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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent tasting adventures.
Bret traveled to Los Angeles on vacation, where he began exploring restaurants in the West Hollywood neighborhood where he was staying almost as soon as the plane landed. He tried two happy hours, one at Madre, where he had a memorable fruity and spicy margarita and chicken enchilada with mole, and another at Laurel Hardware, where he ate glazed pork ribs while sipping a couple of beers.
The next day, Bret met up with a restaurant consultant friend who led him to several of his favorites, starting in Beverly Hills at a small plates restaurant called Bacari, where each dish was better than the next and most were a reasonable $15. The culinary tour continued to an old-timey place called The Hideaway, followed by loaded breakfast burritos at Cofax Coffee, and several hotspots in the Silver Lake-Eagle Rock area of the city. Before heading to Las Vegas for the second leg of his trip, Bret had tasted L.A.âs wide array of global cuisines, including Armenian, Japanese and regional Mexican.
Meanwhile, Pat got a preview of Taco Bellâs new chicken nuggets, which roll out nationwide on Dec. 19. The nuggets are coated with a mix of breadcrumbs and tortilla chips to make them extra-crunchy, and they lived up to the crunch. Since nuggets demand a dipping sauce, Taco Bell introduced three new ones: Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce, Jalapeno Honey Mustard and creamy Bell Sauce.
The steak boards at Rare Society offer a sampling of several cuts and sauces. | Photo courtesy of Trust Restaurant Group.
Then Pat shared clips from an interview with Brad Wise, chef-partner in San Diego-based Trust Restaurant Group and operator of six Rare Society steakhousesâamong other concepts. Chef Wise introduced the Santa Maria style of wood-fired cooking at Rare Society, using oak sourced from Central California. He also has a unique way of presenting Wagyu and dry-aged steak on wooden boards and lazy Susans so guests can sample many different cuts.
Listen as Chef Wise talks about how he developed Rare Society as the antithesis of traditional steakhouses and describes his other concepts within Trust, including a zero-waste ice cream shop is primed for expansion.
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On this weekâs podcast, Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, said that the holiday season is actually a quiet time for him, with fewer media events as restaurants are busy serving paying customers, so the only party he went to this week was the holiday party of his own company, Informa, where he drank martinis and ate some interesting spring rolls â one topped with trendy chili crisp and another with Southeast Asian aromatics like makrut lime leaf.
Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, was at the party too, and noticed how many Espresso Martinis were being ordered.
She also found other events to go to, including one at Meduza Mediterrania in NYCâs Meatpacking District, which was, in fact, Yelpâs top restaurant for 2024, based on reviews. It was very trend-forward with Eastern Mediterranean dips, seafood towers and passed lamb chops.
She also checked out a new restaurant at Grand Central Terminal, Grand Brasserie, where she enjoyed a very French trout amandine.
Then Bret shared clips from an interview with Daniel Garwood, who is chef at Acru, a restaurant that opened in New Yorkâs West Village in October. Originally from Australia, Garwood arrived in the United States in 2022 and landed a job as sous chef of the popular modern Korean restaurant Atomix before being put in charge of Acru where, among other things, he is serving dry-aged steaks from dairy cows.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent eating adventures.
Pat took the subway to Jackson Heights, a multicultural neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. Itâs home to a large population of Nepalese and Tibetan families, and momos are one of their specialties.
Momos are round or crescent-shaped steamed or fried dumplings with fillings of spiced beef, chicken, goat, chives or potato. Led by a friend who has sampled many a momo in the Himalayas, the group visited four restaurants and one food truck, tasting a good cross-section of dumplings. It was a new culinary experience for Pat and one she would like to repeat soon.
Both Menu Talk hosts described their opulent Thanksgiving feasts, and Bret continued his feasting on Black Friday. He and a group of longtime friends have a tradition of visiting Chinatown after turkey day, and this year they started with soup dumplings at Joeâs Shanghai, a spot famous for the item. They followed that with drinks at Whiskey Tavern, then soup at Great NY Noodletown. Bret admitted the day-after âfeastingâ has gotten a bit lighter through the years.
