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Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
A New And Celebrated Chef Makes The Very Good Basso 56 Even Better As Basso By PXK In Chappaqua, New York
The dining rooms at Basso by PXK are spacious and well lighted in modern decor. When Basso 56 debuted last year in the New York suburb of Chappaqua, I wrote that it was 'a classic Italian ristorante finely appointed, impeccably served and outstanding for its largess, and as far as one can get from the cramped, raucous, very expensive Manhattan and Brooklyn faux-trattorias that pop up and flare brightly until the crowds move on.' Sammy Ukaj and Sherif Nezaj with chef Peter X. Jelly Basso 56 was doing well enough, but partners Sherif Nezaj Sammy Ukaj saw an opportunity to bring the level of its cuisine higher and to get some publicity this spring by making chef Peter X. Kelly part of the team, changing the name to Basso by PXK. Now the place is packed every night by those well familiar with Kelly's reputation as one of the area's finest chefs. Born in Yonkers and raised in Croton-on-Hudson, Kelly went off to France to stage at various restaurants there. He returned to the U.S. at a time when New American Cuisine was in ascendance and young chefs were getting the spotlight. He opened the highly creative Xaviar's in Piermont, New York, and a few other more casual places in the region, including X20, a two-story restaurant in 2008 that was part of Yonkers's downtown development project on the city's Hudson River waterfront. Business slowed after Covid and Kelly closed the restaurant, which Nezaj and Ukaj saw as a golden opportunity to enhance Basso 56. And the transformation in the kitchen has put the restaurant at the top of those in Westchester and would handily compete with the best Italian restaurants in Manhattan. Summer's soft-shell crabs are served with guanciale and chives. The airy, high-ceilinged white dining rooms are largely intact, the wooden floors polished, the tables set with good linens, the lighting excellent. There is a fine bar in one room and a wall of wine bottles that stock a first-rate list. The regular menu contains a lot of the favorite dishes from the Basso 56 days, but Kelly puts his soul and his four decades of experience into the specials, which our party of four allowed him to choose, beginning with a satiny carpaccio of sea bream with chile pepper yuzu kosho, smoked trout roe a and a touch of mint––not very Italian but very, very good and delectabile on a hot July evening. Another carpaccio, this one of very flavorful octopus, was treated to a Calabrian chile oil. Sea urchin butter tops fresh pasta. The summer's first sweet white corn and fregola grains were the base for crackling crisp soft shell crabs served with thin slices of guanciale and chopped chives. Refreshing and creamy was a roasted golden beet salad and ricotta whipped with honey and pistachio. Saline Prosciutto di Parma was a fine foil to warm burrata with a yellow beefsteak tomato and a drizzle of balsamico. From the set menu were deftly fried calamari with zucchini lashed with lemon and served with a spicy tomato and garlic aïoli. Keeping to the seasonal tenor, there was warm shrimp salad with slices of black truffle and an unusual dressing of Prosececo wine with avocado and tomato. Lentils and asparagus with lemon crumbs and mustard were the ballast for salmon, which that night was somewhat bitter. Jumbo sea scallops quickly and impeccably cooked, took on sweetness from golden raisins, saltiness from capers, texture from pignoli and vegetal flavors for a roasted cauliflower puree. Pappardelle noodles with braised lamb sauce. We sampled three pastas: black and white housemade spaghetti with shrimp, calamari and clams with sweet cherry tomatoes and garlic; wide pappardelle noodles lavished with a rich ragù of braised lamb topped with pecorino and rosemary crumbs; and spaghetti alla chitarra with pleasingly mild sea urchin butter, shrimp and citrus crumbs. Superb red snapper with herb butter, mushroom ravioli, peas and steamed asparagus was a little overloaded, but a branzino fillet dusted with summer's fragrant herbs came with roasted delicata squash and potatoes moistened with olive oil. When Kelly stays simple he still delivers big flavors, as with a grilled veal chop with mushrooms and a Georgia pork chop with Calabrian chilies and a lovely apricot glaze. Chocolate "salami" with zabaglione Duckling two ways is hefty enough to serve at least two or more people. You get leg confit and breast cooked rare and served with a well-rendered sabayon flavored with Marsala and sided with mushrooms and polenta blended with mascarpone. Desserts are also well crafted, from chocolate 'salami' studded with pistachio nuggets and a creamy zabaglione; a delicately flakey millefoglie with vanilla and lemon curd; warm bread pudding with a limoncello cream and hazelnut gelato; and one of the best renditions of tiramsùs I've had in a while. I would have been happy going to Basso before Kelly arrived, but now that he has I applaud his addition and the commitment Nezaj and Ukaj have made to create something special out of what was always very BY PXK 11 King Street Chappaqua NY 914 861 2322 Open nightly for dinner.
