Rexfeng

When he was around 32 years old, Leonardo da Vinci applied to the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, for a job. The duke was in need of military expertise and Leonardo's 10-point CV emphasized his military engineering skills:

3. Also, if one cannot, when besieging a terrain, proceed by bombardment either because of the height of the glacis or the strength of its situation and location, I have methods for destroying every fortress or other stranglehold unless it has been founded upon a rock or so forth.

4. I have also types of cannon, most convenient and easily portable, with which to hurl small stones almost like a hail-storm; and the smoke from the cannon will instil a great fear in the enemy on account of the grave damage and confusion.

And I love what is almost an aside at the end of the list:

Also I can execute sculpture in marble, bronze and clay. Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible as well as any other, whosoever he may be.

Oh yeah, P.S., by the way, not that it matters, I am also the greatest living artist in the world, no big deal. Yr pal, Leo. (via farnam street and the letters of note book)

Tags: art   Leonardo da Vinci   Ludovico Sforza   working

Ted Nelson coined the term "hypertext" in 1963 to describe a computing interface project he'd been working on called Xanadu. Xanadu, Nelson wrote some ten years ago, "is often misunderstood as an attempt to create the World Wide Web":

It has always been much more ambitious, proposing an entire form of literature where links do not break as versions change; where documents may be closely compared side by side and closely annotated; where it is possible to see the origins of every quotation; and in which there is a valid copyright system-- a literary, legal and business arrangement-- for frictionless, non-negotiated quotation at any time and in any amount. The Web trivialized this original Xanadu model, vastly but incorrectly simplifying these problems to a world of fragile ever-breaking one-way links, with no recognition of change or copyright, and no support for multiple versions or principled re-use. Fonts and glitz, rather than content connective structure, prevail.

Nelson's idea was to preserve a hypertext's source documents along with the new composite, making the links between them visible and navigation between them as easy as possible: no file hierarchy, but documents maintained and comparable in parallel, for commentary, annotation, or recombination. It aims to be post-paper, instead (like Vannevar Bush's hypothetical memex machine) directly imitating associative patterns of thought.

Instead of deleting content from one place and plugging it into another (today's distorted meanings of the venerable terms "cut" and "paste"), the author should be able to pull screen contents from old versions into new, seeing all points of origin and also seeing what contents have not yet been used.

Xanadu never shipped a working product ("perhaps due to our net negative funding"), but Nelson wrote many articles and two books (Dream Machines and Literary Machines) that influenced the development of the personal computer and the world wide web, as well as every other idiosyncratic hypermedia model that's come along since.

Finally on April 24 of this year, Nelson slipped a "one more thing" into an event at Chapman University: OpenXanadu, a working model of the document type and interface, programmed by Nicholas Levin and running in a web browser.

It's a little awkward ("don't touch the mouse!" the instructions yelp), but it's all there, it's pretty cool, and more than fifty years later, it's still cracking fire about what computer work could look like.

We foresaw in 1960 that all document work would migrate to the interactive computer screen, so we could write in new ways-- - paper enforces sequence-- we could escape that! - paper documents can't be connected-- we could escape that! - this means a different form of writing - this means a different form of publishing - this means a different document format, to send people and to archive. We screwed up in the 1980s, and missed our chance to be world wide hypertext (the Web got that niche). However, we can still compete with PDF, which simulates paper, by showing text connections.

PDFs better recognize.

(via @ftrain)

Tags: hypertext   interfaces   Ted Nelson

Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. will soon open its doors at New York City's Discovery Times Square. The exhibit, a collaboration between Victory Hill Exhibitions, Marvel, NASA and the National Academy of Sciences, is perhaps the most ambitious and expensive production that's ever been put on at Discovery. It offers visitors an immersive tour of Marvel's universe and incorporates dozens of props from The Avengers , Captain America, and more. But the experience as a whole is what will stand...

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There's nothing quite like seeing a once-in-a-lifetime moment in a video game and realizing it's too late to go back and get a video of it. It's over and gone, lost forever. Womp, womp.

