Last Wednesday night, at around 8 p.m., the Transom spotted celebrity chef Mario Batali ambling through the Museum of Modern Art in his bright orange Crocs. But he wasn’t here to see the Munch exhibition. He was en route to the New York premiere of A Place at the Table, a somber new Read More
“The water is warm,” announces the John Dory Oyster Bar. You could have fooled our safety-orange galoshes as they slosh through the brown slush, but we do dig the raw bar and seafood at John Dory, and we last spotted Mario Batali slurping oysters in his ugly Crocs there, which made us feel just a Read More
Joseph Bastianich isn’t content being a mere Restaurant Man, as he’d have it. Or even a haute grocer.
“Hopefully, we’re going to change the way people consume,” he said, sitting at a table in Eataly, the Flatiron grocery store he opened in August 2010 in a partnership with Mario Batali, his mother, Lidia, and Italian businessman Oscar Farinetti. Before him was a plate of lentils and a glass of red wine. Asked about the rising price of food, he quickly fired off his reply in his distinctly outer-borough-bred baritone: “We’re going to change the balance of the plate. Less proteins, more carbs, more legumes, more rice, more barley. The era of cheap, abundant food is gone.” Read More
Presented without comment: Two gentlemen of great stature spotted in the wilds of Brooklyn Borough Hall yesterday, for the announcement of a new rooftop farm in Sunset Park, to be the borough’s biggest. Can you guess who? Read More
Her energy level is through the roof and her style rivals that of many tight-lipped editors: We’re talking about Brisbane/Sydney native, Angela Gilltrap. Having worked as an actor, author and editor, this Aussie beauty has now eased into the role of Omni Media Director for fashionweekdaily.com and Daily Front Row (glossy media staples during Read More
There’s a lot of fuss at the moment about Mario Batali, who told Forbes that “the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys.” But Mr. Batali is not the only man to bring Hitler into the debate about wealth inequality. Remember last year, when Blackstone Group chairman Stephen Schwarzman, a billionaire, struck out against raising capital gains taxes? What was it that he said? Oh, that’s right, he compared Obama to Hitler. Don’t these people ever learn? Read More
This afternoon, Time magazine held its annual lunch and panel for it’s prestigious person of the year issue. We went in with our money on Occupy Wall Street, but most of our other journo diners seemed to take it as a given that the honor would be bestowed on Steve Jobs.
It was an impressive panel led by Time‘s Rich Stengel: NBC’s Brian Williams, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Mario Batali, Seth Meyers, and Grover Norquist, president of the advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform. Read More
It’s the decade of Brooklyn, and while The New York Times may have only recently discovered the borough—according to Brian Williams, at least—it has lately become the leading exporter of artisanal eateries to Manhattan.
Zak Pelaccio’s Williamsburg hotspot Fatty ‘Cue opened its West Village outpost last month, and, now, Bedford Cheese Shop—probably Brooklyn’s most noted cheese monger—has signed a 15-year lease at 67 Irving Place. Read More
A beshorted Mario Batali, purple socks tucked into orange Crocs, barreled toward a makeshift podium in a corner of Birreria, the new Eataly brewpub 15 stories above the Flatiron, on its invitation-only opening night Thursday.
He grabbed an orange from a huge tub on the way and placed it on the podium.
“This is Read More
After quipping that the 2011 Can-Do Awards Gala was the nicest seder he had ever been to–and drawing attention to the especially “geometrical shape” of the Chelsea Piers banquet hall–guest Jon Stewart got serious.
“Four hundred thousand meals a day are served at the Food Bank,” Stewart said. “It really is a remarkable organization.”
The Read More
