Elliot Boblitt

From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Ivan Ramen's Slurp Shop is open, and it's good. Really, really good.

When my friends first moved to the far western edge of Hell's Kitchen a few years ago, there were nothing but fancy new apartment complexes, street vendor warehouses, and lots of cabs to take the folks who lived in those fancy apartments to neighborhoods worth visiting. But that was before Gotham West Market opened its doors a few weeks ago, serving up lunch and dinner food court-style. It's got a few high-profile tenants like Brooklyn-sandwich shop Court Street Grocers, a Spanish tapas joint called El Colmado, a burger joint called Genuine Roadside, and a few others.

But wander through the open communal seating throughout the complex and you'll notice one thing: almost everyone there has a bowl of ramen in front of them. It's not surprising given the amount of hype that Ivan Orkin has been building up through various pop-ups and events around the city for over a year now. Slurp Shop, as the Gotham West Market outpost is named, is the first and smaller of two shops he has planned for the city, his first two restaurants since opening up his now-legendary Tokyo back in 2007.

Interior.

Here's the thing about ramen in Tokyo: it's post-adolescent in a way that hasn't quite hit New York yet. It's gone through its phases of authentic rigor and regional stylistic adherence and has become what, say, pizza has become here: a framework. A canvas for which to work upon (don't believe me? Just check out what's going on with our community-submitted pizzas each week). That's not to say that there are no standards. Just as a wildly inventive pizza built on a flawed crust is going to fall flat, no amount of creativity can rescue poorly crafted noodles or broth lacking depth and technique. Ivan Ramen's thin, slightly wavy noodles, made by Sun Noodle (a.k.a. the Pat LaFrieda of noodles) using Orkin's recipe, cook in about 40 seconds and come flecked with bits of rye flour. They're consistently bouncy and fresh, an impeccable base to build a bowl on.

Rye-flecked noodles

The last great ramen rush in New York was all about the pork. Joints like Ippudo and Hide-chan made rich, creamy tonkotsu broth the standard. It's not until the last year or so that we've been dipping our feet into craziness that is modern ramen. Yuji Ramen brought us Italian pasta shapes made with ramen dough dressed with small dollops of wildly inventive sauces. Bassanova brought us the signature green curry ramen from their Tokyo shop. Slurp Shop goes even further astray, while still riffing on classic flavors, both Japanese and New York.

Classic shoyu ramen with added egg.

Glancing at the menu, you might not notice a few familiar items. Classic Shoyu Ramen ($13) is probably the most traditional of the lot, though it's a stretch to call it "classic." The broth base is similar to those in the other soups, made with a combination of chicken broth and dashi which then gets flavored with a soy sauce-based tare and a drizzle of flavored fat. It's lighter and more delicate than most ramen broths I've had. The bowl comes topped with a slice of slow-cooked pork chashu and a tangled nest of scallions. It's a solid, comforting bowl, but not the star of the show.

Vegetarian shoyu ramen

A vegetarian version of the shoyu ramen ($13) is more interesting, with a strong stock flavored with mushroom and seaweed along with a slick of what chef Mike Bergemann calls "vegetable fat,"—oil flavored with their house soffrito and seaweed.

Classic shio ramen.

Classic Shio Ramen veers even further off course, with a stock that's darker than you'd expect for a traditional shio (my Japanese mother even asked if we got the right dish after seeing its appearance). It's served with a dusting of powdered katsuobushi, the dried smoked bonito that is used to make dashi and is often served as a topping for tofu or rice. It's one of Ivan Ramen's signature moves and adds an intense umami smokiness to the dish.

Pork chashu.

If you want to bulk things up, very lightly marinated soft-boiled eggs can be added for a couple, as can an extra slice of pork belly chashu ($3). The pork belly comes served as-is, with none of the torching or grilling action you get at some other ramen shops, but it's faultlessly juicy, rich, and well seasoned. The most interesting add-ons are slow-roasted plum tomatoes ($2, Ivan Orkin might have found the only good use for those roast tomatoes that get pushed aside on a full English breakfast platter) and a chili garlic oil ($1) which is heavy on the garlic and light on the chili.

Roasted garlic mazemen.

