MARIANI’S
Virtual
Gourmet
Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake in "Sullivan's
Travels" (1941)
❖❖❖ IN THIS ISSUE DINING OUT IN RALEIGH, NC Part Two By John Mariani NEW YORK CORNER ONE BIG, ONE SMALL: TWO NEW STEAKHOUSES FOUR CUTS and EMPIRE By John Mariani ❖❖❖ DINING OUT IN RALEIGH, NC Part Two By John Mariani La Farm Bakery It’s
to be expected that a major Southern city like
Raleigh, N.C., would have a strong traditional
basis for its food.
The fact is, you have to do a bit of
research and ask a lot of questions to find what
you might think of as old-fashioned, down-home
fare in the South.
Barbecue smoke is not pouring out of every
downtown storefront, there are more KFCs and
Popeyes than there are indigenous fried chicken
places, and really great biscuits are hard to
find.
As I noted a few weeks ago about
Raleigh, the city is very much on the move and has
grown a crop of first-rate contemporary and ethnic
restaurants, although it is woefully lacking in good
Italian places to dine. And now there are some
terrific bakeries and cafés, along with the kind of
down-home places you might have thought would be
everywhere in town.
On a recent trip to Raleigh, I found all I
was looking for.
For something very traditional
indeed, your first stop in town should be for
breakfast or lunch at Big Ed’s City Market
Restaurant, founded in 1958 by Ed Watkins, whose
family once produced tobacco and other crops in Wake
County. As
part of the revitalization of the City Market in
1989, Watkins was coaxed downtown, where his wide
open dining room has all the trappings of what you’d
hope to find in a Southern city like
Raleigh.
THE
PIT
The Pit, in Raleigh’s
warehouse district (with a branch in Durham), is a
lot more than a barbecue joint, for it has an
extensive menu of other items and is warehouse-large
in size. But
the premises are built around whole hog pit cooking,
with all the pigs used raised in North Carolina
using free-range farming practices.
LA
FARM BAKERY
La Farm Bakery has a unique
charm, for in Southern cities you don’t usually find
such serious bread and pastry making based on French
classic models.
But after
years traveling the globe in search of bakery
secrets, including the artisans’ guild Les
Compagnons du Devoir, Lionel Vatinet (right) and his
wife, Missy, were smart enough to see a niche in the
Research Triangle and filled it handily back in
1999. The
place has rarely seen an empty chair since.
Wedged into a nondescript
strip shopping center, La Farm offers 15 different
styles of daily breads and an additional 20 seasonal
breads throughout the year, all slowly leavened over
three days and baked in a European-style hearth
oven. It’s
the smell of that bread baking that hits you when
you open the door. The
Vatinets proudly use only local flours, honey, jam
and ham, and the taste of the South is truly in
everything they produce.
LUCETTE
GRACE ❖❖❖ NEW
YORK CORNER
❖❖❖ONE BIG, ONE SMALL--TWO
(MORE) NEW STEAKHOUSES
By John Mariani Empire Steakhouse
A quick count of
new, high-end steakhouses to open in Manhattan
just in the past eighteen months comes to 16,
added to the dozens more dotting the island
and the other boroughs. And
in NYC, whose real old-timers like Peter Luger
and Palm were the first to serve USDA Prime
beef straight from the meat packing district,
that the competition to get the best quality
beef is at its most fierce. Such quality is
never cheap.
EMPIRE STEAKHOUSE
The
new Empire Steakhouse (the first is on West 54th
Street) has taken over the historic premises of
what was once a 1920s East Side opera house,
then a famous and lavish nightclub called
Versailles, where chanteuse Edith Piaf performed
in the late 1940s and which also played host to
the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, Bob Hope, Dean Martin,
Jerry Lewis and many other top bananas of the
1950s. Back then you could even have your
fortune read by Doris the Palmist. Open for lunch and dinner daily
FOUR
CUT STEAKHOUSE NY
The
opposite of Empire in size is the intimate and
ingratiating new Four Cuts NY on First Avenue,
which, ironically, also took over a Middle
Eastern restaurant. Executive
Chef Christopher Miller, previously at Bobby
Van’s and Ben Benson’s, knows every aspect of
cooking a great piece of beef, and he calls this
a “boutique steakhouse” in Sutton Place for its
size and cozy charm. I would use the rarely
cited word “smart” for its walnut designer
chairs, a garden wall, white tablecloths, excellent
lighting, wall of faux books, and its cheery
striped banquettes. This is not the typical,
raucously loud steakhouse found so easily
elsewhere, and all-around manager, captain, wine
advisor and raconteur Gregory Edgehill is as
congenial a fellow as you’ll meet in a NYC
restaurant. Open for
lunch and dinner Tues.-Fri, for dinner
Sat.-Mon.
“Newly opened
Coda Restaurant Group spot SRV may sound like a new
class of vehicle or a disease you don’t want to catch,
but in reality pays homage to the Serene Republic of
Venice.”—Debra Furst, “Venice Comes to Boston,” Boston Globe
(1/28/16).
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com. I'm proud and happy to announce that my new book, The Hound in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books), has just been published through Amazon and Kindle. It is a novella, and for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance, inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find this to be a treasured favorite. The story concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise. But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring back his master back from the edge of despair. WATCH THE VIDEO! “What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw “He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906. “John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister. “John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury. “Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment. ❖❖❖
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites: Everett Potter's Travel Report: I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las
Vegas JOHN CURTAS has been covering
the Las Vegas food and restaurant scene
since 1995. He is the co-author of EATING LAS
VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants (the
fourth edition of which will be published in
early 2016), as well as the author of the Eating Las
Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani, Misha
Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Andrew Chalk, Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Dargery, Bobby
Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
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