at the sign of The Pink Pig

The Permanent Brunch Hunch

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 28, 2009]

Do you crave breakfast at midnight?  Are you of Hunter S. Thompson's view that it's the one essential meal of the day to be taken sometime or other during the twenty-four hour cycle, and should include a massive food component (he favored pitchers of margarita and lines of coke too)?

Aside from the white lines, Permanent Brunch may be just what you're looking for.

Quick Bites: Curious Crudo

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 28, 2009]

Needing to schedule a lunch in an unpromising corner of the Garment District, I remembered Crudo at the Wingate Inn.

The brazen ambition of the Euro-Caribbean menu had earmarked this as a possible dinner destination, but mixed reports had me hesitating.  Rightly so, I'm afraid.

Poet's House, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art...

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: September 28, 2009]

Poet's House did it.  They really did open again, right on time - bigger than before in a sparkling new space near Rockefeller Park, overlooking the Hudson.

Paris To Burgundy: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  September 28, 2009]

Misty grey skies, intermittent light rain.  The store-fronts shining a little more brightly along Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré as dusk falls early. Paris, September 1999.

Quite A SHO: Shaun Hergatt At The Setai

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 21, 2009]

I try not to waste too much space here taking direct issue with published reviews of restaurants.  But in the case of SHO: Shaun Hergatt, it's worth making an exception.

The Times's Pete Wells, filling in between the Scylla of Bruni and the Charibdyis of Sifton, did his readers a great disservice with the blinkered Dining Briefs dismissal published in the last week of August.

O.K., Tworkov, No Wave And Monet: Around The Galleries

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid:  September 21, 2009]

After the lousiest summer I can remember in this town, it's something of a relief to climb back into a jacket and tie and embark on the fall circuit of galleries, openings, receptions and beanfeasts.  Here's a quick look at some current art shows.

Popping My Popeye's Cherry

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 21, 2009]

No, I'd never eaten anything from a Popeye's before.  So I thought that, just I recorded the loss of my White Castle virginity two years ago, this auspicious occasion should be documented too.

Number two on the menu, I believe.  A drumstick and breast piece, spicy, with a biscuit and cajun fries.

Taillevent, Paris: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  September 21, 2009]

So, early fall 1999 and my first trip back to France since moving to New York at the beginning of '97.  Paris in mind, but not just Paris: Burgundy too, in time for the vendange, and Lyons.

Sister Sorella

[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 14, 2009 ]

It's a long way from Piedmont to Hester Street.  A long way from sun-dappled vineyards, slow-roasted game, truffles and Barolo to the gray concrete and steel of the block of Allen below Delancey.

To transport the former to the latter is a bold project indeed, and precisely what Sorella (sister in Italian) ambitiously undertakes.

Mysterious Maze

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 14, 2009]

Gordon Ramsay's Maze, occupying a curious limbo between his New York flagship dining room and the bar of the London Hotel, continues to puzzle as much as please me.

I spoke very highly of the place two years ago, and it remained a good midtown lunch standby for me.