Eater
6 days ago
- Business
- Eater
April Bloomfield Will Return to Manhattan to Take Over One of Downtown's Buzziest Hotel Restaurants
April Bloomfield is returning to Manhattan. The chef will oversee the restaurants at the Nine Orchard hotel, taking over Corner Bar, its flagship lobby restaurant on the Lower East Side. According to Community Board 3 documents, hospitality group McGuire Moorman Lambert (MML) is taking over Nine Orchard's restaurant, the lobby bar, and potentially the rooftop. Bloomfield's return to Manhattan is part of her new role with a Texas-based restaurant group. (Whether they have purchased the hotel or are taking over as operators is unclear.) MML is behind a collection of Austin restaurants that include an oyster bar, a bakery, a hamburger joint, a sushi spot, a cafe, and a Tex-Mex diner that have expanded outside of the Texas city into Houston, Aspen, Colorado, and San Francisco, with plans to expand several of these into Dallas. Bloomfield's first focus in Austin is to revamp California-inspired Pecan Square Cafe and the fifty-year-old fine-dining steakhouse Jeffrey's in Austin, as reported by Texas Monthly. The liquor license application submitted to CB3 outlines plans to operate a 'New American restaurant with an emphasis on seasonal cooking,' open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to midnight, with a maximum of 68 tables and a bar area. (The application notes the building, which includes multiple restaurant areas, seats potentially over 400, with more than one bar, too.) Bloomfield's exact menu and opening timeline have not yet been announced. Eater has reached out to the group and Bloomfield for more information. A spokesperson for MML declined to comment. The MML takeover lands in a building that has had its share of recent restaurant drama. Corner Bar opened in 2022 with chef Ignacio Mattos — behind flagship Estela, the more-casual Altro Paradiso, and Rock Center Italian Lodi — at the helm. It drew immediate buzz and a two-star New York Times review for its white-tablecloth take on downtown dining. Former Eater critic Ryan Sutton called it 'the next great steakhouse.' Less than two years later, Mattos parted ways with the hotel, and the restaurant lost its buzzy namecheck leadership. What's now called the Swan Room, also on the ground floor of Nine Orchard, was intended to be Mattos's much-awaited fine dining tasting menu restaurant at the hotel. Initially, it was called Amado, then Amado Grill. Despite being fully designed and ready to go, after several false starts, it never opened. At the time, sources told Eater that Mattos' exit followed internal tensions with the hotel's former owner, Andrew Rifkin, a managing partner at DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners. And now, MML's recent purchase clears the way for a new team — and Bloomfield — to take over. News broke in May that Bloomfield would join the Austin-based group while she would continue to steer the kitchen at the acclaimed Sailor in Brooklyn, which she runs with restaurateur Gabriel Stulman, behind restaurants like Fairfax, Joseph Leonard, and Jeffrey's Grocery. The Nine Orchard endeavor is separate from Stulman's Happy Cooking Hospitality Group. Stulman and Bloomfield are also expanding Sailor. Since the Bloomfield announcement, Sailor has installed a new executive chef, Skylar Mosca. MML has a history of taking over hotels and revamping them along with their on-site restaurants and bars. There's the storied Austin Motel, where the company opened Joann's Fine Foods in what had been the hotel's longtime restaurant space. They followed that up with St. Vincent Guest House, which became the Saint Vincent Hotel in New Orleans. Currently, the group is beginning to transform the historic Austin hotel, the Driskill where President Lyndon B. Johnson held his presidential reelection watch party back in 1964. Bloomfield will lead the restaurants there, too. 'Bloomfield will play a pivotal role in upcoming MML projects,' the hospitality group wrote in a statement announcing the partnership back in May. The chef rose to one of the city's most recognizable culinary names in the aughts with the now-shuttered Spotted Pig. She reemerged on the scene in 2023, to mostly celebration following her role in one of the biggest restaurant scandals of the #MeToo era. It led her to close restaurants, including the wildly popular Spotted Pig in the West Village, as well as others she ran in partnership with Ken Friedman. This would not be her first hotel restaurant, having also overseen the Breslin at the Ace Hotel in Nomad, which has since closed. Eater crowned Sailor as one of the year's best new restaurants in 2024, addressing Bloomfield's personal transformation as well, saying that 'it represents the return of chef April Bloomfield to New York and the British-inflected cooking that made her name.' In his three-star review of the restaurant in The New York Times, critic Pete Wells declared that Bloomfield is 'cooking the best food she's ever made.' He went on to say that the 'understanding of her craft has deepened since the crack-up. She is now one of the most expressive cooks in the city,' and that 'she's found flavors nobody else seems to know how to reach.' Nine Orchard opened in 2022. It is a landmarked former bank circa 1912, originally rumored to be an Ace Hotel, the New York Times reported. The hotel was one of the biggest real estate deals in the area, which has expedited gentrification and the transition of the border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side to 'Dimes Square.' It was purchased in 2011 for $33 million.
