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Acclaimed Adda Team’s Popular Virtual Reality Dinners Have Been Extended

Plus, a celebrity sommelier opens a casual wine bar in Brooklyn — and more intel

Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar pose in front of a newspapered wall at Long Island City’s Adda
Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar, the team behind the hit Indian restaurants Adda and Rahi
Gary He/Eater

Virtual reality dining from Adda team and James Beard is extended

A virtual reality dining experienced helmed by Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar, the chef and restaurateur team behind hit Indian restaurants Adda and Rahi has been extended through January 26 after quickly selling out tickets for its original run, which was set to end December 29. The duo have teamed up with artist Mattia Casalegno for what’s called Aerobanquets RMX, hosted at the James Beard House on West 12th Street.

As diners put on their Oculus headsets, the voice of Top Chef’s Gail Simmons guides them through the experience, which includes interacting with virtual representations of food, while also sampling seven actual small plates of food over the course of the 40-minute dinner. Tickets costs $125 and only four people can participate at once. Mazumdar and Pandya’s Adda, which is located in Long Island City, and focuses on Indian regional cooking, landed on several best new restaurant lists in the city last year.

Celebrity sommelier debuts wine and ham bar in Brooklyn

Celebrated sommelier André Hueston Mack, a French Laundry and Per Se alum, and the first black man to win the best young sommelier in America award from international food society Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, has opened his first restaurant in Prospect Lefferts Garden. And Sons, as the wine bar is known, is a family affair that he’s running with his wife and sons. The menu features over 300 selections of wine, and a variety of ham and cheese offerings with options to build a charcuterie board. The restaurant seats 21 and opens January 16, and Mack has plans to open a larder shop next door in the spring, selling ceramics, ham and cheese, and charcuterie boards.

In other news

The Post is (rightly) being called out for its viciously written and wildly insensitive coverage of a homeless man who was eating from a Whole Foods hot bar in Midtown.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio slammed pizza chain Domino’s for selling $30 pies to New Year’s Eve revelers at Times Square. Twitterati didn’t take too kindly to the diss, calling out to the mayor for past pizza faux pas such as eating a slice with a fork and knife on Staten Island in 2014, according to the Post.

— Upper East Side restaurant Swifty’s, which closed in 2016 much to the disappointment of local residents, has reopened in Palm Beach, Florida.

— Well said:

And Sons

447 Rogers Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11225

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