Today Frank Bruni reviews Adour (pictured), the four-month-old St. Regis Hotel restaurant conceived by extravagant French chef Alain Ducasse. While it’s not “rapturous” enough to merit the Times’s highest four star rating, it’s still “first-rate: polished service, a knockout wine list, beautiful oil-poached cod, gorgeous roasted lamb and exquisite desserts.” And Bruni does confirm our earlier speculation about some kind of haute bagel on the menu. On the other side of the spectrum and the......

Photo: du Barry bagel; 2008. Bagel, cauliflower, cheese; mixed media. From author’s private collection. “Pizza!” so begins a song beloved by millions, “pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time. When pizza’s on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime.” That timeless anthem conveys a fundamental truth: pizza bagels are a kind of sublime food, except if you’re lactose intolerant, hate tomatoes, or have Celiac disease. So it may come......

Pinch & S’MAC: Dejected fans of Pinch, the defunct Park Avenue South “pizza by the inch” joint, will not only be reunited with their favorite Pinch pizza, but they can even slather it with the incredible mac-n-cheese from East Village favorite S’MAC. The new cheese and carb cartel will bring the best of both menus together on the Upper West Side, forming a single, unified, belt-busting celebration of starch. If you’ve never tried S’MAC, you’re......

There are a number of restaurants opening in 2008 that we've been eagerly awaiting and we thought we'd highlight some that particularly piqued our interest and have us drooling in anticipation. John Dory -- this new meatpacking seafood spot comes from Spotted Pig owner Ken Friedman and Partner/Executive Chef April Bloomfield. Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich are also partners, not to mention neighbors. Sara Ochs will serve as the Chef de Cuisine. It is designed......

A bit of breaking food news: Doug Psaltis has left the Executive Chef position at Country restaurant after three years. Word has it that the 33 year-old chef has parted ways with chef/owner Geoffrey Zakarian to pursue other restaurant plans. While there’s no official word from the chef yet, chances are his next kitchen won’t be doing molecular gastronomy: Psaltis told Metromix in September that “I think we are getting too far away from our......

Looking for some of the best coffee in the city? Ed Levine has a few suggestions, including some of our favorites, like Joe, the Art of Coffee and the Mud Spot. The Omnivore's Dilemma's Michael Pollan puts in his two cents about recent activity surrounding the Farm Bill, "However many worthwhile programs get tacked onto the farm bill to buy off its critics, they won’t bring meaningful reform to the American food system until the......

A recent op-ed in the New York Times explained the limits of "food miles," the concept that one's dinner plate should be measured via the amount of carbon dioxide emissions (and other pollution) produced by the modes of transportation required to literally bring home the bacon. A study done at Lincoln University in New Zealand indicates that other variables complicate the equations of food production and transport, and that emissions calculations aren't necessarily so straightforward.......

Earlier this year when Gothamist visited executive chef Doug Psaltis at Geoffrey Zakarian’s Country, we learned that French Laundry vet Hsing Chen had just been named Executive Pastry Chef for the fine-dining restaurant upstairs, as well as for the downstairs, more casual Cafe. “My focus is more on light, fruit based desserts, with different textures and temperatures,” Chen told Gothamist. She also mentioned her desire to locate, soup up, and outfit a dessert cart from......

There's a Page Six today about Rachael Ray being attacked by a dog. Apparently an unleashed dog in Union Square Park (we will guess it was at the dog run) was very aggressive and caused quite a bit of havoc. Ray's rep told the Post, "Rachael and some others shooed it away, but it came back and attacked Isaboo [Ray's pitbull mix]. Other dogs were involved, and Rachael jumped in and was bit by one......

Eric Greenspan might be the best chef you’ve never heard of. The 31 year-old Jersey born, California raised, and one-time New Yorker spent the better part of the last decade working his way through several top-rated restaurant kitchens- Bouley, Union Pacific, and Alain Ducasse to name a few- before landing his first high profile chef’s job at Patina in Los Angeles four years ago. Later, a stint at the highly-regarded but short lived Meson G......

Nach Waxman is wearing a baseball hat decorated with the diamond shaped Avery Island Tabasco logo as he takes Gothamist around the stacks at Kitchen Arts and Letters, his 23 year-old Upper East Side bookshop. He is talking about Rachael Ray. “It’s a funny story,” says Waxman, describing his first impressions of the current Triscuit box doyenne. He shakes his head and laughs. “Nobody here had heard of her. We didn’t carry her books.......

Let’s start with some birth announcements. - Savoy is set to get its first offspring early next winter (think March/April). We can’t share too much on the location since the deal is still not done, but expect it to be east of the current location. Look for the menu to be in the vein of the approachable, sandwich/salad/mezze lunch program that followed the Savoy's renovation a couple of years ago. Entrée plates will be more......

That would be Michelin stars. The 2007 guide was released today, with ratings for 526 restaurants, including several newcomers from the past year. Del Posto debuts with a bang: two stars, joining the ranks of Masa, Bouley, and Daniel (Danube, which also had two stars last year, dropped down to one). All of those who earned three stars last year (Le Bernadin, per se, and Jean-Georges) held their ground with the exception of Alain Ducasse......

It’s not everyday that you can celebrate the 700th birthday of anything. In fact, the Mona Lisa seems like a blushing teenager at only 500 years old. But 2006 marked an important anniversary for one of the great Chateaux of Bordeaux – Chateau Pape Clement. This vineyard, the oldest named in Bordeaux, harvested its 700th crop this year (the Chateau itself is pictured below). But how do you celebrate a 700-year anniversary? By this......

Sunday and Monday nights were the James Beard Awards annual gala events, and the results are now in. Sunday night focused on the journalists, highlighting books, broadcast media, and even websites (a new category), while Monday was all about the chefs and restaurants. The excitement was palpable in the food world, so much so that Ed Levine decided to liveblog Monday's Awards dinner, an extravagant black tie affair, for those of us not "in" enough......

We came to win. We were prepared for the challenges they laid before us. Blind wines…bring it. Guess the spices…we came to play. Decorate the cookie…we’ll take down the pastry chefs. This was our mantra. Dirty or fair, we had one goal and that was to win the 2nd Annual Duckathlon sponsored by D’Artagnan. Clearly there was a miscount, because team Mother Ducker didn’t win, although we did steal the duck bacon prize from team......

Charlie Suisman over at Manhattan User's Guide broke the French omerta on the New York City restaurants Michelin guide and listed the restaurants receiving 1, 2 or 3 stars. Only thirty-nine restaurants were reviewed. Here's a quick analysis: - Parlez francais: Frenchmen/French-themed restaurants take three of the four 3-star slots (Alain Ducasse, Jean-Georges, Le Bernadin); the fourth is American-born Per Se (lucky for punch bowl owners) - Time Warner Center sweep: Per Se, Masa (2......

White truffle season is upon us, so get our your wallets. It may not look like much more than an unappetizing lump, but according to National Geographic, "During the peak of the white truffle season, which typically runs from late October to early December, the tubers can fetch U.S. $1,200 to $2,300 a pound." Yes, they're expensive, but if you like black truffles, you'll absolutely flip over the white ones. Their earthy flavor permeates throughout......

Maybe Rupert Murdoch should think about selling his place to one of NYC's celebrity chefs. According to Forbes Magazine, some of them are making some long green. On their list of the top 10 most influential chefs in America, we counted six who are doing business in NYC, and most of them (except poor Wylie!) are making a least a few million. Mario Batali $4m/year (Babbo, Lupa, and a many others) Lidia Bastianich $1.3m/year......

Gothamist is fond of wine in its many forms, flavors and frangrances. (Do I taste tobacco? I think I smell freshly cut grass!) And, we don't discriminate based on birthplace. Heck, we're happy to partake in a glass of wine with its roots - literally - in Queens. But, that said, French wines can most assuredly claim a special je ne sais quoi. And, where can Francophiles find the finest selection of vin in the......

In a move to both elevate the level of cleanliness in restaurants and the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene brand, NYC's Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden announced the Golden Apple Award (press release with lots of details), which would bestow restaurants that "have excellent recent inspection results, participate in a new DOHMH Quality Improvement Food Protection course (or demonstrate that acceptable quality assurance measures have been in place for the last 12 months) and pass......

Move over, Soup Nazi Ali "Al" Yeganeh, there's a new perfectionist who doles out stern ministrations to guests, Masa Takayama. Takayama, who has just opened the city's most expensive sushi restaurant, Masa, and smaller bar, Bar Masa, at the Time Warner Center, is profiled by Alex Witchel and it seems Takayama's "my way or the highway" approach to food is just what sniveling foodies in New York need. Takayama describes some of the early interest......

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: Coming from that Napa Valley oasis of cooking, the French Laundry, is Thomas Keller. Representing the Beef Council is Jean-Georges Vongerichten with steakhouse......