Food

Photo credit clockwise: Jessica Minghi/Borough Chocolates, Jacques Torres Chocolates, Jessica Minghi/Borough Chocolates, Chocolate Noise.

January 25, 2023

The best local chocolate shops in NYC

By Michelle Cohen

It doesn't have to be Valentine's Day to crave chocolate. But the sugar-coated holiday certainly provides a good excuse to indulge. Far beyond the red-wrapped drugstore box, creating the sweet (or bitter) treat is now recognized as a craft all its own. Chocolate purveyors range from the old-fashioned to the eco-conscious to makers who hand-mix exotic ingredients and flavors. If you're really hooked, you can make an event of it at a chocolate-themed restaurant, factory tour, or private tasting. Whether you're looking for a last-minute gift for someone special or just a sweet snack, the New York City establishments listed here have something for every chocolate lover–and you can order online or visit the source right in your borough.
Find the chocolate of your dreams, this way

New MCNY exhibit explores what New Yorkers eat and why it matters

Mary Mattingly, Biosphere, 2015. Courtesy of Mary Mattingly, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana

September 8, 2022

New MCNY exhibit explores what New Yorkers eat and why it matters

By Aaron Ginsburg

A new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York dives into the "powerful connections" between New Yorkers and food. Called Food in New York: Bigger Than the Plate, the indoor-outdoor show features the work of more than 20 artists that explores the city's food systems and the challenges that come with it. Food in New York opens on September 16.
Details here

Events & Things To Do

Photo credit: Jason Varney

July 26, 2022

See inside José Andrés’ Mediterranean restaurant Zaytinya, now open at NYC’s new Ritz-Carlton hotel

By Michelle Cohen

José Andrés’ ThinkFoodGroup on Tuesday opened Zaytinya, a new restaurant and hotel in-room dining option at The Ritz-Carlton New York, Nomad. The restaurant features a mezze menu inspired by Turkish, Greek, and Lebanese cuisines in a 140-seat street-level restaurant with a mod-meets Mediterranean interior design courtesy of David Rockwell's Rockwell Group. The Nomad location will be the second for Zaytinya, which first opened in 2002 in Washington, DC.
Find out more

Radio Park debuts summer garden dining series atop Radio City Music Hall

Radio Park above Radio City Music Hall. Photo credit: Rockefeller Center

June 20, 2022

Radio Park debuts summer garden dining series atop Radio City Music Hall

By Michelle Cohen

With the start of summer comes summer dining, and this July will mark the debut of an event that combines the excitement of Rockefeller Center with the experience of dining in a garden oasis high above New York City. Radio Park, the 24,000-square-foot landscaped rooftop that opened last year above Radio City Music Hall, will host "Dine at Radio Park," a new weekend dining series led by two celebrated local chefs.
Find out more

March 28, 2017

Brooklyn cheesemongers to open their underground 1850s brewery tunnels for one night

By Michelle Cohen

Thirty feet below street level, Benton Brown and Susan Boyle of Crown Finish Caves age their deliciously moldy wares in the lagering tunnels of a former brewery beneath the Monti Building in Crown Heights, where 26,000 pounds of cheese ripens to perfection in one of the facility's 15-foot-high brick tunnels. This weekend Crown Finish is opening up one of the unused former brewery tunnels, seldom seen by the public, to host a cheese-and-wine tasting event to benefit the expansion efforts of Maple Street School, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens' cooperative preschool (h/t DNAInfo).
Find out more

Events & Things To Do

December 17, 2015

Edible Real Estate: These Amazing Gingerbread Houses Are Totally Turnkey

By Michelle Cohen

What could be better than real estate you can eat? Though these (mostly) edible homes are way too pretty to take a bite of, there’s just something about the idea of frosting on the roof… Ahead, check out some of the sweet, scaled-down edifices we've scouted across the web and NYC, including a gingerbread version of the Hogwarts School, Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Fallingwater, and the Guggenheim, which, as they say, takes the cake!
More amazing cookie creations this way

