseless. (Criminal charges were also dropped.)

Nonetheless, the restaurant suspended Mr. Drogy. He later resigned.

I bumped in to two first-round winners in the players' lounge a few moments ago and, in the absence of any pressing tennis-related matter, I asked them where they went for dinner to celebrate their wins.

"We went to a Japanese place on 52nd and Lexington," Novak Djokovic told me. (It seemed to fit a pattern: Yesterday, we documented Ivo Karlovic and Jelena Jankovic feasting on Sushi, and Ana Ivanovic told me last week that her favorite restaurant is Nobu).

Martina Hingis, by contrast, said she went out to a steakhouse. Like a real New Yorker protecting her secret find, she wouldn't say which one.

"I can't tell you that," she said. "I go there all the time!"

What does 6' 10, 230-pound Croatian Ivo Karlovic eat after a devastating five-set loss?

Sushi -- eight cucumber avocado rolls -- and turkey smeared in honey mustard with roasted potatoes and balsamic caramelized onions with butter. Also, three pieces of half-sliced corn on the cob with spicy jalapeño butter. No drink.

Ten minutes after he sat down to eat, everything was gone, except for three chewed-up, cornless cobs.

Also spotted in the player's dining room: tireless first-round winner Jelena Jankovic, eating several cucumber avocado rolls with her fingers.  read more »