Eleven Madison Park Renovation Reveals Building Secrets

Secrets of Eleven Madison Park

As the EMP team gears up for reopening the Manhattan flagship after being closed for renovations over the summer, co-owner Will Guidara drops architectural details, like this clock from 1929. Stay tuned for more as the restaurant gears up for the fall reopening.

A festival where refugees are the chefs

The Times profiles recent Riyadh, Saudi Arabia immigrant Adwa Alsubaie, a line cook at Emma’s Torch in Red Hook: This weekend she’ll join refugees looking to land full-time jobs at this weekend’s Refugee Food & Arts Festival, a stone’s throw from the United Nations headquarters at the end of this week’s U.N. General Assembly. Asylum seekers will prepare snacks, entrees, and desserts for a festival that will include installations, murals, and performances.

It’s hosted by Komeeda’s Nasser Jab and Jabber Al-Bihani, the Displaced Dinner folks who help refugees, one dinner at a time. It’s a stone’s throw from the United Nations at the Food Arts Center of Fedcap Rehab Service.

The U.N. dines

Speaking of the General Assembly, those in town are on the town: First Lady of South Korea Kim Jung-sook dined at Danji this week and the staff is thrilled.

And Japan’s First Lady, Akie Abe dined with the head of Dassai Sake for an eight-course menu at the newish Mifune. It’s the three-in-one restaurant with Hiroki Yoshitake of Michelin-starred Sola creating the menu and Yuu Shimano as the head chef, formerly at three-Michelin-starred Guy Savoy in France. Highlights from Abe’s meal include the whiting tempura and foie gras egg rice.

Brick Lane tax saga continues

Brick Lane at 99 Second Avenue was seized for not paying taxes, EV Grieve reports. It’s the last in the series, after Brick Curry Midtown and the Upper East Side were seized in March 2016, when owner Sati Sharma owed $350,000, mostly in unpaid sales tax. Update: The restaurant has reopened after a brief state seizure connected to an unaffiliated uptown location.

Pizzafest debrief

Crain’s breaks down the breakdown from the New York City Pizza Festival and points out “just how frothy demand for live events has become, as millennials gravitate toward spending on experiences over products.” It’s a good reminder to just maybe not attend food festivals, ever.

Ice cream wars on the LES

Van Leeuwen is opening yet another location, this one in the former Ludlow Guitars space at 172 Ludlow Street, setting up the block for ice cream wars, says Bowery Boogie, with Il Laboratorio del Gelato and Black Tap nearby.

Meanwhile, OddFellows Ice Cream Co. is bowing out of its Chefs Club Counter carnival-themed pop-up, which was a summer event that officially closes Sunday, September 24. Go now to 62 Spring Street for one last cotton candy creamsicle or caramel popcorn soft serve.

For today’s ice cream treat, ditch the cup or the milkshake and go for the cone: