Capon Gets Down to Business, Cuozzo is Crazy for Kreuther, and More A.M. Intel

— Josh Capon — the chef/partner behind hit restaurants like B & B, Lure, and Bowery Meat Company — thinks the city is creating laws that are "abusive to ownership." In an interview with Playboy, the chef addresses the $15 fast food minimum wage:

Look, no disrespect to what anybody does for a living, but when fast-food workers are making more than professional line cooks in a restaurant, I don’t think that’s fair. My cooks are not cooks. My cooks are serious chefs. These guys are trained and are really professional. [Raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers is] taking the motivation away, if you will. Why shouldn’t one of my guys go work at McDonalds?

We give people raises all of the time when they do a great job. But when you have people coming in at entry level positions making whatever the crazy number is, we can’t give you a raise for three to six months after we wanted to, because you’re already at that number. So it’d be nice if we had a little bit of room.

He also think that the tipping system should stay the way it is.

— Steve Cuozzo loves Gabriel Kreuther's eponymous restaurant across from Bryant Park. Here's the critic on one of his favorites from the menu: "The year’s most beautiful dish is surely a sliced, raw, marinated sea scallop floating atop jalapeño coulis. The ceviche-esque apparition is served in a flying saucer-like crystal bowl that the waiter plugs into a pedestal. The scallop seemed born to the interplay of sweet, salty and spicy notes from Meyer lemon, paper-thin radishes, crunchy tempura and Espelette pepper." The Cuozzmeister gives the restaurant three and a half stars.

— This is your last weekend to visit MePa legend Hogs & Heifers. In a Grub Street retrospective, photographer/filmmaker Cheryl Dunn explains its appeal: "You didn't go there to sit quietly in the corner and drink a beer....You entered a bawdy, rowdy vortex reminiscent of the best bars in New York's history." The bar is closing after business on Sunday.

— Outdoor food market Mad. Sq. Eats will return to the pedestrian plaza in front of Eataly on September 4 for a one-month run. In addition to stalls from Roberta's, The Cannibal, and Uma Temakeria, the market will feature fried chicken from Farm Road Hospitality and ramen from KOA.

— The team behind East Williamsburg rum distillery The Noble Experiment just opened a tasting room with a menu that includes daiquiris, punch, and beer.

— A very talented young baker by the name of Natasha Ali made a cake in the shape of a Shackburger.

— Williamsburg oddity Antica Pesa is still pulling in the celebrities somehow. Bruno Mars and six of his friends had dinner there the other night.

— A new outpost of local Mexican chain Oaxaca will open at 478 Halsey Street in Bed-Stuy next week. Another location is also in the works at 406 Rogers Ave. in Crown Heights.

— And finally, here's how to make meatballs like Marco Canora: