Food and Things » Manhattan

The Best Rugelach and Croisaants: Two New Bakery/Cafes Open on the Upper East Side

Laura Weiss — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:22:43 +0000

Rugelach via flckr by by Soup Spoon Blog

Two new bakery/cafes have opened in the last several months on the Upper East Side. Le Moulin a Cafe, a French spot on York Avenue between 76th and 77th streets, serves up some of the best croissants I’ve eaten in the city. Plenty specializes in homey desserts like rugelach and crumb cake, along with cakes and cookies.

Le Moulin a Cafe

Forget all those leaden faux croissants on offer at your neighborhood bodega. Instead, head for Le Moulin a Cafe. The cozy spot opened over the summer when it started dishing up croissants that are as flaky and tender as any I’ve had in France.

The reason? Nicholas Lecuq, the co-owner, imports frozen dough from Brittany. Lecuq’s chef then bakes the dough in-house. Who would think pre-frozen croissants could turn out so well?

The weekday morning I stopped by, the place was hopping. Stroller moms who had dropped their kids at the Lycee Francais de New York across the street, flooded the cafe’s tables. Neighborhoods folks were stopping by too. And I’ll bet there’s more than a few NY Presbyterian docs–cholesterol be damned—who are sampling Le Moulin a Cafe’s offerings as well.

In addition to pastries, there’s a menu of quiche ($10), salads ($11-$12), and entrées (skirt steak with fries ($21) and the like, and wine is coming soon.

Plenty

If it’s old fashioned cakes and cookies you’re hankering for, Plenty is your spot. Arrayed in glass cases, the pastries are pretty much like grandma used to make—and there’s a reason for that. Jessica Weiss, the proprietor and a lapsed MBA, earned her chops baking alongside her grandmother Hannah, one hell of a baker judging by the fare at Plenty.

The crumb cake was light and moist with a buttery, tender topping. Delicious but not for me. For me, the chewier and doughier the cake, the better. The rugelach? I wish that my grandma who’s ruglach were reliably uneatable, had taken some lessons from Hannah. Plenty’s were flaky and not too sweet, just about a perfect bite.

Along with these homey standards, Weiss also offers chocolate cake ($4.75), cinnamon sugar donut muffins ($1.75) and homemade Oreos ($2.50). There are whole cakes for $35-$40 that can also be ordered by the slice.

The place sports a few tables and you can purchase various coffees and teas to go with your pastry.

Le Moulin a Cafe
1439 York Ave
New York, NY
212 288 5088

Monday – 7 am – 9 pm
Tuesday-Thursday – 7 am – 10 pm
Friday – 7 am – 11 pm
Saturday – 8 am – 11 pm
Sunday – 8 am – 9 pm

Plenty
1457 Third Avenue (82nd Street)
New York, NY
212 628 2110

730 am to 730 pm 7 days/week

Cupcakes: Baked by Melissa Lands on the Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:23:10 +0000

Cupcakes by Baked by Melissa.

I’m all for mini-sweets. I like the fact that you’re ingesting fewer calories. I like the way you can pop one in your mouth on the run.

Baked by Melissa, a mini-sweets pioneer with her one-bite cupcakes, opened last week on the Upper West Side at 2325 Broadway between 84th and 85th. The place is all sleekness—floor-to-ceiling glass windows adorn the storefront, and inside, a long modish counter displays cupcakes like precious works of art.

Behind the counter are ranged chirpy teens who volunteer their favorite flavors. “Peanut butter,” said one. The other pushed the flavor of the day, Chocolate Caramel Cone.

I chose Red Velvet. The cake was moist and tender, just about perfect. The icing, however, was super sweet. Magnolia Bakery, housed just a few blocks away on Columbus Avenue, is tops on the sugar scale when it comes to overly-sweet cupcakes. Still, Melissa’s weren’t far behind.

Baked by Melissa

Various branches citywide

Milk Bar to Open on Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:20:24 +0000

Momufuku Milk Bar, NY. Photo by crunch1977 via flckr.

I love the Milk Bar’s pistachio layer cake. But the last time I was there, they didn’t have it any more. Maybe they’ll bring it back for their Upper West Side opening, scheduled for a September, says the West Side Rag.

Not familiar with the Milk Bar? It’s part of the David Chang empire and consists of outposts sprinkled throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Milk Bar features soft serve concocted to taste like cereal milk. I was never a huge fan of cereal milk and I don’t like it in my ice cream. But if you scoop up every last drop of milk from your cereal bowl every morning, then this is the treat for you. Other baked goods include the Compost Cookie® and Crack Pie®.

Click here to view Milk Bar’s menu.

Take the Zabar’s Lobster Salad Poll!

Laura Weiss — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:59:29 +0000

Want to voice your opinion (or is it outrage?) at the Zabar’s lobster née crayfish salad scandal?

Here’s your chance. Go to the West Side Rag to vote for your favorite new name for this now-notorious seafood concoction.

Zabar's lobster salad is really made with crayfish. Photo: West Side Rag.

Cupcakes: Baked By Melissa to Open on Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:40:05 +0000

Crains reports that mini-cupcake maker Baked by Melissa is opening an outpost on the Upper West Side. Yelpers give the bite-sized treats a generally solid rating.

The shop is slated to open at 2325 Broadway at 83rd Street. It’s the company’s fifth shop in Manhattan.

Cupcakes by Baked by Melissa.

Blueberry Pancake Eating Contest at Fairway Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:51:57 +0000

Blueberry pancakes are a snap. But if you’re too lazy to make your own. Or if you’ve turned your spatula into a back scratcher and your frying pan into a planter, then this Fairway blueberry eating contest is for you.

And if I’ve shamed you into cooking up some blueberry pancakes, here’s a great recipe from 101 Cookbooks. I use whole wheat pastry flour to make them extra-healthy.

Spices and Tease Opens on Broadway on the Upper West Side

Laura Weiss — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:01:41 +0000

Spices and Tease (no, it’s not a strip joint), a shop selling teas, salts and spices, will be opening on Broadway mid-summer. What a relief from the madly mushrooming Dunkin’ Donuts in the area. Located between 97th and 98th street, the new spice store will carry 30 varieties of homemade spice blends, an array of salts and 180 types of teas. Spices and Tease is actually a place I might frequent in the area above 96th Street, which is still somewhat of a retail desert.

Operating near Naples and in Paris and the South of France since 1933, the company has been selling spices, teas and salts in the US since 2003. Though the spice merchants have sold their wares at Greenmarkets around the city and at the Green Flea at 77th and Columbus, this is the company’s first retail location.

In addition to spices, salts and other items to purchase, the store will serve pastries and teas, according to its web site.

Some of the items for sale include:

fish and seafood spices
Moroccan Tajine Blend
18 different peppers
more than 13 types of gourmet salt
over 70 original spices and seeds
25 herbs and botanical plants
180 teas

Here’s a partial list of spices:

African Bird Pepper

Blue Poppy Seeds

Caraway Seeds

Cardamom Seeds

Cayenne Pepper Whole (Pili-Pili)

Fennel Seeds

Fenugrek

Green Anise Seeds

Herbes de Provence

Juniper Berries

Mustard Seeds

Nora

Nutmeg

Sage

Saffron

Star Anise

Turmeric

Vanilla Beans

Salts and peppers include:

Black Lava

Fleur de Sel

Green Hawaiian

Tomato Basil

Black Pepper

Cubeb Pepper (Java)

Green Pepper

Long Pepper

Teas include:

Green

Black

Fruit blends

Herbal blends

Spices and Tease

2580 Broadway
between 97th and 98th streets
New York, NY 10025

Upper West Side: All About Screme Gelato

Laura Weiss — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:42:19 +0000

A rainbow of gelato flavors in a Rome gelateria. Photo: Susan Toth.