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Apple revealed a number of new features for its iOS App Store today, including the ability for developers to sell bundles of apps at a discount. App bundles let users buy multiple games or apps at once and are not offered by competing platforms. The App Store search feature has been expanded with suggestions for related apps, and app listings can now feature video demos of apps alongside screenshots. Editor's Choice apps will now feature a new logo to better differentiate them from the 1.2 million other apps in the store.

For developers, Apple is offering a new beta testing service based on TestFlight, which it acquired earlier this year. The service will be available to developers for free.

Apple says the upgraded App Store and...

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Apple dedicated much of its WWDC 2014 keynote yesterday to the introduction of new Continuity software that blurs the line between the mobile iOS and desktop OS X operating systems. Today Intel has announced a reference PC design that could do the same with hardware. Built around the upcoming Broadwell processor, this 12.5-inch tablet prototype is a mere 7.2mm thick and requires no fan to keep it running cool.

Intel's presenting the design with a keyboard accessory that converts it into a laptop, but there's nothing stopping Apple from using it to build the next generation of its MacBook Air in a thinner, lighter, and now completely silent form. Recent rumors have suggested exactly such a change, with a 12-inch Retina MBA said to be in...

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Somehow we suspect the bánh mì won't be this pretty.

You might want to take this with a healthy shot of fish sauce, but EscapeHatch posits that Yum! Brands is about to start testing its next fast-casual concept, which will try to do for Vietnamese sandwiches what Taco Bell did for tortillas. The tip about Banh Shop, which will specialize in variations on bánh mì, comes from a "reader who knows such things," and it does make some sense because the corporation's Super Chix, purveyor of "the last true chicken sandwich," is happening nearby, and the area in general is proving grounds for new Yum! Brands concepts. Don't get excited about a nationwide roll-out, however: An earlier report suggests Yum is only tinkering with the prototype, with "no plans to expand the concept in the U.S.," and will eventually export Banh Shop for the international market. [Escape Hatch Dallas]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, banh mi, banh shop, dallas, kfc, taco bell

[Photograph: Farley Elliott]

Even to locals, the transformation of Downtown Los Angeles is hard to believe. Less than a decade ago, there were really two Downtowns: the high rises and upscale lunch spots of the Financial District and... everything else. Cheap eats ruled the day, taco carts crawled the late night streets, and the occasional ramen joint or yakitori spot could be found among the warehouses and shuttered storefronts. But for the most part Downtown was dead.

These days, revitalization is so rampant that it's hard to recognize the same boulevards that used to be near-empty ten years ago. Young, urban crowds flock to bars, restaurants, art galleries and entertainment venues nightly, and it's no longer a surprise to see someone on the streets at all hours of the night. Of course, with the influx of people and money comes competition, and Downtown is quickly becoming one of the most contested core neighborhoods for food and drink in this otherwise decentralized city.

Thankfully there are still cheap eats to be had, as well as Japanese standouts in Little Tokyo, sausage and beer halls in the Arts District, and fine dining right under peoples' noses. There's no end to the possibilities in DTLA —a far cry from just a few short years ago.

The Cool

Bestia

[Photograph: Danny Cohen]

There's almost no other place to start when it comes to talking about dining in Downtown L.A. than Bestia, chef Ori Menashe's Italian-leaning warehouse enclave in the deep reaches of the Arts District. Tucked away near the L.A. River, it's one of the hottest reservations in town, and for good reason. Handmade pastas are pushed from the kitchen with abandon, alongside beautifully spotted margherita pizzas, copious charcuterie, and a beef tartare crostini that is at once vibrant, funky, minty, and clean.

The space is a lesson in calculated effortlessness; there's a long copper bar, hanging Edison bulbs hidden inside thick glass fixtures, lots of brick and exposed ironwork, and enough mid-90s Nas pulsing overheard to keep everyone's conversation elevated. Bestia is a personification of all that Downtown dining has become —delicious, deliberate and very, very cool.

L.A. Chapter

[Photograph: Farley Elliott]

A recent transplant to Downtown, the Ace Hotel on Broadway helped to immediately liven up an area of the urban core that was, in many ways, still lacking. Flanked by long-shuttered movie houses and live music venues that had once held such decadence, the new Ace is a bit of revitalization right where the city needs it most. The attached United Artists Theater has been returned to its shimmering glory, and the looming hotel offers stunning views of the Eastern Columbia building. Inside, with a little slip of patio seating that clings against the building, is L.A. Chapter.

