Category — Restaurants

New York’s latest food-truck court is indoors, scattered among the upper floors of a city skyscraper, reports Glenn Collins in the New York Times (4/30/12). “This is the first indoor vertical food-truck court in the city, and as far as I know, the country,” says David Weber, president of the New York City Food Truck Association. It’s actually only the third food-truck court in total in the city — the other two are located outdoors. The demand for any kind of food-truck court has increased “as truck owners search for places to park without receiving a ticket or being ordered to move by the police.”

This latest court, located inside the Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York’s West Chelsea, was established after the building’s owner, RXR Realty, asked the Food Truck Association “to bring in a rotating roster of a dozen food trucks, including Mexicue, Red Hook Lobster Pound Truck and the Gorilla Cheese Truck.” They made the request because of “a paucity of lunchtime choices in the neighborhood.” It’s not the first time that food trucks have made their way into buildings for special events, but it is the first time that multiple trucks have converged into a single location five days a week.

As it happens, the building “was designed to bring supply trucks directly up to congeries of production, storage and repackaging companies, for deliveries and exports. Now, most of the industrial tenants have departed in favor of advertising and design firms, as well as Martha Stewart Living, Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger.” The high-end food trucks are a good match for the 5,000 people who work in the building. “This is a building full of Brooklyn hipsters,” says Denise Rodriguez of RXR Realty. “Now they have a place to eat.”

The corner of North Sixth and Mount Vernon Streets in San Bernardino is the cradle of the fast-food taco, reports Julia Moskin in the New York Times (5/2/12). There sits the Mitla Cafe, which opened in 1937 and still serves “tacos dorados con carne molida, ‘golden’ tortillas fried to order and folded around a spicy compressed wedge of ground beef, blanketed with iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes and shredded Cheddar.” This taco has been on Mitla’s menu as long as anyone can remember and it “very closely resembles the taco served to more than 36 million customers every week at 5,600 Taco Bell locations in the United States.”

This, according to Gustavo Arellano, author of Taco USA, is no coincidence. Back in 1950, a fellow named Glen Bell opened a hamburger stand “across the street from Mitla.” Glen apparently was jealous of the success of the McDonald brothers, who opened “the first McDonald’s drive-up hamburger stand” in the same neighborhood ten years earlier. Glen “ate often at Mitla and watched long lines form at its walk-up window.” He persuaded Mitla’s owners “to show him how the tacos were made” and “experimented after hours with a tool that would streamline the process of frying the tortillas.”

Glen started serving tacos at his own restaurant, which he re-named Taco Tia, El Taco, and then utlimately, Taco Bell. The Taco Bell website claims that Glen invented the “fast food crunchy taco,” a claim that Gustavo, “perhaps the greatest (and only) living scholar of Mexican-American fast food, disputes.” His book features other stories of white Americans “who managed to capitalize on Mexican food,” as well as at least one Mexican, Mariano Martinez, inventor of the frozen margarita machine. Overall, Taco USA tells the story of “how a few foods (salsa, tacos, chili, tequila) from the complicated and enormous cuisine of Mexico managed to slip into the mainstream of American taste.”

Tyler Cowen suggests that “if you want to eat like an economist, you should find a chef who doesn’t cook like one,” reports Graeme Wood in the Wall Street Journal (4/7/12). Tyler, an economics professor at George Mason University, is the author of An Economist Gets Lunch, “an eccentric, first-person hodgepodge of gastronomic thoughts, strategies and travel stories.” His best economic advice is to find restaurants where “the supplies are fresh, the suppliers are creative and the demanders are informed.” So, a good choice “would be a sushi bar near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, where fresh fish and discerning diners make selling bad sushi unviable as a business.”

Tyler also recommends “Thai restaurants attached to motels (more likely to be family-run and not desperate to make rent).” When going for Pakistani food, he advises looking for eateries featuring pictures of Mecca, because “the more aggressively religious the decor, the better it will be for the food.” It’s also a good sign if your fellow diners “are screaming at each other” or “pursuing blood feuds” as this would indicate that “people feel comfortable there and return frequently with their families.” Hopefully, they check their weapons at the door.

A fancy atmosphere, meanwhile, is “a sign that the restaurant cares about something other than what’s on the plate,” according to Tyler. “You want to see that the people eating there mean business,” he says. Tyler considers out pit barbecue to be “the greatest American innovation” but recommends eating barbecue “in towns of less than 50,000 people” and at restaurants “that open in the morning … since nothing signals commitment better than a willingness to spend nine hours overnight cooking meat next to a pit of fire.” Which, he says, shows “just how uneconomical true barbecue art can be.”

“Food snobbery is pessimistic, paternalistic and most of all it is anti-innovation,” writes Tyler Cowen in An Economist Gets Lunch, reports Damon Darlin in the New York Times (4/11/12). Tyler, who also tends to a pair of blogs — Marginal Revolution and Tyler Cowen’s Ethnic Dining Guide — knocks foodies and notes that “the local farmer’s truck can use far more energy per pound of produce than the ship bringing in food from overseas.” He says this “is a sign of how much of the debate is about image.” A similar sensibility informs Tyler’s choice of grocery stores and restaurants.

Tyler favors shopping “in Asian supermarkets” because the “greens are a loss leader there … like milk at Safeway, and so are cheap, even as they are varied and of high quality.” With restaurants, he favors “immigrant restaurants” packed into strip malls, “like the ones along El Camino Real in Silicon Valley or on Main Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing, Queens.” Or the mall “wedged between Falls Church and Alexandria” which is home to a total of 12 such eateries. He says he’s tried them all, and they prove that stiff competition helps ensure a quality meal.

The best food, according to Tyler, is “not the most expensive and is rarely found in Midtown Manhattan” (where, of course, there is no competition at all). The worst food, he contends, is largely a result of Prohibition and children. Restaurant food was better before Prohibition, he argues, “because the cost of alcohol helped subsidize the food. Restaurants that survived Prohibition were better at bribery and making connections than at cooking … Cheap food, and restaurants that catered to children, prospered.” Those children have also dictated “our food choices since the 1950s,” and are “one reason so much food is bland and not very nutritious.”

The sons and daughters of McDonald’s franchisees are bringing different ideas to the table, reports Julie Jargon in the Wall Street Journal (3/9/12). So far, changes brought by the a new generation of franchisees include thicker burgers, free wi-fi, a picture-based ordering system, nighttime hours and credit-card payment. These might not sound all that radical, but there’s a major limiting factor in that "new ideas need to be appropriate for all 14,000 restaurants in the US." So, one whippersnapper’s proposal for "composting and installing rooftop gardens" didn’t fly. Even less controversial concepts are subject to a lengthy approval process.

However, individual franchisees do have the latitude to initiate their own, local promotional programs. For example, Travis Heriaud decided to invest $40,000 on the grand opening of a new McDonald’s in Arizona. His plan took an educational bent, including book and backpack giveaways, and readings by Ronald McDonald. His father, an owner of 12 McDonald’s, warned Travis that the expense risked wiping out cash flow for a year. But Travis, 30, argued that they had already spent $1.7 million to build the restaurant and it was important "to demonstrate that their restaurant aimed to be a part of the community."

Travis was right, and the restaurant generated $3 million in sales during its first year, "far higher than the $2 million the company projected the store to ring up and higher than the $2.5 million McDonald’s restaurants around the country average annually." It was so successful that 220 other Arizona McDonald’s are now engaging in similar, community-based programs. Offspring of existing franchisees currently compose 30% of the total franchisee base — a figure that’s expected to reach 37% in five years. They can’t, however, simply inherit a restaurant, and must "undergo a one- to five-year process of proving themselves capable of running strong restaurants before they can become franchisees."

"This haunt of chefs and culinary students is hidden from the casual shopper" but "its shelves brim with inventiveness and beauty," reports Jane Lear in the New York Times (2/29/12). J.B. Prince is "a family-run business" that’s been around for 35 years, thriving in a most unlikely location. Its neighborhood — "31st Street between Madison and Park Avenue South" — is best known for Oriental carpets, not cutlery. Even more unlikely, it is located on the 11th floor — visitors must take an elevator and walk a hallway to reach its showroom. But those in the know — primarily, but not exclusively, professionals — perhaps consider the journey to be part of the experience. It certainly is true to the store’s roots, beginning as it did in Judith B. Prince’s Park Slope apartment in 1976.

"I’m a German immigrant, and I’ve always been interested in fine culinary utensils," says Judith, who got her start by writing to European manufacturers "saying she was a nationwide distributor looking for certain items to sell." They responded, so Judith turned a room in her apartment into a warehouse and published a catalog. "It got to the point where there was always a chef or two sitting in the parlor," says Judith’s husband, Lawrence, who soon quit his job at Pfizer to help his wife expand its "clients to include cooking schools, hotels and cruise ships." J.B. Prince’s current location is its third, and chef David Burke describes it as "a modern-day working museum."

Among the implements are knives made by Misono, "one of Japan’s great sword manufacturers." You can also find "chemistry-lab gear," such as a "caviar dropper," which can turn "a liquid like mango puree into juice-filled pearls that pop in the mouth. It’s nestled near a 74-piece set of old-school truffle cutters … used for chocolates, aspic work and garnishes." And there’s the basic chef gear – thick, rubber cutting boards, pocket thermometers, utility knives, basting spoons, surgical tweezers, spatulas, cake pans and tart molds. "We stock everything here," says Judith. To chefs like David Burke there’s a certain magic within the merchandising. "When you walk the aisles," he says, "you’re reminded of old-fashioned things and see the latest equipment, too. As a chef, it opens your mind."

