at the sign of The Pink Pig

Chef Wesley's Ten Course Degustation

[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 25, 2008]

I have been telling anyone who would listen that the accessory for any new Manhattan restaurant in 2008 is a dining counter.

Blame David Change of the Momofukus by all means, but tables are toast.  Not that it started with chef Chang.

The World Needs BBQ Pie: Tuck Shop

[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 25, 2008]

Call it a "random act of pieness". 

Or is the right word, "piety"? Anyway, in honor National Pie Day, I present...

Kobe Or Not Kobe: A Pair From Zaitzeff (Avenue B)

Well... can you tell which is which?

New York-London: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: January 25, 2007]

So at this point in my life, I am almost commuting between home-base in midtown Manhattan and my old haunts of London's West End.  This was a period when I'd wake up over the Atlantic and have to try to figure out which direction the plane was headed.

Yes, it was kind of fun.

Die Frühromantiker: They Didn't Have Paris

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid: January 25, 2008]

Last November, in an article called A First Map of Bohemia, I made the case that all the American and European artistic/bohemian undergrounds are traceable back to the work and manners of a few penniless friends in 1830s Paris.  From la Jeune France to today's remnants of the "hip" is, I claimed, a direct and continuous line.

I don't depart from that, but I've always had a nagging doubt about the Germans.

The New Boulud: Daniel's Pâté And Wine Bar

[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 18, 2008]

You could hardly ask for a better location, on Broadway right across from Lincoln Center

And then there's the Daniel Boulud brand, which still retains some exclusivity.

Quick Bites: Craft, Belcourt And A Flash From Manna's

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  January 18, 2008]

Despite the phantom opening of Bar Boulud on New Year's Eve (it then closed again for a couple of weeks), the holidays is not the best time to forge new grazing ground.

So here are some quick re-visits to established favorites.

Sheep:Shape Or Hirst:Kelly.

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: January 18, 2008]

Traipsing the increasingly chill streets of midtown in search of aesthetic diversion, I ducked past the ghastly giant flayed woman installed - permanently? - by Damien Hirst in the courtyard of Lever House, and went to look at a temporary installation by the same artist in a space off the lobby.

From The Three Johns to Oasis: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: January 18, 2008]

Oddly enough, there was a British post-punk dance-stance band called The Three Johns.  They still maintain a presence on My Space.   And I could never enter the premises of Trois Jean restaurant without briefly recalling the authors of such modern folk classics as "English White Boy Engineer".

And So To Soto: A Japanese Puzzle-Box

[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 11, 2007] Here are the rules of Soto, the curiously lovely Japanese experience on Sixth Avenue.

Rule #1, Sotohirosan is in charge. Deliciously so.