The Wall Street Journal

Malaysian Kitchen Food Truck Spreading the Good Food News; Café des Artistes Murals to Live On

​McDonald's employees in Ohio received pamphlets with their paychecks encouraging them to vote Republican. [USA Today] Old Town Bar celebrated the 100th anniversary of its lovely Hinsdale Urinals last night, often cited as the most beautiful specimens in the city. [Wall Street Journal] Danny ... More >>

Watch Soulja Boy's Delightfully Surreal Wall Street Journal Interview/Performance At Lincoln Center

​So as threatened, Soulja Boy was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal live onstage at Lincoln Center on Friday morning about his absolute mastery of social media, and while it didn't go down quite as we'd imagined it, the result was still wildly entertaining: He recounts his rise to fame (" ... More >>

Soulja Boy Will Be Interviewed By The Wall Street Journal Onstage At Lincoln Center Tomorrow Morning

​So the Wall Street Journal has this free interview/performance series at Lincoln Center Friday mornings, chatting with such cultural titans as Wyclef Jean, Stan Lee, Russell Simmons, and Jonathan Ames. (Note: If were putting those guys in order of who'd be most qualified to become president o ... More >>

UC Davis Turning Wine Into Science; Starbucks to Serve Booze

​The University of California, Davis is researching how to control fermentation to the point of creating identical barrels of wine each vintage. [Wall Street Journal] A glimpse into the world of David Wondrich reveals how the cocktail historian came to write his book about punch, called Punch ... More >>

Bartender Stabbed Outside the Branded Saloon; South Korea Suffers Kimchi Shortage

​A Brooklyn bartender was stabbed outside the Branded Saloon on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights after his dog became entangled with that of an ex-con. [NY Daily News] Sam Sifton remembers Shorty Tang, the inventor of sesame noodles as we know it, after seeing Tang's biography posted on ... More >>

King of Falafel Takes Vendys; Seafood Soup All the Rage

​First lady Michelle Obama hosted spouses of world leaders at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where a lunch of ingredients from the farm and from the White House garden was served. [AP] The King of Falafel won best vendor and People's Choice at the 2010 Vendy Awards. Fares (Freddy) Zeideia can usua ... More >>

WSJ Weekend Launches With Eye on the Times

​On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal released its first issue of the revamped weekend paper, WSJ Weekend, with the hope of competing directly with the New York Times. One difference is that if you Google "WSJ Weekend" the first result reads "The Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition" and if you ... More >>

Goya Targets Non-Latinos; Benihana Up for Sale

​Goya is launching a new marketing campaign that will target non-Latinos who want to "spice up" their cooking. [NY Times] Benihana is now for sale, but the process has been complicated by squabbling between the widow of the company founder and his children. [Wall Street Journal] Andrea Illy, ... More >>

White Castle to Branch Out; Lawyers Targeting Chefs

​Laurent Tourondel is being sued by the BLT Restaurant Group for the menu at his new Hamptons burger joint being too similar to the BLT concept. [NY Post] White Castle is looking to launch three new concepts: a barbecue restaurant, a pressed-club-sandwich spot, and an Americanized Asian noodl ... More >>

Ants on Happy Meals; Deli Meats Recall

​Brooklyn artist Elizabeth Demaray is feeding her red harvester ants McDonald's Happy Meals for 30 days instead of their usual seeds as part of an installation at Exit Art. [NY Times] Albany is starting to enforce a state tax law that calls for sliced bagels to be taxed (whereas whole bagels ... More >>

A Food Truck War Breaks Out; A Blogger Lives on Food Trucks

​Emeril Lagasse sold his Midtown Manhattan loft for $4.6 million, after reducing the price six different times from $7.65 million last year. [Wall Street Journal] A food truck war has broken out between the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck and the Frites 'N' Meats truck after the former parked too clo ... More >>

WSJ Finds that Ground Zero Strippers Don't Care If a Mosque Comes to the 'Hood

​The Wall Street Journal visited two strip clubs, the Pussycat Lounge and New York Dolls, both within blocks of Ground Zero, to interview strippers about their thoughts on the Islamic Center hoop-la. Kudos to the Journal for thinking of a new angle on a story that's been told and retold endles ... More >>

