Tasting Cocktail History with Dave Wondrich
Cocktail wizard Dave Wondrich used a Boston shaker as a time machine when he taught a room full of people how to make old-school drinks. Real old school--some of the libations that the author of Imbibe whipped up haven’t been made for more than 100 years.
The occasion was yesterday's “Resurrecting Historic Cocktails,” an afternoon workshop at the Astor Center. Wondrich chose “four odd, eccentric recipes.” Odd is an understatement. Take the Blind Tom, a hot whiskey punch that calls for grated chocolate and “sour beer.”
Wondrich selected one of the sourest beers known to man, Belgian Gueuze lambic, to use in his version of this drink originating in Colorado in the early 1870s. Why sour beer? Simple: Back then lemons were almost impossible to get in Colorado. Upon tasting the finished product, Wondrich immediately apologized, “I can see why people wouldn’t like this.”
The drink pictured here, the West India Twilight, dates to 1867, and was the oldest of the lot. It's two ounces of sherry, an egg and a tablespoon of raspberry syrup, shaken with ice and then poured into a highball glass. Cocktail guru Gary Regan aptly pointed out the best way to get the egg to froth up was to dry shake (shake the ingredients once without ice and then once with). Garnished with grated nutmeg, the end result was quite refreshing.
Another Hilton Fragrance — From Mom Kathy!
Jeff Vespa/WireImage
Nicky Hilton has her successful clothing and purse lines. Paris Hilton has a mini design empire from fragrance to watches to shoes. And now their stylish mother Kathy is joining the fray with her new perfume, My Secret. Available now on Macys.com, the fragrance is as glamourous as the women of the Hilton family. And if you’d like a chance to experience the Hilton ladies in person, click here to enter a contest for one mother-daughter pair to have a Mother’s Day brunch with Nicky, Paris and Kathy in L.A. As Paris would say, “That’s hot.”
Ordering In: NYC Delivery Services Rundown
New York's called the city that never sleeps, but to many it’s also the city that never leaves its apartment. For the Netflix-and-sweatpants set, there are an increasing number of ways to get all the essentials with just a phone call or a few clicks of the mouse, provided you have a desirable zip code. The best known late night delivery service is Anytime, which provides East Village and Williamsburg shut-ins with the beer and cigarettes they need to make it through that Friday night Wii bowling marathon. But Anytime may be gone in no time, and their East Village phone number has been disconnected.
Max Delivery connects housebound shoppers in lower Manhattan with local stores selling everything from DVDs to booze. They operate between noon and midnight and promise delivery within the hour, though customers are limited to the hours of the store they’re ordering from. There is also Seamlessweb, which facilitates delivery from any restaurant within your delivery zone; a peculiar service considering the avalanche of menus constantly shoved under New York doorways.
And now along comes called Wakozi (Swahili for “one who delivers,” or “savior”). So far it’s a free service that connects Manhattan bingers to all the options for food, alcohol and tobacco (no firearms yet) that can be delivered in your area, usually in under half an hour. The website is pretty user-friendly, letting you peruse each store’s inventory and, in some cases, inspect an image of that bottle of ’77 Barros Almeida Colheita Port you’re about to charge to your credit card.
Delivery.com is another old standby for restaurant food, groceries, and liquor, but none of these services seem capable of getting you hard liquor when the party runs dry at midnight. And areas outside of downtown Manhattan and trendy Brooklyn are still criminally underserved – what are outer borough residents supposed to do, get dressed and leave their apartments?
Photo: ianqui
Colors, Restaurant Run by 9/11 Survivors, Hangs On
Colors, the feel-good restaurant on Lafayette Street owned and operated by Windows on the World employees who were spared on 9/11, is reportedly back from the brink of ruin. The fine dining restaurant opened two years ago as one of New York’s few cooperative restaurants, with everyone from busboys to chefs sharing ownership and a menu featuring international cuisine created by the multi-ethnic staff.
