GQ's big list, Patel's big split, Bastianich's big debt, and more...
Family Meal - Wednesday, April 24th, 2019
Hello Wednesday,
After three weeks, four states, one District, a wedding, a reunion, and countless failures to respond / reach out / exist beyond survival, we arrived safely back in Hong Kong late Monday night. Please forgive the failures. I blame, as always, our sweet young children.
Let’s get to it…
The Lists – GQ’s 2019 Best New Restaurants are out, courtesy of Brett Martin. And the list makers are… Alewife, Richmond; Angler, San Francisco; Big King, Providence; Cafe La Trova, Miami; Georgia James, Houston; Henry at Life Hotel by JJ, NYC; Homer, Seattle; Indigo, Houston; Kyōten, Chicago; Ma'am Sir, Los Angeles; Nightshade, LA; Shabushabu MACORON, NYC; and Vianda, San Juan.
There’s a lot of big, decadent prose in Martin’s piece, but my favorite parts come when he goes from completely unimaginative to what-a-mind in single sentences like: “Vegetables emerge from the pot looking more or less like wilted, wet vegetables; the ribbons of curled brown beef resemble discarded pantyhose.”
Bonus: Martin posted a separate piece on “8 mind-blowing dishes” he tried this year. They came from Suraya, Philadelphia; Mint Mark, Madison; Davelle, NYC; Saint Julivert Fisherie, NYC; The Brewer’s Table, Austin; A Place by Damao, Chicago; Fool’s Errand, Boston; and In Bloom in St. Paul.
Congrats, all!
Congrats also due in LA, where the Times’s Jenn Harris writes that for 2019, “There was no way we could not name Bavel our Restaurant of the Year.”
The Lists Revisited – Last week I mentioned that Eater’s 2019 Young Guns launch was thin on content / heavy on pledges. Better news from EIC Amanda Kludt: “In May, we're launching a special section of Eater that will focus on stories for and about young upstarts in this industry. It will include profiles on this year's winners, check-ins with Young Gun alumni, and advice on how to survive and thrive in the food world today. Later in 2019, we'll hold a Young Guns Summit where we can bring the themes of this editorial program to life. More info TBD.”
The Sale – In LA, Jenn Harris reports, “Restaurateur Yassmin Sarmadi and her husband, chef Tony Esnault, have decided to sell Church & State, their decade-old French restaurant in the Arts District… Sarmadi said the [unnamed] new owner bought the concept as well as the Church & State name.” Keys to be handed over this weekend.
The Part – In SF, “About a year ago, chef Heena Patel opened her first restaurant, Besharam, in partnership with restaurateur Daniel Patterson of Alta Restaurant Group…. Now, that partnership is over. Patel has announced that she and Patterson mutually decided to part ways, with Patel assuming full control of Besharam.” Details from Janelle Bitker in the Chronicle.
The Close – In NYC, “Marc Murphy is closing his final restaurant in New York. The Food Network star and Chopped judge announced that the Time Warner Center location of Landmarc is closing in July following a 12-year run in the building. Last week, the chef posted a farewell to his 300-seat French- and Italian-accented bistro, but did not cite a reason for the closure…. The restaurant will serve its last meal July 22nd.” Beth Landman has that story in Eater NY.
The Deal – Someone please help me decode this document that Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali filed in NYC court just two days after announcing they had completely dissolved their partnership last month. Bloomberg’s Devin Leonard and Kate Krader report, “It listed Bastianich as a debtor and indicated that he’d pledged his interests to Batali in Babbo LLC and three other LLCs, listed in government filings as the owners of the Babbo carriage house and two other buildings—one in Port Chester, N.Y., and another in Westport, Conn.—that house pizzerias opened and owned by the former partners. The document doesn’t provide much more detail, but it appears that if Bastianich doesn’t make good on the terms, Batali could wind up once again with Babbo and become his former partner’s landlord at the pizzerias.”
My best guess is that Bastianich bought out Batali’s interest in the businesses by leveraging his own interest as collateral to get a loan from… Batali? Thoughts?
The Packages – Eater is out with “The United States of Mexican Food”, a massive package including “60 new stories from 48 writers and 32 editors, and …the expertise of guest editors and authorities on Mexican cuisine Bill Esparza and Gustavo Arellano.” I haven’t even begun to work my way through it, but already recommend you try.
And ICYMI while I was on the road a couple weeks ago, Bon Appétit put out an only slightly smaller Italian version called “Red Sauce America”.
Thoughts and prayers to the PR teams of Mexican and Italian restaurants that didn’t get mentions…
For Design Fans – Here’s Gary He’s photo spread of Maison Yaki, the follow-up to Olmstead that Stefanie Tuder calls Greg Baxtrom and Max Katzenberg’s “chiller, easier place to go”. The inside isn’t exceptional (though after too much time spent in American airports’ awful, tablet-focused, stationary seating schemes, I now take exception to fixed barstools everywhere), but that storefront/font would almost certainly spark joy if I could Kondo them in person.
And Last But Not Least: Paperwork - Headline in Washington City Paper: “D.C. Restaurateur Robert Wiedmaier Sues OpenTable for $4.12 Million.” Subhead: “The case hinges on an alleged promise and two pieces of paper Wiedmaier can't find.” Oof. Laura Hayes reports on the chef and software early-adopter’s claim that after OpenTable crashed one night in 2001, founder Chuck Templeton “handed him two pieces of paper. One offered him 40,000 shares, the other [a fee reduction in perpetuity]. Wiedmaier cannot find these documents.”
In a stunning coincidence, OpenTable cannot find its checkbook.
And that’s it for today. I’m off to find some Sri Lankan restaurants to quietly over-order in this week. Maybe that’s… something?
I’ll see you here Friday for next Family Meal.
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