Pat visited Baar Baar, a modern Indian restaurant in NYCâs East Village, where she enjoyed a dinner of small plates and inventive cocktails. Among the standouts was Dahi Puri, tiny crisp rice shells filled with potato, cilantro and spices and topped with yogurt mousse and house-made chutney. Her Anarkali cocktail was an Indian-flavored riff on an Aperol Spritz; a combination of gin, Aperol, rose cordial, cardamom and prosecco.
We moved on to chat about smoothies and bowls after playing clips from an interview with Deborah Von Kutzleben, CMO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe. She discussed how the chain differentiates itself from its competitors with an all-day menu, how it is positioning itself for Gen Zâs snacking style, and how items like a pork slider are the perfect add-ons for a signature smoothie.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent tasting adventures as the holidays approach.
Pat went to Peteâs Tavern near Union Square in Manhattan, which decks itself out in Christmas regalia every year. She went early with friends to beat the crowds and enjoyed well-made fish & chips while her friends had burgers and nachos. The festive dĂ©cor and negronis made up for the pouring rain.
On another day, Pat and her friends went to Mermaid Innâs Times Square location, which has an âamazingâ happy hour from 4-5:30 p.m. every day. That includes $12 cocktails and a bunch of appetizers, highlighted by particularly good oysters.
Bret went to the 30th anniversary celebration of Virgilâs, also in Times Square. Itâs a barbecue restaurant run by the same people who operate neighboring Italian-American landmark Carmineâs. Both are among those rare places in Midtown Manhattan where you can usually show up with a large crowd and get a table, and also eat your fill for a reasonable price.
A guest at the celebration was Shaw-naĂ© Dixon of Shaw-naĂ©âs House on Staten Island, who served her Savage Fries, which are fries topped with braised oxtail, four cheese mac & cheese and collard greens. Bret recommended that highly.
Bret also shared an interview with Chris and Megan Curren, who operate Graceful Ordinary, a restaurant in St. Charles, Illinois, that opened at the tail-end of the pandemic and serves satisfying and slightly cheffed-up food from its wood-burning hearth.
Give a listen.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss recent tasting adventures, starting with more of a smelling experience.
Bret was invited by Via Carota, a gem of an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village, to try their new bottled cocktails. But the event was held at a perfume shop that crafted personal scents for the attendees while they sipped on espresso martinis, spritzes and white negronis. Bret left with samples of both bottled cocktails and his custom scent.
Pat visited Jones Wood Foundry, a British-style pub with an impressive draft beer selection. Between the Scotch eggs, Yorkshire pudding with blue cheese lemon dip, curried chicken pot pie and toffee pudding, she could have been in London rather than a few blocks from her Manhattan apartment.
We shared an interview with Anthony Amoroso, the new VP of innovation and growth at Maggianoâs Little Italy. Amoroso has helmed the kitchen in several famous independents and Michelin-starred restaurants, and now welcomes this opportunity to return to his Italian-American roots and work with the chefs across Maggianoâs 50 locations.
He talks about how he is elevating the dining experience with top-quality ingredients and presentations while retaining the menuâs well-loved favorites and Maggianoâs tradition. Amoroso also works closely with the beverage director and sommelier, and new cocktails and wine selections now complement the food. And he describes whatâs next in terms of the Dallas-based chainâs menu, restaurant design and growth.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discussed Bretâs trip to the San Francisco Bay area, where he went for The Culinary Institute of Americaâs annual Worlds of Flavor conference in Napa.
The theme this year was Borders, Migration, and the Evolution of Culinary Tradition, which Bret acknowledged was quite a mouthful, but basically it was a discussion of how cooks adjust their food based on what ingredients are available and what customs and traditions are around them, as well as their own life experiences. In short: Itâs all fusion. Highlights included a demonstration of southern Italian spaghetti and tomato sauce made like it was risotto and accompanied by a lecture of how spaghetti and tomatoes got to Italy, and lentil fritters that combined the traditions of West Africa and East Africa.
Bret then spent the weekend in San Francisco, and a culinary highlight was a pastrami sandwich with horseradish and red pepper aĂŻoli at Marioâs Bohemian Cigar Store CafĂ© in the North Beach neighborhood.
Pat stayed in New York City and checked out a Cambodian restaurant called Bayon. It was her first time trying that particular cuisine and she found it lighter and more subtle than the cuisines of its neighbors, Vietnam and Thailand. She also had brunch at Sarabethâs, a long-standing concept with four locations in New York City, where she enjoyed tasty popovers and mushrooms with eggs.
Then Bret shared an interview with Cheng Lin, chef and owner of Shota Omakase in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. The chef discussed the importance of rice in sushi and of cultivating regular customers.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss a weekâs worth of eating experiences, starting with a dine-around in Chicago.
The two editors were in Chicago for the last conference of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, familiarly known as IFEC, and the opening event featured a tasting tour of three restaurants in the cityâs Fulton Market district. Chef-owner Joe Flamm of Rose Mary spoke about his popular Croatian-Italian restaurant while we chowed down Pork Ribs Pampanella with Calabrian Chile Agrodolce and walnut relish as well as Beef Cheek Gnocchi; at Publican Quality Meats we learned how to spatchcock a chicken while nibbling on Grilled Pork & Mango Brochettes, Porchetta Sandwiches and charcuterie; and at Leña Brava, we sampled Watermelon Aguachile and al pastor-marinated Watermelon Steak and sipped a watermelon cocktail and mocktail.
While in Chicago, Pat also had dinner at Eataly, and was reminded of how this Italian retail emporium is also a worthy restaurant destination. She joined friends at Vino &, an in-store wine bar with a large menu featuring specialties like Tagliolini al Limone, Pollo alla Milanese and Grilled Branzino, all of which her table ordered along with a nice bottle of red wine.
Bret continues to explore his Brooklyn neighborhood, where he discovered some Eastern European meat dumplings that he brought home for dinner. First, he tried them the traditional way, topped with sour cream, but then concocted an Asian-influenced âranch dressingâ with chili crisp and Chinese black vinegar that took the dumplings into another flavor dimension.
This week we share an interview with renowned chef and restaurateur Michael Mina, whose new cookbook, âMy Egypt,â was just published. Subtitled âCooking from My Roots,â the book relates Minaâs experiences of journeying back to Egyptâwhich he left at the age of twoâto rediscover his familyâs culinary legacy. The result is a book filled with stories, firsthand cooking experiences and a lifetime of recipes.
Mina operates more than 30 restaurants in the U.S., including the recently opened Orla in Santa Monica, Californiaâhis first to specialize in Egyptian-Mediterranean cuisine. Here he elevates the dishes he enjoyed eating around his motherâs table and shares the food he tasted and cooked in Egypt. Listen as the chef shares his passion for Egyptian food and talks about how Mina Group is ramping up restaurant openings.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discussed their recent eating adventures. That included Patâs visit to a Hampton Inn, home of the original waffle bar, created by the midscale hotel chain 40 years ago.
That historical milestone is being celebrated by the hotel chain and promoted by Paris Hilton, since Hampton Inn is a brand of her familyâs hospitality empire, in the form of special pink waffles with edible glitter that guests can add. The hosts observed that thereâs a lot of edible glitter on menus these days, because itâs fun and dazzling on social media and, one hopes, safe to eat.
It turns out that some onions being served by McDonaldâs probably werenât safe and allegedly sickened a number of people, resulting in one fatality. Pat and Bret discussed that turn of events.
First, however Bret discussed his visit to a sushi restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, which he said was fine, just like a lot of sushi is fine these days, but not with the attention to detail that came with sushi in the pastâthe server didnât even bother to explain what type of fish he had been served. Pat suggested that this is what happens when food like sushi becomes ubiquitous.
She had a chance to visit the newest location of Kernel, a heavily automated quick-service restaurant developed by Chipotle founder Steve Ells, and was happy to report that the formerly meatless chain is now serving chicken.
While Pat was at Kernel, Bret went to a preview of Hudson Club, a new restaurant in Midtown Manhattan headed up by chef John DeLucie. He particularly enjoyed oysters with an apple mignonette, and that was a nice segue to this weekâs guest, Aaron Juvera, a level one certified oyster master and chef de cuisine of Southerleigh Fine Foods & Brewery in San Antonio, Texas.
