Even Solid Food Doesn’t Save Four Seasons Reboot, Critic Says

Critic pans the Four Seasons reboot

According to Grub Street’s Adam Platt, while the reboot of NYC restaurant icon the Four Seasons has a talented young chef in the form of Diego Garcia, who brings “a sense of quality and even style” to a menu of “fusty old classics,” the reopened restaurant is like a ghost ship of excess. He bestows that ghost ship with just one star, questioning whether owners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini — who pleaded guilty to assault after sexual abuse charges — “can navigate their way toward a more inclusive, slightly more, er, dynamic demographic.”

Openings, closings, and coming attractions

The team behind Meatpacking spots like Tenjune and Abe & Arthur’s are reportedly opening a new iteration of their clubby Catch seafood restaurants, called Catch Steak, in the former location of Mario Batali’s Sirena, which is set to shutter at the end of the year. A Japanese izakaya and dinner theater called Wara is slated to open at 67 First Ave. in East Village this spring, and also in the neighborhood, Dim Sum Palace opened at 59 Second Ave. In Prospect Heights, a new bistro called Oxalis from a Daniel alum opened. The restaurant started as a successful pop-up that occurred in NYC over 30 times and regularly sold out.

The East Village location of 16 Handles is temporarily closed for the season. Doma Na Rahu, the West Village bar and restaurant with Czech, German, and Austrian influences, shuttered after six years in the neighborhood.

It’s a good time to be a chef

A new study by Chef’s Pencil finds that employment and wages for chefs and head cooks is at an all-time high. In particular, New York has tripled the number of employed chefs over the past decade and is the state with the highest employment growth in this area. But Hawaii, New Jersey, and D.C. are the top three states when it comes to chef’s pay, and New York ranks 25th.

Made Nice will recycle EMP food scraps

The Eleven Madison Park team’s fast-casual joint Made Nice and nonprofit ReThink Food have teamed up to form Make it Twice. Under this initiative, Made Nice will take excess food from EMP and turn it into special menu items that day. These will change based on what is available, but current offerings include carrot cake bites made with carrot peels, a mushroom burger made with mushroom trim, and honeynut squash hummus made with squash from EMP’s cheese course. There is also a pear-maple soft serve with french toast croutons made from EMP’s rolls.