Intel 9/29: Apple Watches At Union Square Cafe, If Candidates Were Ice Creams, And Alton Brown Has Some Words For You Gluten-Free Fanatics
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Ample Hills Creamery
Ice Cream for President
Ample Hills Creamery
Two “presidential candidate” flavors are now available from Ample Hills Creamery: Madam President and Make America Orange Again. Clinton’s flavor is inspired by two of her favorite foods — chocolate and hot peppers — and is made from chili pepper-infused chocolate with chunks of chocolate chip cookies from Hillary’s own recipe. “In sum: a powerful yet comforting combination of sugar and spice and women’s rights.” The Donald’s flavor, meanwhile, is described as a shamelessly orange marshmallow creamsicle flavor with chocolate brownie bricks (to build a wall). Best of all, it’s far more palatable than his political positions.” Both flavors are available for in-store purchase now through Election day at Ample Hills locations throughout New York City. Nationwide delivery is also available in the form of Scoop the Vote four-packs (2 pints of each flavor) for $40. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Michelle Obama’s education initiative, Let Girls Learn.
Hospitality Begins at Home
In a fairly groundbreaking decision, Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Blue Smoke, Maialino) will offer paid parental leave to its employees, which is essentially unheard of in the restaurant industry. Beginning in 2017, all full-time USHG employees who have been with the company for at least one year will be entitled to four weeks of fully paid parental leave, available to mothers, fathers, domestic partners, and adoptive parents. After the first month, employees will receive 60 percent of their wages for another six weeks. Shake Shack, which operates as a separate company, is not included in USHG’s parental leave program.
In another innovative move, Meyer recently announced that when Union Square Cafe reopens, all restaurant managers and sommeliers will be outfitted with Apple Watches to help them stay on top of guests’ needs. If all goes well, the program will likely expand to the rest of Meyer’s restaurants.
Archeologists Find 200-Year-Old Underground Pub, Unopened Bottles of Brandy
While working on the site of an upcoming skyscraper, archeologists found a 200-year-old underground pub in Manchester, UK, along with several full and untouched bottles of brandy. Recovered pottery from the area indicates that the pub was named Astley Arms, and its proprietor was a man named Thomas Evans. A site supervisor looked into Evans’ family history and discovered that the 19th-century barkeep has at least one living relative in Texas.
Alton Brown: “Shut Up and Eat the Food”
A typically private and reserved Alton Brown, host of shows like Good Eats and Cutthroat Kitchen, gets very direct in his latest interview, a profile in The New York Times. Brown addresses his faith, his recent divorce, and his irritation with America’s growing obsession with restrictive diets. Per the Times:
“I’m going to make you these chips,” he said. “You’re going to eat them and say, ‘Thank you.’ The time we spent together making them is a valuable piece of the hospitality equation. The taking in that equation is even more important than the giving. But here in this country, we have decided to replace ‘thank you’ a great deal with ‘I can’t eat that.’”
When he’s on a roll like this, it’s best to let him keep going.
“Unless you have a medical bracelet that says celiac, shut up and eat the food,” he said. “We want to be so special. We not only want to be special for our cooking, we want to be special for our eating. There are times when vegetarians should shut up and eat the pork chop.”
Woman Eats Pork Bun During Typhoon, Becomes Internet Famous
A woman stuck in the middle of Typhoon Megi — which has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from their homes and caused deaths in both Taiwan and mainland China — has provided a welcome moment of levity during this difficult week for China. The woman, who was photographed by an Associated Press photographer, can be seen holding a failing umbrella in one hand and eating a pork bun with the other.
Openings and Menu Updates
Saturday, October 1, is World Vegetarian Day, and you can celebrate at Narcissa at The Standard, East Village, with this new smoked shiitake and kale burger ($15).
Narcissa
Mew Men, a new ramen spot from the same team behind Atoboy and Her Name is Han, is now open in the West Village. On the menu: an assortment of ramen styles and small, shareable plates.
FInally, Mister Dips is now open at the William Vale hotel in Williamsburg. The chef is Andrew Carmellini and the menu features griddle burgers, waffle fries, and dairy dips like the Malter Cronkite and Hawaii Five-0. Located in Vale Park inside a retrofitted 1974 Airstream trailer.
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