A new wave of Indian entrepreneurs are taking a page from Chipotle as they guide their native cuisine into the American mainstream, reports John T. Edge in the New York Times (2/15/12). "It’s all about deconstruction," says Amar Singh, owner of Bombay Bowl in Denver. "We have to deconstruct Indian food so that it can appeal to the mainstream public." At Bombay Bowl, deconstruction means offering customers a choice of bowl, plate or roti roll; chicken or beef; sauce; and spice level.

"Look at Chipotle, look at Subway," says Amar. "What they did was create an assembly line, where you could watch other people’s food being made and direct the making of their own food." Not coincidentally, his restaurant is located "between a strip mall Starbucks and a Jamba Juice, at the back door of a Chipotle Grill." Amar says he sees these chains — not traditional curry houses with steam tables and lunch specials — as his main competition. Sanjay Kansagra, proprietor of two Cambridge, Mass. restaurants called Chutney’s, is on a similar track.

"We realize that some of this food can be intimidating to non-Indian consumers," he says. "So we put them in control of their meal." Both Amar and Sanjay are willing to compromise a certain authenticity to gain acceptance — not that most Americans would know the difference. At Merzi in DC, liberties include "tandisserie" chicken ("tandoori-seasoned chicken cooked rotisserie style") and Veda in Toronto serves "curritos," a curried burrito-style wrap. But Krishnendu Ray of NYU says this is not a matter of these restauranteurs dumbing down. "They’ve learned American fast food," he says, "and they’ve made it their own."

A three-star Michelin chef is putting a French twist on the all-American hot dog, reports Elaine Sciolino in the New York Times (2/15/12). Yannick Alleno is best known for his work at Le Meurice hotel in Paris, but his roots are in his parents’ "modest bistro in a Paris suburb," where croque-monsieurs and sliced ham on baguette" were the specialty. "I was born behind the counter," he says. Nor has Yannick ever lost his taste for New York City’s street-vendor hot dogs. "Even with the bad water they sit in all day," he says.

So, when Yannick opens Terroir Parisien, an informal bistro, his star attraction will be the chien chaud. "I have adapted the ‘dog’ to the true ambience of Paris," he says. "There is nothing more Parisian than tete de veau." Translation: head of veal. Oui: Yannick’s hot dog is "a slender nine-inch sausage made from edible bits of a cooked calf head" — minus any brains, eyes or fat. It is "wrapped in a casing and boiled in a stock of carrots, leeks, onions and cloves" and served "in a crusty multigrain baguette" with a gribiche sauce.

For Yannick, offal has been a way of life. As a chef’s apprentice, his "last stop was always the butcher selling organ meats," who would serve up "big messy sandwiches filled with bits of cheek, skin, fat, gristle, tongue and brains" topped with gribiche sauce. Yannick carries on the tradition even at the luxurious Meurice with a first-course tete de veau. When Terroir Parsien opens in March, the chien chaud will sell for about $12, but of course the question is whether any American would eat it. Yannick harbors no doubts: "This is something you should try once in your life," he says.

"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."

Olive Garden is careful to say that its menu is "Italian-inspired," but not "authentic," reports Sarah Nassauer in the Wall Street Journal (12/21/11). This usually means adding meat or cheese to a dish that otherwise might qualify as the real deal. The restaurant chain’s chefs sometimes start with "real Italian dishes," discovered on trips to Europe, such as a "pasta dish with olive oil, garlic and herbs" they enjoyed in Northern Italy. The chefs deemed the dish "really rustic but still kind of normal," which is a good place to start, but not quite Olive Garden. To make the cut, dishes must be "cravable."

To that end, they tried adding chicken and roasted tomatoes, but diners didn’t bite. So, they added a "rich cheese sauce, spinach and either a beef or chicken topping," and that worked, apparently because "Americans have a strong preference for meat and cheese." It also makes the dish seem like a better value. Sometimes the efforts to strike a balance between sophisticated concepts and familiar fare happens in baby steps, like calling gnocchi a "traditional Italian dumpling" and adding it to soup. Gnocchi previously had failed as a standalone dish, with marinara or cream sauce. Pesto also met resistance as "too oily, bitter and green" and capers as "too unexpected."

In other cases, the chefs simply go too far, as with "a pear and gorgonzola ravioli with shrimp," which apparently was too "culinary forward." Then there’s the "seafood in a white wine and marinara-saffron broth" which fortunately has just enough appeal to "a crucial clientele" willing to spend $17.75 for a little exotica (Olive Garden dishes average around $13). To help further the "Italian-inspired" experience, "Olive Garden is building new ‘Tuscan farmhouse’ restaurants with stone exteriors (images), adding to its roughly 750 US locations" and is "testing a "Tuscan pallette of ‘warm colors’" at existing restaurants.