Juvera discussed the oyster master certification program, Texasâs burgeoning oyster-cultivation industry and Southerleighâs increasing use of lesser-known fish species. We hope youâll tune in.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, share highlights from their recent eating and drinking excursions.
Both editors attended a media preview of Taco Bellâs chef-created Crunchwrap Supremes. The chain tapped three emerging chefs to come up with variations of this wildly popular menu item, and the results included Indian and Thai versions as well as a Southwest-style hot chicken.
Bret also attended a Cava event at a country western bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to celebrate the launch of the fast casualâs garlic ranch pita chips. The tie-in between ranch as a flavor and âranchâ as an icon of the American West was a little shaky, but Bret enjoyed the new chips and some ranch water cocktails.
Australian coffee cafĂ© Bluestone Lane was also a recent stop on Bretâs itinerary. Itâs known for its personalized service, and he reported that he did get extra-special attention along with his flat white. And Pat took a trip to Cape Cod and treated herself to a lobster roll done in the Connecticut styleâhot and toasty with lots of melted butter. She also enjoyed a New England specialty: fried clam bellies.
Speaking of clams, we share a conversation with Sammy Monsour, chef at Joyce Soul & Sea in L.A. and an ambassador for Food for Climate League, where he is promoting sustainable bivalves like clams as well as sea vegetables. October is National Seafood Month, and Monsour describes how he sources and prepares fresh seaweed, sea lettuces and mussels at his restaurant. He also talks about his advocacy work with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other nonprofits to help chefs and consumers make smarter choices when it comes to farm-raised and wild-caught seafood.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discuss a weekâs worth of eating adventures, starting with the CREATE conference in Nashville.
The conference, geared toward emerging chains, is organized by NRN, so Bret and his colleagues were on the ground hosting sessions and networking with operators. He was super-impressed with the quality of the speakersânot a dud among them.
Bret was very busy at CREATE but he still had time to hit a couple of Nashvilleâs restaurants, including Rodney Scottâs whole-hog barbecue spot. Scott is famous for his North Carolina-style barbecue, where his now six-location restaurant started, and Bret feasted on pulled pork with cole slaw and collard greens. Spanish restaurant Barcelona was another stop on his Nashville dining tour, and Bret got to try a unique rendition of boqueronesâmarinated anchovies served on house-made potato chipsâand huge platters of paella.
Once back home, Bret attended EatOkra, a new festival celebrating Black-owned businesses. One of the standouts he sampled were nachos made with plantain chips topped with Haitian-style braised pork. He also took a trip to Princeton N.J. and visited restaurant Agricole, where he had a tasty mushroom flatbread. And Bret stopped at McDonaldâs on the way back to try the new Chicken Big Mac. Tune in to hear his review.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Pat attended Eeeeeatscon, a food and entertainment festival organized by restaurant review platform, The Infatuation. All the vendors were local restaurants, including Shake Shackânow a national chain that got its start in Manhattan. Its booth served up the Thai Burger Shack, a cheeseburger topped with âevil jungle prince Shack Sauce,â pickled bamboo, green chili relish and Thai basil. Patâs favorite taste was Hong Kong Style Wonton Noodles from Great NY Noodletown.
Also on offer were empanadas from actress Sophia Vergaraâs Toma, a retail brand that she and her son, Manolo (the chef in the family) are planning to spin off into a fast casual. Manolo was especially proud of the everything bagel empanada he created exclusively for Eeeeeatscon.
Chef Tse Richmond
We wrapped up with clips from an interview Pat did with Tse Richmond, a culinary specialist with Sysco in Portland, Oregon. The chef was excited to talk about the fall product line from Syscoâs Cutting Edge Solutions, an innovation-focused division that supports smaller producers. Just rolling out this week are several seafood products, a new condiment, recipe-ready beans and global pork preparations. All are designed to help operators save time and labor while turning out signature menu items.
Chef Richmond is also playing around with AI, and she enthusiastically shares tips and smart strategies to maximize its benefits in the kitchen. Give a listen.
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Bret was a bit of a homebody last week as he prepared for CREATE: The Event for Emerging Restaurateurs, a conference that Nationâs Restaurant News is hosting in Nashville this week, but he did enjoy traditional Jewish brisket for Rosh Hashannah at a friendâs home in Manhattan.
Pat attended two Broadway shows that were preceded by tasty and affordable meals, which can be hard to find in New York Cityâs Theater District. She had a prix fixe pre-theater dinner of creamy parsnip soup, grilled swordfish with vegetables, and baklava at Kellari Taverna for $55, and before a Saturday matinee, she had a tasty and reasonably priced brunch at Boqueria, which was less than $20 per person (before tip) â an extreme rarity in Midtown Manhattan.
The co-hosts also discussed the Chicken Big Mac, which McDonaldâs is launching on Oct. 10, replacing the two all-beef patties with breaded and fried chicken patties. Like the original sandwich, the new version has special sauce, lettuce, cheese, and pickles, but no onions. Bret wondered about that, which led to a discussion on the role of onions on a chicken sandwich and whether, in fact, they have a role to play at all.
Then he shared an interview he had done with Rob Levitt, head butcher and chef de cuisine of Publican Quality Meats in Chicago. Levitt shared his passion for butchery and his appreciation for One-Off Hospitalityâs leader and chef, Paul Kahan. He also discussed his appearance on the hit TV show "The Bear," streaming on Hulu, in which he played himself.
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Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, kicked off this weekâs podcast by briefly introducing a friend, of sorts. He had asked ChatGPT to greet the audience of Menu Talk, and the chatbot, which can now simulate a human voice much better than the electronic messages we have grown accustomed to, inferred pretty accurately what sorts of topics would be discussed in a podcast with that name. Real co-host Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, was duly impressed.
She was also impressed by KPOT, a Korean barbecue and hot pot concept that is one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the country. The food was abundant and well-priced, the service was great and apart from the hot pot and barbecue, there was also a substantial food bar with kimchi and an assortment of different sauces, among other items.
Then Bret shared clips of an interview he did with Olivier Rassinoux, vice president of culinary and bar for Patina Restaurant Group, and they discussed cocktail trends, including spirit-free cocktails, as well as Rassinouxâs management style and the joy of dining out.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, start off by chatting about the joys of grazing.
Neither editor is in the Gen Z or Millennial age group that popularized the âgirl dinnerâ on TikTok, but both like to try small tastes of a lot of different thingsâwhether they are eating alone or dining with friends. On a recent visit to Boston, Bret went to a dinner party where friends gathered around the counter and nibbled on Middle Eastern dips, sashimi, grilled scallops and more while they caught up with each other.
Pat is a fan of happy hours, which encourage sharing and nibbling without breaking the bank. She recently went to Springs Tavern on the East End of Long Island where the group ordered a multi-cultural spread that included mussels and frites, potstickers, chicken nachos and Mediterranean spreads with pita. Everything was under $15, including the $12 well-crafted margaritas.
Bret also mentioned how heat levels are escalating, sometimes to the detriment of the dish. During a visit to a Chinese restaurant his table specified âmediumâ spicing on the food they ordered, but it was too hot for most of the diners.
Which brings us to Eggs in Purgatory, an item that seems to be showing up more often on breakfast menus. Can it be the next Shakshuka? Let us know your thoughts.
Pat was down in Atlanta visiting GoTo Foods and the team from Moeâs Southwest Kitchen. She learned to roll her own burrito like the pros at Moeâs and got a sneak peek at some of the flavors coming on to the menu. Look for birria and chili crisp soon.
And we shared clips from an interview with Paul Pszybylski, VP of culinary innovation for California Pizza Kitchen. The chef has been with CPK for 15 years but recently moved into this role.
He talks about how the menu has evolved, the signatures that can never be taken away, labor challenges, and the new direction of CPKâs sourcing and limited time offers. Chef Pszybylski is especially proud of the new Nashville hot chicken pizza he developed. Give a listen.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, talk about the post-summer flurry of restaurant activity in New York City.
