Writing
Drink Stories
The magic hour: Happy hours for every taste FeedMe magazine
Late afternoons are the canvas for a predinner ritual: Fizzy drinks, salty snacks and easy conversation. Whatever name you choose to call it, happy hour is a tradition that traverses countries and cultures. On Long Island, there’s one for every taste.
Resurrecting Hops: Vermont brewers watch and wait as local growers try to create an industry Seven Days
One day late last fall, Ian Birkett was hiking in the Northeast Kingdom when he came across a vine that had grown up into the trees around it, covered in tiny cones that were turning brown. Birkett recognized the plant immediately; he dug up some of its roots and spirited the cutting back to the Ferrisburgh farm his family has owned since 1802.
Mezcal: What to know about the smoky sister to tequila Newsday
A drink writer’s inbox can be vastly out of step with the world at large. I get so many emails about new mezcals hitting the market that it sometimes seems like tequila’s smoky sister is taking over the world.
Victoria James spills tea about the wine world Kirkus Reviews
Victoria James didn’t necessarily intend to stride into the midst of the #MeToo movement when she began writing a memoir five years ago.
A guide to sparkling wines: Champagne, prosecco and more Associated Press
Not all sparkling wines are created equal. Some have big, lazy bubbles, others tiny and racy. Some are sweet, others bone-dry. And they come in a kaleidoscope of styles, from young Pét-Nats to fruity, red Lambrusco.
Bring out your inner bartender with new app The Providence Journal
What is pommeau? What does it mean to dry-shake a cocktail? And how do you make a Lawn Dart, or a French 75?
Lost in beer space: A frenzied taste of Mondial de la Bière Seven Days
It’s not quite noon, but most of us in the crowd are already sipping beer as we watch Fred Cormier lope onto the stage, ponytail flopping against his back.
Heady Topper: After the flood, the Alchemist’s popular brew lives on, in cans Seven Days
A guardian angel might have been sitting on John Kimmich’s shoulder when he first considered brewing the double IPA that became Heady Topper — a hops-mad angel with foresight, perhaps.
Dining Stories & Features
Why I stopped reviewing restaurants The Guardian
Could I eat another bite? I turned this over in my head as I scanned the passenger seat of my car, piled high with takeaway containers of chicken wings. Being overfull was a familiar feeling in my work as a food critic.
It’s Friday night inside Small Batch, the hour when noise levels spike precipitously. Just as our dinner plates are being cleared, a party of four reaches a nearby table and crane their necks toward the open kitchen to catch a glimpse of a familiar face they know from television.
Abbracciamento review [my last pre-COVID review, of a Brooklyn restaurateur’s second act] Newsday
By any measure, Frank Abbracciamento had earned his retirement. For decades, the 70-something ran a sprawling Italian restaurant on the Canarsie pier, overlooking Jamaica Bay, that became a touchpoint for a generation of families, politicians and others.
Anker review: Greenport restaurant interprets seafood in new ways Newsday
“I’m not eating any fish,” half-joked a family friend one night at Anker, scanning a menu that listed — well, mostly fish. We were seated on the roof patio, feeling a little as if we were on the deck of a yacht.
Peter Luger Steakhouse review: Legendary Great Neck eatery stubbornly sticks to tradition Newsday
The time warp begins moments after I heave open the door to Peter Luger and stumble in from the rain. The hostess glances up with a world-weary look, checks the reservation, then cuts to the chase. “You’re aware, no credit cards?”
Emanuel’s review: Former chef at top LI steakhouse brings artfulness to tucked-away Northport bistro Newsday
Steakhouses are as indigenous as can be to New York, tracing their roots back to the frenetic, smoky chophouses of 19th-century Manhattan. Back then, servers screamed orders such as “Three beef, 8!” and chops flew from kitchen to booth with a speed approaching light — and you ate them just as quickly.
Blistered but unbroken: Pizzeria Verita in Burlington Seven Days
“I know you. I know you! How do I know you?” This is what John Rao said as he intercepted me during two of my three visits to Pizzeria Verità, forgetting who I was from one visit to the next, or that I had interviewed him back while he was still planning Burlington’s newest pizzeria.
Light my fire: Hen of the Wood in Burlington Seven Days
“Did you see the pig in the window?” asked my friend as he returned from the bathroom. He seemed both fascinated and slightly horrified. I had.
Meatless nights: Revolution Kitchen in Burlington Seven Days
It’s a brave new world for vegetables. Though my own meat-free days were short-lived, I once subsisted on the pabulum of veggie stir-fries and avocado sandwiches.
Fish with a pedigree: Chef Chuck Hughes opens Le Bremner in Montréal Seven Days
For a chef, opening a second restaurant after your first has become famous imposes something akin to the pressure of a sophomore album. That may account for the diminutive street presence of Le Bremner, the new Old Montréal eatery from chef Chuck Hughes…
Profiles
Debut Author to Watch: Chloe Dalton Kirkus Reviews
The bio on Chloe Dalton’s Instagram feed cuts straight to the chase: “I met a hare and wrote a book.” Yet as she set out on a chilly walk four winters ago, the author of Raising Hare: A Memoir (Pantheon, March 4) had no such plans.
From one island to another: Jonathan Romero of Punta Cana Dominican Grill Newsday
Jonathan Romero runs a growing empire of modern Dominican takeout spots. While empanadas and pernil may have unlocked the door to success, it is tenacity that keeps him there.
As luck would have it: Ryan Jones of Chubs Meats in Medford Newsday
Sometimes, both good and bad things happen in clusters: A string of good fortune lands in your lap, boom, boom, boom, and your life changes in a flash. Other times, challenges fall like dominos, one after the other, blocking the proverbial door.
Fodor’s Fave: Chef Jason Tostrup Seven Days
Consistency may be the holy grail of the classical kitchen, but this chef takes an intensely creative, eclectic approach to stellar local ingredients rather than trying to render a signature dish the same way over and over again.
Dishing with winemaker Kathryn Inman Seven Days
Among them is Kathleen Inman, the winemaker at Inman Family Wines in California’s Sonoma County, who arrived in BTV yesterday for her first-ever visit, starting with a dinner at Pistou where her wines were featured.
Tasting the Future with Skip Rosskam Seven Days
Skip Rosskam spreads out an array of baggies, vials and jars on a conference table in what seems at first like an illicit encounter. He then dribbles some jewel-colored liquid into a few miniature wine glasses and hands them to us
Grilling the Chef: Jean-Luc Matecat Seven Days
At the chef’s table at Amuse, the long counter was mostly empty. The chef de partie seemed relaxed as he set down each course: velvety, seared sweetbreads dusted with hazelnuts; peppery watercress soup; seared scallops over ratatouille.
Commerce
Long Island restaurants grapple with ingredient shortages and price spikes Newsday
When Hurricane Ida devastated Louisiana in late August, Mara and David Levi of Mara’s Homemade couldn’t get gator sausage, Gulf oysters and a few Cajun-food items for their Syosset restaurant — but it was almost a minor nuisance compared to the web of shortages they’ve grappled with over the last year.
Italian restaurant Orto pivots to creative takeout menu Newsday
Mondays are chef Eric Lomando’s day off. So when dine-in service was suspended at restaurants to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus — the decision handed down March 16 — Lomando was not working inside his Miller Place restaurant, Orto. Nevertheless, the gears were turning.
The spirits that move them: A new wave of artisans is distilling Vermont’s landscape Seven Days
The invisible but pungent vapors that swirl through the Caledonia Spirits & Winery distillery in Hardwick are most intense in the loft, where clear alcohol spins through a glass coil and drips into a jar.
Black Market Maple: As its value rises, maple syrup is becoming a black-market commodityy Seven Days
It’s dinnertime inside a Québec restaurant about a half hour north of the Vermont border. A waitress asks her customers if they’ve hit any sugar shacks earlier in the day.
Slow meat: Will dry-cured meats be the next great Vermont food wave? Seven Days
The warren of shiny, steel-gray rooms in the Mad River Food Hub doesn’t look like the center of a revolution. Architectural plans are taped to the walls, the rooms are bare, and fluorescent lights dangle from the ceiling at odd angles.
The little brand that could: Vermont’s food cachet is coming of age Seven Days
Wrapped in waxy, white paper, a round of Lillé Coulommiers from Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company sort of resembles a doorstop. Peel back the paper and slice into the tangy rind, though, and it’s clear why the stuff comes in such large wheels.
