Have you been wondering what’s going on in the restaurant world on the Upper West Side?
Tessa, the restaurant that will replace the old Time Out Bar on Amsterdam and 77th, now has a website (with nothing much on it) and is looking for sous chefs. Sounds like the opening is imminent. We last wrote about it here.
Corvo Bianco chef Elizabeth Falkner is out, Eater reports. We’ve heard mixed reviews about the spot. “No word yet on where she’s going next for seven months, but the Corvo Bianco team sends word that Chris Wyman is now the executive chef. He spent two years as the executive chef at Scarpetta in the Meatpacking District, and before that, he worked at Oceana for four years.” Dining room pictured at right.
The Heights Bar & Grill at 111th and Broadway won’t reopen until next month after a fire at the Citibank next door.
Fairway’s CEO stepped down last week after the company reported a larger than expected loss in its most recent quarter. “Fairway, which has stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, also said it will streamline its business to ‘remove redundant costs.'”
Here are the lovable faces of people who eat at Gray’s Papaya on West 72nd street.
Serious Eats takes a first look at the new By the Way Bakery on Broadway and 90th, which we wrote about here. “And then there are the bakery’s homey, familiar cakes, cookies, and bars. Coconut layer cake. Gingersnaps. Brownies. These sweets look textbook, but in fact are the product of months of testing, trying, failing and ultimately succeeding. For not only are these desserts gluten-free, they’re also dairy-free and certified kosher.”
Tavern on the Green should reopen this month. Of course, every time they say that, there’s another delay. The Times says a major renovation has stripped it down to its bare bones, which are quite attractive: “A ruddy, bristling work of Victorian Gothic architecture by Jacob Wrey Mould, the structure lay almost buried under all the additions that have encrusted it since 1871, when it was an 8,000-square-foot Sheepfold — an ornate shelter for the woolly, four-legged lawn mowers that once grazed on Sheep Meadow.”
I don’t know how By The Way is doing so far, but – for me – there is zero product visible from the sidewalk / front window and – so far – zero reason to enter the store to look inside. Need to fix that before the rent monster swallows them up.
Anyone who bought Fairway shares at the IPO just out of sentimental value got royally screwed. From $18 first day of trading, to $7.70 yesterday.
I am so sorry that Fairway has fallen victim to the private equity/IPO/expansion markets that have caused so many other great NYC food vendors to become mediocre (I’m talking about you Balducci’s). I am so happy that Zabar’s has pretty much stayed Zabar’s (at least on the westside).
No wonder they’re pouring into NY to live.. it reminds them of home in the suburbs. How awful. I hadn’t realized that Fairway had gone public. Probably a great buying opportunity now that the stock has fallen. Quality of food will drop but profits will improve.. same old same old.
Re Tessa: I was involved in restaurant advertising and promotion in the ’80’s and ’90’s. And one thing you came to know is that the restaurant community (chefs and sous chefs particularly) network. I remember hanging out at the original Blue Ribbon (Sullivan Street) late, late with lots of chefs and hopefuls all hanging out – these talented people network to the max – and for a supposedly high end Italian to post help wanted ads for sous chefs on their premises does not bode well for what we hope will be a superior eatery.