Well, that didn’t take very long. It seems that a third Shake Shack location that we alluded to being in the works somewhere within the greater Philadelphia metro area is indeed coming, and a lot sooner than we ever imagined. According to Foobooz, a standalone Shack is going in near the King of Prussia mall, and should have ShackBurgers sizzling on the grill by the fall. Insider adds that it will be the growing chain’s second solar powered unit. [Foobooz; Insider; Earlier]
If you're looking to get saucy, you came to the right place.
Williams-Sonoma is bottling up a little bit of the meatless magic that vegan wizards Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby are known for wielding at their restaurant Vedge. A line of Vedge branded sauces that the two developed exclusively for the kitchen-and-housewares giant is currently rolling out across 150 Williams-Sonoma locations, and conveniently enough, its web store, too. The ready-made sauces, which were inspired by Landau and Jacoby’s all-vegan, seasonal cooking, include Spiced BBQ Sauce, Tamari Sesame Glaze, and Sherry Shallot Glaze. They sound yummy enough. Would it be wrong to use them on meat?
Cool Ranch Doritos, making a run for the border.
The world has been waiting with bated, nacho-cheese-y breath to see how Taco Bell would duplicate its extraordinary success through the wizardry of Frito-Lay-flavored taco shells. Today Greg Creed, the Bell's wild and crazy CEO, previewed the chain's new Super Bowl ad for CBS. Since the commercial's stale setup of old people tasting a product and acting young again sort of hit its apex already with 1985's Cocoon, Creed had no choice but to then resort to spilling some industry secrets as the segment arrived at its long-awaited end. "We've got Cool Ranch. That's coming ... That's my tease," the suit admitted to Gayle King about the next taco barreling down the fast-food Mexican pipeline. (Guess those tests last summer worked out.) Great news, since everyone knows Cool Ranch is basically the best flavor of Doritos out there. So, when can we try one?
Did you order the chicken, or the salmon?
The old cliche about Restaurant Week menus being nothing more than uninspired platings of chicken, or salmon (and in some instances, a token vegetarian option) may not be too far from the truth. After poring over all of the participating restaurants’ menus posted on the Center City District’s Restaurant Week website, Grub Street has determined that more than half of the 130 restaurants taking part in the twice-annual dining out promotion are serving chicken dishes. We counted 68 in all. And almost just as many are also serving salmon. Our count for salmon was 63. Keep reading to see what other dishes are most likely to turn up on menus.
No relation to Paula.Photo: WoodRocket.com
Sex-industry sweetheart James Deen stars in a video food blog on the porn site WoodRocket.com. Though the website itself is obviously NSFW, the "James Deen Loves Food" series is surprisingly PG-13. Watch him make liquid nitrogen ice cream, order everything on Burger King's menu, and re-create the last meals of death-row inmates. The latter is where things get really weird: The porn-star-next-door (turned actor in The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan) is obsessed with serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy. Hollywood has clearly corrupted Deen. But at the end of the day, he's just a boy, eating empanadas at Johnny Pacific, and cruising through the Del Taco drive-through. Deen's going so mainstream, he may just be the next Paula. [First We Feast]
We hardly knew you!
Craft & Claw, the casual seafooder that filled the void left by Mad River’s exit from Old City, is closed. It was open for only four months. Foobooz reports that lawsuits may have something to do with the restaurant’s abrupt ending. Cheap crabs, a solid selection of local and craft beers, and a string of mostly favorable press gave us all hope that the place could help Old City claw its way out of its current standing as the best place in town to see a douche rodeo in full effect every weekend. Or worse, the neighborhood where you’re most likely to get punched out, tasered or heaven forbid, shot after last call. But alas, it looks like the doucherati has won. [Foobooz; Earlier]
Sadly, the new company will not be called OpenFoodTableSpotting.
Score one for the imperiled practice of taking food photos at the table! The online restaurant reservation service OpenTable is buying Foodspotting, the food-photo-based social media network app, for $10 million, reports Bits. Turns out the food photography platform is data-rich: Foodspotting has a database of 3 million photographs and is growing at a "few hundred thousand photos" each month, the blog says. But since OpenTable is all about the business of making reservations, and Foodspotting allows its users the chance to virtually share their meals, how will the companies integrate?
Rosendale: He's got his head in the game.Photo: Bocuse d'Or
The culinary chops of several nations' finest cooks are being tested today and tomorrow at the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France, and team USA — Richard Rosendale and his commis Corey Siegel, who hail from West Virginia's Greenbrier resort — have been preparing for a year and are now in competition. The world's greatest chefs are waiting to judge; Iceland's meat platters are being presented; and someone, somewhere is serving gargantuan quenelles de brochet. How will Rosendale and Siegel fare at the Bocuse d'Or? Tune in live to find out. [Bocuse d'Or, Earlier]
Let it ride!
Yikes! The owners of Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, Atlantic City’s last holdout for penny slots, low stakes gambling and cheap buffets, have signaled that as many as 1,729 casino workers in its employ, could soon receive walking papers. Notice of the possible mass layoffs were filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor. We knew the East Coast’s gambling resort was struggling with a bum economy, increased competition from surrounding states that now permit gambling, and most recently, Hurricane Sandy, but we never suspected that things were so bad that entire hotel staffs were in jeopardy.
"Well, the theme-restaurant business model does work. NASCAR's Fat Load Cafe is a gold mine." — Jack
From Alec Baldwin's Schweddy Balls to Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Snack, it was only a matter of time before Ben & Jerry's honored another comedic legend with an ice-cream flavor. It's basically the American version of knighting. NBC's 30 Rock comes to an end this Thursday, but don't fret: You can catch your tears in a pint. Co-founder Jerry Greenfield will announce details of the flavor at the finale viewing party, but if we had to guess, it'll include the following ingredients: Sandwich scraps (for Liz), paper (for Jenna's Japanese-porn-star diet), pig (for that time Kenneth ate Harold), additional meat (made in Tracy's meat machine), and Cheesy Blasters. The flavor must be named Adultaraisin, because that's the name of Tracy's fictional Ben & Jerry's flavor. Or at least Muffin Top, after Jenna's No. 4 single in Belgium. [Vulture, HuffPo]
Follow the celery sticks!
You may have heard that chicken-wing prices are up to an all-time high of $2.11 per pound. Since the Super Bowl is this weekend, and desperate times call for desperate measures, it sort of makes sense that two men pulled off a brazen, high-stakes theft of $65,000-worth of frozen Tyson chicken wings from the cold storage facility where they worked in Doraville, Georgia.
Fake sugar doesn't lead to real love, T Swizzle.
This weekend, Taylor Swift announced her partnership with Diet Coke, which is "one of the great loves" of her life. If Taylor's prior relationships are telling, the inevitable end of this endorsement deal is going to be hella emotional. America's sweetheart will cope the only way she knows how — she'll write depressing songs about her ex. The tunes will make us all a little uncomfortable, but they're so damn catchy that we'll bop our heads and smile at her heartbreak. Diet Coke, that bastard.
“Pizza is alright”
The food is alright... there honestly is no "atmosphere" since it consists of just an oven, two small tables and a television.
“Everything a restaurant should be!”
Others talk the talk, Derek has always walked the walk.
“My other spot”
When it comes to the generals...(chicken that is) they'll make you sign up for recruitment
