Shift Drink

Sweetwater

As we skip down the broken-up Brooklyn sidewalk to Sweetwater Restaurant, North 6th street teems around us with youngsters out and about to catch a concert, buy a record, a drink, or maybe a pair of vintage boots. The potential for distraction is fierce, but tonight I am looking to feast, so I remain impervious to all the beautiful, exciting people. Etched glass doors greet our hungry eyes with the numbers 105. Bar and grill glow, and I know I will be eating meat tonight. Read More . . .

Rachel Maddow, Mixologist

Staff Meal: Franny’s

Sometimes it's good, most of the time it's bad. Whatever it is, you have to eat it. The Staff Meal.

This week we sneak a peek at the family meal at Franny's in Park Slope where the cooks have serious pedigrees (Ducassee, Per Se and Blue Hill Stone Barns among others), and we have it on good word from our anonymous source that they don't f*ck around when it comes to cooking for the staff. As you can see, they ate well on St. Paddy's Day. We're so jealous. Read More . . .

On the Line: Part One

Let me make it very clear that I am not one of those passion-for-cooking, celebrity chef wannabe types. I’ve been slinging hash in one form or another since I was 16. It's never been something that I really loved or aspired to, but it's always been a quick and readily available source of income. Not real income like Prius-down-payment income but keep-the-lights on income. I didn't grow up hard either. Ph.D.'s abound in my family tree. My dad was a chemistry professor, my mom a radiologist. Both had doctorates by the time they were my age. My brother Edward is an astrophysicist. My brother Jerome is an agronomist. My brother David is an Ethnomusicologist (Figure it out, ethno+music+ologist, he studies the -ology of ethno music, duh) ...I ended up in the kitchen. Read More . . .