Part breakfast takeaway, part casual lounge and part sit-down meal spot, L.A. Chapter's brassy bistro details and chic look make it one of the area's true anytime destinations. There's a touch of Australian flare; the eatery is a sort of offshoot to Five Leaves in Brooklyn, which took on Aussie Heath Ledger as an early investor.

The most popular time of day might be brunch. That's when fried eggs are elevated to their true glory, avocado can be used to its fullest capabilities, and the Stumptown Coffee is in endless supply. An array of toasts, much more than the usual $4 Pullman loaf slice, come stacked with rich, creamy, often slightly spicy combinations, like the Moroccan Scramble, which marries merguez with fresh chilies, chickpeas, and a healthy tuft of cilantro.

Faith & Flower

[Photograph: Danny Cohen]

An even more recent newcomer is Faith & Flower, a soaring, bright space that looks to reverse-engineer Downtown's gentrification-at-the-edges theory by sticking a fork right next to L.A. Live, one of the few areas in the neighborhood that has mostly been immune to the rise, fall, and resurgence of Downtown. Staples Center, Starbucks, and the Yard House all catered to Kings fans looking to dine cheaply before the puck dropped at the Staples Center arena, but there was little in the way of true destination dining.

Enter Faith & Flower, with their elaborate touches (both on the menu and on the walls), Prohibition-era cocktail list and boozy, upscale theme. Fully-coiffed owners Robert Weakley and Dave Bernahl of Coastal Luxury Management make the space feel like a Gatsby-level shindig could break out at any moment. The menu is similarly unconfined—appetizers and mains and sides all mix together on the page and come out whenever they feel like it. Each dish, be it savory waffles with funky bone marrow built into the batter or an eggs benedict pizza that's served all day long, offers something unexpected and wild; even on the plate, it's a party.

The International

Grand Central Market

[Photograph: Farley Elliott]

Perhaps no space has come further in Downtown's revitalization process than the Grand Central Market. Long a home for fruit vendors and taco stands, the market has begun a near-complete overhaul. Many long-empty retail stalls have recently come to life with fried egg sandwiches, European espresso bars, pressed organic juices, and unstoppable sweets. There's even a demystified version of a Jewish deli on premises which offers some of the city's best pastrami and smoked fish.

But thankfully, many of the original vendors still persist. There are cheap takeaway Chinese food options and some honestly stellar carnitas at taco spots like Las Morelianas. Sarita's still pushes out the finest El Salvadorean pupusas for the area, and more recent addition Sticky Rice plates up organic, free-range takes on classics like Hainan chicken and a rotation of daily curries.

Marugame Monzo

[Photograph: Farley Elliott]

Near the longstanding Daikokuya ramen shop on First Street in the Little Tokyo area, there are countless options for eating well. Soups and skewers are readily available, but for noodles most eaters in the area queue up at Marugame Monzo.

An udon house with an Italian backbone, Monzo has been drawing in customers for the better part of a year with the endless thumps coming from the glassed-in kitchen. Those whacks and slaps are the sound of udon being hand-pulled and pounded into submission. The results are a bit al dente, just chewy enough and entirely addictive. Laced with garlic or chile, urchin, or just lots of cream, each bowl is a hand-cut noodle adventure. And then there are the crossovers, like udon carbonara, with all the smokiness and cheese of its Italian ancestry, but meant to be eaten with chopsticks.

Bäco Mercat

[Photograph: Paul Bartunek]

At Bäco Mercat, a food's ethnicity is a fluid thing. Middle Eastern influences muddle with Italian ingenuity and American flavors, making Josef Centeno's flagship restaurant a blindfolded trip across the world. The namesake item, the bäco bread, is itself a confluence of cultures: part pizza dough, part flatbread and thickened tortilla, the bäco bread is offered up as a base for pizza-like concoctions and half-wrapped sandwiches as well as in a warm side basket for pulling apart and dipping.

The room is as loud and eclectic as the menu, where lamb meatballs share space with za'atar and Japanese eggplant. Housemade bubble sodas come in an array of intriguing flavors, and rotating brunches might include hamachi crude one afternoon and a bowl of noodle-rich carnitas soup the next. At Bäco Mercat, all voices are equal—and they're all shouting.

