Tavern On The Green Outfield: Minor League Ballpark Becomes A Bistro
Like many baseball teams, the Boston Red Sox minor league farm team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, was forced to cancel its 2020 season due to the coronavirus. But this season would have been a celebration of the team’s 50th anniversary of playing at the Pawtucket, Rhode Island field at McCoy Stadium, and its last year ever. The league announced it would be moving the team to a field in Worcester, Massachusetts, as of 2021. To salvage the planned 50th anniversary celebrations, team vice chairman Mike Tamburro hatched a plan based on local officials’ announcement that limited outdoor gatherings were still permissible. Starting in June, Tamburro and his team launched “Dining on the Diamond,” an outdoor picnic held on the stadium’s well-manicured outfield. The first weekend’s 20 tables and two seatings sold out in 88 minutes with hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries and nachos on the menu. The picnic quickly grew to include a third seating, more tables (spaced 14 feet apart), and an expanded menu offering lobster rolls, a barbecue platter, and chicken Caprese. The events have been staffed by team officials, and diners at each table receive a miniature keepsake replica of McCoy Stadium to take home. Dining on the Diamond has been a home run, as more than 2,600 families are currently on the waiting list and those who’ve scored a table have relished the opportunity to put their toes on the outfield of their baseball heroes. “This kind of idea could be groundbreaking for the industry going forward,” said Tamburro. “Can you imagine Fenway Park doing this when the Red Sox are on the road?”
Two Top New York Culinary Schools Join Forces
By the end of this year, the International Culinary Center (ICC), formerly known as the French Culinary Institute, will be closing its doors in Manhattan, New York. ICC has entered into a licensing agreement with the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), which has locations in Manhattan as well as Los Angeles. ICC plans to reopen as soon as New York City enters Phase 4 of its reopening plans, allowing enrolled students to complete classes until the end of the year. At that point, the two culinary schools will effectively become one as part of the agreement. Many notable New York City chefs have graduated from ICC, including Blue Hill’s Dan Barber, David Chang, Angie Mar, and Christina Tosi. Chefs Jacques Pepin, André Soltner, Alain Sailhac, and Jacques Torres have also been longtime instructors at ICC. Rick Smilow, president and CEO of ICE, hopes that ICC’s instructors will continue to teach as part of the combined school’s programming. Smilow says he “expects to bring aspects of their expertise, unique offerings, and heritage to ICE.”
Celebrity Chefs Teach Online Cooking Classes For Restaurant Relief Fund
As people cook at home more instead of eating in restaurants, Airbnb has launched a series of Online Experiences featuring chefs such as David Chang, Edward Lee, Claudette Zepeda, and Rōze Traore. The virtual cooking classes take place throughout the summer, and each class costs $75–100. Proceeds from most of the classes support chef Edward Lee’s LEE Initiative Restaurant Reboot Relief Program. Proceeds from the class taught by chef Rōze Traore, who is a two-time open heart surgery survivor, will help fund Harboring Hearts, a nonprofit that provides emergency financial support and food delivery to heart surgery patients and their caregivers. The chefs will host all four cooking classes on Zoom with a cap of 10 participants, and participants will be able to interact with the chefs while receiving feedback via Zoom. More Online Cooking Experiences classes are planned, including chefs Roberto Ruiz, Jun Lee, Nicola Dinato, Soo Ahn, Paolo Gramaglia, Cristina Bowman and more.
Vegas Culinary Union Files Lawsuit Demanding Better Employee Protections
Both the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 have filed a lawsuit against hospitality companies MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. The lawsuit alleges that several restaurants, including The Signature at MGM Grand, Sadelle’s Cafe at the Bellagio, and Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar at Harrah’s Las Vegas, did not provide adequate rules and procedures to address the spread of COVID-19. “This lawsuit … is the just the beginning of the culinary union’s legal efforts to make sure workers are fully protected,” said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, the Culinary Union’s secretary-treasurer. Multiple workers have come forward with statements regarding the incident. “I did everything to follow social distancing,” said Jonathon Munoz, food server at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar. “We follow the strict protocol for three months. And now I come to work with a company that breaks protocol within a week…I feel the company doesn’t care about my wife or my kids.” At The Signature at MGM Grand, bellman Sixto Zermeno says he tested positive for COVID-19 on June 11 and attempted to “warn the Signature and its parent company MGM Resorts, but was not contacted for two days, even as co-workers with whom he had worked, including one who later tested positive for COVID-10, continued to work.”
Ghost Kitchens May Be Here To Stay
In a San Francisco parking lot, an unmarked trailer powered by a generator churns out meals for six different “restaurants,” including WokTalk, Burger Bytes, Fork and Ladle, Umami, American Eclectic Burger, and Wings & Things. The restaurants are run by Reef Technology, and its trailer’s parking space is only one of 1.3 million parking spaces that Reef manages in 4,500 locations throughout the United States and Canada. At least 70 of those parking spaces are occupied by Reef’s delivery-only kitchens or “ghost kitchens” that prepare food for customers who order online only.
Run by a culinary team that includes former executives from Potbelly and Jamba Juice, Reef’s virtual restaurants are part of a growing trend. Other ghost kitchen companies include Zuul, Kitchen United, Deliveroo, Panda Selected, and CloudKitchens, which is run by Uber founder Travis Kalanick. CloudKitchens leases kitchen space and delivery-only service to chefs and small-business owners who couldn’t otherwise afford the expense of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Uber Eats, working with both Reef and CloudKitchens, now delivers meals from 7,000 different virtual restaurants. According to journalist Matt Newburg, an 11,000 square foot CloudKitchens commissary in Los Angeles houses 27 kitchens that prepare meals for 115 delivery-only restaurants. Even the national chain Ruby Tuesday, announced it is leasing kitchen space to third-party restaurant brands to prepare delivery-only meals. .
States Roll Back Restaurant Reopenings As COVID-19 Cases Rise
States including Washington, Florida, California and Texas are rolling back their restaurant reopening dates as the United States sees a second surge in coronavirus cases. According to Johns Hopkins data, the country’s seven day average of coronavirus cases increased by 42% the last week of June. That’s roughly 38,200 cases within the week. As the numbers were released showing a sharp spike in cases, Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee postponed the planned reopening of the state’s restaurants and bars on Saturday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom followed suit and ordered the state to close its bars last Sunday. As case numbers climb up in states throughout the nation, more and more states have rolled back reopening restaurants for inside dining, limited them once again to takeout, delivery, and in some cases limited outdoor dining. The sudden backpedaling has made it even harder for restaurants that ordered food and rehired workers in preparation for reopening on the weekend. .
David Chang’s Momofuku Restaurants Issue Coronavirus Safety Guide
Momofuku released its COVID-19 guide to health and safety for its employees, guests and restaurants, hoping other hospitality businesses may also find it useful. Among the various rules in the guide, guests must wear masks into any Momofuku restaurant and have their temperature checked upon entry. If a guest’s temperature is above 100.4°F, they will be asked to leave. The procedures were created with the intent to share them across the foodservice industry. “Our goal is to not only implement these procedures into our restaurants to keep our teams and guests safe,” says the introduction, “but also to make them available and accessible to anyone who might find them useful for their own businesses.”
World’s Best Restaurant Repositions Itself With The Moon And Stars
Last year, the French Riviera restaurant Mirazur was named the world’s #1 restaurant by World’s 50 Best Restaurants, which has been ranking top tables since 2002. During lockdown, chef Mauro Colagreco did some soul searching and decided to completely remake Mirazur’s menu based on biodynamic farming, an agricultural method similar to organic farming with the addition of planting and harvesting calendars based on the phases of the moon and its gravitational pull. Mirazur reopened June 12, and Colagreco now serves leaves and salad greens on “leaf days,” when the “energy” and flavor are most concentrated in the leaf of the plant. The same is true for fruit days, flower days and root days, an approach meant to serve the highest quality, most flavorful food available.
Colagreco sources ingredients from five organic and biodynamic gardens in the Menton area with a total area of about 12 acres. The chef’s move to sourcing biodynamic ingredients is part of Mirazur’s recent sustainability efforts, which include a commitment earlier this year to go completely plastic-free. While the award-winning chef knew he could reopen Mirazur as it was before the pandemic, he found such deep peace among the plants in his gardens during lockdown that he wanted to share that experience of peace with his guests. “Our goal is not to be the best restaurant in the world,” says Colagreco, “but to provoke emotions in our diners and to cook with passion.”
2.2 Million Restaurants May Shutter Worldwide, Industry Analyst Says
As restaurants struggle to stay in business during the pandemic, several have already filed for bankruptcy protection or closed operations, including large chains like Le Pain Quotidien, Chuck E. Cheese, Souplantation, and Sweet Tomatoes. “Based on our estimates, we believe up to 10% of all restaurants globally will disappear, with 20% or more also going through a restructuring process,” said Aaron Allen, founder of industry consulting firm Aaron Allen & Associates. With roughly 22 million restaurants worldwide, Allen estimates up to 2.2 million restaurants may close permanently. OpenTable, which tracks restaurant activity via its reservation services, estimates the failure rate could be even higher. CEO Steve Hafner says 25% of U.S restaurants or roughly 66,000 American establishments may close permanently. These estimates add useful data to the Restaurants Act now under consideration in Congress, a bill that would establish a $120 billon pandemic relief fund for independent restaurants.
Slovenia Minted As Culinary Destination With First-Ever Michelin Stars
Five restaurants in Slovenia, the tiny yet fertile country bordering Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and the Adriatic Sea, have just received their first-ever Michelin stars. Celebrated chef Ana Ros earned two for her restaurant, Hisa Franko, and several other Slovenian restaurants earned one each. “Finally we have confirmation that Slovenia is a good gastronomic destination,” says Ros. “It comes at the right time because times are not easy for tourism and restaurants.” Hisa Franko, located on the Italian border in Kobarid, has attracted an endless parade of destination diners who can’t get enough of Ros’s hyperlocal, hyperseasonal ingredients and boundary-pushing dishes like mock guacamole made from lovage and smoked eggs, suckling pig stuffed pasta, and fermented wild magnolia flowers. Another first for Michelin’s just-released 2020 Guide to the “Main Cities of Europe”: Krakow, Poland now has a restaurant with a Michelin star in Bottiglieria 1881.