Speaking of garlic, you might have read Brian Koppelman's short paean to the Roasted Garlic Mazemen ($13), which is probably the most talked-about dish at the restaurant, but not its best. Served in a near brothless style that Orkin invented at his Tokyo joint, the noodles instead come dressed in an intensely flavored sauce with a creamy texture. It's similar to the Triple Garlic Mazemen that I tasted at a dinner a couple months back, though the slurp shop version is missing the balance that pickled garlic brought to that dish. I miss that pickled garlic.

Roasted garlic mazemen broth.

Occasionally the broth can also be too creamy. With ramen, eating the noodles while they're still hot is always vitally important for their texture, but in this case, it's actually the texture of the sauce that suffers: If you don't get to the bottom of that bowl within a few moments of having it delivered to you, it thickens up into a starchy, almost paste-like consistency that plasters the remaining noodles together. On one occasion, the noodles came served in a bowl that was cool enough to thicken up that sauce before I even got halfway through them. Better bowl-heating would go a long way in smoothing out this occasional inconsistency.

Chili eggplant mazemen.

Of the noodle-based dishes, the most interesting—and my favorite—is the Chili Eggplant Mazemen, which goes the furthest into straddling the fusion line. Eggplant is slow-cooked in a tomato-based soffrito until it melts apart into a rich, noodle-coating sauce with plenty of flavorful oil added to the mix, making the dish something like an abura soba. The scallions on top come dusted with what looks like Japanese togarashi, but is actually smoky powdered chipotle peppers.

Slow-cooked pork donburi.

If there's one complaint that can be made about the ramen, it's the portion sizes. These are moderately-sized bowls that come sparsely adorned. Extra eggs, chashu, and toamato can bulk things up a bit, but Ivan Ramen is never going to be the kind of place where you can leave stuffed with a single serving of noodles.

If filling up is your goal, you're better off looking towards the Rice Bowls ($12 each), which I'm going to declare as the strongest part of a strong menu. Slow-cooked pork shoulder comes shredded in a rich, sweet and savory sauce served on top of rice seasoned with a puree of umeboshi (salt-preserved Japanese apricots flavored with purple shiso) and wasabi. Those slow-roasted tomatoes sit on top, along with some more of that flavorful oil.

Curry rice.

Curry Rice ($12), a Japanese lunch counter staple, comes served with a big sprinkle of lightly pickled radishes. Rather than a standard roux-based curry sauce, Slurp Shop makes their with a smooth puree of cooked cauliflower, apples, and other vegetables, leading to a lighter texture. Despite the strong taste memory, there was something lacking here—I longed for the super-soft chunks of potato and carrot Japanese curry typically comes with, and found the shaved ribeye to be an odd choice of protein. It's not a bad dish, but not as strong as the other rice options.

Smoked whitefish donburi.

That takes us to the Whitefish Donburi, one of the most surprisingly delicious things I've tasted all year. Has anyone done Jewish-Japanese fusion yet? (Yes, but still.) It starts with a warm rice base tossed with homemade furikake, a Japanese seasoning blend used to flavor rice. Their's has the standard sesame seeds, nori, and sweetened smoked bonito flakes, but augments it with ground fried onions. The rice comes topped with slivered cucumber, scallion, flaked smoked whitefish, and a dollop of salmon roe.

Stir it all up and each bite brings you a crazy burst of flavors and textures: sweet bonito flakes and crunchy fried onions coat bits of crisp cucumber. Hints of smoke come through from the whitefish, which melts into the rice. Salty salmon eggs burst against your tongue. It reminds me of the simple breakfast my Japanese grandmother used to serve us of white rice with jarred furikake and grilled cod roe, but with better balance, more excitement. (Sorry grandma.)

Negi salad.

The rest of the menu is comprised of a couple of sides: an excellent sweet-and-tart Negi Salad with pickled cucumber and scallions, and some eggplants in thick gravy that is tasty if a little stodgy.

Sweet and spicy eggplant.

It thickens up similarly to the garlic mazemen if you don't down it fast enough. For drinks, you have your choice of a refreshing yuzu lemonade, which is wisely mostly lemonade with just a hint of yuzu, Japanese barley tea (which I wish were brewed a little stronger), or the "Ivan Palmer," a 50/50 mix of the two.

I chatted with Ivan briefly after one of my meals (he floats around the dining room chatting with patrons in a very Paulie Gee-like way) and talked to him about the more exciting menu items, that whitefish donburi in particular. Good news: according to Ivan, the larger menu at his soon-to-open East Village shop is going to be greatly expanded in the realm of these unique Jewish-New York-Tokyo-style dishes.