Though Colors did well during the first burst of publicity, business ultimately slowed to a crawl as the cooperative decision making process proved ineffective and high prices deterred diners. Last year they often struggled to pay the $20,000 rent, employees went unpaid for weeks, and closure seemed inevitable. But today the AP reports that Christopher Faulkner, a new chef brought in last November, has turned things around. Workers also agreed to a pay cut, lowering the minimum wage from $13.50 to $9.45 an hour, and entrée prices have been dropped out of the prohibitive $40 range.
Now Colors is back in the black and Faulkner sees the restaurant as a symbol of renewal: “This is one of the good things left after 9/11. People are tired of hearing about death and victims. Colors is about food, nurturing, and life.”
Photo courtesy John Mariani
Jennifer Lopez Lightens Up for Spring!
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As if motherhood wasn’t already making her more radiant than ever, Jennifer Lopez stopped by long-time colorist Rita Hazan’s Manhattan salon for a little post-baby hair color pick-me-up on Friday. With sister Linda and another girlfriend in tow, the star settled into the salon’s VIP room for a look that Hazan describes as “light golden brown base with toffee-colored highlights.” Hazan tells PEOPLE that this is the first step in lightening up Lopez’s hair to get “blonder for summer. A work in progress ’til the warmer months get here.” And as for Lopez’s general appearance, Hazan says “she looked completely amazing. [She’s] lost all the weight and looks more gorgeous than ever — if that’s possible!”
Openings Roundup: Ippudo, Le Cirque Wine Lounge, Antik
IPPUDO: Though its website says the grand opening isn’t until Monday, a call placed to Ippudo, New York City’s first taste of the hit Japanese ramen chain, confirmed that they are welcoming diners for dinner during their “soft opening.” The photo here by Cocktailian depicts “a super porky broth with excellent melt in your mouth roast pork” that the photographer “will be dreaming about for days.” Andrea Strong declares the broth “perversely porky,” and explains it’s made by cooking pork bones for over 15 hours. Ippudo’s thin ramen noodles are made on the premises and cooked almost al dente, and a full bar up front serves 25 sakes, three shochu, beer and spirits. 65 Fourth Avenue, 212-388-0088.
LE CIRQUE WINE LOUNGE: Hot on the heels of its revitalizing New York Times review, which declared the Italian-French restaurant back from the brink of ossification, Le Cirque has opened a chill new wine lounge. Unlike the dining room, casual dress is permitted, and the relaxed design – with low leather couches and comfortable chairs – evokes a rich friend’s den, if that friend had a soaring “wine tower” packed with 20,000 bottles of wine. 30 of them are poured by the glass, and a small plates menu features items like tarte flambée topped with caramelized onions, bacon and Gruyère. 51 E. 58th St., (212) 644-0202.
ANTIK: Marquee Lounge has been swankified into an exclusive,"semi-private" cocktail club with a sensually sinister ambiance. Here the well-connected can high-five each other in a dimly lit room with red-velvet wallpaper, black chandeliers and no discernible bar acting as an eyesore. Waitresses in skimpy black skirts ferry specialty cocktails back and forth to patrons paying through the nose to affect that trendy, speakeasy vibe. 356 Bowery, (212) 388-1655.
Photo: Cocktailian.
The Body Shop and MTV Get Lippy About HIV!
Courtesy of the Body Shop
Talk about getting lippy! MTV and The Body Shop have joined forces and launched the “Move Your Lips” campaign, which includes selling a limited-edition Guarana Lip Butter for parched puckers to raise money for HIV/AIDS awareness. Proceeds from the product, sold in Body Shop stores worldwide, will go directly to the Staying Alive Foundation, the MTV HIV/AIDS charity, “which gives monetary awards to young people, globally, who run their own youth-focused HIV and AIDS awareness projects,” according to the Foundation. So far Staying Live has given out over $450,000 to more than 80 projects. The previous MTV-Body Shop collaboration, Spray To Change, entirely funded last year’s awards. Log-on to MoveYourLips.com for more information about the Foundation, and to compete for a pair of tickets to an MTV Awards show in the U.K. in June. And click here to purchase the Guarana Lip Butter, $8, at thebodyshop.com.