Bret was treated to a pre-opening preview of Alessa, a new Italian restaurant where the chef created a menu spotlighting mushrooms in many sizes and shapes. His first bite was a white pizza topped with assorted mushrooms and lots of garlic, then he moved on to crab-stuffed cremini mushrooms and risotto with hen-of-the-woods and truffle butter. Mushrooms and fall are a perfect pairing, although the pistachio gelato for dessert was devoid of mushrooms.
Bret also got to try a new Korean restaurant from Hand Hospitality called Odre, where the food is cooked in cast-iron pots. Itâs kind of a rustic style for what he thought was a refined tasting menu, but he thoroughly enjoyed all the different courses.
That night, he sampled asparagus with cured shrimp in a pine nut sauce with grapefruit, squash pancakes, little pork dumplings with shiso leaf, and braised beef shank with shishito pepper and yesâmushrooms. The tasting menu is a reasonable $42 for dinner.
Also on Bretâs restaurant itinerary was the revamped Central Park Boathouse, a venue in the middle of NYCâs Central Park that has long been known as a special occasion place. It was recently taken over by Legends Hospitalityâthe same company that does the food at Yankee Stadiumâand thereâs a new chef-driven menu that makes it a great destination for lunch and dinner.
David Pasternak, a chef known for his former seafood-focused restaurant Esca, is a consultant, so Bret tried some of the fish dishes, including a salmon crudo and swordfish.
Pat was on vacation and was dining around in the South of France instead of New York City, but she did get a chance to interview Brad Hedeman and Mo Frechette of Zingermanâs, the destination deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Brad and Mo both worked behind the counter and in the retail section of the famous deli, but now head up Zingermanâs thriving mail-order business.
They talk about how they travel the world to meet farmers and producers and procure the specialty foods that have built Zingermanâs reputation. Service and hospitality are built into Zingermanâs DNA, and Brad and Mo share how they extend that to online customers that they never interact with face-to-face.
People in any part of the restaurant industry can learn a lot from their many years of combined experience and fascinating stories. Give a listen.
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On this weekâs podcast, Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality senior food & beverage editor Bret Thorn is joined by Lisa Jennings, executive editor of Restaurant Business, who subbed in for Pat Cobe.
Lisa came fresh off of the launch of Rokusho in Los Angeles, which has an eight-seat omakase room upstairs thatâs an outpost of a Udatsu Sushi, a Michelin-starred restaurant based in Tokyo. Itâs headed up by chef Shingo Ogane, but it will also host visiting Japanese chefs for three-week stints. Downstairs is a more casual sushi restaurant run by Carlos Couts, recently of Sushi by Scratch.
The venue is a collaboration between the Japanese parent company and Boulevard Hospitality Group, which operates many properties in L.A., including Yamashiro, Comedor and the TCL Chinese Theatre. Lisa particularly enjoyed an avocado half stuffed with salmon tartare and served with nori seaweed, allowing guests to make their own handrolls.
Bret discussed the trends that Rokusho addresses, including experiential dining, making news with visiting chefs and providing luxury for guests who can afford to pay for it.
He went to the opening of the second location of Reserve Cut, a kosher steakhouse. It has long had a location in Manhattanâs Tribeca neighborhood, but the new one is in Midtown. Itâs a much grander space than its downtown sibling and is trying to show that kosher dining can appeal to a broader audience than just Jews who follow religious dietary practices. Apart from steak, Bret enjoyed the restaurantâs sushi, short rib tacos, butternut squash bites and more.
He also is continuing to explore his new neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, where he discovered fresh dates, which are crunchy and taste like less-concentrated versions of dried dates. Lisa had not had fresh dates, although California has a robust date industry, but she did recently try paw paws for the first time while she was visiting Philadelphia. She said theyâd be great as ice cream.
Bret marveled that fresh dates apparently werenât being used by Angeleno chefs, and recalled that chefs in Atlanta didnât used to cook with local green peanuts, but now they do. So perhaps there is a future for fresh dates in restaurants in California.
Then the editors discussed TV food competition shows. Theyâre not fans, but Bret did enjoy his interview with Alyssa Osinga, who is chef de cuisine of The Butcherâs Cellar, which opened earlier this year in Waco, Texas. She was a contestant on Hellâs Kitchen, where she met Alejandro Najar, who is executive chef of The Butcherâs Cellar and Osingaâs life partner.