If we've already dipped our feet into the craziness of modern ramen, Slurp Shop marks New York's first headlong dive, and it's fitting that a Jewish guy from Long Island is bringing it to us, leaving authenticity far behind in the dust.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Back on Thanksgiving, we noticed that a worker was painting over the Flea Market Cafe sign on Avenue A...



And that's the last time we thought about it… until EVG regular Bayou pointed out the restaurant's chalkboard sign from Sunday … with a new name — Ten Degrees Bistro...



Ten Degrees management made the announcement on their Facebook page back on Dec. 1.

To all our patrons & friends, we would like to announce that the bistro we purchased last Spring, The Flea Market Bistro, was finally approved a name change and hence forward shall be known as TEN DEGREES BISTRO. YAAY..so excited!!!!! ..we have fantastic new additions to the Brunch and dinner menu...

The folks at Ten Degrees Bar around the corner on St. Mark's took over operations of the restaurant ... with a reopening this past March.

Here is the Bistro's new menu.

Flea Market Cafe closed in August 2011 after all that arson business.

Previously on EV Grieve:
New-look Flea Market Cafe shows itself on Avenue A; reopens March 11

Flea Market Cafe reopens today, and here's the menu

Was the fire at Flea Market yesterday suspicious?

EV Grieve spotted this "street art" in progress at 12th Street and Avenue A, a faithful rendition of the poster for the forthcoming third season of HBO's Girls. But there's no way this hip, neighborhood-targeted ad makes it through the week night. ... More »

The Prospect Park Zoo welcomed five new endangered Chinese big-headed turtles. The little reptiles were born last month, which the Wildlife Conservation Society says is "the first time the species has successfully reproduced at a zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums." And they are so cute! [ more › ]

We come here to bury SantaCon 2013, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones—or it's embedded in super defensive, thou-doth-protest-too-much quotes in NY Times articles. "This is real street theater and I'm a fan of that," Sidney Oolongo told them. "We're supporting local businesses," argued Viking Santa. “For us, it’s a tradition, and nothing is going to stop us," said Amber Tyson, who travelled from Philly for the occasion. "I have on a shirt, actually," added Angelique Blake. [ more › ]

Photos by Bobby Williams

If Kickstarter was around in the early 1900s you would have seen things a little more innovative than the Grilled Cheezus, a birthday party, or a Spike Lee movie getting funded. And you would have seen a lot of things re-invented for the sole purpose of being able to utilize them while in bed (the bed piano and bed glasses, for example)—we were always lazy! But we were also always looking for a new way to battle the winter elements, and perhaps the most interesting example is the Blizzard Cone from 1939. Why wear a warming cloth mask when you can wear a plastic beak? [ more › ]

Several students and staff at a Chelsea high school were treated for injuries after a former student broke into the school and sprayed dozens with a fire extinguisher. [ more › ]

Just getting started…

Photo by @GeorgyGirlNYC

And with sincere apologies to Leonard Cohen.

-----

Moments later… via EVG reader Steven Sonnenblick…

Last year, a yoga studio in Chelsea phased out women and rebranded as Le Male Yoga, offering up all nude classes to a testosterone-fueled clientele. Le Male Yoga has now re-rebranded as Bold & Naked Yoga, and is welcoming women back into the fold—and along with them come women-only and coed naked yoga classes. But there's nothing sexual about it. [ more › ]

A cafe in Nice, France charges rude customers five times more for a cup of coffee than those who say hello and please.

"A coffee" will set you back €7, according to the sign, while "a coffee please" is a little more affordable, at €4.25.

If you want keep your expenses down, and stay friends with your local barista, however, the best option is "Hello, a coffee please," which will only cost you €1.40.

The manager says that although the pricing scheme has never been enforced, customer civility is up. Cheekiness is on the rise as well:

"Most of my customers are regulars and they just see the funny side and exaggerate their politeness," he said, adding "They started calling me 'your greatness' when they saw the sign."