Slushies Go Upmarket; Sotheby's to Auction Rare Veggies

​Mario Batali is writing a vegetarian cookbook. He already hosts "Meatless Mondays" at all 14 of his restaurants, and limits himself to five meals with meat per week. [NY Daily News] Upmarket slushies are all the rage. Not only is a new food truck specializing in all natural shaved ices, but ... More >>

Why We Can't Eat Canada Geese; How the Cost of Bacon is Rising; and More

​Canada geese killed in New York this month to help control the population were double-bagged and thrown in landfills because there is no way to process the meat into food. Also, it would take six years to study the safety of the bird meat. [NY Times] The city has reportedly spent $3.3 millio ... More >>

The POM Papers Leaked; Junior's Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary

​Forget the WikiLeaks. The POM Papers detail how POM Wonderful hired the law firm Hogan & Hartson to represent it in an investigation over its purported health claims, racking up more than $600,000 in legal bills that the company refused to pay. [New Yorker] The NYPD and FDNY went head-to-hea ... More >>

Brick Lane Sells Super-Hot Curry; 97 Orchard Chronicles Tenement-Era Meals

​Roasting a pig in a pit anywhere in New York City is not only a big ordeal, but a fire hazard. [NY Times] A Thai grocer based in the Bay Area is looking to America's Latinos as a large potential market that uses many of the same ingredients found in Thai food. [Wall Street Journal] Brick La ... More >>

The Guggenheim to Get a Food Cart; Pringles Go Multigrain

​Mississippi is the most obese state in the country for the sixth year in a row, according to the seventh annual "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future" report. New York tied for 36th place with Florida and Idaho. [NY Daily News] The Guggenheim Museum is seeking permission from ... More >>

Mr. Cutlets Doles Out Wedding Advice; Fairway Café Faces Closure

​Newlywed Josh Ozersky doles out advice on how to cater a wedding. Simple: just call up all your best chef friends. Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery can make your bread; Michael White of Alto, Marea, and Convivio can make lasagna; and Michael Psilakis of Kefi can whip up moussaka. [Time] S ... More >>

Adult Foodies Go to Farm Camp; Growing Dining Trend: 'Linner'

​Egon Ronay, the Hungarian food critic who helped shape British culinary culture, has died at the age of 94. He had been ill for a number of weeks, but never fully retired. [Guardian] Parade Publications is planning to introduce a new food newspaper magazine and website called Dash, with the ... More >>

Taste-Testing Grass-Fed Beef; City Council to Vote on Anti-Food Truck Bill

​Hardee's hopes to boost sales with its new Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders, dipped in a buttermilk and egg batter, rolled in seasoned flour, and fried. The idea was inspired by its Made From Scratch biscuits. [MarketWatch] Scotland is cracking down on food waste with the introduction of special ... More >>

The Hidden Upside to New Yorkers' Awful Cell Phone Service

​If you're a New Yorker, you've likely complained about your awful cell phone service at some point. It's part of living in a city where people live on top of people, under huge buildings, and they're all screaming into expensive, overheated little machines radiating someone else's screaming i ... More >>

Newspaper Wars: Pissing Contest Between New York Times and Wall Street Journal Continues in Subways, On Facebook

​It's been a while since we last reported on the utter insanity that the warring ad campaigns between the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have unleashed on New York. Which is - somehow, mystifyingly, though satisfyingly - still going strong. And now they're getting aggro.

Anita Lo Gets a Feng-Shui Boost at Annisa; Starbucks Launches Low-Cost Coffee Brand

​Steve Cuozzo takes aim at bad hotel restaurants, listing The Fives at Peninsula, Arabelle at Plaza-Athenee, and Commodore Grill at Grand Hyatt among the worst offenders. [NY Post] Despite being something of a "non-believer," Anita Lo hired a feng-shui consultant to help her redesign the inte ... More >>

10 Ways the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Newspaper War Could Get Uglier

The fight between the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times has started! And while we wait to find out if anyone actually gives a shit, we couldn't help but already notice just how ugly it's been so far. And now, the potential for dirty competition beyond this thing's current condition! Just ho ... More >>

Copenhagen's Noma Named Best Restaurant in the World; Amtrak Tests Beef-Powered Train

​Noma in Copenhagen finally topped El Bulli as the best restaurant in the world at the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants reception, held last night in London. Daniel jumped 33 spots to no. 8, Per Se dropped four spots to no. 10, and Le Bernardin stayed at a comfortable no. 15. [Bloombe ... More >>

Poll: Do You Care about the New York Times/Wall Street Journal Newspaper War?

