Tag Archives: restaurants

The Slater’s 50/50 chain has launched a 100% ground bacon burger. Which comes with a slice of bacon, just because. It bears the Simpsons-esque name, The ‘Merica Burger.

So claims the Facebook page of Minneapolis restaurant Chino Latino, who cheekily adds “maybe.” Pride Roll, now available. (Tipped by JMG reader Tim)

Foodiggity reports on NYC’s $666 burger: Created by 666 Burger, a NYC food truck, the Douche Burger is more than double the price of Serendipity’s entry, with a fraction of the pretentiousness. A foie-stuffed, gold-leaf-wrapped Kobe patty is topped with caviar, lobster, truffles, Gruyere melted with Champagne steam, and BBQ sauce made using Kopi Luwak coffee. If you’re wondering why …

It’s a thing.

A lesbian chef has won a $1.6M lawsuit against her former employer, who would gather staffers together to pray aloud that God would cure the gay ones. Jurors awarded lesbian chef Mirella Salemi the fat payout in her battle against the former owner of Mary Ann’s on West Broadway for making her life hell by holding employee prayer meetings inside …

Just over a month ago the beloved and family-owned Spanish/Mexican dive on my block, where I dropped in twice a week for their steam tables full of bisteca and shredded pork, closed abruptly and was being demolished within 24 hours. This week: Dunkin’ Donuts, which now has three or four outlets within a five minute walk of my building. Sigh.

The price of an average steak dinner has edged past $50 in many of Manhattan’s busiest steakhouses. “Beef is taking another price leap now. It’s in short supply and difficult to get,” Michael Lomonaco, chef and managing partner at Porter House New York, told Crain’s. His restaurant has been charging more than $50 for a year; the cowboy ribeye goes …

The NYC Department of Health has launched an app in which users can can filter and search for nearby restaurants by their latest cleanliness grade. Would anybody seriously consider a “C” grade joint that popped up in the results?

The California Assembly is considering a bill that would ban food trucks from parking within 1500 feet of a public school. Opponents argue that such a quarter-mile rule would effectively ban the trucks from densely-populated cities like San Francisco. The state law applies to elementary schools as well as middle schools and high schools, and that doesn’t make sense,” Wiener …

To the bemused concern of my friends who live next door, Lady Gaga’s parents have opened a restaurant on the Upper West Side. I snapped the above phone photo on Saturday after dodging a cluster of excited Little Monsters who apparently expect their hero to drop by regularly. Initial reviews have been brutal so we’ll have to see how long …

The founder of the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain has died. The New York Times launches into his legacy in the very first sentence of their obit. Danny Evins, who created Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a restaurant heavy on grits and nostalgia, expanded it into a $2 billion chain and then fought a losing battle to discriminate against gay employees, …

Over the last eight years I’ve eaten hundreds of times at the half-dozen joints in the lower left of this shot. And I must report with sadness that my beloved Spanish Food closed abruptly last week. Demolition of the interior commenced within 24 hours. Sob.

It’s almost worth the trek to Key West just for the bistec pallomilla at El Siboney. No visit is complete without at least one pilgrimage.

You may recognize the above Manhattan hotspot as one of Miranda Priestly’s preferred eateries in The Devil Wears Prada. This week Smith & Wollensky and several other tony NYC restaurants are in the news after some of their wait staff were busted for skimming the black Amex cards of their zillionaire clientele. High-tech “skimmers” — hard to detect because they …

Seems like we’re seeing more and more food trucks these days. And more and more storefronts go empty.

This scam is not unheard of in NYC. (Source)

A bigger tip wouldn’t have been funny. (Source)

The wait staff is striking at Central Park’s famed Boathouse, whose owners are accused of union busting after paying the city many millions for the restaurant’s concession. This week striking workers revealed that the Boathouse’s trademark bottled water, at $8 a glass, is nothing more than Manhattan tap water. Whoopsie. According to the servers, they’ve been forced to lie to …

What recession? “NYC restaurant Serendipity 3 now serves the world’s most expensive hot dog, a steal at $69. Some of its features: truffle oil, a Germany-imported pretzel bun, and pure beef.”

Yesterday Porno Pete LaBarbera posted the above boycott letter sent to the management group of Chili’s Restaurants because of a donation the company made to support the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference. LaBarbera is especially angry because his “undercover spies” reported that the conference featured (GASP!) unisex restrooms. Outrageous! Lots of companies, of course, donate …