(via eater)

Tags: economics   food   France

The fifth floor of the New Museum will be transformed into a spaceship next month. A simulated interior of a spaceship. For those with Space Camp dreams lingering over from the 1980s, this is even better than Carsten Höller's crazy slide that took over the museum last year. [ more › ]

From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: Lauren Rothman]

Dining meat-free in Chinatown can sometimes feel like a risky proposition: dishes listed under "vegetables" often sneak in some kind of pork, and if there's any kind of language barrier at all, it can be difficult to determine which offerings are totally vegetarian. And although much regional Chinese fare relies heavily on noodles, vegetables and tofu, oftentimes Chinese restaurants on these shores add meat to these dishes to accommodate American tastes.

Happily Spicy Village, a casual, popular and fast-paced sliver of a restaurant on Forsyth Street in Manhattan's Chinatown, offers a surprise number of vegetarian dishes on its tiny, focused menu, which relies most on superb, chewy wheat noodles of varying thicknesses, either dry-fried or served in soup. (Meat eaters can be contented with the excellent big tray of chicken and other specialties.)

On a recent evening, my dining companion and I snagged a table early—this place fills up every night, so it's a good idea to get there around six—and settled in for an overall brightly flavored and satisfying meal. When choosing an appetizer, there was some debate between us over whether Triple Salad ($4.25) was a misspelling of tripe salad, but a large pictorial menu on the wall cleared things right up: this small plate actually consisted of a tiny pile of cold smoked tofu drizzled with chile oil; spears of fresh cucumber pickles with a touch of heat to them; and a tangle of slippery, sesame oil-coated strands of briny seaweed. For me, this is the definition of what an appetizer should be: light but packed with flavor and a little bit of heat, to stoke the appetite for what's to come.

Both of the fried noodles dishes I sampled at Spicy Village were superb. First up was Egg and Tomato Humei ($5 and incredibly reasonable for a huge bowl), in fact kind of a brothy, soupy dish although listed under "Dry Hand-Pulled Wide Noodles." Those noodles came elaborately garnished with tender baby bok choy; shredded cucumber; and a pile of fluffy strands of scrambled eggs. The deep broth tying the whole dish together was sweet and buttery, featuring chunks of fresh tomato.

Perhaps an even better dish came next, Spice Scallion Red Oil Hui Mei ($5). I had absolutely no idea what to expect of this: this time, it turned out, those wide, chewy noodles came dressed in a thick, immensely flavorful sauce spiced with clove and star anise. They were topped, again, with emerald-green bok choy, and scattered with veritable handfuls of cilantro and chives whose freshness helped cut through the (welcome) oily richness of the dish.

I liked both of the soups I tasted at Spicy Village, but felt that their vegetarian-ness came through too strongly, the broth too thin and akin to water. Still, they both featured tasty, well-cooked ingredients and with their low price tags, more than sufficed. Vegetable Hui Mei ($5) was the weakest dish of the night, its broth far too wan, but the smoked tofu, dried mushrooms, and bok choy within all satisfied.

Steamed Vegetable Dumpling Sour Soup ($6) arrived in a huge bowl, 12 dumplings bobbing in a sea of again too-thin broth that was at least made somewhat more interesting by a healthy glug of black vinegar. I found the dumpling skins to be just a touch too thick and spongy where they should be thin and chewy, but was fond of the filling: shredded cabbage, mushrooms, carrots and dark greens, nicely punched up by a hit of fresh ginger.

Part of Spicy Village's appeal—besides its excellent noodles and super-low prices—is its setting: servers are warm and friendly, and within such a small space that gets packed so quickly, that helps create a fun, convivial atmosphere. It's a welcoming place to spend a cold winter night.

We're less than two months away from 400,000 of Real America's finest storming our shores for the big game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, and the MTA is ready. In addition to a countdown clock, New York and New Jersey have teamed up with Yoshiki Waterhouse of Vignelli Associates to ... More »

Noting a new sign along Tompkins Square Park… around the East Ninth Street entrance at Avenue A ... a popular site for people to dump a few tons of bread for the pigeons…

Of course, some Park regulars like the rats fat.

We are divided by an increasingly wide income gap. Often, this gap can be seen from across a street or park (even if we sometimes try not to look). The NYT takes us for a journey into the world of a homeless girl named Dasani in a multipart piece called Invisible Child:

On the Brooklyn block that is Dasani's dominion, shoppers can buy a $3 malt liquor in an airless deli where food stamps are traded for cigarettes. Or they can cross the street for a $740 bottle of chardonnay at an industrial wine shop accented with modern art.