Eater
08-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
Inside Wrigleyville's New Brewery Serving Up Taters Spliced With Bulgolgi
It's been seven years since Hotel Zachary opened across the street from Wrigley Field, and the building's tall shadow has led to a transformation surrounding the Friendly Confines. Wrigleyville is no stranger to turnover among its bars and restaurants, but as icons like John Barleycorn, and yes — the original Taco Bell — met their demise, it's left an opening for a different type of nightlife to emerge along Clark Street. In the middle of this chaos, beer consumption has changed in America. And that's why Pilot Project Brewing isn't banking on hops alone. The Wrigleyville location should soon debut at 3473 N. Clark Street; ownership is waiting for its liquor license, according to a rep. It's the second Pilot Project to open in Chicago, following the original brewery in Logan Square. There's also a Milwaukee location. Pilot Project serves as an incubator of small brewers, leasing out its space and equipment to jump-start businesses and offering beers from different brands inside its taproom. The Wrigley location takes that a step further with a new food menu. Earlier, ownership peculiarly described the menu as 'neo-American street food' without teasing any specific items. It turns out that means dishes like Italian won tons, soup dumplings in a bath of pozole, and loaded tater tots with pieces of bulgogi. It's more or less food made by third culture kids, combining the food their immigrant parents grew up eating with food commonly found in American homes. It's a version of New American tweaked for the bar. Beyond the souped-up menu, Pilot Project is also serving glasses of wine and canned cocktails from its own brand, Devious. Tour through the 3,000-square-foot space — which includes patios on the roof and ground floor — in the photos below. Pilot Project Wrigleyville, 3473 N. Clark Street, opening soon Eater Chicago All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The ground-floor patio provides an escape from busy Clark Street. The rooftop patio is more chill. A view of Clark Street from the rooftop patio. This brewery will also serve glasses of wine. Donna's Pickle Beer is one of Pilot Project's success stories thanks to a tart taste that's great on hot days. Black Manhattan
Axios
08-07-2025
- Business
- Axios
Restaurant Roundup: End of an era for Café and Bar Lurcat
Café and Bar Lurcat, the upscale restaurant that's served New American food with views of Loring Park since 2002, is closing its doors Sept. 5. Ownership group D'Amico & Partners did not cite a reason for the closure in the press release. Yes, but: Beginning July 8, the restaurant will serve an a la carte menu of "Lurcat Classics," with fan favorite dishes from its 23 years in operation. Plus: Lurcat posted the recipe for the beloved apple, cheese and chive salad on Facebook for those who need to satisfy a craving once it closes. 🇫🇷 Cathedral Hill is getting a buzzy French restaurant. After several months of lauded pop-ups at spots like Bûcheron, Aubergine will take over the former Revival space this fall, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Expect traditional Lyonnaise cuisine with an emphasis on Minnesota-grown ingredients, owners said. 🐻 Hey Bear! Cafe, the bargain breakfast joint that abruptly closed in May, is back open under new ownership. It remains in its original St. Paul spot off of University Avenue and has kept the same menu, according to its Instagram. 🍔 The Malt Shop is coming back to life. The South Minneapolis spot, which originally opened in 1973 but shuttered this January after a tumultuous few years, will have a "refreshed vibe" while still serving burgers and thick shakes, per its new website. 🤤 Hippo Pockets, started by Centro in 2023 as a ghost kitchen selling the Mexican restaurant's spin on Taco Bell's Crunchwraps, opened its first brick-and-mortar in South Minneapolis on July 9. The 17-seat restaurant is open until midnight.
