All posts tagged: restaurant

The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”: Watch Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Counterculture Classic

The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”: Watch Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Counterculture Classic

Published by José

Alice’s Restau­rant. It’s now a Thanks­giv­ing clas­sic, and some­thing of a tra­di­tion around here. Record­ed in 1967, the 18+ minute coun­ter­cul­ture song recounts Arlo Guthrie’s real encounter with the law, start­ing on Thanks­giv­ing Day 1965. As the long song unfolds, we hear all about how a hip­pie-bat­ing police offi­cer, by the name of William “Obie” Oban­hein, arrest­ed Arlo for lit­ter­ing. (Cul­tur­al foot­note: Obie pre­vi­ous­ly posed for sev­er­al Nor­man Rock­well paint­ings, includ­ing the well-known paint­ing, “The Run­away,” that graced a 1958 cov­er of The Sat­ur­day Evening Post.) In fair­ly short order, Arlo pleads guilty to a mis­de­meanor charge, pays a $25 fine, and cleans up the thrash. But the sto­ry isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Lat­er, when Arlo (son of Woody Guthrie) gets called up for the draft, the pet­ty crime iron­i­cal­ly becomes a basis for dis­qual­i­fy­ing him from mil­i­tary ser­vice in the Viet­nam War. Guthrie recounts this with some bit­ter­ness as the song builds into a satir­i­cal protest against the war: “I’m sit­tin’ here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough to join the Army, burn women, kids, hous­es …

There Is Literally Millions of Dollars of Art at This New Restaurant in SoHo

There Is Literally Millions of Dollars of Art at This New Restaurant in SoHo

Published by Sam

Iwan Wirth has always loved restaurants. His mother’s family was from the Italian Alps, and he grew up eating dolomite specialties at home, and every once in a while, they would dress up to go to restaurants on special occasions. Wirth, 54, started his first gallery in the countryside town of St. Gallen, Switzerland at the age of 16. When he went to deliver artworks in the big city of Zürich, his first client suggested they meet at the Kronenhalle, one of the great restaurants of Old Europe. Wirth had never been, but as a lover of food and art, he’d heard about it. The bar is named after Giacometti, and there’s Chagall and Miro and Picasso paintings on the walls. You always order the veal in mushroom sauce with rosti. “I couldn’t believe it,” he told me this week, visibly ecstatic as he remembered that first visit. “It’s like the first time you see the sea. That just never left me. And I thought, Once I’m a grown-up, I’d love to own the Kronenhalle.” …

Server Claims She Brings Kids Whatever They Ask For Even After The Parents Say No

Server Claims She Brings Kids Whatever They Ask For Even After The Parents Say No

Published by skeptic

After a server shared her “controversial” take on how she responds when families seated at her tables don’t allow their kids to order what they want, many individuals largely disagreed with her approach. The teen server always brings kid customers whatever they ask for, regardless of what parents say. A server took to TikTok claiming it makes her ‘sad’ to see kids seated at her tables get shut down by their parents, prompting her to intervene. The 18-year-old server Star, who goes by @beemmmoooo, shared a video of herself fixing her hair in the bathroom at work with the text, “This may be controversial but one thing about me that I’m not sorry for is that whenever a family comes to my job and the parents don’t let their kids order what they want and I see they look sad, I look at them, smile, and ask them directly what they want.” “I simply find it very sad when parents don’t let their kids get what they want,” she wrote. RELATED: Server Criticizes Family Who …

‘It’s the best job! But it will kill you’: four restaurant critics on the battle to stay healthy | Food

‘It’s the best job! But it will kill you’: four restaurant critics on the battle to stay healthy | Food

Published by skeptic

After 12 years as the New York Times’ restaurant critic, Pete Wells announced last week that he was leaving the role due to ill health – largely a side-effect of dining out decadently on a regular basis. “My cholesterol, blood sugar and hypertension were worse than I’d expected even in my doomiest moments,” he wrote after a medical checkup. “The terms pre-diabetes, fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome were thrown around.” He had become obese, he says, and knew something needed to change. With this in mind, we asked four leading restaurant critics how they mitigate the health risks posed by working in what is often deemed “the best job in the world”. Grace Dent, restaurant critic for the Guardian ‘On down days, I survive on water, oats and seeds’ … Grace Dent. Photograph: Sophia Spring/The Guardian In a bid to stay alive in the face of much pommes dauphinoise and clotted cream, I battle every day. It’s me v crème caramel; me v limitless opportunity. Me v my sleepy, ageing, lady metabolism. It is …

Chungdam, London: ‘In good hands’ – restaurant review | Food

Chungdam, London: ‘In good hands’ – restaurant review | Food

Published by skeptic

Chungdam, 35-36 Greek St, London W1D 5DL. Bookings taken via WhatsApp: 07548 925 636, chungdam.co.uk. Starters and sides £7.50 – £18.50; barbecue dishes £13.50 – £68; rice and noodles £14.50 – £16.50; dessert 38. Wine from £35 a bottle It’s odd when the once achingly familiar becomes alien; when you move house, say, and what was once yours suddenly belongs to someone else. After my parents died, we sold the family home in northwest London and the buyers cut down the magnificent horse chestnut in the front garden, the great tree whose canopy had spanned my childhood. They also paved over the lawn to create more parking. I wanted to be livid, but I knew it was no longer mine to be livid about. I should save the rage for more deserving atrocities. Later, I was told that this building, in which I’d led a raucous, vodka-marinated adolescence, was now home to Buddhist monks and their carers. The house had gone off with someone else. It was probably off the booze. I felt the same …

A Restaurant Challenges Venezuela’s President by Selling Empanadas

A Restaurant Challenges Venezuela’s President by Selling Empanadas

Published by Sam

A car pulled up recently outside a modest restaurant in the state of Guárico in Venezuela’s sprawling savanna. The driver shouted from behind the wheel: “Are you the ones whose business was closed by the government? I want a picture with you!” Bounding out of the car, the man pulled close to Corina Hernández, 44, one of the owners of the restaurant. He snapped a selfie. “We are all outraged,” he told her. Corina and her sister Elys Hernández have emerged as unlikely political folk heroes just as Venezuela is heading into its most competitive election in years. Their transgression? Selling 14 breakfasts and a handful of empanadas to the country’s leading opposition figure. The government’s response came just hours later — an order forcing the sisters to temporarily shut down their business. Their case was shared widely on the internet, turning them into symbols of defiance for Venezuelans tired of the country’s authoritarian leaders. (The sisters have since gained a large online following well beyond Venezuela and have rebranded their products as “freedom empanadas.”) …

Gaia, London: ‘Nosebleedingly expensive’ – restaurant review | Food

Gaia, London: ‘Nosebleedingly expensive’ – restaurant review | Food

Published by skeptic

Gaia, 50 Dover Street, London W1S 4NY (gaia-restaurants.com). Starters £10-£55; mains £32-£230; desserts £14-£36; wines from £45 Oliver Putnam, the washed-up Broadway director played by Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building, would adore Gaia, named after the goddess earth mother. Famously, Putnam lives on dips and Gaia is a veritable dip heaven. It starts with a dollop of soft, whipped, herb-flecked feta. That is followed by an indecently luscious taramasalata, like a savoury Chantilly, just begging to be scooped away with the accompanying hoop of still-warm sesame-crusted koulouri bread. There’s a fava bean dip, and a smoked aubergine dip and a tzatziki. Dip, my darlings. Dip like the wind. Mind you, the notoriously skint Putnam wouldn’t be able to access that which he so desires. For this is also dip heaven in that it can only be afforded by the gods; by those who can carelessly spend £12 on a thumb-high whorl of whipped cod’s roe. Gaia, which hilariously describes itself as a “refined taverna”, much I suppose as the Ritz across the …

Girl, 9, shot at Hackney restaurant still critical – as police probe link with Turkish-origin crime gangs | UK News

Girl, 9, shot at Hackney restaurant still critical – as police probe link with Turkish-origin crime gangs | UK News

Published by Sam

A girl is still fighting for her life in a critical condition a week after she was shot at a London restaurant, police say. The nine-year-old was inside eating dinner with her family when she was shot by a lone attacker on a motorbike. Three men sat outside, aged 37, 42 and 44, were also shot but have since left hospital. Image: Pic: PA Detectives say they are looking at a potential link with Turkish “organised criminal networks” and have again pleaded for information from the Turkish and Kurdish communities. The shooting happened at Evin, a restaurant on Kingsland High Street in Hackney, at 9.20pm last Wednesday. Image: Police want people who may have seen the bike to contact them. Pic: Met Police Image: Pic: Met Police “We will always be directed by the evidence and a critical line of enquiry has been the potential link to Turkish-originating organised criminal networks,” said Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway. “Sadly, a nine-year-old girl who was simply having dinner with her family is now in a hospital bed …

Gerry’s Hot Sub Deli, London: ‘Take it very seriously indeed’ – restaurant review | Food

Gerry’s Hot Sub Deli, London: ‘Take it very seriously indeed’ – restaurant review | Food

Published by skeptic

Gerry’s Hot Sub Deli, 50 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE. Sandwiches £8.25-£13.50, poutine £6.75-£10.70, dessert £4.25, wine £6.95 a glass, beer £3.95 a half pint Happiness is a handful of lunch and dressing running down your forearms. Certainly, anything that demands to be eaten alongside a roll of kitchen paper deserves to be taken seriously. By these criteria, which I’ve just invented, but now cleave to like holy scripture, the food at Gerry’s Hot Subs on London’s Exmouth Market deserves to be taken very seriously indeed. Lunch there is messy. Prepare to wipe yourself down afterwards or even nip home for a shower. But my, it’s good. The fact is, everybody can make themselves a sandwich, but you don’t want just anybody to make one for you. The frame is so very tight: some form of bread as vehicle for everything else. It demands a compulsive interest in detail combined with a profound understanding of what will make for a single, multi-textured mouthful. Followed by another and another. That person should be Andre Blais. He …

Apple Butter Cafe, London W1: ‘Food to make a diabetes doctor sigh anxiously’ – restaurant review | Restaurants

Apple Butter Cafe, London W1: ‘Food to make a diabetes doctor sigh anxiously’ – restaurant review | Restaurants

Published by skeptic

Apple Butter Cafe, which recently opened a second branch at the top of London’s Regent Street, is very much a cafe of its time. Today’s young may be eschewing the vices of yesteryear – booze, ciggies, drugs, etc – but their Achilles heel is sugar. Build a cafe that serves short stacks of chunky, fat pancakes smothered in banoffee syrup and topped with mini meringues, shards of tempered chocolate, quenelles of thick cream and microplaned lemon zest, and they will come. Post a video on TikTok of someone blowtorching said pancake stack, so the meringue browns and gives the whole hot mess a baked alaska vibe, however, and your customers will queue from 8am for the chance to make their own content next to the fake plastic trees “growing” inside the cafe. ‘Fortunately, the place is only a hop, skip and a jump from Harley Street’: Apple Butter Cafe’s creme brulee french toast. Photograph: The Guardian Sugar is the most cheerily pernicious of vices. I come from a long line of bingo-winged, eccles cake-addicted Methodist …