Mile End Cookbook Coming in September

Mile End is the quickly growing restaurant concept of husband and wife Noah and Rae Bernamoff.  Their Hoyt Street location in Brooklyn has been on the receiving end of great reviews since it opened in January of 2010.  The success called for expansion and Mile End Sandwich opened a few weeks ago on Bond Street across the river. 

With an expanding empire, the Bernamoff's leased out a space in Red Hook from The O'Connell Organization this spring and use it to pump out smoked meat, cookies, pickles, and bread for both locations.

On September 4th, Mile End will get its very own cookbook, The Mile End Cookbook: Redefining Jewish Comfort Food from Hash to Hamantaschen.  It's broken down into Part 1: Do-It-Yourself Delicatessen and Part 2: To The Table.  It provides holiday entertaining menus, breakfast and brunch recipes, and advice on how to slice smoked meat.  Here's a sneak peak via Grubstreet.

Andrew Carmellini Plans French Restaurant in Former Chinatown Brasserie Space

The owners of Chinatown Brasserie announced they are closing their six-year-old restaurant on Lafayette Street today. Josh Pickard, John McDonald, and chef Joe Ng have plans to reopen in a smaller venue in the same neighborhood, where they feel the restaurant can be a better experience. Joe Ng will continue his duties as executive chef at West Village hotspot Redfarm. 

Josh Pickard is a partner with Luke Ostrom and Andrew Carmellini in Locanda Verde and The Dutch. Diner's Journal reports today that the powerhouse team is taking over the old Brasserie space and planning a French restaurant.

Mum will be much of the word while the project is in its infant stages, but we know Carmellini is well-versed in French cuisine. He worked under Gary Kunz at Lespinasse and with Daniel Boulud at Cafe Boulud.  It will be interesting to see what the partners do with the two floors at 380 Lafayette Street.

Three Stars for the Wandering Nomad

Pete Wells awards three stars to The Nomad.  The restaurant is "loose, alive, genuine, deliberate."  This is intentional.  "Daniel Humm and Will Guidara talk about modeling the restaurant on the Rolling Stones.  They went through a branding exercise, writing down words that defined the band."

Perhaps that's why the atmospher is "Fancily if impersonally decorated, like a Riviera home rented out to a rock band."

Wells finds the signature chicken for two as "the uncontested prima donna.  If served at a dark no-reservations tavern in the Village, it would be enough to put the place on the map."

"When things can go so right, you notice when they go even a little wrong."  This was sometimes the case with certain dishes, the flaws of which are "minor demerits for a kitchen that takes on as much as the NoMad's."  In addition to the 120 seats in The Nomad, the kitchen is responsible for room service and the five-course tasting menu that launched last week on The Nomad Rooftop, the hotel's alfresco sibling.

A hotel is not complete without a bar and The Nomad does an excellent job in this department. "The selection of cocktails, an entire fleet, is surely one of the best in the city."  The Turf Cocktail is "an absinthe-fortified martini that could easily become a habit, but it's probably not the kind described in “Sister Morphine.”"

The Nomad came up just shy of four stars.  "But while the NoMad seeks its tone, there are so many reasons for patience."

The Summer of Riesling Part Fünf

Summer of Riesling is a dedication to the acidic grape that thrives all over the world.  James Beard award winner Paul Grieco is the mastermind behind the 94-day event that kicks off tomorrow at 5pm at Hearth and all Terroir locations and runs through September 21st.

The festivities aim to educate the public on the diversity of the noble grape.  It will honor Riesling making regions such as Alsace, Finger Lakes, and Austria, with a seperate 31 Days of German Riesling dedicated to the country "where cultivation of the grape took place with the greatest focus historically."

The obsession with Riesling started in 2008, when Terroir Wine Bar opened in the East Village and only poured Riesling by the glass as their white wine option.  With over 30 choices, Terroir proved to be a Riesling library whose choices all showcased the grape's versatility.  In addition to the glass pours, Terroir was stocked with an additional 100 Rieslings from different producers in their cellar.  Their committment since has only grown.

If you take part in the event, you'll walk away with (fake) riesling tattoo's, shirts, buttons and "more Riesling info than Lady Gaga can store in her meat dress."

Maybe Bryan Adams should do a remix for the occasion: "I got my first real Riesling..."

The Air Up There

The Nomad Rooftop opened to the public last week and operates with a same-day reservation policy.  The decision to serve the $125 five-course tasting menu is dependent on the weather.  To purchase tickets, you have to create an account or log in to the restaurants website.

Unfortunately, TNR will not be open tonight, but Eater hints its downstairs brethren might be getting the Pete treatment in this weeks Times review.  Maybe Daniel Humm is the "those guys" Pete mentions in yesterday's tweet.

Donde Dinner?

Welcome to Donde Dinner?, a weekly feature where DigestNY does the work choosing your next dinner spot.

In this feature, DigestNY will pick a restaurant and post its address for you every Friday.  The catch is, the address is all the information we're giving you.  No name, no type of cuisine, and no googling allowed!  Price, quality, and accessibility are all being taken into concern, restrictions that result from trendy diets are not.  We promise not to have you waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails, and since we're not fancy folk, you never have to worry about a dress code.  Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

104 2nd Ave (btwn 6th and 7th)

The SHO Is Over

Executive chef Shaun Hergatt announced yesterday that he will be leaving the restaurant he started with Asher Zamir at the end of next month.  SHO Shaun Hergatt opened in Tribeca three years ago and has operated the past year with two Michelin stars to its name.

The Times points out that Shaun hopes to land in Midtown for his next venture, where he will take the name of the Tribeca resto with him.

In addition to New York City, Shaun Hergatt has won acclaim for his Asian-inspired French-executed cuisine at restaurants in Miami and Sydney.

Head to 40 Broad Street and get that great lunch prix fixe while you still can.  There's a two-course for $27 or a three-course for $33.

There's a New Pickle in Town

photo by craig cavalloShamus Jones started Brooklyn Brine in 2009. Their blog refers to the brand as the "Green Market of pickles." Always a locally driven brand, Brooklyn Brine relied on different commercial spaces around the city to make their products. Jones recently acquired a space in Gowanus and now Brooklyn Brine is a locally driven brand that works exclusively out of 574A President Street, where they make Curried Squash, Moroccan Beans, Chipotle Carrots, and a wide variety of pickles all under one roof.

Some of the pickles at Brooklyn Brine are barrel-fermented, which takes place in spent barrels courtesy of Finger Lakes Distillery. The signature whiskey sour pickles are made in old McKenzie Rye Whiskey barrels. BB currently has gallons of garlic scapes and ramps fermenting that will revealed when the venue begins holding classes in the coming weeks.