May 21, 2015

MAPPED: Here’s What Americans Love to Eat the Most by State

By Diane Pham

Though we often chalk American cuisine down to hamburgers and apple pie, in reality folks across the country indulge in foods far more diverse. Foursquare and Mapbox have created a new map that reveals what foods Americans are statistically eating more of in every state. To make the map, they used an algorithm that analyzed Foursquare’s data set of menus, tips, and ratings—which represent stats from some 55 million users and two million businesses worldwide over the span of six years—and zoomed in on the food and drink items that appeared to be "disproportionately popular" across the states. In addition to getting what was uniquely popular to each state, they were also able to use the algorithm to determine just how much more—represented as a percentage—individuals seek out that favored food or drink item as compared to the national average. So, what do New York inhabitants crave the most? Hint: It's not pizza.
FInd out here

City Living

February 8, 2015

MADE IN BROOKLYN: A Rep for Authenticity and Excellence That’s Well-Earned–and Far from New

By Michelle Cohen

The story behind cheese-aging facility Crown Finish Caves in Crown Heights tells of an enormous amount of risk and dedication to making something on a small scale; to doing one thing well. It also once again stirs the hive of buzz around today’s Brooklyn. Article after article raises the idea that Brooklyn’s moment as the new hot spot for excellence in food, culture and authentic, hand-crafted goods, is in some quarters regarded as trite and trendy hype with little substance to it. For some, the underground cheese caves are just one more example: Cheese caves. How Brooklyn. Thirty feet below street level, in the lagering tunnels of a former brewery beneath the Monti Building in Crown Heights, Benton Brown and Susan Boyle spent several years renovating and creating “Brooklyn’s premier cheese-aging facility” complete with state-of-the-art humidity control and cooling systems. The couple created the 70-foot space with advice from the world’s top cheese experts; Crown Finish Caves opened in 2014. On an article in Cheese Notes, a commenter raves: “If I were a mouse, I would move to Crown Heights.”
More excellence and authenticity this way

History

October 2, 2014

Daily Link Fix: Amazing Cartoon Map Tablecloth from 1950s; See How Subway Cars Are Built

By Alyssa Alimurung

You never step foot in a fast food joint (right? RIGHT?!), but for those times when it’s an emergency and you need that greasy, fried goodness I Quant NY reported on the cleanest fast food chain in the city, so you can at least eat some grub that wasn’t dropped on the floor first. Continuing on our food […]

Food & Dining

August 10, 2014

How a ‘Buona Forchetta’ Stays Trim in NYC

By Andrew Cotto

Having just returned to New York City from another extended stay in Italy, I’m often asked about how I ate during my trip. I’m happy to accommodate such requests since I’m what Italians call a “Buona Forchetta” or “Good Fork” — someone who loves and knows food. Talking about food is one of my favorite things to do; it’s up there with eating food. And my passionate and detailed conversations about the food I’ve recently eaten often segues into curious inquiries about my somewhat surprising physique.
Read more of Andrew's story here

Daily Link Fix: Stay Active and Keep Your Phone Charged with Cycling Bike; Spray Can Cake Batter (Yes, Really)

By Alyssa Alimurung

Iron Man Suits Make A Debut In South Korean Shipyards: Super strength suits are no longer just for those Marvel films. New Scientist reports that engineers in South Korea have built an exoskeleton that shipyard workers can use to lift up to 66 pounds. Cycle While You Work: Because standing desks are boring and treadmill […]

Architecture And Design

May 21, 2014

Call Me Halal: Palatable Advice Straight from the Streets of Downtown Brooklyn

By Andrew Cotto

One of the saddest things I heard in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was told to me by the wife of an acquaintance. She said, with a smug sense of pride, that her family — in an act of patriotic protest to the recent attacks on America — would be ending their long-standing Thanksgiving tradition of serving assorted meat and vegetable pies from Damascus Bakery on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. It was a heartbreaking statement of staggering stupidity, offensive on so many levels, not the least of which was personal. I lived next door to Damascus Bakery in my first Brooklyn apartment. This was before Barney’s, Urban Outfitters and Trader Joe’s arrived. It was when that section of Atlantic Avenue was overwhelmingly Arabic, and I frequented the eateries as often as I could, feasting on delicacies from the Middle East, learning some geography and culture and a little Arabic along the way. And, of course, I met many wonderful people, including the family who owned and operated Damascus Bakery.
Read the rest of Andrew's story here

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