Here's David Simon, creator of The Wire, on the two Americas:

I live in one, on one block in Baltimore that is part of the viable America, the America that is connected to its own economy, where there is a plausible future for the people born into it. About 20 blocks away is another America entirely. It's astonishing how little we have to do with each other, and yet we are living in such proximity.

Tags: David Simon   economics   USA

The New York Post's editorial board is absolutely incensed at the temerity of the New York Times for suggesting there is anything wrong with the city's homeless shelter system, which the Grey Lady did in a five-part series called Invisible Child. In a damning rebuke to the Times' year-long reporting ... More »

Here is something both neat and kind of depressing to look at: The NYPD's Information Technology and Telecommunications Department has released an interactive online map that allows New Yorkers to look up basic crime statistics by address, ZIP code, and police precinct. (Less comprehensive numbers have long been available in ... More »

Great news for bored New Yorkers looking to spice up their cockroach life: a new species of roach has been discovered in Manhattan, and this one isn't fazed by cold weather. The hearty new species Periplaneta japonica was discovered last year by an exterminator on the High Line; like most everyone else in that perpetually crowded elevated park, it ain't from around here. The exterminator immediately knew there was something special about it, so he sent several carcasses to the University of Florida for analysis. [ more › ]

In a sign of the increasing Georgeification of American baby names, the number of newborns named Cheese soared 450 percent this year. Admittedly, the above graph, from BabyCenter.com, shows that only nine American babies were named "Cheese" in 2013. However: (a) BabyCenter's data comes from a survey of about 500,000 ... More »

You know we can't resist a good, stylish IKEA hack. I'm talking about the ones that help your furniture become what the Scandinavian gods truly intended, fulfilling its destiny as super stylish decor. Multiply that by ten and you have today's post: 10 regular IKEA products that have been tweaked and wrangled into a different, more magnificent existence.

READ MORE »

When Senator Chuck Schumer's not busy sipping on Coronas with well-coiffed constituents at Williamsburg picnic tables or eagerly jumpstarting Hillary 2016, he's probably down in D.C. hanging out with his "frat" brothers. That's because Schumer and several other pols all live in a "rundown frat house" when they're down there, eating cereal together, sharing bathrooms, and skimping on groceries. Below, CNN gives you a peak inside the glittering world of political slovenliness. [ more › ]

If winter is going to insist on bludgeoning us with its icy winds and mid-afternoon nightfall, then it's best to pass the coming Months of Darkness away from the city and on the slopes whenever your schedule/aching limbs will permit it. Though no one except God and your acupuncturist can help with the latter, the NYC Snow Bus will make it easier to access the mountains without having to harass your designated friend-with-a-car. Have you ever lain down in the blackened slush to wrestle chains onto the finicky wheels of your ancient Volkswagen? The bus is easier. Riding a bull on amphetamines is easier. Scaling Mount Vernon while carrying a live chicken is easier. [ more › ]

The MTA is bringing back their gorgeous old train cars and buses for the holiday season once again. The subways hit rails and streets last Sunday, and will continue to every Sunday (from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) throughout the rest of December, bringing a little bit of romance back to mass transit... so please save your bad etiquette for the regular trains. From the MTA: [ more › ]

[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

I'm generally a purist when it comes to food—I'll take my burgers with onions and pickles and my cookies with chocolate chips, thank you—but I make exceptions now and then, especially when they involve Brussels sprouts, easily my favorite fall vegetable.

On the menu today: Brussels sprout grilled cheese sandwiches. And ok, we'll go ahead and add some caramelized onions in there as well, because it's cold outside and nothing makes me feel cozy like an apartment filled with the smell caramelized onions.

To get the brussels sprouts sandwich-ready, I first finely shred them so that they meld into the cheese and onions. I use a knife, but a mandolin or the grating disk on a food processor will work as well.

To get 'em nice and sweet while still retaining some crunch, I cook them over crazy high heat in a bit of olive oil for just a few moments until they're charred in spots.

If you're the type of person who keeps caramelized onions in their freezer at all times (you know who you are), you can go ahead and use those, or just proceed with whatever technique you normally use to caramelize onions, including my cheaty 15-minute version. But if you don't want to use that method, a quick light caramelization in a moderately hot skillet will work just fine. The sprouts bring plenty of sweetness to the table, so you don't need to go with the candy-sweet low and slow approach here.

