the road | the food | a new direction
When Shake Shack comes to Chicago and Billy Goat goes to Washington, and the Big Apple gets a Garrett’s, and Marshall Field’s is now Macy’s… does it all become less special? Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune takes the opportunity, with the arrival of Shake Shack in the Windy City, to look at the effect of all this regional homogenization. Continue reading
When Shake Shack enters a new market they always select some quality local ingredients for their menu. We noted previously how, in Chicago, they are offering concretes made with Chicago’s Bang Bang Pie and Glazed & Infused doughnuts, and they are also offering Vienna Beef hot dogs. There are two other local twists on the menu. Another concrete incorporates a chocolate bar made with Hawaiian black sea salt, burnt sugar caramel, and 70% cacao dark chocolate, from Chicago’s high-end chocolatier Vosges Haut-Chocolat. And there’s a Publican Pork Sausage, made by Chicago’s Publican Quality Meats, a high-quality butcher and lunch spot. The sausage is topped with Shack’s cheese sauce and crispy-fried, ale-marinated shallots. The Chicago Shack opened yesterday. Continue reading
Sara Roahen has compiled, for New Orleans Magazine, the most comprehensive comparative analysis of fried chicken in New Orleans that we’ve ever seen. We’ve grazed around the Crescent City many, many times, and even enjoyed some spectacularly good fried chicken. Yet somehow we never quite accepted the city as a fried yardbird mecca. Ms. Roahen said it best: ” [W]hen offered a choice in this town surrounded by water, I’ve historically chosen catfish or shrimp or oysters when in the mood for something fried. I now know that fried chicken isn’t only a safe bet, especially in our most community-oriented neighborhood restaurants, but often the best choice of all.” Continue reading
The Smith House in Dahlonega, Georgia is an inn with a history. The house was built atop a vein of gold that remained unmined because the 19th-century town fathers did not want the noise and disturbance to the town that mining would bring. Today, The Smith House is famous for the generous feasts they put out daily. You might want to give some thought to spending your Thanksgiving here, when The Smith House pulls out all the stops. Here’s what will be on this year’s Thanksgiving menu: Continue reading
The Cherry Hut has been known for things cherry in northern Michigan since 1922. The restaurant in Beulah has closed for the season but, as is the usual practice, they keep a storefront open in nearby Bensonia where folks can purchase jams, jellies, candies, dried cherries, and anything else that they can stick cherries into. They’ll also ship those products. Unfortunately, up until this year, they never offered their famous cherry pies for sale once the restaurant closed in October. This year, for the first time, the Bensonia store will offer The Cherry Hut’s cherry pies! Continue reading
The Portland Pie Co., based in Portland, Maine, was founded in 1997. PPC offers four kinds of dough, including basil, wheat, garlic, and beer, and exotic combinations of toppings. They also like to be good community citizens. They work with area groups by often designating one evening, usually a Thursday, when they donate a portion of their receipts to a designated charity or community group. Usually the donation is something like a buck a pizza. Continue reading
Professional baseball players, on the whole, are a pretty superstitious bunch. If they called their mother and didn’t shave the morning of a win, you can bet Mom will be receiving wake-up calls and that beard will continue to grow as long as the team keeps winning. KC Royals DH Billy Butler had lunch at Joe’s Kansas City Tuesday and the Royals that night proceeded to win game six of the World Series 10-0. Butler had a double and an RBI. So there he was at Joe’s Kansas City again Wednesday, dining on ribs, beans, and Mountain Dew. Unfortunately for Butler and Kansas City fans, Butler singled in four at bats and the Royals lost the final World Series game to the Giants, 3-2. Continue reading
Carla Hall is working towards opening her first Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen in New York, and to help her with the project she’s enlisted culinary students from Drexel in Philadelphia. They’ll be testing out menu items by taking over a food truck in front of Drexel and handing out free hot chicken, macaroni and cheese, braised greens and fresh lemonade. The date is November 5th, the time is 5:30 p.m., just before a 6 p.m. Drexel basketball event. If you’re in the area head over and grab a sample! Continue reading