Bret shared clips with his interview with Osinga, who discussed the restaurant and the fact that she strives to find uncomfortable situations, because they help her to grow.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discussed the time they spent on and near the water in New York City. Pat took a ferry down the East River to Wall Street to check out Jean-Georges Vongerichtenâs Tin Building, a much-ballyhooed food hall that neither co-host had had a chance to visit yet. Pat enjoyed a savory buckwheat crĂȘpe, and observed that she also had the option to have a South Indian crĂȘpe-like item called a dosa, a fact that dovetailed nicely with a feature that Bret had just written on chicken curry, one of the fastest-growing types of chicken dishes on menus these days.
Bret has taken to watching the birds flying over Sheepshead Bay, where he lives now, and he strolled along the bay to Rocca, a Turkish-accented restaurant with a bayside view, where he had a light meal of various mezze dips such as labneh, hummus, babaghanoush and Turkish bread.
Pat, too, had sampled a Turkish food sheâd never had before, a tiny dumpling called manti, which she had with labneh at a Turkish place called A la Turka.
In other food samplings, Bret was sent Buffalo Wild Wingsâ chicken wings with its new Bacon Buffalo sauce as well as its Triple Bacon Cheeseburger.
The guest this week is William Dissen, chef and owner of The Market Place in Asheville, North Carolina, as well as three-unit Billy Dâs Fried Chicken.
Dissen recently returned from a culinary ambassador mission to Malaysia, where he cooked for stateless children near the city of Kota Kinabalu. He also recently published his first cookbook, âThoughtful Cooking: Recipes Rooted in the New South.â
Dissen said the book reflects his own ethos of using wholesome, local food, and he advocates for people to cook that way at home, too.
The restaurateur doesnât just help Malaysian kids. Heâs also involved in education programs for young people at home in North Carolina, and he discussed that mission and also shared strategies for keeping his restaurantâs staff engaged, motivated and excited to provide great hospitality.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, talk about how tennis players arenât the only stars at the US Open, which kicked off on Monday. Thereâs a lot of star power off the courts, with more than 20 top New York City restaurants and chefs offering their specialties over the next two weeks.
The podcast guest this week is JJ Johnson, a well-known TV chef, James Beard award-winning cookbook author and founder of Fieldtrip, a fast casual bowl concept that reflects the chefâs Afro-Caribbean roots.
Johnson worked as a fine-dining chef before opening Fieldtrip, which now has four locations, including the newest at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Johnson started Fieldtrip to bring healthier, affordable restaurant food to his Harlem community. He sources top quality ingredients, including rice from farmers in North Carolina, to curate his rice bowls, which also include fresh vegetables and proteins for a complete meal. All the sauces are made from scratch to give the bowls unique flavor profiles.
Listen as chef and restaurateur Johnson describes his vision for Fieldtrip, his cooking adventures at Marthaâs Vineyard and his plans for the future.
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On this weekâs podcast, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discussed pumpkin spice season, which is upon us in August just as it is every year, despite annual complaints that it arrives too early. But as Pat observed, operators know when their customers want to start buying those autumnal items, and that time is now.
It's also âRestaurant Week,â in New York City, which now lasts for a month, and Pat made it to a long-standing Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, Perry Street, where son Cedric Vongerichten helms the kitchen. For dinner, she had great pea soup, fried chicken with sweet corn sauce and molten chocolate cake, paired well with sparkling wine, GrĂŒner Veltliner and a berry-flavored spritz-like dessert cocktail. All in, it was $60 for dinner and another $40 for the pairings.
Thatâs a good value in New York City, but Pat also took a trip to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, a popular summertime getaway for New Yorkers and Bostonians, and was surprised and delighted to find that entree prices there were considerably lower than at other seasonal resorts in the Hamptons and Cape Cod.
Bret stayed local, but enjoyed a good $12 cocktail at his favorite bar, Loganâs Run in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, and reported in Restaurant Hospitalityâs New on the Menu column about a cocktail that was a cross between a spritz and an Espresso Martini.
The podcast guest this week was Paco Moran, who won season 52 of the TV competition show âChoppedâ and is also the executive chef of Loreto, a Mexican seafood restaurant in Los Angeles.
Moranâs a native Angelino whose parents are from El Salvador, and he started working in restaurants at age 17, when he had a child on the way and needed to make money. He worked hard in professional kitchens at a time when those environments could be quite harsh, and Moran has taken a different approach in managing his own restaurant. He said the cruelty of the past isnât necessary and he wants his restaurants to be fun to work in. Thatâs especially true since his son, now aged 16, is working for him too. That has taught him and his crew patience, both to their benefit and to that of the young cooks who are joining his team.
Although he is now an executive chef, Moran loves to get back on the line and cook.
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This week on Menu Talk, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, zero in on Japanese tasting menus and a trendy pizza style.
Bret paid a visit to Hakubai in the Kitano Hotel, a restaurant known for its kaiseki menu. Kaiseki is a Japanese tasting menu similar to omakase, but itâs more specifically focused on pristine, seasonal ingredients. Hakubaiâs 11-course menu was paired with sake and the amuse-bouche stood out as one of Bretâs favorite parts. It was a very tender and succulent squid with a Japanese-style vinaigrette and caviar on topâanother example underscoring caviar as the âitâ ingredient this year.
Patâs pizza experience was a bit more down market but very tasty. She had dinner at Emmy Squared, a Detroit-style sit-down pizza restaurant that earned a spot on Restaurant Businessâ Future 50 ranking of emerging chains this year. Detroit pizza is a rectangular pie thatâs baked in a black cast iron pan so that every slice comes out with a very crispy edge. It originated in Detroit and may have some link to the auto industry but itâs now trending outside of that cityâas proven by Emmy Squared, which is expanding on the East Coast. Pat had the MVP pizza topped with vodka sauce, pesto, burrata and Calabrian chilies and, as a New Yorker, she may just become a Detroit pizza fan.
Food halls have traditionally been another lower-risk way to test out a concept or menu, but they have evolved a bit since the pandemic. Pat shared her interview with food hall veteran Akhtar Nawab, who has opened and operated several in the last few years. His company, Hospitality HQ, tends to stick to smaller cities, such as Omaha, Charlotte, North Carolina, and metro-Minneapolis rather than New York, Chicago and L.A.
Chef Nawab talks about the importance of having a good mix of cuisines. And the concepts donât all have to be fast casual. A live-fire Brazilian-style full-service steak concept thatâs clearly higher-end is doing very well in one of his newer food halls. Event spaces are also key to success; a place to host planned activities that turn food halls into destinations for more than eating and drinking.
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This week, Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nationâs Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, discussed their visits to Tara Kitchen, a Moroccan restaurant run by Indian chef Aneesa Waheed with three locations near Albany, New York, one in Wildwood, New Jersey, one in Hyderabad, India, and one in the New York City neighborhood of Tribeca.
Pat and Bret took separate trips to the Tribeca location, where Pat had brunch and enjoyed the 1,000-hole pancakes, a traditional Moroccan dish made with a yeast batter that bubbles and produces all those holes, giving the pancakes a lacy quality. Bret, coincidentally, had also visited the restaurant just to get a look at those pancakes and watch the chef prepare them.
Pat discussed a story she wrote last week that was a deep dive into recent menu innovations in family dining. Many of the big chains in that segment, including IHOP, Dennyâs, Perkins and Cracker Barrel have undertaken substantial overhauls recently as they try to find the balance between attracting new guests without alienating existing ones, all while providing value.
Bret wrote about potatoes last week, and how, especially in the form of French fries, they can be a vehicle for introducing new flavors. Itâs an increasingly common strategy to add lesser-known ingredients to something familiar to make them seem less scary. Bret said flavor combinations like Indian tandoori chicken or Vietnamese bĂĄnh mĂŹ can seem more approachable if you put them on top of fries.
Pat noted other places where French fries are added, like on Bobby Flayâs burgers and on Primanti Brothersâ sandwiches.
Then Bret shared his interview with Bryan Ogden, the chef of Bourbon Steakâs New York City location. He is also the son of Bradley Ogden, a pioneer in the modern American cuisine movement of a generation ago.
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