at the sign of The Pink Pig

Bring On The Noise: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  May 25, 2015]

Back from the UK, one of my first jobs was to finalize plans for a big group dinner for which we were taking over a Dominican restaurant on Avenue C, Joselito's. I was also clutching tickets for two concerts I'd been happily anticipating.

But first, out to dinner.

Bristol Pub Crawls: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine: May 18, 2015]

As you'd expect, studying both as an undergraduate and as a postgraduate in the same city for some six years afforded an opportunity to introduce myself to several of the local public houses.  Or dozens of them. Perhaps a hundred or so.

Because Bristol has pubs--and I don't mean brand new bars with mock-historic facades or silly Irish names, I mean pubs Sir Francis Drake might have drunk in. Pubs with centuries of history, surviving wars, bombs, depressions, and with remarkably little change. One of the things I intended to do on this brief visit, ten years ago, was to drop in on a few of my favorite.

Air-Kissing At Beautique

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  May 18, 2015]

"Ce n'est pas sérieux," is what I came to be thinking as I sat, almost enveloped in a cushiony white chair at Beautique, the floor shaking with booming bass, the air thick with voices, nobody thinking about food.

I mean, the name. It's kind of a warning. And the fact that a branch of the restaurant, combined with a "bathing club" is opening this weekend in Southampton. Like air-kissing, which is not really kissing, or really anything, this has the look and trappings of a restaurant, but it's really something else.

Snacking: Maysville, Delmonico's, Retro Bar & Grill

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  May 18, 2015]

Just things I happened to eat and photograph, no big deal.  Although I have to say, the crispy oyster and pork sausage sandwich on the lunch menu at Maysville was very enjoyable, largely because the pork sausage is loose-textured, flavorful, and has a homemade feel to it.

It's báhn mi-style in a way, even though it's on ciabatta.  Shredded raw carrot, plenty of fresh cilantro.

Quick Bites: Hi Hello

[Pigging by Wilfrid: May 11, 2015]

Opening a new bar or restaurant in New York can be a slow, drawn-out process. It was nearly two years ago that people connected with Roberta's and Momo Sushi Shack were reported to be planning a sandwich restaurant in the closing Mazelle space, with the working name "Hi Hello."

Perhaps it's a pity they didn't change the unsearchable name in the mean-time, but Hi Hello finally debuted a few weeks back. Not sure what took so long, because it's still a fairly small, comfortable, one-room bar. You can sit at the bar or at a counter facing the windows, and there are a few tables. And indeed, it's all about sandwiches.

London To Bristol: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine: April 11, 2015]

This was a nostalgic trip for me. Accustomed to crossing the Atlantic to London for a few days of business and pleasure, I'd decided to extend this journey and re-visit Bristol, where I'd studied both as an undergraduate and a postgraduate in the 1980s.

For those who don't know, Bristol is the largest city of England's West Country, and although it's population is less than half a million it has some urban intensity to it.  The grand city center, and the beautiful old houses in the Clifton neighborhood, were generated by the huge economic success of its docklands from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries.

Chevalier : Old French Meets New

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  April 4, 2015]

Chevalier, the new restaurant in the new Baccarat Hotel, may just hold the clue to the future of French dining in New York. Whether or not that's the case, it's a sparkling debut from Charles Masson and Shea Gallante--in some ways an improbable, but clearly a very promising team.

And suddenly no more: breaking news as I finish this review: Masson has already moved on.

And to think I'd resigned myself to not seeing any more openings of this scale and ambition in Manhattan, unless from an organization with an established raft of successes like the Altamarea Group.

Rebelle: French On The Bowery

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  May 4, 2015]

You don't need me to tell you how much The Bowery has changed in the last ten years; not if you're a New Yorker, anyway. But the really unexpected change, over the last three years, has seen the neighborhood reborn as a home of French cuisine. Yes, that's right: French.

It doesn't seem that long ago that a frankly xenophobic suspicion of "old Europe" settled over the country--remember "freedom fries" instead of French fries?--and New York was not immune.  For La Caravelle and La Côte Basque, rather like CBGB's, time seemed to have moved on, and they were mourned only by the old faithful when they closed in 2004.

Fergus Henderson At The Savoy: Ten Year Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  May 4, 2015]

As I've doubtless mentioned before, my relationship with British chef Fergus Henderson's food goes back way before he presided over this New York dinner to promote his The Whole Beast cookbook.

It goes back even before he opened his perennially successful London flagship St John in 1994.  It goes back to the cooking he did in the upstairs room at the tiny, historic French pub in London's Soho.