For the cheese, I used a sharp Vermont cheddar (specifically, the awesome three-year-aged cheddar from Grafton Village Cheese, which has a great balance of sharp bite and meltability), though a Comté or an aged Gruyère would be great as well, evoking more of a French onion soup aroma.

I'm perfectly happy with American cheese on white bread (It's the type of sandwich I make most often), but sometimes fancy pants cheese and fillings call for fancy pants bread. I used some slices of a French boule that Ed brought back from Pain D'Avignon in Hyannis, MA. It's good stuff.

You know where you do want to go low and slow? When it comes to actually cooking the sandwiches. The longer it takes for those sandwiches to crisp up in butter, the more evenly they'll brown, the better crunch they'll get, and the meltier the innards will be.

Pressing down on the 'wiches with a pan as they cook will also help them acquire a more even, crisp crust. It should take at least 8 minutes to properly cook a grilled cheese sandwich, though longer is not unheard of.

(Though to be honest, it looks like I might have cooked this one a little bit too fast. See how the center is darker than the rest? Oops.)

I really love the way the charred Brussels sprouts work with the buttery crust and sweet onions in this sandwich. Even my wife wolfed hers down without complaining about the dogs smelling like onions (as she usually does when I caramelize onions at home). Looks like this one's going to stay on the menu here for a while.

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Get the Recipe!

In the wake of a spate of pedestrian and cyclist deaths during one terrible 30 minute period last week, the Department of Transportation today unleashed a 212-page study highlighting the many ways in which it has improved the roadways over the past several years. Among its many interesting charts and high-resolution photos, however, are a few pages dedicated to measuring the specifics of traffic fatalities—who is killed most often, contributing factors to crashes and what action is occurring at the time of the crash. [ more › ]

[Photograph: Bobby Fisher]

Roy Choi's recipe for brussels sprouts and kimchi in his new cookbook/memoir, L.A. Son, is a prime example of his effortless expertise in Korean fusion. He throws sprouts, butter, kimchi, lemon, and shiso all together in a hot pan for a dish that looks like a miss-mashed stir-fry but tastes like a dish that's been made by countless cooks for generations. The heat of the kimchi is tempered ever-so-slightly by the butter and the sweetness of the caramelized brussels. Shiso and lemon are a fine finish to the dish, adding bright herbaceousness to the vegetables.

Why I picked this recipe: Brussels sprouts are a staple vegetable for me this time of year, and cooking them with kimchi offered a nice break from more typical preparations.

What worked: I loved the fact that this flavor-packed side dish was so easy and fast to prepare.

What didn't: No problems here.

Suggested tweaks: To make this dish a full meal, consider adding fried tofu or a poached egg on top, and serve with rice.

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of L.A. Son to give away this week.

About the author: Kate Williams is a freelance writer and personal chef living in Berkeley, CA. She is a contributor to The Oxford American, KQED's Bay Area Bites, and Berkeleyside NOSH. Follow her @KateHWiliams.

From Serious Eats: New York

Alder's Beans and Toast [Photographs: Roger Kamholz]

To some chefs, serving brunch must feel creatively stifling. Even though the playing field presumably includes all of breakfast and lunch, there's an unshakable, pervasive sense that we diners are after a pretty narrow set of foods at brunch. And for every brunch favorite a chef feels compelled to include on his or her menu, a chance at innovation and surprise is stymied.

But Executive Chef Jon Bignelli and his kitchen team at Wylie Dufresne's Alder don't seem too hung up on the mores that constrict our notions about brunch. At the restaurant's newly launched Sunday-afternoon service, which began in November, they either play with our expectations or dispense with them entirely.

The dish of Pickled Beets ($13) aptly demonstrates their approach. The beet salad, a dining-world darling getting long in tooth these days, feels refreshed here by a blanket of sweet and fluffy coconut "ricotta"—in fact a dairy-free concoction of agar and fresh coconut. (Better brunch through science!) A sprinkling of cereal-like crunchy bits added textural complexity, although I couldn't discern where the Thai basil promised on the menu came into play.

