America’s Hippest Diners Are Headed to Williamsburg for a Cool New Dinner Series

Gertie is bringing North America’s hippest diners and luncheonettes to Williamsburg

All-day Williamsburg restaurant Gertie will start hosting iconic diners from around the country in its kitchen this month. It’s for a new Monday night dinner series the restaurant is calling “Luncheonette Roulette,” which invites places like Lil’ Deb’s Oasis from Hudson and Freedman’s from L.A. to host a night at Gertie as well as add a breakfast sandwich to the menu for that month.

First up is James Beard Award nominee Lil’ Deb’s on October 14, whose menu will include banana cream, chocolate ginger pie with whipped coconut cream, and a choripan breakfast sandwich made with chorizo, salsa verde, pickled pineapple, and a fried egg on an English muffin. Next will be Maine’s Palace Diner (November 4); Montreal’s Larrys (December 9); L.A.’s Freedman’s (January 13); Chicago’s Dove’s Luncheonette (February 10); and Turkey and The Wolf and Molly’s Rise and Shine of New Orleans (March 30).

In other news

— A Chinese lantern and food festival dubbed Hello Panda Festival is headed to Citi Field from December 6 to January 26.

— The city has created a new culinary program called First Course NYC in response to the shortage of line cooks across the restaurant industry. It’s a 14-week program; participants are paid a weekly stipend during an eight-week training period, and then they’ll be placed within a restaurant partner’s kitchen at $16 per hour for another six-week on-site training.

— NYC’s immigrant chefs are taking the stage at an upcoming dinner event. Product of Culture and Food To Eat are hosting a three-course family-style dinner for 50 people at Lee’s on Canal in Chinatown on October 8, highlighting food from the immigrant chefs that helm Desi Galli, F.O.B., Shindig NYC, and Janie’s. Tickets can be purchased here.

— Doughnut Plant just opened its sixth location at 198 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

— Foxface, the window-service sandwich shop that landed a star in the Times, is expanding its hours.

— Japanese and Korean food store Chi Snack Shop has moved into a larger space at 4 St. Mark’s Place.

— Two chefs have married their love for ramen and Caribbean food at Mo’s Original in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens — which serves a pretty good combination of both cuisines, writes New Yorker critic Hannah Goldfield.

— Pumpkin spice food we can actually get behind: