THE BAD DEAL

The James Beard Foundation judges could have given its best group food blog award to a publication like Eater, known for its diligent reporting about how New York restaurants recovered from Hurricane Sandy, the biggest storm to hit our city in a generation.

But last night, The Beard Committee gave that award to Dark Rye, whose content includes this “ten tiny houses we love” feature, which Dark Rye posted FIVE TIMES on its tumblr in the past week. So next time you think about taking the Beard Awards seriously, think about this one long and hard.

# the bad deal

We at The Bad Deal would like to give a Friday SHOUT OUT to all our hard-working, number-crunching, slim-toned, bikini-clad, caviar-consuming brothers and sisters at The Price Hike for this feature, which we think you’ll appreciate if you’re pinching your pennies like we are! Just to be clear, there are no actual brothers and sisters at The Price Hike, just Ryan Sutton, who happens to be the editor of The Bad Deal, and who happens to be me. We (ahem) just thought that sounded cooler. Check it out.

↵ Reblogged from pricehike

# a la carte arithmetic

TACO BELL SAYS WORKING ON NEW LOW-END MENU

Actual, literal, for real, unironic Bloomberg News headline.

Or perhaps Bud Light drinkers put more of a premium on flavor than refinement. AB InBev said the decline of [Bud Light] Platinum was “partially offset” by the growth of Bud  Light Lime Straw-ber-Rita and Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita, both of which also debuted last year to considerable wonderment.

We present without comment this quote from Bloomberg Businessweek.

# Bloomberg Businessweek

# the bad deal

# budweiser

# food

What we don’t need from a restaurant’s Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook feed:

Links to your appearance on the Today show, making prosciutto melon balls (“if you can’t find prosciutto at your local 7-11, Vienna sausages work fine.”)
Photos of that marlin you caught off the coast of Madagascar.
“We’re one follower away from the 550 on Twitter help us get there!”
RT-ing every single single gosh darn positive guest experience.
The same fuzzy Instagram photo (without a price), published on your Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook feed simultaneously.
How excited you are about your sixth cookbook.
Crowdsourcing things only a kindergarten teacher would ask: “And what did YOU have for breakfast today?”
This word, or any of its synonyms: YOGA.

What we need from a restaurant’s social media feed:

Links to the latest menus, with prices.
Food pictures, particularly specials, with prices.
24-hour advance notice if you’re closed for a private event. All the more important if you’re a walk-ins-only joint that doesn’t answer phones.
Last minute availability, with prices if you’re tasting-menu-only.
Unexpected wines you’re opening up by the glass, with prices.
What philanthropic event you’re cooking at, with ticket prices.
When you’re cooking at an out-of-town-pop-up, with prices.
When you’re sold out of a popular special for the evening.

Michelin-Starred Restos in The Global South? ZERO. But Southern Hemisphere Eateries on “World’s 50 Best List”? There Are SIX.

So perhaps there is something to this San Pellegrino list of the so-called “World’s 50 Best Restaurants,” which released its rankings tonight in London. Here’s another fun fact: the number Mexican or South American restaurants on the list EQUALS the number of U.S. restaurants on the list. That’s a strong hat tip to Mexico and the Global South, and it’s especially significant in a world where culinary conversations often revolve around Europe, Japan, and the U.S.

The six restaurants in Mexico or South America are:

D.O.M. (Sao Paolo)
Astrid y Gaston (great place, Lima)
Pujol (Mexico City)
Biko (Mexico City)
Mani (Sao Paolo)
Central (Lima)

We believe that Gustu in Bolivia, which opened this April, will be well-positioned to crack the Top Fifty next year. Also keep in mind that there are a number of South African, Australian, Brazilian and Peruvian spots on the bottom half of the list (51-100). Michelin does not publish guides for restaurants in the Southern Hemisphere.

These Are "The World's 50 Best Restaurants." Commence Your Eye-Rolling.

Click through for the Bloomberg News story, courtesy of Richard Vines, who’s also the UK and Ireland chair for the awards. The big news is that Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca has “ousted” (if such a thing were possible) Noma as the “world’s best restaurant.” Eleven Madison Park, which moved up five spots to fifth, is the only American establishment in the top ten. The most excellent Astrid y Gaston in Lima moved up 21 places, to number 14. For a more critical take on things, check out The Ulterior Epicure’s legitimate gripes with the list.

# food

# restaurants

# world's 50 best

# el celler de can roca

Happy Hour at the Bar!!

IT’S A DEAL! Pizzas at Roberta’s normally cost $9-$17; the mini pizzas during Happy Hour are just seven bucks. Also doesn’t hurt that Roberta’s makes some of NYC’s best pies, period. Here’s my Bloomberg review from November 2011.

