WD-50

LES Bites: Mission Chinese For Rent, Big Names at wd~50, Azul Closes, Jungle Birds Abound

Video: Wylie Dufresne of wd-50 on Jimmy Fallon

Here’s an entertaining segment from Jimmy Fallon last night — Lower East Side chef Wylie Dufresne of wd-50 “makes noodles out of shrimp.”

LES Bites: Hester Street, Local Coffee, Starbucks Juice Plans

Orchard Street's original Roasting Plant.

A roundup of the neighborhood food news this week:

The Hester Street Fair is on hiatus this weekend due to the Sukkot holiday, but it returns Oct. 22 with the Grub Street Food Festival, which promises great vendors and more room than last year. (GrubStreet)

A detailed look at the city’s small-scale coffee shops, starring the LES’s Roasting Plant and Cafe Grumpy. (NYT)

Starbucks is moving into the pressed-juice business, and snatched up the long-time manager of East Village pioneer Liquiteria to make it happen. (NYPost)

Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 gives a talk about “the new horizons in foodie culture and comics culture and where they often (and appetizingly) interconnect.” (NY ComicCon).

Food Wire: El Castillo de Jagua, Doughnuts, Dufresne, Mulberry Street Bar and Bartenders’ Battle

Danny Kim / New York Magazine

In post-weekend food news around the neighborhood:

New York Magazine explains how wd-50’s Wylie Dufresne invented an edible eggshell.
Serious Eats likes the cubano sandwich at El Castillo de Jagua and weighs in on the city’s best doughnuts, including neighborhood faves Falai, Babycakes, The Doughnut Plant and Peels.
The NYT’s Sam Sifton on where to take your teenagers: Katz’s for pastrami and Motorino for pizza.
NYC The Blog reports that the health department closed the century-old Mulberry Street Bar on March 22.
The Third Annual United States Bartenders Guild Cocktail Jam pits 12 of the nation’s mixologists in a competition at The Lounge at The Astor Center tonight, with half the proceeds benefiting Japan tsunami relief. $35 // 6 pm, 399 Lafayette St. (at E. 4^th St.)

Food Wire: Beauty & Essex, Imperial Tavern, Stellina

Imperial Tavern: still closed.

In Lower East Side food news:

Beauty & Essex debuts Sunday brunch service this weekend.

Dessert Truck Works announces the “Street to Table Dinner Series.”

Fork in the Road notes that Imperial Tavern has not reopened, in spite of a sign in the window suggesting the new Ludlow Street party spot would resume operations February 14th.

Bowery Boogie reports Stellina, the bakery/gelato emporium next to Sorella, will be opening soon.

Serious Eats proclaims “Tasty Dumplings” on Mulberry Street the tastiest dumplings in Chinatown.

Per Eater, neighborhood semi-finalists for the James Beard awards include: Torrisi Italian Specialties (best new restaurant), Shuna Lydon of Peels (outstanding pastry chef), Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 (best NYC chef), Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune (best NYC chef), Sara Jenkins of Porchetta (best NYC chef).

Check out these restaurants, and more, on our fabulous Food Page.

WD-50 Evacuated Tonight

Looks like there was some excitement on Clinton Street this evening. A short time ago, WD-50 pastry chef Aex Stupak tweeted:

A NYPD cruiser pursuing a white Cadillac jumped the curb on Avenue D and 5th Street yesterday afternoon, injuring 9 people. Five pedestrians (including a baby) and the driver and a passenger in the Cadillac were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The two officers in the police car were also hospitalized. Apparently none of the injuries was serious. A police spokesman said the officers were responding to a colleague who they thought needed assistance.

Uncharted territory: due to the State Senate's inaction, Mayor Bloomberg has lost control of the city's schools. Now what? No one knows.

Grand Street News details State Senator Daniel Squadron's bill to allow residential permit parking (BTW thanks to GSN for talking up The Lo-Down)!

Eater has the scoop on the shuttering of Le Pere Pinard on Ludlow Street.

Frank Bruni dines on the Lower East Side, discovering that, on weekends, it's a party scene:

More and more there’s a meatpacking-district loudness and rowdiness to
the circulating throngs, and it made me wonder if some of the
restaurants that set up shop here years ago chose the wrong area—or,
rather, are hurt by the direction in which the area evolved. It feels
less edgy and more like an all-purpose, indiscriminate party scene than
it used to.

He mentions specifically WD-50 and Falai. On the upside he loved the restaurant, Peasant on Elizabeth Street. The downside: it's not really in the Lower East Side. Our upside: Peasant's sister restaurant, Bacaro (on Division Street), is just as good and it is, in fact, in the neighborhood.

Finally, we mentioned this a few days ago, but now it has the air of legitimacy only Twitter can provide:

From RPATTZGPS: WEDNESDAY 6am-9pm CONFIRMED Remember Me (the Robert Patterson film) at Orchard St. btw Broome & Grand on lower east side from TweetDeck

Wylie Dufresne brought fine dining to Clinton Street in the 90′s. Now at WD-50, he continues to innovate, creating some of Manhattan’s most outlandish and surprising dishes. For full effect, choose the 12-course tasting menu for $140.

50 Clinton Street, near Rivington

212-477-2900

Hours: Wed-Sat, 6pm-11pm; Sun, 6pm-10pm

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