This just in from Grub Street: Maryland-style seafood restaurant Choptank is opening tonight. (How better to celebrate the Ravens’ complete and utter pummeling of the New England Pats?) It turns out that I know one of the guys behind this place: culinary consultant Kevin Patricio, a fellow Balmoron and old friend who knows the ins and outs of Maryland food and drinks, so I can vouch that this place is no City Crab.

Here’s a menu for the curious, below. The raw bar selections – oysters, shrimp cocktail, and Jonah crab claws – are all typical of what you’d find down there. Though Jonah crabs are not the bluefin kind used in crab feasts during the summer (as at the Hideaway here in NYC), they’ll do during the winter. Continue reading…

Brinkley’s may be new, but this pubby Nolita spot has an old-school preppy vibe, with Steve Miller Band and the Doobie Brothers playing on the stereo. Outfitted with a huge backlit bar, subway-tiled dining room, and horseshoe-shaped banquettes good for parties of six, Brinkley’s draws a similar bankers-and-ex-debs crowd as Southside downstairs.

Still, there’s a downtown edge to the darkly lit space with industrial light fixtures, vintage prints on the wall, and coy wallpaper in the bathrooms with illustrations of farm animal breeds (including an “Improved Tennessee Sheep”). It’s as if your old friend Dorrian grew up, developed some taste in food and decor and moved to a loft downtown. Continue reading…

It sounds too good to be true: real Maryland seafood in New York. But according to Flo Fab, the guys behind Choptank, opening next week on Bleecker Street, grew up near the Chesapeake Bay, which is Maryland enough for me. The menu will include “peel and eat shrimp with Old Bay seasoning, crab cakes and a raw bar.”

Here’s a photo of some authentic crab cakes from Eddie’s Market in Baltimore, Maryland. Notice that they are not a) flattened down like a Quarter Pounder, b) made of crab shredded to the consistency of sawdust, or c) filled with more filler than crab. Can Choptank live up to the task?

Either way, someone who has at least passed through Baltimore will know that you put a lot of Old Bay on Old Bay fries, and that if you really want to make it Maryland, you put crab in nearly anything. Crab gumbo, crab omelets, crab wraps, etc.

Also, it’s OK to say just “Old Bay” instead of the oddly formal “Old Bay seasoning.” Just kick back and relax a bit, hon!

Diner’s Journal: Choptank It Shall Be

It seems like an easy dish: just potatoes and cheese, right? But this cold-weather staple can be boring if you just take the traditional French route. Luckily, my family was treated on Christmas Day to some of the best potatoes au gratin I’ve tasted. My future sister-in-law Jeanne Arnondin combined her mother’s recipe with a Food Network recipe for a dish that’s decadent and infinitely craveable. The key differences are fennel and Pecorino Romano, which brings a sharper umami flavor that a straight French preparation doesn’t have.

Make it with a simple beef tenderloin roast for an elegant but easy winter dinner party. Continue reading…

The Redhead has been playing hard to get for some time now. Though she lives right near by me, every time I stopped by for dinner, she was booked, with waits of an hour or more. Ever since Bruni gave her a star – an honor that many similarly casual spots don’t earn – the Redhead’s dance card has been full.

The only answer is to persevere, because this is one small, inexpensive, urban-rustic place that merits the hype. Unlike so many other places that are carefully set-designed to look like a diamond in a rough but are really just rough, the Redhead has real polish in the food and service. Continue reading…

‘Tis the season for lists! Here are some key moments to remember in fashion and food – and some moments you’d rather forget.

A brief compilation of best and worst lists of 2009, from the blogs, newspapers, mags and more. Continue reading…

She’s not just a proponent of fresh, organic food for all, she’s also a Radiohead fan. Who knew?

It’s definitely worth listening to Alice Waters’ guest DJ set on KCRW, if only to be hypnotized by her surprisingly sexy voice intoning, over Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl”:

It’s a beautiful sensual song, and I am always trying to get people to open up and to touch and to taste and to smell and really engage in a different way with food…. I play it when I’m cooking in the kitchen and it’s so beautiful and so deep in its sensual appeal.

Put out the fire! Other highlights: bribing a taxi driver with dinner at Chez Panisse, dancing in the kitchen to David Byrne, going to a peace march in Berkeley, and other zany facts you never knew about her.

KCRW: Alice Waters – Guest DJ Project

Anyone whose extra-curricular interest borders on unhinged obsession is hard to shop for, whether that interest is golf, video games or Louboutins. Food lovers are no exception. First, divide them into three groups: the cooks, the eaters who who wish they cooked more, and the eaters who don’t cook. (Plus a  splinter group: the wine lovers, a.k.a. the “winos.”)

As a rule, you are better off shopping at specialty stores for anyone with a specific interest, i.e., just as you probably shouldn’t shop for high-tech golf clothes at Macy’s, you’re better off going into Sur La Table and asking  what’s new and cool than getting another fondue set from Crate & Barrel. (I have three of them.) Here’s a full list of gift ideas for foodies, starting at $5.50, after the jump. Continue reading…

Wine isn’t the only thing that pairs well with cheese: Beer is a great match too, especially if there’s plenty of it, as there was at the Joy of Cheese tasting at d.b.a. Brooklyn on a recent night. Cheese expert Martin Johnson and d.b.a. owner Ray Deter  joined forces to present seven rounds of beer and cheese, with a special focus on holiday brews.

Standouts among the cheeses were two English selections, a Spenwood and a clothbound Montgomery cheddar, and the Gubbeen washed rind cheese from Ireland. Continue reading…

It’s always nice to have greenery around the house during the holidays, especially if you’re entertaining and need to make things look vaguely cheerful. But the cost can really add up with so many floral arrangements going for $80 and up. Time to get to know a secret hostess weapon: the floral department at Whole Foods.

This “Holiday Greetings Bouquet” might have a cheesy name, but the combination of white and red roses, berries and lots of greenery looks lovely once it’s home in a vase. The flowers last for about a week, and at $16.99 each bouquet, you can afford to buy two. (Another trick for making grocery store bouquets look like they came from a florist – buy two and combine them into a large one.) Continue reading…