at the sign of The Pink Pig

A Winter DR Trip: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  January 28, 2012]

Looking out the window on a grey, snowy city today, I guess it was a great plan to fly down to the Dominican Republic for this week, ten years ago.

Luxury accommodations too, at the Jaragua Hotel on the Malecón, Santo Domingo.

Another Day, Another Burger: Steak 'N' Shake

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  January 24, 2012]

Folks from around the country may well think: Steak 'n' Shake, so what?  The franchise is getting on for eighty years old.  But hey, it's news, because we just got one in New York.

Okay, so it's a year old now, but I hadn't been until recently.  The opening excitement has died down, and there are no long lines at its small outlet, right next door to the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Inventing Abstraction At MoMA

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid:  January 24, 2012]

There's plenty of time to catch MoMA's current would-be blockbuster, "Inventing Abstraction," which runs through April 15.  The crowds aren't too heavy either: many are distracted by the bright, cartoonish baubles of the Tokyo exhibit next door (which served only to remind me that I have no understanding of Japanese art.  My bad.)

But walk, don't run.  It's hard to say what this exhibit is for.  The purpose seems didactic, but there's a problem in the way it's framed.

Jeanne & Gaston Feels Right

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  January 21, 2012]

It's a personal thing, but some restaurants just feel right.  That doesn't necessarily make them popular, or a big hit, but it puts them on the right track.

I got a kick out of Chef Claude Godard's Jeanne & Gaston.  Such a kick, that after a press dinner, I went back and spent some of my own money.  But then, this is the kind of place which is going to feel right to me.

Gallagher's Is Still Open

The 1927 steakhouse, which the Brody family has been negotiating to sell, is still in business.

Kreuther's Atelier: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  January 21, 2012]

Atelier, at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South, was really one of the most thoroughly enjoyable fine dining restaurants in New York, during the brief two years when Gabriel Kreuther, fresh from Jean-Georges, was at the helm.

He's held a steady course at The Modern for nearly eight years now, of course, but it was at Atelier that we first got to know classics like the squab and foie gras croustillante.

Boulton & Watt: Steam Pub

[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 16, 2012]

James Watt famously developed the steam engine.  In partnership with Matthew Boulton, he made and marketed them.  What better name for a steampunk gastro-pub with ersatz British trimmings?

Boulton & Watt brought its industrial look--and noise--to what had been Nice Guy Eddie's at the bottom of Avenue just before the holidays.  It's already a smash.  And not without reason.

"Punk" After All These Years

[New York Peasant by Kim Davis:  January 16, 2012]

In the late 1970s, even before I became a teenage "gunslinger" for the New Musical Express, I was fan of punk and punk fanzines.  I was in London, and Sniffin' Glue was the local acme of the species.

But I knew of Punk, launched by John Holstrom and "Legs" McNeil in Manhattan in 1975.  I was especially aware of the bug-eyed caricature of Lou Reed on the cover of issue number one.

Quick Bites: Schnipper's Cheeseburger

 [Pigging by Wilfrid: January 14, 2012]

I never expect to spend so much time in the Times Square neighborhood, but all kinds of things conspire to take me there.  One recent evening, I was on Ninth Avenue, very hungry. I recalled Josh Ozersky's description of the Schnipper burger as one of the least-appreciated in New York.

If not now, when?  I went inside the glaring white air-hangar tucked in the bottom of the Times building and ordered one.

Up West And Elsewhere: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  January 14, 2012]

Last week it was Aix.  I followed that dinner with an overdue visit to a restaurant which was already making waves on the UWS: Ouest.  This is a story which comes around periodically -- the Upper West Side has restaurants! In 2007, it was Dovetail and Eighty-One. In 2002, it had been Ouest and Aix.

I also ate in some other neighborhoods.