Restaurant Ice Cream to GoA handful of sit-down restaurants hoping to cash in on summer ice-cream cravings have started selling creamy, pastry chef–approved servings to go. We sampled their results, and offered our own superlatives.
The Box Back in Action; Smith & Wollensky Sold at LastThe Box is back in action and even hosted a corporate event last night for Virgin America airline, clearly meant to bring the venue one step closer to becoming a “cultural institution.” [Down by the Hipster] The $94.7 million sale of New York–based Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, which includes Quality Meats and Park Avenue Summer, to the national corporation Patina has been finalized, but there’s still no word on a timetable for Park Avenue’s fall makeover. [Nation’s Restaurant News] Related: The Secrets of Steakhouse Riches IsTop Chef’s Brian into threesomes? Of the kind less celebrated in popular culture? [Amuse Biatch]
Restroom Report
Bathroom Beef: Quality Meats vs. Kobe ClubOn limo-lined 58th Street, two nouveau steakhouses face each other in a bizarre game of Spy vs. Spy. The white spy: bright, cheery Quality Meats of the Wollensky empire, designed by the whiz kids at AvroKO. The black spy: Chodorow’s infamous Kobe Club, a noirish trip that resembles a Tarantino stage set. Each has its bag of trick s— QM’s meat-hook chandeliers! KC’s samurai swords!— but the nukes in their arsenals are, of course, the restrooms. After you’ve finished a 64-ounce growler of Quality beer or a $225 bowl of Kobe punch, you’re going to need to use ‘em. So let’s take a look.
The Other Critics
Money Can’t Buy You a Great SteakSteve Cuozzo takes Kobe Club and Quality Meats to task in today’sPost, complaining that they should serve more 28-day dry-aged Prime steaks, “the gold standard.” There’s a reason those restaurants’ steaks aren’t stellar, but their grade and how long they’ve been aged has nothing to do with it.
