Diancecht

if you are involved with vc, you may have heard something about this in 2016. it looks like momofuku goods raised $11.5m in its latest round. this company was the lead investor.

David Chang is “pausing operations” at Momofuku Ko next week, according to a post on his company’s Instagram account. It goes on: “we won’t call this a goodbye, but ko will no longer operate in the way it has.” Just what that means is unclear, but it sure sounds like some kind of a goodbye given that about three weeks ago Mr. Chang turned out the lights for good at Momofuku Ssam Bar. The strange thing about both announcements is how muted the response has been. Maybe the sheer number of restaurants that have gone under since the pandemic began has made us numb to this sort of news. The reaction would have been different — louder and more apocalyptic — 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, a change in Ko’s no-cameras policy or Ssam Bar’s doomed Korean-burrito menu would light up the food blogs, whose reporters used to chase scraps of Momofuku news like Woodward and Bernstein. If you weren’t living and eating out in New York then, it’s hard to imagine what the early days of those restaurants were like, especially Ko. Even before its opening on First Avenue in 2008, Ko generated attention like some monstrous union of the Suprême Croissant, ChatGPT and the Eras Tour. Some of the coverage — OK, a lot of it — was hysteria, hype feeding on itself. But Ko also got attention because nobody had seen the like of it anywhere. —— tempus fugit, indeed. i remember (especially on here) when the place was raging hot. click

i hadn’t known that one of the individuals behind the restaurant was involved with hudson yards ———- The three-Michelin starred restaurant SingleThread in Healdsburg sources most of its produce from its own farm, and finds other ingredients for its 10-course, $425 tasting menu nearby, like local Dungeness crab, Sonoma grains and Monterey Bay abalone. But the money behind the restaurant comes from farther afield. SingleThread was financed in large part by New York City real estate developer Tony Greenberg, who once helped lead development for Hudson Yards in Manhattan, the largest private real estate development in American history. Other early investors included the Japanese hospitality and development firm Plan Do See. (In an email, Greenberg wrote that SingleThread is “backed by a group of about 70 individual investors, which includes friends and family and mostly locals who live in Sonoma and the North Bay area.”) Along with head chef and head farmer pair Kyle and Katina Connaughton, Greenberg is a co-owner of SingleThread. He’s also CEO of the hospitality and development firm Vertice Hospitality, which manages SingleThread — and has now acquired three more Healdsburg properties. These new developments have some locals pushing back — fearful that, as more than 60 residents wrote in a letter to Vertice, the projects will promote “luxury visitor dining at the expense of local residents.” But the moves come as little surprise to restaurant investment experts, who say our current economic moment is ripe for real estate-focused acquisitions. click

ty @Sneakeater and here was today’s lunch warm cannellini bean salad (featuring cooked rancho gordo marcella heirloom beans) with herbs and olives

are any of you interested in ordering salads that cost $44?

chicken with potatoes, anchovies and rosemary; tomato salad; beet and carrot salad; poached pears in white wine syrup with saffron and cardamom

potato and mushroom gratin braised cabbage with pancetta

soupe à l’oignon; green salad; cheese, crackers and grapes hubby made homemade beef stock earlier this week

it’s mostly black and white but there are some color plates. the photography is typical of the period.

we were there several months ago where we bought a bottle of wine from sardegna

haven’t had a chance to look at a more recent edition lately, unfortunately. the last time i saw a vintage book was in 2017 when we visited nola and i saw a copy of the second printing of the joy of cooking (1935) for $200. i ended up not buying it and i’ve regretted that ever since. the store where i saw that book, the kitchen witch, has since closed. 😞

probably a lot simpler than eater ;)

a box of cookbooks i had bought at the strand in nyc arrived earlier this week and this was one of my babies. it’s the first american printing, published in the year 1965.

i had forgotten i did take pictures of the united airlines food. live and memorex. warm nuts, chardonnay (?) cheese ravioli, salad, roll with butter. it was all right. i’m being charitable. i was amazed that there was a semblance of cutlery onboard. the best thing at this meal were the desserts: vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce and a slightly above average peach tart. the snack was couscous, tabbouleh, red pepper hummus 🤔 and olives.

coincidentally, we visited little italy the day before we left nyc. these are priced more sensibly. perhaps next trip we’ll go take a peek at arthur avenue.

hubby loves to walk. when i met him, he walked as much as 10 miles a day. he doesn’t do that much now, although occasionally he feels the need to move about. that was one of our daily activities instead of riding the subway. and of course, we stopped by eataly (flatiron branch) on one of these excursions. my recollection was that it was substantially more crowded the last time i set foot inside, pre-2015. that there was white asparagus was unexpected. for $10/lb.

boiled beef with vegetables, served with italian salsa verde; boiled potatoes; meat broth; early girl tomato salad; fruit salad in moscato for dessert. leftover boiled beef is awesome by itself or in sandwiches, or smothered in tomato sauce. it’s a little over 2.8 lbs./1.27 kg beef brisket that was simmered over low heat for 4 hours with bay leaf, peppercorns, celery, carrots, onion and parsley. the salsa verde consists of basil, cilantro, dill, chives, flat leaf parsley, garlic, anchovies, capers, red wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. we use it like ketchup.

it’s been like the third or fourth week in a row. i think we’re addicted to it.

mushroom, celery and parmesan salad; baked black cod; roasted potatoes with garlic, onion and herbs; sautéed zucchini

their fish is awesome the lineup changes every week

by the time i saw these haricot verts, our bags were full 🤨 today: black cod, arugula, shiitakes, oranges, potatoes, herbs (basil, rosemary, sage), cranberry beans, tomatoes, broccoli rabe, carrots, onions, garlic

i was really sad when i saw the menu because (1) our restaurant dance card was full and (2) russian food is not something i have much experience with so it’s one of the cuisines i usually jump on the bandwagon for. this review at the infatuation sums things up perfectly: Imagine a grandmother’s house. Picture the floral prints, lace doilies, 1970s lampshades, and all the framed photographs of Uncle Joe and Cousin Rachel on the walls. Now imagine throwing a huge party in that house, like if American Pie took place in The Brothers Grimm story universe. But instead of breaking into nana’s cookie jar and sherry stash, you drink carafes of cucumber-dill-infused vodka, and eat borscht and pelmeni dumplings. This is what it’s like to have dinner at Mari Vanna in Flatiron, a party spot with Russian food that’s better than what you might expect from a restaurant with a swing attached to its ceiling.

we noticed this on one of our walks the restaurant is on the same street as gramercy tavern

there were a couple of songs that we really liked…ok, well, that i liked. remember this series on hbo? sounded just like some of those tunes.