Unnatural selection: A Vermont bill seeks to label genetically modified foods Seven Days
The label on your corn oil or cereal or tortilla chips reads “pure, 100 percent natural” or “all natural” — but what does that mean? According to federal rules, not much.
New wine country: Insieme Wines opens far from the East End Newsday
It is the first Monday of the new year, and the afternoon is growing blustery and arctic. Inside a former CrossFit studio far from the East End, winemaker Massimo DeVellis pours some tempranillo into a glass and slides it across the tasting bar.
Invisible web: Provisions International brings the world to the Green Mountains Seven Days
Sometimes the streets of White River Junction can seem forgotten in time. The town is far quieter than it was a century ago, when dozens of trains rumbled through every day carrying people and goods across New England.
Turning seconds into firsts: Putney’s Gleanery turns surplus food into first-rate meals Seven Days
It’s just after 3:00 on a Thursday afternoon, and inside the Gleanery’s sunny kitchen, Ismail Samad scoops out the warm insides of roasted potatoes and tosses them in a silver bowl. As he does so, what look like tiny pebbles fall from the skins.
All about location? The changing culinary fortunes of Burlington’s 156 St. Paul Street Seven Days
The turn-of-the-century bricklayers who erected Burlington’s 156 St. Paul Street probably didn’t foresee the draw of pan-seared halibut or Neapolitan pizza. Yet, since it went up in 1899….
Farming & Aquaculture
Will climate change affect winemaking on Long Island? FeedMe magazine
It was an overcast, muggy August morning when Alice Wise barreled a golf cart down a dirt road behind her Calverton offce. I gripped a low bar next to the driver’s seat as we sailed over a bump toward a few dozen rows of grapevines.
Riding the Tide: How three oysters farmers on Moriches Bay weathered the pandemic FeedMe magazine
When restaurants faltered last year, Long Island’s oyster farmers had to pivot, and fast. Here’s how three side-by-side growers in Moriches Bay helped preserve one of our most iconic local foods.
Blue Oyster Cult: The past, present, and future of oystering on the Great South Bay FeedMe magazine
Long Island’ has been home to legendary oysters — and oystermen — for centuries. And now a new generation of growers is again transforming its waters into a bivalve lover’s dream.
Lobster Tales: Inside Jordan Lobster Farms FeedMe magazine
If ever a creature embodied the rise from obscurity to fame, it’s the lobster. One night, it might be scampering along the floor of a frigid bay, feeling around for shrimp and sea urchins, when, by a twist of fate….
Tasting the sea: Long Island’s treasure of raw bars FeedMe magazine
If you’re not practiced in the art of eating crawfish, the struggle can be real, even embarrassing. In seconds, that orange body can break apart in your hands as you try to twist the tail away from the body—or, even worse, flesh might fly through the air, splattering onto the floor.
Resurrecting Hops: Vermont brewers watch and wait as local growers try to create an industry Seven Days
One day late last fall, Ian Birkett was hiking in the Northeast Kingdom when he came across a vine that had grown up into the trees around it, covered in tiny cones that were turning brown. Birkett recognized the plant immediately…
Manna replaces Lobster Inn —in Southampton in early step toward offshore fish farm Newsday
In a tale with all of the twists of a great drama, longtime landmark The Lobster Grille Inn in Southampton has been reborn as Manna at Lobster Inn — and while lobster rolls still abound, the kingly orange crustacean is gradually yielding the floor to lesser-known fish whose stars are on the rise.
How Long Island restaurants are making porgy, sea roé and skate sexy again Newsday
Tucked behind the Long Beach dunes on an August evening, Five Ocean fills with a sun-kissed crowd who secure rosé and margaritas upon arrival. A few glance into the kitchen, where chefs bend their heads over the task at hand, while others surround a lone oyster shucker who pops open Peconic Gold oysters at one end of the bar.
Blood, syrup and samosas: Rendering the tastes of place at NOFA Seven Days
“It’s not the size of the gun. It’s the accuracy of the shooter.” So explained Mark Kimball to a roomful of farmers Saturday afternoon in the basement of the University of Vermont’s Fleming Museum.
Kids these days: Nigerian dwarf goats are buttery blessings Seven Days
It’s kidding time at Willow Moon Farm, and a chorus of tiny bleats erupts as dozens of goat kids romp through the fresh straw in their pen. They pounce on their cousins and spring into the air as if launched by rubber bands.