Screme Gelato, which hails from Israel, typifies the globalization of the popular Italian variety of ice cream. With two shops on the Upper West Side and others elsewhere in the city, Screme is making inroads all over the city. And its story was featured in Ice Cream: A Global History (Reaktion Books).

The book, a look at ice cream's vibrant history worldwide, uses Screme as an example of gelato's growing worldwide appeal. Gelato was once made almost exclusively in Italy by family-owned concerns. These days, gelato has gone corporate. Large companies making bases and flavors supply gelato makers worldwide. What's more, anyone can be a gelato maker these days---even Israelis who adore ice cream of all types, and local influences are creeping into gelato. Sometimes variants--from Cookies and Cream to Peanut Butter, are supplanting traditional flavors like chocolate and pistachio.

Here's the excerpt from Ice Cream: A Global History (by yours truly):

In the summer of 2009, a new brand of gelato arrived in New York. In a bustling metropolis with thousands of outlets dishingup every ice cream variety imaginable – from classic vanilla to offbeat concoctions like bacon and egg – the debut of yet another ice cream purveyor caused barely a stir among the city’s ice cream aficionados.

But Screme gelato boasted a unique pedigree. The gelato maker hailed neither from Milan nor Rome, but rather from a country – Israel – far removedbfrom the hallowed traditions of Italian gelato making. In Israel, Screme (known as Aldo’s) had assembled more than 50 outlets. Though launched by an Italian gelato maker in 1993 Screme was soon taken over by a group of Israeli businessmen, who quickly rolled out flavours like halva and lemon to suit local tastes. When Screme opened its New York outlets, it took its ice cream in yet another direction, fashioning flavours like Captain Crunch, Reese’s Peanut Butter andKey Lime Vodka – tastes that were specifically engineered to appeal to American sensibilities.

‘The Italians are locked into standard flavors’, Screme’s owner Yona Levy maintains. Levy hasn’t hesitated to aggressively shunt aside centuries-old gelato traditions to create his unique kosher and organic offerings. In fact, it’s safe to say that Screme’s gelato variant – not to mention its rotating menu of more than 5,000 flavours – would utterly confound Italian ice cream traditionalists.

But Screme’s heterodoxy is not unusual. Around the world – from Berlin to Kansas City – globalization has transformed the Italian classic into a frozen dessert that more often than not barely resembles the traditional version. In fact, it could be asked: is today’s globalized version of gelato even Italian – or has it been reimagined into an entirely new, universal ice cream type?

Screme Gelato

2030 Broadway (between 69th and 70th Streets)

(212) 362-2111

176 West 94th Street

(corner 94th Street & Amsterdam)

(212) 663-1362

Screme @ Verdi Square @72nd Street

Coming soon.

Upper West Side: Henry’s Signs Up to Support School Gardens

Laura Weiss — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:09:59 +0000

Henry’s, an Upper West Side American-style pub, is one of twenty restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn to sign up for a program to give back a portion of each guest’s check to a citywide school garden program.

The program, which takes place June 24-30, is to support the efforts of Grow to Learn NYC, a government-private partnership to spur the creation of school gardens citywide. Some of the city’s top restaurants are participating, including Gramercy Tavern, Ma Peche, Northern Spy Food Co. and Back Forty. Many will be offering a special Greenmarket menu for the week.

Details follow:

School gardens get a boost in a week-long restaurant promotion.

Henry’s
2745 Broadway @ 105th Street.
NY, NY 10025
212 866 o600

H & H Bagels is Closing: Upper West Side Loses Neighborhood Icon

Laura Weiss — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:17:48 +0000

H & H Bagels is closing. What’s next? Zabar’s? But fret not, dear readers. The Upper West Side is now are home to the same chain and big box stores, from the Gap to CVS, that the rest of America enjoys. What will go into the H & H Bagels space? I shudder to think of the possibilities. For continuing coverage of the H & H story, visit the West Side Rag.