↵ Reblogged from robertas

Here's What's Wrong With The "World's 50 Best Restaurants" List, Which Drops Later Today

Click through for the fine essay by Bonjwing Lee, the “Ulterior Epicure,” who argues against the annual list by San Pellegrino. He writes: “At best, these are the fifty trendiest (or most-publicized) restaurants in the world…And let’s not forget the sponsor of this list is San Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, a company that has much to gain on the tables and in the tumblers of the high-end restaurants that this list seems to favor.”

So The Bad Deal probably shouldn’t link to the list when it drops later today, but alas, we will anyway. Look for whether Noma will lose the top spot to Tokyo’s Narisawa, as Eater’s Raphael Brion suggests might happen.

Bad Grammar is a Bad Deal. So is jingoism. Am honestly curious what type of flags they were trying to get rid of.

↵ Reblogged from ryansutton

There are other factors that make Albert’s emerging empire different, as well. The scope of the food being served falls well beyond the Spanish food he built his name on. He is now putting his stamp on high-end Mexican food, on kaiseki-style Japanese cuisine, on spice-charged Peruvian food…To top it off, he’s making this push in one of the worst economies in Europe, if not the entire developed world. Unemployment in Spain stands at an all-time high of 25 percent (a staggering 40 percent for youth) and GDP is shrinking now at its fastest pace since the recession began. Walk the streets of Barcelona at 2:30 and 9:00 pm, the peak eating hours of the day, and you will find a city full of empty restaurants.

This is all from Matt Goulding’s epic profile on Albert Adria, the man who’s just as responsible for having made El Bulli what it is as his more famous brother, Albert.

An app that determines whether you have enough battery left in your iPhone to take that call from the hostess two hours later when she says your table is almost ready.

“Only 15-20 more minutes. They’re on dessert. We’re about to drop the check.”

Waiters Stuck at $2.13 Minimum Wage for 22 Years. That Ain't Cool.

Here’s an important piece of journalism about the underpaid women and men who serve us good food at good restaurants, courtesy of Bloomberg News (my employer). Many of us know waiters are paid less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 because gratuities are supposed to make up the difference.

Problem is, what happens when your tips don’t make up the difference?

Say It Loud: Food Costs What the Market Requires Not What Your Nostalgia Desires.

This week I review Carbone in my Blooomberg column, awarding 3.5 stars to the high-end red sauce joint in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. It isn’t just one of our city’s best new restaurants, it’s one of Manhattan’s best seafood spots, period.

Carbone’s cuisine is the cuisine I ate while growing up on Long Island, at cheap seafood shacks and affordable Italian-American restaurants. Except Carbone isn’t cheap, or affordable, not by Italian-American standards, and not by New York standards. Dinner for two, after wine, tax and tip, can easily cost $350-$400 for two, almost as much as dinner at Jean-Georges.

Fact Checking Carbone: Rigatoni alla Vodka

Hi Jeff,

Here are the final(ish) fact check questions for my Carbone review, running tonight at midnight. The questions pertain to your rigatoni alla vodka dish. I know this is an exhaustive process, but I just want to make sure I get this right.

Here we go:

1. How many martinis worth of vodka are in each order of rigatoni alla vodka? Do people ever complain that there’s not enough vodka in the pasta?

2. What kind of vodka do you use in the rigatoni? Stoli regular or Stoli Ohranj? I ask this because the vodka sauce had an ohranj (i.e. orange) color.

3. Do you infuse the dried pasta in the vodka overnight or do you let it sit for longer? (i.e. 3-4 months).

4. What’s the supplemental charge for upgrading to a premium vodka for the rigatoni alla vodka? Do you get a lot of Belvedere requests from the Meatpacking Crowd? If so, just tell’em that Ketel One is by far the best. Those guys don’t know nothing.

5. I’m kind of a lightweight, will the rigatoni vodka pasta send me over the edge if I do shots at The Joshua Tree beforehand?

6. Is the rigatoni alla vodka still $24 after 11pm, or do you switch to rigatoni alla vodka bottle service?

7. When all the anti-vodka cocktail snobs come in do you have to make a gin version for them? Rigatoni alla Hendricks? Or is it a non-substition deal?

8. Are you getting a lot of 18-year olds who come to the restaurant just to get wasted on rigatoni alla vodka? Or do you card everyone before ordering?

9. How many people have you 86-ed because they ate way too many rigatoni alla vodkas? Tell the truth.

Or perhaps Bud Light drinkers put more of a premium on flavor than refinement. AB InBev said the decline of [Bud Light] Platinum was “partially offset” by the growth of Bud Light Lime Straw-ber-Rita and Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita, both of which also debuted last year to considerable wonderment.