The Upscale

Alma

Young chef Flynn McGarry plating at an Alma event. [Photograph: Farley Elliott]

The word is out on Alma, even if their location is still a bit hidden. Far down Broadway, well past the resurgent glory, the prix fixe eatery is completely disguised when closed, showing nothing more than a rolled down steel door. But during business hours, chef Ari Taymor and his co-owner / front of house maestro Ashleigh Parson are putting together some of the city's best meals.

Everything is thoughtful and fresh, interesting and a little loose around the edges. Most of the greens come from an Alma-sponsored garden elsewhere in the city, and Parson's wide knowledge of eclectic wines (or optional non-alcoholic pairings) make for a captivating, yet smooth ride. Seats can be hard to come by thanks to all the positive press, and with Taymor's new tasting menu-only approach, there aren't many turns per night. That's by both design and necessity, making a reservation at Alma something to be savored.

Orsa & Winston

[Photograph: Paul Bartunek]

Chef Josef Centeno has emerged as a clear winner in the fight for Downtown's new future. His Bäco Mercat operation still does a brisk business, though he's not helming the flames there much these days. Nor is he often behind the pots at Bar Amá around the corner, his popular Tex-Mex outpost where puffy tacos are the order of the day. Instead, Centeno is usually running the room at Orsa & Winston next door, where a nightly prix fixe menu comes in five-course, eight-course, or super-omakase sizes. The cheapest meal is $60 before tax, tip and beverages, though guests will leave surprisingly satiated, considering the delicate portions.

One-off snacks arrive with regularity, and there's always something new to discover on repeat visits. Plus, the food is less "deconstructed" as it is "rethought," thanks to heavy Japanese and Italian influences. Spanish touches are also on display here, with French techniques and appealing presentations. But despite the named chef working the stove, the hard-to-get reservations and the price tag, Orsa & Winston remains an approachable option for Downtown locals and the date night set alike.

Patina

[Photograph: Natalie James]

And then there is Patina, a Downtown stalwart of French fine dining. Long held on Melrose, the upscale eatery moved to the ground floor of the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall more than a decade ago, long before the rest of the area caught on to what was happening in the neighborhood. Chef / restaurateur Joachim Splichal has since helped to mentor a legion of next-generation L.A. chefs, while Patina itself remains a Downtown institution.

There have been Michelin stars over the years and the proper amount of reverence from local critics, but mostly Patina continues to survive on the same crowd it always has: business diners, a steady theater crowd, and Westside rich folks who don't mind the drive. There are the occasional forays by new Downtown residents to snag a seat and find out what true European elegance is all about, but really Patina exists because it always has; though their delicate Sonoma duck breast entree and $90 Wagyu strip loin certainly help.

The Elsewhere

Just above the 101 Freeway, often considered the unofficial northern demarcation line for Downtown, is L.A.'s Chinatown. There are Sunday dim sum operations, daily market stalls, and lots of great eats to be had for cheap, assuming you're willing to head a few blocks north.

Chego

[Photograph: Noam Bleiweiss]

Perhaps Roy Choi's best daily eating spot, the over-clocked rice bowls at Chego are a force of nature. Laced with samba, doused with creamy sauces, and usually topped with an egg, each $10 option is as tasty as the next, whether you're working through a bowl that includes pork belly or hefty chunks of chicken. Pro tip: Grab a bowl to go on your way to the Dodgers game. Security won't give you a second look as you bring it into the stadium, though the jealous baseball fans around you in the bleachers likely will.

Philippe the Original

[Photograph: Danny Cohen]

There's iconic, and then there's Philippe's. More than a century old, this corner sandwich shop is widely believed to have invented the French dip, and shows no signs of running its course any time soon. On game days and weekends, lines inside Philippe's regularly reach to the door, as patient eaters snake between the rows of countertop seating that make up the bulk of the available eating space inside the sawdust-floored room. For satisfaction, flavor, and history, Philippe's still as important to the overall Downtown landscape as it was 103 years ago.

Mexicali Taco Co.

[Photograph: Paul Bartunek]

With their own history in the long-standing street taco game just west of Downtown, Mexicali is a place worth making a destination. At the edges of Chinatown on Figueroa, this small taco shack can be best identified by its smell: smoky carne asada. It's the signature of the place and among the best in the city, served a variety of ways and with all sorts of possible toppings. Perhaps best of all is the Vampiro— a garlicky, cheesy quesadilla that is short on subtlety but long on taste. Seating is done picnic bench-style and the salsa bar is top notch, making Mexicali a fantastic daytime destination for Downtown eaters looking to get involved with some of L.A.'s best Mexican food.

About the author: Farley Elliott is a writer and comedian living in Los Angeles. He writes about food, beer and entertainment at OverOverUnder.com.

We're all connected!

Nomophobes of Brooklyn, rejoice: A bar has ended the tyranny of the single wall outlet. Left Hand Path, a new spot at 89 Wyckoff Avenue, gives patrons bellied up to the bar dedicated outlets and USB ports, in the process emancipating bartenders from nightly behind-the-counter phone-gofering duties. Co-owners Travis Boettcher, an ex-Facebook engineer, and Sean Knudeson, a veteran most recently of the Narrows, were going for Mad Men cocktail lounge meets Northwest dive bar, so the white outlets do look newfangledly anachronistic, especially as you consult the beer menu overhead made of 113-year-old spruce. [Bedford+Bowery]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: usb and firewater, bushwick, left hand path, openings, phone chargers, phones, sean knudeson, travis boettcher

[Photo: Nick Solares]
Although it's been in preview mode for a few days now, Hudson Eats officially and (almost) fully opens to the public today. The hugely anticipated high-end food hall at Brookfield Place features counters from Mighty Quinn's, Black Seed, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Umami Burger, Num Pang, Dos Toros, Tartinery, Little Meunster, Olive's, Chop't, Dig Inn, Skinny Pizza, and Sprinkles cupcakes, plus plenty of seating (ranging from high stools to round banquettes) and a good view of the water. All but Black Seed and Blue Ribbon are up and running now, with the former promising to open by Wednesday, and the later slated to open by July. After that, stay tuned for news on the sit-down restaurants coming to Brookfield place in 2015, including an outpost of Parm, an outpost of Jose Garces' tapas restaurant Amada, and the massive French market/restaurant Le District.
· All Coverage of Brookfield Place [~ENY~]

Driving home at rush hour can be rough, but your situation may not be all that bad compared to commuters in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu. Those three locations topped TomTom's measurements of the most congested cities in the United States, which it released today as part of a broader look at traffic congestion in the Americas, Europe, and elsewhere in the world.

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For the 2016 Super Bowl, the NFL is straying from its tradition of using Roman numerals and going straight for Super Bowl 50. Numerals have been in 47 of the 48 previous Super Bowls (the first game didn't require numbering), and will feature in next year's Super Bowl XLIX. Explaining the decision to ABC News, NFL vice president of brand and creative Jaime Weston says it's a purely aesthetic decision. The Roman numeral for 50 is "L," and Weston's team felt the standalone character didn't work.

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The World Cup begins next week, and ahead of the the first match, Google's put out full Street View imagery of the 12 World Cup stadiums and surrounding areas. That includes painted streets and points of interest around Brazil, as well as what Google says is new imagery in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Google did the same thing four years ago at the last World Cup competition in South Africa, doing Street View on 10 of the stadiums as well as the host cities. The first match begins next Thursday when Brazil goes up against Croatia.

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Golden Arches are typically associated with hamburgers and fries, but for one credit card gang it’s a symbol of crime. "McDumpals" is an underground online store that uses Ronald McDonald as a mascot, and specializes in selling stolen credit card details. Brian Krebs, an investigative reporter who focuses on cybersecurity, has taken an inside look at McDumpals to detail how the site sells batches of credit card details that have been stolen from stores like Target. Most are sold to organized crime gangs, professional thieves, and even high-volume buyers to create counterfeit cards and purchase expensive goods for resale. In his detailed analysis, Krebs explains all the terms associated with this underground world, and why batches of card...

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Stephen Colbert flipped off Amazon on his show last night in a segment skewering the retail giant for its ongoing battle with book publisher Hachette, which just happens to publish titles by Colbert himself. Amazon has effectively begun discouraging its customers from purchasing Hachette books — removing the option to preorder upcoming titles and in many cases pushing existing titles' shipping times back by weeks — in an effort to gain leverage over the publisher while striking a new deal on ebook pricing. Colbert clearly has a stake in the fight, and his self-absorbed Colbert Report character is happy to admit that and to use it as a way to turn his viewers against Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos. "Watch out Bezos," Colbert says,...

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Microsoft has previously tweaked the Xbox One to boost its overall graphics performance, but a new software change for the console pushes things even further. Xbox One developer units are receiving an update to increase GPU bandwidth by up to 10 percent. While the changes won’t be instantly felt during gameplay, game developers can now modify their titles to take advantage of system resources that were previously reserved for Kinect. Microsoft’s recent unbundling of Kinect has allowed the company to unlock the performance improvement, another sign that it's more concerned with traditional titles rather than trying to push developers to adopt Kinect.

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You've waited, you've wondered, but now it's here. Top Shelf is back. This week, David Pierce takes a look at the world of private investigating. What kind of gear will he need? Where does he park his unmarked van? How many fake mustaches should he own? It turns out it's a bit more complicated than he originally thought.

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Microsoft is releasing PC drivers for the Xbox One controller today. After promising support back at the original console launch in November, the drivers are now available for x86 and x64 copies of Windows. The drivers include support for the Xbox One controller to be used with any game that supported the Xbox 360 controller. There’s no separate dongle required to connect up the Xbox One controller as you can simply use a micro USB cable to connect to a PC. Microsoft is releasing the drivers today at its download site, but the company is also planning to distribute them through Windows Update “in the near future.”

• PC Drivers for Xbox One Controller (x86)
• PC Drivers for Xbox One Controller (x64)

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Perfectly timed for bikini and jorts season, two of the city's finest doughnut purveyors have announced plans to open new stores in Brooklyn in Manhattan. First up, Bed-Stuy's Dough, which will open its first Manhattan location northwest of Union Square at 14 West 19th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. There's no set opening date just yet, but the crew was recently looking for doughnut makers, so things seem to be in motion and Manhattanites will be stuffing their faces with Dulce de Leche doughnuts soon enough. [ more › ]

Salty rice and corn puff purveyor Pirate's Booty was one of the early adopters of the "healthy" snack food market, now populated by Pop Chips and those sad 100-calorie packs of Oreo "Thin Crisps." Now the company is entering into the supper table game, with a new line of boxed macaroni and cheese products with their signature swashbuckling pirate enticing you with a big bowl of cheesy nautical noodles. [ more › ]

Alexis Madrigal:

Google’s self-driving cars can tour you around the streets of Mountain View, California.

I know this. I rode in one this week. I saw the car’s human operator take his hands from the wheel and the computer assume control. “Autodriving,” said a woman’s voice, and just like that, the car was operating autonomously, changing lanes, obeying traffic lights, monitoring cyclists and pedestrians, making lefts. Even the way the car accelerated out of turns felt right. […]

But there’s a catch. 

Today, you could not take a Google car, set it down in Akron or Orlando or Oakland and expect it to perform as well as it does in Silicon Valley.

Here’s why: Google has created a virtual track out of Mountain View. 

This is what I mean about these cars being a concept, not a real product. These cars are only real in the sense that a ride at Disney World is real. They’ve built a very clever Mountain View-size 25 MPH theme park attraction. Google could well be the company that eventually does make real self-driving cars, but they aren’t today. Who is to say that the cars they do have today are not to self-driving cars what the Microsoft Surface (the table-size one, not today’s tablets) was to touchscreen computing?

Show me something produced at mass market scale and price, which people can and want to buy.

Apple hasn't cracked the mobile payments market yet, but the iPhone maker is aiming to make online orders a little easier. 9to5Mac has discovered a new feature in iOS 8 that allows Safari users to scan a credit card with an iPhone camera. The new option is visible at sites like Amazon when you typically enter credit card information manually or through the existing AutoFill feature. As it’s a built-in feature, web developers won’t need to enable it and the credit card scanning will automatically fill out a web form for an online order.