At the Ethnic Market: Japanese Nanoburgers
At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes.
The Japanese can claim responsibility for introducing kobe beef burgers to such temples of meat as the The Old Homestead Steak House. Now comes a startling new burger development: Japanese miniburgers. Actually they’re more like nanoburgers; each is barely the size of a nickel. If you’ve guessed by now that this snazzy little box doesn’t contain any meat whatsoever, and is actually a treat for kids, give yourself five food geek points. Given his professed fondness for White Castle slyders, one wonders whether Josh Ozersky makes mention of this Japanese oddity in his forthcoming opus, The Hamburger: A History.
Every Burger’s flip-top packaging looks like a Big Mac box and even depicts a sesame seed bun. Inside you’ll find two trays, each containing eight wee burgers. Although the name might sound like the often gross tasting Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, thankfully Every Burger comes in only one flavor, and it’s not faux meat, either. Nor, thank heavens, is it bourbon, even though the nutrition facts engrish reads “Bourbon Every Burger.”
The patty is a disk of chocolate, topped with a bit of sweet frosting for mayo. The whole thing is encased between two cookies sprinkled with ground sesame seeds. The bizarre mock burgers are available at Hong Kong Supermarket in Elmhurst. If you can’t make it to Queens, they can also be found at various Japanese markets around town, including Katagiri.
Hong Kong Supermarket, Elmhurst, 82-02 45 Ave., 718-651-3838
Katagiri, 223 E 59 St., 212-838-5453
Top Chef’s Ted Allen Fires Back on Waldorf Saladgate
On Wednesday night's episode of Top Chef, judge Ted Allen (pictured here with Padma Lakshmi) attributed the birthplace of the Waldorf Salad to somewhere in "middle America," an error that raised the eyebrows of foodies who know the salad's true inventor: Oscar Tschirky, who created it in the late 19th century while working at New York City's Waldorf Hotel (precursor to the Waldorf-Astoria).
Yesterday, Gothamist took the rare step of publishing one of the thousands of "open letters from the grave" we receive on a daily basis, from the ghost of Tschirky himself, excoriating Allen for denying him the culinary credit he so justly deserves. Today Allen responds, presumably after suffering through the first of many sleepless nights haunted by Tschriky's indignant ghost.
All righty, then: touché on your Waldorf Salad open letter—I enjoyed it. Point taken. Yes, the Waldorf Salad was invented by a chef at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. In the 1800s. Which is approximately the last century that anybody with a creative or adventurous palate served it. (Which is not to say that it's not delicious—of course, it very much is.)On his new website, Allen tells readers how he learned how to cook (practice!) and that he's "all about pork" these days.But since then, the venerable combo of mayo and apples—like so many dishes that once were innovative and now are clichés—became more the province of, well, the provinces. Such as that from whence I sprang so long ago: Ohio.
Which is why, if you Google "waldorf salad" right now, at this very moment, the second citation you will see is this one.
Defense rests.
Thanks, Ted Allen
Shopping Alert: Target Expands Go International
Courtesy Target.com
The fashion-forward Go International collection at Target has already featured some of our favorite designers, such as Proenza Schouler, Behnaz Sarafpour and Jovovich-Hawk. So we’re thrilled that Go International is expanding next month to include a private label collection of must-have pieces that will be available between the limited-edition designer lines. We were lucky enough to get a sneak peak, and our wish list includes color-block dresses, high-waist trousers and one-shoulder frocks — some of the same looks we’ve spotted on celebrities this spring. At prices ranging from $17 to $50, even a major shopping spree can be guilt-free! Look for the new collection in Target stores on April 13th.
