Al Scazafave has left his job as executive chef at Portobello Feasts in Oakland, the restaurant he joined a year ago as it was moving into a larger building next door while also adding a New American angle to its Italian menu.
The restaurant received 2 stars in a review in December. A manager said owner Frank Amen is running the kitchen right now.
What are your favorite nostalgia foods? Our colleague Sachi Fujimori is working on a story about foods like pickled eggs, beef wellington, and Hydrox cookies, and would like your input. (One pressing question - anyone know of anywhere that still serves tomato aspic?)
Avi Ohring, a longtime resident of Hoboken, is kicking off a food tour of Hoboken this Saturday. Stops include Carlo's City Hall Bakery - where TLC's "Cake Boss" is filmed, the famous sandwich shop Fiore's, Italian delis Lisa's and Vito's, and Benny Tudino's pizzeria. Tours will run each Saturday - this weekend you can go for $20; it's $40 thereafter.
In yesterday's Corner Table column, some ways to get the most out of your community farmers' market.
And to that, let us know about any good market finds you've come across this summer.
Jim Dandy's in Westwood is now under the ownership of Jim and Demitri Pappas, a father and son team who owned the former Ciao Bella in Cresskill. Demitri Pappas says they plan to add more salads and burgers to the menu to cater to those who don't eat pork, but the barbecue remains unchanged. 274 Third Ave., 201-666-1114, jimdandys.net/westwood.
Butterflake Bakery in Teaneck, one of the area's most prominent kosher bakeries, has gone nut-free for the summer. Owner Richard Heisler says he has seen growing concern over nut allergies in children and chose the summer for the experiment since he sells to a lot of summer camps.
He has gotten such a positive response - with some customers coming as far away as Long Island - that he's now considering permanently going nut-free.
... and this time I mean it!
I should have learned my lesson Monday, when the best we could do for dinner here in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., was ice cream sundaes. But nooo, as my staff will tell you, I learn things the hard way.
We found ourselves here at dinnertime last night and decided to try a little Mexican restaurant and bake shop we'd passed on a side street, Tatti's Place, or something like that. It looked lively and colorful, it had seats at the counter and it even had people in it.
It also had a mouse.
Oscar Mayer is dead at age 95.
And Bill Ervolino ate 12 hot dogs over the holiday weekend.
Slow Food Northern New Jersey is holding two Sustanance at the Farm dinners this summer. The first, set for July 19, will be at Griggstown Quail Farm just outside of Princeton and will feature chef David Felton, formerly of the Pluckemin Inn; a second on August 23 will feature organic farmer John Krueger of Starbrite Farm in Andover, which sells at the Hawthorne Farmer's Market. Details are here.
Thanks to the well-wishers who offered dining suggestions here in the North Country. I'm happy to say we fared very well in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., in large part because we got out of Alexandria Bay.
If you're ever up this way, you mustn't miss the Wellesley Hotel in Thousand Island State Park on Wellesley Island. It's an old boutique hotel with fine dining in a neighborhood of golf carts and pedestrians.
My wife and I are in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., this week, a little town on the St. Lawrence River. It's part of a little mission to see parts of the area we grew up in but never spent time in.
In every shop along the way, we've found River Rat cheese from Clayton, the next town downriver, and Corghan bologna. "We should just take these home for dinner," I joked to my wife. "Send crackers," I'd implored friends on my Facebook page.
Had we done that, we actually would have had dinner. Here's the story from Day 1:
A few weeks ago, our humor columnist, Bill Ervolino, wrote a series of articles about finding a second career, as so many have had to do in this difficult economy.
What else could he do, he asked a career counselor? Readers soon read about his attempts at teaching, selling real estate and -- at the suggestion of Elisa and me -- managing a restaurant dining room.
BILL PITCHER is an editor in the Features department of The Record and Herald News and previously was a freelance food writer and restaurant reviewer. He was born in New York's Hudson Valley and was raised in the southern Adirondacks.
E-mail: pitcher@northjersey.com
ELISA UNG has been the restaurant reviewer and dining columnist for The Record since 2007. She's a native of Southern California and a graduate of the University of Southern California, and she spent eight years writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
E-mail: ung@northjersey.com
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