It’s just one of a number of new features in Safari for iOS 8. Apple revealed earlier this week that Safari users will be able to request a full desktop version of a site from an iPhone, and a new tab...

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Finally!

A new restaurant headed to midtown that seems like a multiplex of recent trends — the phrase "prohibition era cocktail bar, farm to table casual, hyper seasonal fine dining" appears in the job listing, and the venue is 8,000 square feet — but the unnamed proprietors are looking for line cooks who will put their necks out, literally. At the bottom of the requirements is something of an odd standout: "Tribal Neck tattoos a plus." Candidates must be disciplined, too, and should write a cover letter. [Culintro]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: help wanted, coming soon

Taco Bell calls itself "a game changer in feeding customer’s revolutionary cravings."

Everyone who was jazzed about those waffle-swaddled breakfast sandwiches at Taco Bell will no doubt be thrilled to hear the fast-food chain will add its extensively test-marketed quesarito to its menu starting Monday, June 9. The mash-up food takes a beef, chicken, or steak burrito padded out with chipotle sauce, some "premium Latin rice," and low-fat sour cream, then stuffs all that inside a toasted cheese quesadilla. The cheese acts like glue, or perhaps a fixative, holding the thermonuclear snack food together.

Those of us tasked with keeping track of such things will tell you that the quesarito hit the test market in Oklahoma City in February and Chris Brandt, Taco Bell's chief marketing officer, told the L.A. Times, it has been the most successful test product since the Doritos Locos Tacos. In press materials, the chain calls itself "a game changer in feeding customer’s revolutionary cravings." Just wait until they start testing those Mountain Dew Adrenaline Shredded Beef Tacos — that's going to be really crazy.

The Taco Bell quesarito, a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla, is really happening [LAT]

Read more posts by Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm

Filed Under: cheesy, doritos locos tacos, quesarito, taco bell, the chain gang

After dropping into open beta only a week ago, Magicka: Wizard Wars has reached 500,000 downloads, Paradox Interactive has announced. The publisher adds that players have cast a total of 97,704,758 spells. That's just about 195 spells per download,...

Sure, the names might mean something.

"I probably have 15 or 20 names trademarked, just in case I find a space," says Andrew Carmellini, a chef who understands the importance of a good name. (He first trademarked Bar Primi, the name of his latest restaurant, back in 2007.) "Naming might be the hardest part of the restaurant incubation process," the chef continues. "Usually, I come to the table with 100 names, and whittle the list down. Like restaurants, there's no road map for the perfect name." There might not be a road map, but lately it seems more and more owners are in fact turning to one specific plan: short, indistinct words that hold no innate meaning for most English speakers — nonsense names.

New York has a proud history of gibberish restaurants, places like Moomba or Babbo or Dorsia (made famous again thanks to Patrick Batemen's obsession with getting a reservation). But the trend feels like it's accelerated in the last few years as more and more places adopt a similar type of name. One word, two or three syllables, lots of vowels, often ending with an a: Estela, Piora, All'onda, Contrada, Barchetta. (Can we be that far away from someone naming a restaurant Bla'blabla?) Sure the names might mean something in Italian, or Danish, or another foreign tongue, but mostly they just sound nice. There's a sort of timeless appeal, since they don't refer to any specific era or place, and they're simple enough to stick in diners' minds.

"I like something short and sweet," says Bobby Flay, who chose Gato for his latest restaurant, adding that he liked the name because it actually translates to cat in Spanish. "There are a lot of made-up words that people are using, and it's hard to understand what they mean," he continues. "I have no idea what Noma means, except that it's the best restaurant in the world."

Talk to enough chefs about restaurant names, and Noma actually comes up a lot. The Copenhagen restaurant's success seems to be one reason why this naming trend has taken hold. Just look at Blanca, Aldea, Aska, Contra, or even Alma in Los Angeles, all spots with names you might call Noma-ish.

Yet while Flay sees these kinds of names as inherently meaningless, for the people doing the naming, that's part of the draw: The names can be interpreted in many different ways. They can sound vaguely Italian, or Nordic, or Spanish, whatever. A name that isn't tied to anything too specific means a restaurant can create an identity that isn't grounded in anything too literal. (Go with a name like Empire Biscuit or Shalom Japan, and your concept becomes somewhat inflexible.)

Fabian Von Hauske says the name Contra only found real meaning as the actual restaurant evolved: "At first it had no significance, really, but then, when we actually got a space, the name started taking shape: two ideas clashing against each other in order to form something else."

Estela partners Thomas Carter and Ignacio Mattos chose their restaurant's name exactly because it could apply to Mattos's South American heritage, or Carter's family roots in Kiev. "It sounded like it could be from either of our backgrounds," Carter says. The name won out over "Tourbillon," a mechanism for watches that got ditched for reasons that are now obvious ("I can't even pronounce it," Carter says). As a bonus, there was historical significance for Estela: It was the name of the café that was in the space before it became the Knitting Factory.

"It's impossible to name a restaurant correctly," says John Fraser, whose latest restaurant is Narcissa (named for one of owner André Balazs's cows). "It's like naming a child, who knows?" he adds. "But the confusion about what it means actually helps people remember it."

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Filed Under: word play, aldea, all'onda, alma, aska, babbo, bar primi, barchetta, contra, contrada, estela, gato, narcissa, new york, piora

Maybe Corner Bistro could start a truck?

Your Uber cabbie now doubles as your personal food delivery guy. Or he at least did yesterday in Oakland, where for three hours and $20, app users could click a burger icon and summon lunch for two: cheeseburgers, potato salads, and chocolate-chip cookies from popular San Francisco burger truck Doc's of the Bay. Is the burger-delivery coming next to Manhattan? Well, so far it seems that it's just another onetime stunt, along the lines of its past ice-cream-truck-hailing day and kittens and cupcakes on demand, but if Uber ran with this, the lump-sum charge à la Caviar would at least help demystify tipping, even if that noontime surge-priced burger does set you back $60. Depending on the provenance, of course, people would probably pay for the convenience. [SFGate]

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Filed Under: hamburger helpers, delivery service, doc's of the bay, oakland, san francisco, uber

David Yanofsky, writing for Quartz:

At Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference today the company rolled out a new look for its web browser, Safari. Apple executives didn’t point it out, but sharp-eyed observers have noticed one significant change to the interface. The address bar truncates URLs to the domain-name level.

This means that a URL such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams will show up as en.wikipedia.org.

Seems like something that ought to be a preference setting. (Maybe it already is, but if so I haven’t found it.)

Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann, co-leads on multiple-award-winning The Last Of Us, will be taking charge for the next game in the Uncharted series, ​Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells revealed to Game Informer. Straley, who served as game...

April Bloomfield's formidable, limited-edition Shake Shack "Breslin Burger."

From June 9 through 13, Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group is commemorating ten years of the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park with a little help from April Bloomfield, Daniel Boulud, Dave Chang, Daniel Humm, and Andrew Zimmern. Bloomfield, who, with business partner Ken Friedman, also happens to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Spotted Pig this summer, has come up with a custom-blend beef burger with applewood-smoked bacon and Tickler English Cheddar sauce. The full rundown of the multi-day Shackiversary includes live music and an "epic Shack-inspired cake" from occasional collaborator Dominique Ansel and can be found here, but it's really the cheffed-up hamburgers — each served for one day only — at the center of this celebration. Marvel at Bloomfield's towering achievement above (it'll be served Friday June 13), then check out the rest of the guest chef contributions, straight ahead.

Here they are, along with the official descriptions:

Daniel Boulud's contribution, called "the Piggie Shack," will be served June 9.

Dave Chang's "Momofuku Shrimp Stack" debuts, shrimp patty and all, June 10.

Andrew Zimmern ­goes for the goat with his relatively spare "AZ Cabrito Butter Burger," served June 11.

Here's Daniel Humm's ­namesake "Humm Burger," which debuts June 12. Fast-food enthusiasts may recognize it as a distant relative to Humm's old "Humm Dog," truffle mayo and all.

All of the deluxe, special edition hamburgers cost $8.50, with $1 from each purchase going to the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Shake Shack to Celebrate “Decade of Shack” in NYC from June 9th-13th [Official Site]

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Filed Under: shackiversary, andrew zimmern, april bloomfield, daniel boulud, daniel humm, danny meyer, dave chang, dominique ansel, hamburgers, shake shack