Second Annual Fatty Fest

I’ve always thought it was smart the way the Fatty Crab team expanded their empire from an outstanding-but-tiny downtown-NYC Malaysian restaurant to include a much bigger, more comfortable and cocktail-friendly outpost on the Upper West Side, a groovy and authentic Mexican restaurant, Cabrito, in the West Village, and coming this fall, a Brooklyn barbecue place: Fatty ‘Cue. But I saw an additional benefit to their expansion this weekend at the second annual, 24-hour, Woodstock-simulating Fatty Fest, at chef/owner Zak Pelaccio's country home in Old Chatham, NY—a.k.a. the company party. Cabrito supplied the homemade chips, salsas and roast goat (which was still roasting when some of us, who didn’t appreciate the pleasures of overnighting in a field in a sleeping bag, left the party); the Fatty Crab teams took turns marinating the lamb (also still roasting late-night, although it was possible to grab chunks of delicious charred meat from the spit); and the super-succulent roast pig was allegedly a preview of what they’ll serve at Fatty ‘Cue. Also convenient with FC’s empire building is the ability to easily divide up into uptown and downtown teams for a game of Fatty Touch Football (love that name). For the record, Fatty Crab downtown won the game 4-3.