New York Post
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Celeb chef Jordan Andino dishes on two new baking shows and his Manila restaurant
Jordan Andino has got a lot cooking. The Filipino-Canadian chef, restaurateur and television personality has been busy in the studio kitchen, serving as a judge on two new shows — 'Halloween Bakeshop' and 'Holiday Bakeshop' — that will premiere this fall on Canada's Flavour Network. At the same time, he's partnering with Filipino chef Francis Tolentino on Union, a buzzy new restaurant opening in Manila, Philippines, on Nov. 8. Meanwhile, Andino remains the culinary director of Continuum wellness club, an ultraluxe gym and health retreat in NYC's Greenwich Village. And he's always on daddy duty, doting on his adorable 2-year-old daughter Malou with his wife of nearly four years, Erin Andino. Advertisement 3 This fall, chef Jordan Andino will serve as a judge on two TV baking competition shows for Canada's Flavour Network and co-launch Union, a buzzy new restaurant in the Philippines. Courtesy of Jordan Andino Of all those jobs, the gourmand says fatherhood is the most important. 'I get emotional thinking about it,' he tells Alexa. 'To me, it means making sure that the person that you are rearing is the best contributor to the world — so someone who is thoughtful, caring, proactive, ambitious, driven, loving and considerate.' From a young age, his parents — Toronto chef and restaurateur Richard Andino and model and actress Joanna Garel — instilled in him an achievement mindset. And they were strict. 'My dad taught me the meaning of hard work and the meaning of a dollar,' says the tastemaker. 'The immigrant mentality is: Head down and work as hard as you can to do better for the next generation.' Advertisement 3 Chef Andino created the CH Burger for his popular former NYC restaurant, Carriage House. Courtesy of Jordan Andino The TV chef was born in Toronto, then moved to Manhattan Beach, Calif., with his mom when he was 9. He developed a love of surfing and skateboarding in the Golden State, and a passion for food while making pastries, pizza and hot apps in his father's kitchens every summer. After attending Cornell University's renowned Hotel School, he worked at top restaurants including The French Laundry, Spago and Jean-Georges. In 2015, he opened Flip Sigi, a fast-casual Filipino taqueria in Greenwich Village, later adding outposts in Chicago and Jersey City, NJ. In 2023, he unveiled Carriage House, a New American restaurant with global influences, on NYC's West 10th Street. Over the last year, he shuttered those locations to focus on TV and other projects. With his food world expertise, gift of gab, down-to-earth demeanor and dazzling smile, Andino is a natural on camera. He's hosted shows including Netflix's 'Cook at All Costs' and Cooking Channel's 'Late Nite Eats,' judged on series from 'Chopped' to 'Worst Cooks in America' and appeared on programs like 'Beat Bobby Flay,' 'Rachael Ray' and Selena Gomez's 'Selena + Chef.' He also runs a busy side business catering events for brands such as Versace and Oscar de la Renta and has worked as a personal chef for celebs, including Kyrie Irving and the Kardashians. 'They were actually some of the best clients I've ever cooked for because they're normal,' he says of the famous family. 'They eat a lot! I love them.' 3 Oxtail agnolotti for a Filipino-themed dinner with the James Beard Foundation. Courtesy of Jordan Andino Advertisement His latest screen effort: baking battles. Eight contestants will compete for a $25,000 prize on the two seasonal programs, which are hosted by Canadian actor Lauren Ash and co-judged with Kareem 'Mr. Bake' Queeman. 'The shows feature some of the best bakers I've ever seen,' observes Andino. 'They found people who have incredible attention to detail.' Andino says that he has evolved as a judge, giving more critical feedback on these programs than in the past. In other words, he strikes a balance between sweet and salty.