​Maybe you heard, maybe you didn't, but the news of the week seems to be that the Wall Street Journal has finally launched their new metropolitan coverage section, Greater New York. Hooray! Also: IT'S WAR, MOTHAFUCKAS. But do you care?

Scoring the Wall Street Journal/New York Times Newspaper War: The Smacktalk Showdown

​So, while we wait to find out if anybody actually cares about any of this besides some media junkies and the players involved, it's worth noting that The Newspaper War has been a particularly dirty one! How dirty? Funny you should ask.

Annoying Orange Seeks to Irritate a Wider Audience via Television

Dane Boedigheimer, creator of the Annoying Orange online video series, already makes ad revenue probably in the thousands of dollars a month and, according to the Wall Street Journal, has an agent seeking a deal for a TV show starring his irritating fruit character. Using the superimposed human mo ... More >>

Park Slope Food Coop Slams Barney's Co-op; Restaurants Debut Spring Menus

​The Park Slope Food Coop has denounced Barneys Co-op, whose new Atlantic Avenue location will open later this year, for illegally coopting the word "co-op" -- and one lawyer says the Coop might actually have a case. [Brooklyn Paper] Restaurants are launching their spring menus, featuring lig ... More >>

What's Good for the Economy May Be Bad for Your Rent

​One beneficial side effect of the "Great Recession" has been a corresponding decrease in the overinflated--bloated, even; gouty!--rents of times past. We know of several people who have actually negotiated with their landlords for rent decreases, an act unheard of in the flush '90s, when you ... More >>

The Fastest-Growing Fast-Food Chains; Restaurants Happy It's Spring

​Peter Chang, the cult Chinese chef, has once again disappeared from the restaurant that employed him, leaving "Changians" to search for him once more. A recent article by Calvin Trilling may have attracted too much attention to the chef, spurring him to flee. [New Yorker] The annual Technomi ... More >>

New York Flaunts its Coffee Chops; Tap Water Takes Off

​New York City can finally claims to be a first city of coffee now that some 40 new cafes have opened in the last two years, including such serious coffee bars as Abraço in the East Village, Third Rail Coffee in the West Village, and most recently Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg. [NY Times ... More >>

French Macarons Go Mainstream; Two Burger Lovers Go Head-to-Head

​New York City's coffee wars are heating up. Despite the continued ubiquity of Starbucks, smaller chains like Gimme!, La Colombe, Stumptown, and the forthcoming Blue Bottle are cropping up everywhere. [NY Daily News] Are macarons poised to be the next dessert craze? The airy French pastries h ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch: Won't Die Until WSJ Quenches Thirst for Sulzberger Milkshake with $100K Coffee

​ Good Media Magnate Monday Morning! screams New York's website with media reporter Gabriel Sherman's deliriously fun cover story of an old, cranky, combative, elbows-out Rupert Murdoch who basically wants to destroy the New York Times with his most recent purchase, the Wall Street Journal, be ... More >>

Couples to Splurge on Eating Out this Valentine's Day; Are Fancy Restaurants Getting Louder?

​China is doing a 10-day emergency inspection of dairy products following reports that some of the tainted products that the government ordered destroyed during the food safety scandal of 2008 had been repackaged for sale. [NY Times] Couples are expected to spend less on Valentine's Day gift ... More >>

Fast-food Chains Target Dieters in January; The Price of Tea (in China, Everywhere) to Rise with Shortage

​Just weeks after McDonald's unexpectedly lost its no. 2 executive, Domino's Pizza's CEO, David A. Brandon, has announced he is stepping down from his position in March. J. Patrick Doyle is expected to be named as his successor. [Wall Street Journal] A global tea shortage may worsen this year ... More >>

Study: Coffee May Reduce Risk of Death. (Downside: You're Addicted, and It Makes You Work Harder.)

