Bars and restaurants around New York are "literally creating a buzz" with alcoholic kombucha tea, reports Sumathi Reddy in the Wall Street Journal (1/18/12). Kombucha is "a fermented tea that has long been popular among the health-conscious and hippie crowds — particularly on the West Coast." It is made by "brewing tea and sugar with a flat, solid mass of yeasts and bacteria," that is believed to produce "a variety of health-boosting acids and enzymes that can aid digestion and improve immunity." The taste tends toward the sour and acidic, leading some to mix it with other things — like alcohol, for instance.

At the Brooklyneer, a "ginger-mint kombucha is mixed with vodka for a cocktail." The tea is also used in the house salad dressing. Urban Rustic, in Brooklyn, sells "beer-bucha," which is "a 50-50 mix of light beer and kombucha." Other bars sell kombucha growlers as they would beer. Beyond Kombucha, a brewery, is producing "the region’s first kombucha ale" and is lining up a distributor. "It’s a beautiful high," says Spiro Theofilatos of Beyond Kombucha. "It has this real charge to it; it lifts you up. And it tastes amazing, the balance of sweet and sour."

Kombucha actually can have trace alcoholic content, but as long as it is below 0.5% it is not regulated as alcohol. In any case, Lexington Brass mainly serves kombucha at breakfast. "It’s a nice alternative to an orange juice or coffee or tea because it does have the effervescent sort of awakening effect, sort of like taking your morning vitamins," says Todd Enany, the restaurant’s general manager. However, Rich Awn, founder of Mombucha, makers of kombucha in various flavors, says moderation is important. "I went and had a pint of kombucha one time and I was like sick for a day," he says. "I recommend four ounces in the morning on an empty stomach. That’s all you need."

Starbucks is calling its lighter roast "blonde" because "light" is associated with dietary claims or possibly coffee with milk in it, reports Katy McLaughlin in the Wall Street Journal (2/1/12). Like Peet’s and other coffee companies that are known for dark-roasted coffee, Starbucks is responding to consumer demand for a lighter style that some say "is the best way to coax the delicate, nuanced flavors out of high quality beans." They see it as a way to "draw in new customers and sell more to their regulars."

Indeed, a Starbucks study found that "42 percent of its customers prefer a lighter roast." Andrew Linnemann, director of coffee quality at Starbucks says the issue actually isn’t how dark the coffee is roasted; it’s the quality of the bean and how it is roasted that counts. "While it is true you can roast a coffee to the point that you annihilate the flavor if you don’t do it correctly, our approach is to balance the origin with the flavor of the roast," he says. So, if the beans aren’t roasted properly, it doesn’t much matter whether the coffee is blonde or brunette.

Nor does roasting affect the strength of the coffee (that’s a matter of coffee: water ratio) or its caffeine content (although many think darker coffee delivers more buzz). Some also believe that darker roasts are European in style, but in fact "light-roasted coffee, brewed strong, is the norm in Northern Europe." Tyler Wells of Handsome, a coffee wholesaler, says if the beans are high quality and the roasting is done right, the coffee is naturally sweet. He’s so sure of this that he will not offer his customers sugar when he opens his first cafe later this month.

"Philadelphia’s most dedicated eaters covet no prize more than a red ticket at Federal Donuts," reports Pete Wells in the New York Times (2/1/12). The ticket — of which about 80 are distributed each day before noon — entitles the bearer to "a golden, juicy, half chicken." Federal Donuts originally was going to be a fried chicken place, a new venture by Michael Solomonov, known for high-end restaurants such as Zahav. He and a friend, Steven Cook, also run Percy Street Barbecue and "got together with some friends who were interested in opening a coffee shop." The donuts soon followed.

And the cake-style donuts, by most accounts, are quite good, in flavors like caramel-banana, brown-sugar grapefruit and cinnamon-apple-walnut. They are "rich, creamy and light all at once," and Federal usually sells out its run of 150 or so between 7 and 10 am. The chicken, meanwhile, "can be dusted with a dry version of harissa or with za’atar, the Middle Eastern mix of herbs with sesame seeds … it can also be dressed with a gentle honey-ginger glaze, or with a potent one of red chile and garlic." The ambiance is spare: "six stools, no chairs and an undecorated restroom just off the kitchen."

It’s quite a change of pace for Michael Solomonov, as he readily acknowledges. "It’s a strange time with restaurants right now," he says. "On the one hand, you’ve got people who are willing to eat anything, provided you market it properly. On the other hand, I don’t know what’s happening in fine dining, but you don’t see prices going up. You see more people interested in food, and more places, but less money." He detects a growing "impatience with the rhythms of fine dining that may be generational," and cites a Korean fried-chicken joint as his inspiration. "The decor is ridiculously gaudy," he says. "They’ve got half Korean and half American pop playing at 2,000 decibels at all hours … and I’ve never had wings as good as this."

You might visit Lee’s Art Shop near Carnegie Hall “for something prosaic,” but you’ll “leave wishing you were an artist,” reports David W. Dunlap in the New York Times (1/29/12). Lee’s is a family-owned store, located in what “was once among the more elegant branches in the Schrafft’s restaurant chain.” That would be 220 W. 567th Street, “half a block from Carnegie Hall” and in strategic proximity to the Art Students League.

As David writes: "Imagine just what seas and skies could be rendered with the blue acrylic paints alone: cerulean, cobalt, indanthrene, manganese, phthalocyanine, Prussian and ultramarine; applied with brushes like brights, fans, filberts, flats, hakes, liners, riggers, rounds or shaders, made of goat, pony, squirrel, ox or badger hair; on rolls of canvas up to 6 feet wide and 18 feet long — Pollack size."

Founded in 1951 by Gilbert and Ruth Steinberg, Lee’s is now run by two of their children. The store has since expanded into kind of a “mini department store,” according to chief operating officer Anthony Basile, “offering stationery, gifts, scrapbook and presentation materials,” among other items. But art supplies are still the heart of its business, with its “brushes and canvas and stretchers and easels” displayed in “inviting density.” As Anthony says: “People love a treasure hunt.”

A different kind of query can produce a fresh set of answers. By Brent Shedd. It seems everyone these days has opinions on how to achieve innovation. A quick web search reveals myriad blogs, articles, and presentations on innovation, as well as equal numbers of seminars and courses that claim to teach its secrets. From armchair pundits to bleeding-edge thinkers, talk of innovation and its formulation are inescapable.