Man Assaults Bushwick Bodega Staffer Over Breakfast Sandwich Order

Ridiculous customer assaults deli worker in a Bushwick bagel meltdown

A violently impatient man assaulted a Bushwick deli employee over a 4:30 a.m. bacon, egg, and cheese bagel order, Gothamist reports. The customer is seen yelling profanities and throwing things at the worker and strongly banging on the deli counter between them in a video taken at the scene. The disturbing incident reportedly happened around 4:30 a.m. on November 25 at the Hi Mango Natural Market at 1055 Flushing Ave. NYPD is now looking for the man, who fled the scene.

Doughnut Plant heads downtown, and a new pizza shop opens in Staten Island

Doughnut Plant is opening a store in the Oculus downtown, the store tells Eater. It’ll be located on the top balcony level of the World Trade Center mall, where Italian food store Pulia was supposed to go, Tribeca Citizen reports. Meanwhile, Seppe Pizza Bar has opened in Staten Island, with brothers Joe and John Iovino at the helm. Harrison Ginsberg and Nick Rolin, who previously worked at the Dead Rabbit, are in charge of cocktails, and Kierin Baldwin of the Dutch and Locanda Verde will be doing pastries. It opened this week serving round, square, and rectangle pies inside the waterfront Urby development at 3 Navy Pier Court.

Sans nails its vegan “foie gras,” but ironically lacks “fresh” vegetables

At Carroll Gardens’ new vegan restaurant Sans, dishes are plated with “fine-dining technique,” a hint of chef Champ Jones’ previous experience cooking at Eleven Madison Park, New Yorker critic Hannah Goldfield writes in her latest review. She finds black-plum terrine “as silky as foie gras,” and the burger, made of ground seitan, is “as satisfying” as the Impossible Burger. And she even digs the cocoa served with doughnuts for dipping, though it tastes “unmistakably” of soy milk. But the restaurant is ironically lacking in the vegetable front: The deep-fried Brussels sprouts, for instance, came “smothered” in so much dressing that “you could barely tell they had once been green.”

Tipping is probably here to stay, and this is why

A Grub Street article takes a deep dive into the tip-free movement and finds that tips are probably here to stay. This is why: Staff turnover and customers rejecting higher menu prices are two of the main reasons why restaurateurs like David Chang and Andrew Tarlow weren’t able to make the no-tipping model work across their restaurants. The number of restaurants eliminating them is far too small, making it “too easy for front-of-house workers to leave to make more money elsewhere,” the article says. The model also pumps menu prices up, and that’s something diners haven’t learned to accept, “even though the cost of the dinner is going to be the same at the end,” says Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy. Tipping also makes customers feel “empowered,” the article says. Without it, diners will look for other ways to voice their opinions, like flooding a restaurant’s Yelp page with bad reviews.

Keste will sell some pizza pies for $5 moving forward

Neapolitan pizza leader Keste Pizza & Vino calls pizza the “people’s food,” and says it shouldn’t cost New Yorkers $20. As such, the pizzeria is rolling out a new $5 deal at its Bleecker Street and Fulton Street locations, where 12-inch margherita and marinara pies will be sold for just that. As of now, there’s no plan to amp up the price, the restaurant says.