Brunchers who lean towards savory will be much more smitten by the Scrambled Eggs ($16), which arrive beautifully prepared (with a hint of cheese, perhaps?) at the bottom of a bowl and topped with smoked brook trout and slices of grilled eggplant. I appreciated what seemed like unusual serviceware for scrambled eggs; the bowl allows you to easily dig around for perfectly composed bites of warm, fluffy eggs, delicately smoky fish, and earthy eggplant.

Brunch wouldn't be brunch without sides. Alder complies with this dictum, but not without thoughtful touches. The Tahini Yogurt Pine Nut Granola ($8) upgrades a typically uninspired brunch mainstay with a tautly conceived harmony of nutty, fruit, and cereal flavors. I'd happily eat a larger portion of this stuff.

No such subtle and subversive theatrics were present, however, in the puck-shaped Biscuit ($4), nestled in a streak of peach butter. It's not a bad biscuit by any means, just dull. It seems out of place among Bignelli's otherwise dynamic cooking.

Alder obliges the seeker of heartier sustenance (aka the hung-over) with Beans and Toast ($16), a superb and comforting riff on the classic English breakfast. A museum-quality fried egg crowns a bacon-studded scoop of tender baked beans, which themselves straddle a thick, chewy slab of brown bread. There's no chemistry to review here, just great ingredients speaking for themselves. And in the kitchen's restraint lies a big part of Alder's charm: not only is the place fun and relaxed, it doesn't sacrifice the goal of good food simply to cook things differently for their own sake.

From Serious Eats: New York

VIEW SLIDESHOW: Raffetto's is Your Century-Old Fresh Pasta Destination

[Photographs: Chris Malloy]

"A restaurant up the street, Jane, does one of the best dishes ever," says Sarah Raffetto, the blonde, blue-eyed 23-year-old in line to one day take the reins of her family's old-time pasta shop, Raffetto's. "The chef toasts gnocchi in a pan. They get crunchy on the outside but stay soft. Then they're topped in a truffle-cream sauce. It's stupid-good."

That should come as no surprise, because the gnocchi comes from Raffetto's. Sarah's family has been in the pasta business since 1906, when her great-grandfather started selling meat and spinach ravioli handmade in the Genoese style.

For a time, Marcello Raffetto sold only this ravioli, cheese ravioli, homemade egg noodles, and dry pasta at his Houston Street shop. (To make dry pasta, dough strands were shaped into nests, left to desiccate on baker's boards, and positioned under fans to speed things up.) New Yorkers developed a taste for fresh pasta in the 1970's, so Raffetto's moved away from dry and out into various fresh pasta flavors. Today, Sarah, her father (Andrew), and her grandmother (Romana) make 38 kinds of ravioli, four kinds of gnocchi, cavatelli, manicotti, tortellini, tortellone, 19 kinds of noodles in widths ranging from 12 inches to angel hair, and 13 sauces to put on them. The second, third, and fourth generation Raffettos are often all in the shop at once, and any one of them will hand-cut your long-strand pasta to-order.

The noisy machine that does the cutting stands in the middle of the room, back between the shop and kitchen. It has been in steady use in Raffetto's since 1917. "They stopped making this guillotine-style machine around World War II," Andrew says. "Modern pasta cutters do one sheet at a time. This thing can handle 40."

Bursts of its squeaking and churning punctuate the stillness of Raffetto's. A few customers typically browse the olive oils, prepared foods, cheeses, sliced meats, canned tomatoes, and other pantry items, and typically they'll leave with a few boxes of ravioli tucked under an arm. Raffetto's sells Italian pantry and specialty items, but is, at its core, a pasta shop. Other offerings simply serve to be eaten before, after, or with pasta.

During my visit, I ordered a pound of black pepper pappardelle. The cutter can't do inch-thick noodles, so Sarah fished a knife out of her pocket and diced up the dough sheet herself. I also got a pound of rosemary fettuccine, pumpkin gnocchi, and two bags of pasta from the Italian producer La Terra e il Cielo (whole wheat orecchiette and farro cavatappi), a cooperative of farms based in Le Marche, Italy.

Other noodle flavors include squid ink, saffron, mushroom, lemon, buckwheat, parsley-basil, chocolate, and chestnut, though the latter is temporarily out of action. "There's a chestnut shortage in Italy," Sarah laments.

That range reflects huge growth from the simple days of old. Some new flavors, like roasted red pepper, have come from customer suggestions. Some, like black pepper, come from chef requests. Raffetto's sells pasta to restaurants across the city, including Da Silvano, Il Mulino, and Po.

