Eater Awards 2011 Gala Celebration at the Dream Hotel

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• The party, in full swing.
• Dave Arnold, and comeback kid Seamus Mullen
• The Awards. These are filled with delicious San Marzano tomatoes.
• Drew Nieporent making friends with Danny Bowien of SF's Mission Chinese Food.
• Bon App's Andrew Knowlton and Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi.
• Reana Kovalcik, Dovetail's John Fraser, Nancy Easton, Le Rivage's Paul Denamiel
• Team Eater!
• BaoHaus chef Eddie Huang with revelers. Note the Muppet sweater.
• Lockhart Steele, John McDonald, Josh Capon, Ben Leventhal.
• Note the 360 skyline views.
• Pok Pok's famous wings. Some people had wing sauce on their faces all night.
• Franklin Barbecue
• Jeffrey Chodorow and Mark Pastore.
• Mmm, Patron cocktails.
• Red Farm's Eddie "Glasses" Schoenfeld.
• Little Owl's Joey Campanaro
• Lockhart Steele, saying a few words.
• Pichet Ong. He's a busy dude.
• Plating at Red Farm
• This is the view from the outdoor patio at PH-D.
• Dave Arnold of FCI
• Brooke Hammerling, Ben Leventhal, Paula Froelich, Lockhart Steele.
• Resto's Christian Pappanicholas. A dapper dude.
• Steve Fried and Best Chef NYC nominee Shaun Hergatt.
• Party food.
• SF's Flour + Water brought their A-Game.
• Maison Premiere's Maxwell Britten.
• The noodles from Eddie Huang's meatball dish.
• Golden Girl Naomi Pomeroy of Beast.
• Patron spiced apple cocktail.
• The cheese course.
• Sixpoint brewskis.
• Party Animal Eddie Huang.
• Eater's superb intern Alexis deBoschnek
• Mile End's Noah Bernamoff, with his wife, Rae.
• The Snacky Tunes brothers!
• Manuel Trevino of Marble Lane. and Beverage Director Bill Ward.
• Milk and cookies to finish.
• FOREVER CHEESE.
• The Albertson Clan.
• Erik Yang of Toki Underground, So Hot Right Now in DC!
• Eater NY editor Amanda Kludt
• Kin Shop's Harold Dieterle, Amanda Freitag (Right)
• Eater LA's Kat Odell (right).
• Public's Brad Farmerie (center)

And so it came to pass that last evening, at the PH-D at the top of the Dream Hotel, Team Eater joined its friends and acquaintances from the restaurant and nightlife industries to toast the nominees and winners of the Eater Awards 2011, presented by Patrón. Surrounded by 360 degree views of the Manhattan skyline, chefs from Portland restaurants Beast and Pok Pok, Austin barbecue mecca Franklin Barbecue, San Francisco's Mission Chinese and Flour + Water, Red Farm, BaoHaus, Cookshop, and Marble Lane served up deliciousness to a room packed with food-obsessed revelers. By the DJ booth, custom cans of Eater Awards-brand signature Italian Peeled Tomatoes were stacked high, emblazoned with the names of the Eater Award winners from across this great nation.

Peruse the party pictures in our gallery above and check out some hangover observations below.

· Aaron Franklin of the famed Austin barbecue joint Franklin Barbecue was the guy all the chefs in the room wanted to talk to. He also ran one of the most talked about tables of the night, served up pound upon pound of his crazy smoky and delicious fatty brisket. At the very end of the night, as everyone filed into the elevator, sly party-goers like Bon Appetit's Andrew Knowlton and The Daily's Justin Rocket Silverman snagged whole sides of brisket that Franklin was unloading. Many a tote bag hiding a brisket were spotted at the after party at the Darby.

· Chef of the Year for New York Harold Dieterle graciously accepted his Eater can, but where was the team from Restaurant of the Year The Dutch? Oh yeah, opening a second outpost in Miami, which is now less than 24 hours old. AC sent word that he was celebrating his win down in Miami and sent some Dutch folk to attend in his stead.

· Other notable attendees: Amanda Freitag, Torrisi's Mario Carbone, meat man Mark Pastore, Little Owl's Joey Campanaro, Empire Builder of the Year Christina Tosi, Eric Ripert's right hand woman Mandy Oser, Dovetail's John Fraser, Bill Telepan (whose Wellness in the Schools was the charity of the night), foodie magician Josh Beckerman, Gawker's Nick Denton, Resto's Christian Pappanicholas, Josh Capon, John McDonald, Mile End's Noah Bernamoff, Pichet Ong, Shaun Hergatt, Comeback of the Year Seamus Mullen, and Bartender of the Year, Maison Premiere's Maxwell Britten.

· Jeffrey Chodorow a good sport if there ever was one, joked that once every ten years he has a restaurant that is *so hot right now* as his Red Farm is. Meanwhile, partner Eddie Schoenfeld was worried that the Times review was this week, and noted that they sometimes miss the point of some Chinese restaurants.

· Another Red Farm note: it is alleged that the restaurant's chef Joe Ng actually hand carved these figurines.

· A very popular topic of the night: How good Pok Pok's wings are and how they are going to change the face of wings in New York when they open on Rivington Street later this year.

· One of the best bites of the night: Naomi Pomeroy's lamb chops. Which is perhaps why she ran out by 9 PM.

· At last year's Eater Awards, the partygoers were surprised with the late night arrival of the Korilla Truck. The surprise this year: we made it rain Organic Valley milk and cookies at the conclusion of the night. Rail thin cocktail waitresses descended on the room bearing trays of milk glasses balancing still hot from the oven chocolate chip cookies.

· After it rained milk and cookies at PH-D, it rained champagne and Maker's Mark downstairs at The Darby, where the after party raged on until the wee hours of the morning.