Bugging the Waldorf Astoria Plus More Intel

Wiring the Waldorf

Page Six speculates that one reason the Waldorf Astoria is closing for extensive renovations is “Because America’s great historic fabulous familial glorious treasure in the sky — rumouredly, supposedly, imaginably — is getting hard-wired. Not confirmed but whispered through dim sum is: If you pee in the Waldorf, it’s recorded in Beijing.”

Crazy Talk in Hell’s Kitchen

The father-son duo allegedly has called waitstaff “morons," "stupid," and "retards" in front of customers. And they had mocked an employee with a hearing aid, as well as those they deemed “too old,” employees chronicled in a lawsuit against Paul Denamiel and his father Marcel Denamiel of Le Rivage in Hell’s Kitchen. Six employees accuse the restaurant of creating a hostile work environment and withholding wages.

A Clockwork Assault

Two brothers, graduate students at Columbia, were reportedly beaten outside the Lower East Side bar, Clockwork after midnight on Saturday, when a group of men identified as “skinheads” and “Neo-Nazis” took offense to a “New York City Anti-Fascist” sticker on one of their phones, reports the New York Post.

No Such Thing as Cheap Eats; Someone Always Pays

“Restaurant workers are already among the lowest paid workers in America. Many full-time workers rely on public assistance to make ends meet. Often enough, restaurant workers could not afford to eat at the restaurants where they work. And at the bottom of this system are the employees of the restaurants on these cheap eats list,” says Diep Tran of LA’s Good Girl Dinette on NPR’s The Salt.

Love is . . . When the Bodega on the Block Knows Your Name

“Once I come back from running, I’ll go in and order, walk Tyson, and by the time I get back, they have everything done,” Joseph Martinez says of the Greenpoint bodega he lives above —that makes breakfast for him and for his Chihuahua every morning. “He eats his egg, I eat my sandwich, then I take a shower and we go off to work.”

Du’s Delay

Checking in with Du’s Donuts and Coffee, the Wylie Dufresne spot in the William Vale Hotel, we learned that the opening is slated for mid-April. It’s Dufresne’s first project in several years, following the closing of wd~50 in 2014. Dufresne announced his newest project over Twitter in September.

Manchego or Muenster?

According to a recent study of the New York Times research and analytics department, 28 percent of subscribers have five or more cheeses in the fridge, 24 percent have four types, and 24 percent have three, while 4 percent have no cheese at home. (NYT Mag print)

Heads up, New England Fans

Chefs Club is hosting Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley of Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland Maine on Feb. 16th and 17th for a menu that includes Eventide brown butter lobster roll and crab chawan mushi with pickled parsnips. The duo is readying for the opening of a second restaurant in Boston this year. Eventide has been on Bill Addison’s Eater 38 for three years in a row.

In Signage News

Japanese import, Ikinari Steak, the meat spot where diners eat standing up, is coming along at 90 E. 10th St., while 98 Favor Taste on St. Mark’s had signs on Feb. 3rd — that have since been taken down.

And Last. . . .

About that $18 coffee, brewed from the high-dollar Geisha at Extraction Lab in Sunset Park: