Mouthing Off

Let's go over some frequently asked questions about the upcoming Son of a Gun restaurant from the epic chef team Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (with Animal chef Frank Anderson running day to day operations).

What's going to be on the menu?
For a start, the boys are thinking:

Sardines a la plancha with oyster plant, citron, sorrel
Santa Barbara prawns with plum mustard butter, radish
Baked clams "mafia style"
Geoduck, cilantro salsa verde, mandarin
Uni, carrot,  nettle curry vinaigrette, apple
Bottarga taramasalata
Fried chicken inspired by Chick-fil-A and Bakesale Betty
Pimento cheese fries

What's up with the name Son of a Gun?Says Dotolo:  "On boats, the space between the guns was used as a semi-private place for trysts with prostitutes and wives, which sometimes led to the birth of children with disputed parentage. Another claim is that the origin the term resulted from firing a ship's guns to hasten a difficult birth."

What's the seating situation?
Both reservation and walk ins for the big communal table. Wait until you see the banquette tucked right into the window.

Let's get some facts straight about the new restaurant from two of our awesome F&W Best New Chefs, Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook.

*It will be called Son of a Gun (cute story involving gun racks and prostitutes).
*The menu will be seafood. Look for versions of baked clams and lobster rolls; also look for funkier items like fish collars and halibut “feathers” from Animal chef Frank Anderson, who will oversee the SOG kitchen.

 

*Look for amazing Walton Ford art on the walls (it helps to know Benedikt Taschen). It will be juxtaposed with items, like inscribed life buoys, from Dotolo's grandfather's boat, Big Daddy. And fantastic old photos of a young Hugh Hefner holding up a giant marlin (men's room) and Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart with their own prize catch (women's room)
*Look for awesome cocktails from Lindsay Nader, deputy editor of F&W's forthcoming Cocktails 2011.
*Look for SOG to open in the next month for dinner; and for lunch a little bit later.

I try to start every year with an exotic, off-the-beaten-path solo vacation. My requirements: beach, decent surf, nature, a good local beer and supersimple, fresh food. On a late-night whim, I booked a flight to Nicaragua and mapped out an exciting four-day adventure. My friends cracked jokes about being on the lookout for Sandinistas, but we’re no longer in the 80s. Nicaragua in 2011 is all about fabulous, luxe ecolodges, unspoiled nature and… yoga (who knew!). I spent my first two nights at the new Jicaro Ecolodge set on a tiny island in Lake Nicaragua. Each of its nine suites has a deck that overlooks the lake (I ended each night there on my oversized hammock with a cold Toña, the local pilsner). There are more than 300 islands in Lake Nicaragua, and in the morning, Fabian, the resident naturalist, took me on a sunrise kayak tour pointing out the various herons and egrets and parrots hiding in the trees. The local fisherman we passed often supply Jicaro’s restaurant with their day’s catch; the restaurant makes a point of using as much local produce as possible. Meals are served al fresco overlooking the water and highlights included shrimp tacos, seared lake fish over cauliflower puree, bananas Foster pancakes with Flor de Caña rum and mocha bread pudding made with organic local coffee. Everything on the menu is available in half portions, which meant I could try more local dishes. Roberto, another local staffer, seemed to read my mind. While I lounged by the infinity pool, he’d appear with a cookie as a midday treat or would bring me red bean hummus and vegetables to snack on just as I was getting hungry. Jicaro often hosts yoga retreats with teachers like guru Cyndi Lee, but can also schedule private lessons on the spectacular yoga deck with local instructors from Pure in Granada. My instructor, Warren, gave me his cheat sheet for what to scope out in Granada on a Sunday. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

“The Jets will make it to Texas,” predicts superchef Mario Batali. “Not to cook but to play!!!”

Mario also plans to be in Texas for Super Bowl XLV. Not just to watch the Jets (fingers crossed) but to cook. Specifically, to cook for what sounds like the best pre-Super Bowl party in history, in support of both the Mario Batali Foundation and The Moyer Foundation, both of which benefit children in need. Here are details.

WHO: Batali and Texas star chef Tim Love with co-chairs Emeril Lagasse and Guy Fieri. Plus Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer and Texas Rangers pitcher Tommy Hunter.
Says Mario, “It’s gonna be an all-out football hang with Emeril, Guy, Jamie Moyer and Tommy Hunter, eating, drinking and making Tex-Italian snacks with Tim Love.”

WHO ELSE: Alt-country stars Her & Kings County will perform!

WHAT: The ultimate Spaghetti Western with Batali cooking Italian and Love cooking urban Western, plus cocktails, silent and live auctions and maybe a few surprises.
Says Mario, “There will be a cage-match cooking demo with all of us involved: Some of us have greater capabilities than others.”

WHERE: Love’s famous Love Shack So7, Ft. Worth, Texas

WHEN: Friday, February 4, 2011, 5 p.m.

HOW: Tickets for the limited-space event are $500 per person. To RSVP and for more information, go to www.moyerfoundation.org/events or call 206-298-1217.

It’s such a good time for food lovers who also love movies. From Julie & Julia to It’s Complicated, the food on-screen has been the kind that makes you crazy hungry. And now there’s The Dilemma, the new Ron Howard movie that notably features Vince Vaugn making a toast in the Chicago restaurant Sepia (as all the blogs have noted, Sepia plays a restaurant called Sepia). Sepia’s executive chef Andrew Zimmerman, who has a cameo as a line cook reprimanded by chef Jennifer Connelly (“I was smart enough to stand next to her so I wouldn’t get cut from the film” he says), did the food styling for Vaugn’s toast scene at the end of a big meal. There was a learning curve, he reports. He started off preparing food that looked nice. “No,” said the movie prop master. “Make food that looks like people have been at it. And don’t make it taste good or the extras will eat it all.” So Zimmerman put aside his years of training in making food look and taste delicious and instead made a mess with half-eaten chocolate cakes, rivers of crème anglaise and raspberry sauce. “And I threw some melted ice cream in there, too,” he says.

Boy do I wish I were a Park City, Utah, restaurant critic. Or a celebrity with a new film to promote right now. Last week we heard Michael Voltaggio would be cooking at the Sundance Film Festival. And now, here come my heros on L.A.'s Kogi taco truck, too. The truck will be at the Lift in Park City for two nights serving its exceptional tacos, like short rib, spicy pork, chicken and tofu. While Voltaggio is cooking breakfast and lunch, Kogi will make sure that all the late-night eaters are covered, too.

As a rule, I disapprove of restaurant reviews that come before a place has fully opened its doors. So let’s not call this a review of Niko, the Japanese spot in the former, iconic Honmura An space in New York City’s Soho; after all, it isn’t even open yet. Instead, let’s call out what was great about Niko on the very first night of its soft opening.

Crispy Maine sweet shrimp with Sriracha salt. The shrimp were supercrispy, and that little pile of salt (made with dehydrated Sriracha chile sauce) alongside was genius.

Miso-charred octopus. Every octopus should be properly charred with miso glaze.

Crispy Tokyo chicken. Co-owner Cobi Levy says he’s been eating fried chicken for 21 days straight in search of the ideal crust (thanks, Cobi). He serves his with an elegant ginger dipping sauce (as well as a honey-mustard sauce that I pretended wasn't there).

Local hero Josh DeChellis is back preparing Japanese food (the Sriracha salt is his). A sushi chef fresh from Sushi Yasuda behind the sushi bar. Master sommelier Laura Maniec with a bottle of rose Champagne in her hand. Torrisi’s Mario Carbone at a banquette in the back. Nate Appleman, an F&W Best New Chef 2009 and Chipotle’s new burrito maker, at the sushi bar.

 

I was a little bummed watching the BCS Football Championship last night. For starters, Oregon State lost in the final minutes of the game to Auburn. Even sadder was that the loss marked the end of Monday night football, at least until next season. Luckily, the team at NYC’s Anfora wine bar has found a way to fill my Monday night void. Last night, Anfora hosted its first Raclette Cheese Night. Each Monday, the wine bar will serve raclette in true Swiss style, with heat lamps for melting and plates of bread, boiled potatoes, pickles and charcuterie for dipping. Sommelier Joe Campanale will be pouring unusual white wines, from producers like Jacques Puffeney, to pair with the cheese. I can’t think of a better way to shake off my post-Monday-night-football blues—and get excited for my upcoming snowboarding trip to Switzerland.

Restaurant openings are crazy – just ask Michael Voltaggio who is consumed with his upcoming Los Angeles restaurant Ink. But he’s still going to this year’s Sundance Film Festival to cook at the VIP café The Lift in the heat of the action on Main Street. That’s great news for all of Sundance’s hard-working celebrities (and anyone else with a credentialed VIP pass like filmmakers and studio execs) who historically haven’t had a lot of great food options at the festival.

For those lucky VIP pass holders, Voltaggio will be serving both breakfast and lunch. For breakfast: bacon and eggs with Japanese flavors  (poached eggs and braised pork belly with burnt scallion oil and soy caramel). For lunch, his version of chicken shawarma, with pressed chicken thighs, yogurt spheres, fried chickpeas and black-garlic puree. My question: how do I get a Sundance VIP pass?

Maybe some people have moved on from New Years Eve. Not me. That's because I got to ring it in at the super-duper deluxe, just-opening Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. I wasn’t alone. A Coldplay/Jay-Z concert always draws a good crowd, including just about every celebrity you can think of. And they were all eating their last meals of 2010 at the Cosmopolitan's awesome new restaurants.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill The night before New Year’s Eve, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alex Rodriguez and Cameron Diaz all sat down together at the first Blue Ribbon to open outside of NYC. (I'm sure Kanye would have been at the table too, but he got to Vegas last minute for the NYE show.)

Holsteins Kirsten Dunst and Giada de Laurentiis both had lunch at the casual burger, shake and beer spot on NYE. The next day, Coldplay band members, Paltrow and her kids all snacked on burgers and shakes there.

STK At the sleek outpost of the NYC steakhouse, John Mayer and actors BJ Novak and Kellan Lutz had dinner prior to the concert. (Mayer was powered enough to go stage with Jay-Z for "99 Problems".)

Comme Ça Also before the concert, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and their kids took over the private dining room of the French bistro from F&W Best New Chef David Myers.

More on the Cosmopolitan restaurants, with or without celebrities, coming soon.