​Today the Wall Street Journal offers one of those bad-things-are-good-for-you stories everyone loves. This one's about coffee. This has been done before by WebMD ("Coffee: The New Health Food?") and others, but the WSJ story adds to a list of several diseases coffee may prevent (including s ... More >>

The Nation's Newspapers Slammed By Circulation Plunge

All Local Dailies Except WSJ Lose Circulation; National Drop 10.6%; York, PA Record Soars!

​New U.S. Audit Bureau of Circulations numbers have been released, and about the only happy news was for the Wall Street Journal, whose circ rose six-tenths of a percent while USA Today's dropped 17.5 percent. Thus, WSJ supplants USA Today as the national circulation leader. The New York Times ... More >>

Beach Eats, Food Trucks & Stadium Snacks

​Hungry Girl heads to the new Yankee Stadium to scope out tasty low-cal foods and finds Lobel's Steak Sandwich (464 calories), Nathan's Grilled Chicken Sandwich (380 calories), and cotton candy (175 calories). [NY Times] The Hudson Valley, once known as New York's "breadbasket," is full of gr ... More >>

Food Corps Fear Nationwide Sugar Shortage; French Cooking Not Quite Over

​Could the U.S. run out of sugar? Yes, say major food corps, if the government doesn't ease import tariffs. Kraft, General Mills, Krispy Kreme, Hershey, and Mars have together written a letter to the Agriculture Department demanding more tariff-free sugar be allowed. [Wall Street Journal] How ... More >>

APA: Gay-Straightening Doesn't Work

​A committee of the American Psychological Association has released a study that says gay-straightening has not been shown to work, and the APA's Council of Representatives passed a resolution suggesting that shrinks not offer such services to their patients. The Wall Street Journal reads i ... More >>

Beer in a Box

Position mouth under spigot​ Apparently, the only beer that's doing well right now is beer cloaked in distracting, gimmicky packaging. Most domestic beer sales are down--save Coors Light, which is attracting drinkers by making a bottle that turns blue when it's cold. Because that is easier tha ... More >>

File Under Riiiiight: Baja Fresh Claims Its New Baja Kogi Taco Isn't a Rip-Off

joshuaheller/flickrThe Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Mexican-food chain Baja Fresh just tested a new Korean taco called the Baja Kogi Taco. Regarding the suspicious similarity to the food sold at L.A.'s storied L.A. Kogi Taco truck (which recently cancelled its plans for a New York opera ... More >>

Sensa Makes Food Smell Better, More Satisfying; US & Canada Reach Organic Trade Agreement

Before you drop a dollar in that busker's open guitar case, be forewarned: Dunkin' Donuts has hired a dozen street musicians to play around Manhattan. The faux buskers are making $20 per hour in the "Breakfast NOT Brokefast" campaign, which promotes eating a Dunkin' Donuts breakfast instead of donat ... More >>

Celebs Protest On Behalf of Bluefin; Ice Cream Wars Get Personal

The Wall Street Journal rounds up 10 of the country's best food trucks, some of which are owned by established restaurateurs. In New York, Calexico Carne Asada, Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, and the Tabla truck made the cut. [Wall Street Journal] When fish are in trouble, send celebrities to the rescue: ... More >>

Breaking: Rappers Wear Fake Jewelry, and Also Sometimes Dare to Lie About That Fact

The Wall Street Journal reports that bling sales are way down, citing "the recession" and "Internet piracy" as reasons why rappers are increasingly turning to "cubic zirconia, the synthetic diamond stand-in and QVC staple" and other completely fraudulent materials. Although the article also points o ... More >>

Obama's Foodie Poems Uncovered; Fast Food Secret Menus Revealed

Wired has the inside scoop on some popular food chains' secret menus: In-N-Out Burger's The Flying Dutchman (two beef patties, two cheese slices, no bun), Jamba Juice's extras of white gummi bears and strawberry shortcake, and Starbucks' Black Eye (a Red Eye with an extra shot of espresso). [Wired] ... More >>

Booze News--Absinthe Makes a Comeback Despite Tasting Awful; Drinking Cheap Beer in a Bad Economy Benefits Big Breweries

The Wall Street Journal looks at the absinthe releases and re-releases of the last couple years, since the "green fairy" has been re-legalized. Despite the interest in the wormwood liqueur, its flavor profile is new to the American palate and difficult to appreciate. [Wall Street Journal] Now that ... More >>