"Sometimes restaurants will ask for a special pasta," Andrew says. "We'll make it. Then the menu will change or the restaurant will go out of business, but the pasta will be so good that we'll keep making it."

At Raffetto's, the pasta is pristine and the price is right. For less than $2, you can walk away with a pound of the dry pasta displayed in glass behind the counter. It comes in uncommon shapes like strozzapreti ("priest-stranglers") and perciatelli (like bucatini, Sarah says, "but with a slight size difference"). For $3 and change, you can get a pound of handmade lemon or whole-wheat pasta, fresh-cut.

For pasta, sauces bubble on a six-burner range in the kitchen. "We're constantly making sauces: tomato-basil, marinara, Bolognese," Sarah says. "Meatballs and lasagna are always cooking. It's a perpetual wave of smells."

Two of the more intriguing sauces are a "pink" sauce, a vodka sauce made with cognac instead of vodka, and the walnut pesto popular in Liguria. Pre-made dishes like chestnut bread pudding, baked ziti Amatriciana, a solid and tomato-sauced polenta, and mozzarella salad come from family recipes. Sauces and prepared foods are available to-go. But to go into Raffetto's and leave without fresh pasta would be a travesty. Andrew even has plans for a new pasta shape. He just got equipment to make borsellini—pasta twists shaped like "little bags."
Today, the old-school pasta emporium is still evolving, and it will be interesting to see what new flavors are on the cutter tomorrow.

See more of the pasta operation in the slideshow »

About the author: Chris Malloy is a writer from the Philadelphia area. He has a Master's in Food Studies from Boston University. If you enjoyed this story, check out some of his other work.

A week ago, we gathered in Rebecca and Blake Edwards' barn loft in Purcellville to make herbal infusions together, as part of Kinfolk's 2013 Workshop series. It was a chilly good time. The day happened to be one of the coldest we've had this winter, and we were working in an uninsulated barn loft. We huddled around propane heaters, buttoned our jackets, and consumed lots of hot cider.

Kirk, our friend from college and husband to Lauren of Sweet Root Village, taught everyone about vodka infusions and how to make my new favorite drink: The Lion's Tail. This drink mixes allspice-infused rum, lime juice and bourbon...and it tastes like Christmas and everything yummy and wintry in a cup. I'll share the recipe next week!

I think I say it every time, but my absolute favorite part of these gatherings is the people. The people who partner with me to make the workshops happen. The people who gather from various places in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC, to learn together. The people who help set the tables when they arrive a few minutes early. The people who hold my little Zoe so I can greet guests. The people who put up with a chilly barn for the sake of having a good time and learning. The people who linger after the event is over and help clear tables and sweep the floor. The people with whom I've become friends. I host these workshops because of you all, so thank you! You've made it a blessing!

Some of the people who partnered with me this time around:
Lauren and Rachel from Sweet Root Village. They are basically awesome. They take the pictures. They set up flowers and greenery. They do everything and anything as needed and I'm grateful for their friendship!
Jen Olmstead from Tonic Site Shop...the graphic designer! For November, she designed the labels for our infused creations and a takeaway Lion's Tail recipe card. Jen worked with Korie from The Weekend Type, who hand lettered and drew the beautiful herb illustrations.
Sarah from Gordy's Pickle Jar drove out from DC, and we got to eat lots and lots of delicious pickles, and chill with Sarah. Can't wait to do it again next week!
Rebecca and Blake Edwards, who graciously opened up their home and barn for our use...
Melinda from Knead and Know, who baked the best bread I've ever had. And had it delivered immediately before the workshop. Warm. It was heavenly.
And Maggie from Inks + Thread sent me the natural hand-dyed napkins that adorned the table top. Ahh, such perfection in a napkin.

In just 8 days, I'll be teaming up with a new (and some old) group of partners (seriously, such a generous group of folks) to host what's going to be my favorite workshop of the year. It is, after all, the most wonderful time of the year! I really hope to see you there! We'll be learning about foraging for greenery, making wreaths and garlands from Sweet Root Village. I'll teach a few decor ideas, too. We'll eat a warm, wintry lunch. All in the fabulous Loft at 600 F in DC. You can read a bit more about next week's #kinfolkworkshop (and purchase tickets) here: www.kinfolk.com/events/.