at the sign of The Pink Pig

Eleven Madison Park: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: August 17, 2016]

With chef Daniel Humm firmly in place, it was back to EMP in August 2006 (has he really been there over ten years?) to see what he was up to.

In non-food news, I was at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue for the spectacular French Art Books exhibit which had opened in the spring. Glad I didn't miss that, including a first chance to see Sonia Delaunay's illustrated strip setting for that seminal modernist poem, Blaise Cendrars' "La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France."

Craftsteak, Farrell's, And The Red Krayola Mystery: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 11, 2016]

Playing catch-up with the ten years ago diary, I find myself surprised at how disappointing Tom Colicchio's west side venture Craftsteak was.  As a total convert to Craft, I welcomed an option I expected to be easier to book (Craft was still a tough table in 2006), even if half the menu was given over to long-aged steaks.

In fact, Craftsteak offered a bewildering variety of steaks, in terms of origin, cut, and how long they'd spent in dry storage.

Hearth To Peter Luger: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 9, 2016]

Looks like I did a lot of eating at the height of summer ten years ago, despite the city temperature hitting the big three.

On the art side, I was looking at Rudy Burckhardt's paintings at Tibor Nagy, described as "celebrating the democratic possibilities of shared urban space. " I also saw the remarkable documentary program ranging from the South Bronx to Detroit, Urbanspaces, at Two Boots Pioneer. Oh, and there were a bunch of snakes, lizards, and skinks even, at the American Museum of Natural History.  Which brings me to food.

Quick Bites: Hank's Juicy Beef, P.J. Clarke's

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 1, 2016]

Lazy days.  Hot, rainy days.  Here are a couple of sandwiches I ate recently, one to get out of the heat, one to get out of a thunderstorm, one historic and one new.

Well,  P.J. Clarke's is kind of historic.  I haven't researched the details, but it's been altered and reformulated over the years, so you're not eating something from the 1940s.

Glorious Gilt: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  August 1, 2016]

Ten years ago, chef Paul Liebrandt had his first great New York setting at Gilt, the room which had previously framed Le Cirque 2000, at the New York Palace Hotel.

He'd impressed at Atlas, on Central Park South, but at Gilt--for the brief time he was there--he had the chance to unleash what he'd learned from Richard Neat and Marco Pierre White in London and Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, channeled through his own demanding vision.