The ever-present disquieting thought in the backs of the minds of New York deli mavens, as they wait for their Katz’s Deli slicer to build their pastrami sandwich is, how long can this good thing last? The neighborhood keeps improving, real estate prices keep rising, yet here remains Katz’s, slicing cured meats since 1888. In Jordan Weissmann’s fascinating story for Slate about Katz’s, and its owner Jake Dell, we learn that there are additional financial pressures on the deli business in general. For instance, wholesale brisket prices have tripled since just 1988. Delis pretty much sell cured meat as a loss leader, making most of their profit on everything else. Continue reading
New York City is notorious for finding ways to separate you from your money, especially when it comes to dining out. But it is possible to find bargains, if you look hard enough, or start with a crib sheet. And that’s where this story from Wall St. Cheat Sheet comes in. They’ve found seven spots to dine well for under $10, from Chinese dumplings to falafel to tacos to the burgers at The Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridien. Check it out. Continue reading
The newest Graeter’s ice cream shop opened Friday in Norwood, a city surrounded by Cincinnati, in the University Station development. Continue reading
There are now three franchises of New York City’s venerable Grand Central Oyster Bar: in Newark Airport, in Tokyo, and, since December of last year, in Brooklyn. Currently, the Brooklyn location is running a special fall beer and oyster pairing menu. Four oysters with four five-ounce beers sounds like a great idea and, at $14.95, a great deal too. Read about Kate Kolenda’s experience with the pairings at The Daily Meal. Continue reading
For the first time, Zagat surveyed NYC diners to find out where the best burgers in the city can be found, and Peter Luger came out on top. At about $13, the chopped dry-aged prime beef is really quite a bargain, too. The one catch: it’s lunch only. No burgers at dinner. We’re not sure, though: can you get one at the bar at night? We’ve been to Luger multiple times but have never tried the burger, because how can we pass up the steak? Yes, we could always order a burger as an appetizer, but doesn’t that really cross the line of indulgence? Perhaps one day. Here’s the Zagat top NYC burgers list. Continue reading
This time it’s The Daily Meal, and their twist on the “greatest pizza” list is to choose specific pies from the chosen pizzerias, ranked 101 to 1. Who did the choosing? 78 “experts.” Which pizza came in first place? This is one time we agree with the “experts” because Frank Pepe‘s white clam pizza, from New Haven, CT, is our #1 choice, too. No, not our #1 pizza, our #1 food, period! Continue reading
Yes, it looks fairly obvious that 51-year-old Benji’s Deli partisans stuffed the ballot box. Just the same, we’ve been to Benji’s and, it’s true, they DO make a good sandwich, and darn good hoppel-poppel for breakfast. So regardless of whether you accept OnMilwaukee.com‘s findings in their Best of Dining 2014 poll, we agree that Benji’s is well worth a visit, in the morning or the afternoon. And we’d like to try the editors’ choice, too, for a sandwich: the hipster-sounding Love Handle, where their namesake sandwich combines pork belly with egg salad and kale. Continue reading
Carla Hall’s being very resourceful while planning to open a Nashville-style restaurant in New York City. Not only is she attempting to raise capital through Kickstarter, she’s worked with Philadelphia’s Drexel University to set up a lab class for students in Drexel’s culinary arts program. The students will help with kitchen design, recipe development, and many of the other tasks that must be addressed prior to opening a new restaurant. The students gain valuable real-world experience and Carla gets their help. Ms. Hall said she’d like to eventually open a Southern Kitchen in Philadelphia.
With an absence of red tides and tropical storm activity in the area, Florida Keys stone crab fisherman are optimistic for a productive harvest. Unfortunately, prices are expected to be higher than ever. Stone crabs are (if you’re squeamish, cover your eyes) twisted off live crabs, which are then thrown back in the water, where the claws will regrow. Those claws are an expensive Florida delicacy, prized by many seafood aficionados. Currently, at Keys Fisheries‘ restaurant, a pound of jumbos (2-3 per pound) will run you about $37. Continue reading
Mariscos Chihuahua in Tucson, AZ is, of course, a seafood restaurant. If you know the restaurant, you know it’s for their ways with shrimp that most of the acclaim has come. But not only shrimp, by any means. Tucson Weekly‘s Best of Tucson 2014 has named Mariscos Chihuahua as the best place in the city to get fish tacos. You can get them made the usual way, with fried chunks of fish, or filled with grilled marlin, which sounds wonderful to us. They’ll also set you up with a shrimp taco if you’d prefer. Either way, at three bucks a pop you can’t go wrong. Continue reading
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