I lived in New York City for ten years, and I can safely say that it’s a city crazy about brunch. On weekend days, especially Sundays, people all over town go out for eggs, pancakes, and sandwiches. People who normally would never wait for a table at a restaurant shiver in the cold for an hour at the most happening spots. ...

The battle for Tavern on the Green is now hinging on what to call it. City officials, who are ousting the restaurant's leaseholder, Jennifer LeRoy, are so desperate to hang onto Tavern on the Green's famous name, they're going to fight for the rights to it, sources said. But the moniker, valued at $19 million, was trademarked by the LeRoy family ...

In early December 2008, celebrations occurred across the United States in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. The commemoration reverberated across the country—from a bar appropriately named Prohibition in New York City to the St. Helena Library in Napa Valley, which displayed photos of local winery workers celebrating the news in 1933. While this anniversary helped increase ...

'Restaurant' magazine's influential survey of the world's best eateries deals another blow to British chef after series of setbacks Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck was named one of the top restaurants in the world last night as Gordon Ramsay suffered the ignominy of falling out of the top 100. Just two months after hundreds of its £200-a-head diners fell violently ill, the ...

Today's menu term is petite. As restaurateurs hunger for business, they're not only offering $35 fixed-price meals. Some are downsizing portions, translating to downsized prices. Kiong Banh, chef at Twenty Manning near Rittenhouse Square, now offers half- and full-portion entrees. Example: the grilled Angus short rib with rosemary roasted Yukon potato and sauteed Shanghai baby bok choy sells for $12 and ...

Making a kitchen more sustainable can be like bringing a wild beast under control. Look at an onsite kitchen and what do you see? A 30-year old, central production facility that's showing its age? A major investment that has to compete with other departments and organizational goals for capital? Day-to-day managers may observe that the kitchen is an increasingly decentralized operation, ...

The allure of the value meal has long seduced penny-pinchers craving a cheeseburger. Now, as the dismal economy slurps up profits, Starbucks Corp. is hoping to find some sales salvation in its own value meal variety. The tug of war for coffee drinkers has gotten hotter in recent months, with McDonald's Corp. offering new, lower-priced specialty coffee drinks and Dunkin' Donuts ...

WASHINGTON - Now is the time for all good capitalists to shop at Whole Foods. Not only will you get great produce, fresh meat, fish and healthy to-go meals, but you'll irritate those who think that President Obama's health care plan isn't quite progressive enough. It seems John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc. - green missionary and ...

We still live in a free country. If you buy groceries where you think the checkout clerk is cute, you're free to do that. If you refuse to buy groceries from a company whose CEO advocates politically incorrect proposals for health-care reorganization, you're free to do that, too. And we're free to call you a bird-brained doofus. Astonishingly, thousands of customers ...

Bernard Loiseau was a culinary giant – but fear of failure led him to take his own life. Charlotte Cripps gets a taste of haute cuisine at a contest set up in his memory There is no doubt that the French take gastronomy extremely seriously. But when the top French chef Bernard Loiseau tragically killed himself in 2003, there were those ...

With his feverish pace and feisty personality, chef/entrepreneur Gordon Ramsay is one of a kind. The first Scot to earn a Michelin star, he now has more of those stars than anyone in the world except Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse. An outstanding businessman, Ramsay owns the new Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood plus a collection of well-received restaurants ...

A decade ago three friends mashed £500 worth of oranges, bananas and pineapples together on their kitchen table to make a giant smoothie. Yesterday they made what could be described as a giant killing – they sold a small stake in their company to Coca-Cola for £30 million. Innocent Drinks, now Britain’s leading smoothie maker, was valued at up to £300 ...

As concerns about the country’s economic outlook were realized in 2008, consumers made good on their vows to curtail their dining-out spending. Nearly six in 10 respondents (58.7%) to Restaurants & Institutions’ 2009 New American Diner Study report that the economy had some effect on their dining-away-from-home behaviors in the last year. But even as they are forced to make hard, ...

Daniel Bruce loves mushrooms. So much so that, at least once a week from April to November, the executive chef of the Boston Harbor Hotel gets up before sunrise to search for wild mushrooms he will use at Meritage restaurant and share with family and friends. "My first memory of foraging for mushrooms was when I was about 16 years old," ...

When did we become so self-conscious about burgers? I'll bet that back in the 1930s, when someone ordered a burger, they ate it and that was the end of it. They didn't photograph it or write home about it. These days, chefs compete for ­burger bragging rights. They battle over exclusive access to butchers, prized cattle and prime cuts. Everybody's got ...

Dark and savory with an almost indescribable flavor, black garlic is one of the trendiest new ingredients to be popping up on restaurant menus across the country. Black garlic is fresh garlic that has been fermented. The process turns the cloves a rich black color with an intensely concentrated, slightly sweet, somewhat smoky flavor, reminiscent of Worcestershire sauce. The green, pungent ...

Vegas dining once meant buffets and cocktail waitresses. No longer. The fabled desert playground has become one of the world's best places to eat. "Vegas' explosion of superdeluxe hotels and casinos has lured high-roller tourists and the international celebrity chefs who feed them," says Max Jacobson, the city's top dining critic, for Vegas magazine and Las Vegas Weekly. "And as in ...

Apr. 30-When Gaby Triana was 7 years old, she wanted an Easy-Bake Oven, the type that baked real cookies and cupcakes. Santa Claus didn't deliver. This disappointment may be the reason why, 30 years later, the Country Walk mother better known to teenagers and teachers for her young adult novels has a brisk moonlighting business creating elaborate and unusual cakes for ...

Starting a restaurant may be a dream shared by many, but success is reserved for relatively few. According to Kep Sweeney, author of The New Restaurant Entrepreneur, about 90 percent of all independently owned restaurants fail within five years. But don’t cast your dreams aside just yet. Sweeney, who boasts 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry as an investment ...

Do you think you have a restaurant that could be the next McDonald's? Ever wonder if the Colonel knew something you don't? Maybe you, too, should consider franchising. According to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than 760,000 franchised businesses generated a total economic output of over $1.53 trillion and generated jobs for 18 million Americans in 2001. This represents nearly ...