Plus get to know the baklava guy, a hot new bakery, and this year’s JBF nominees |
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Welcome to Open Tab, a weekly roundup of news, gossip, and stories that have stayed open in my tabs all week. Last week we covered a change in the Michelin star system.
Hello, Tabbers. (This is a nickname I’m using on a trial basis, let me know how you like it.) First and foremost, I’m going to shamelessly bandwagon and say, “Let’s go Knicks,” “bing bong,” etc. Last week, I stopped by the newly opened Cafe Bar JF, where I had a supremely crunchy and refreshing celery salad, then decided that vermouth and soda will be my personal drink of the summer. (I have had one at every restaurant dinner since.)
Another oddly specific rec: cherry cola-flavored Celsius, which I first heard about in Matt Rodbard’s Grub Street Diet (and subsequently also heard about from a bunch of other random sources). Matt is the editor-in-chief of Taste, and also hosts the podcast This is Taste—that’s how I know he has good taste.
This week I published the latest installment of my new(ish) column, Interested Parties, chronicling my odd and overwhelming night at the Explorer’s Club Annual Dinner, which, I was told, was the “most interesting dinner party in the world.” I don’t want to give much away (the story is unpaywalled—tell your friends!), but I will say this: iguana was served.
Also, after an incredible quarter-century run, Tom Colicchio’s flagship restaurant Craft is closing at the end of the month, the chef announced on Instagram.
Finally: Are you in the market for a $13,000 table? ILIS, the restaurant from Noma co-founder Mads Refslund, is having a moving sale and everything must go!
More this week: The ideological fight for Ben & Jerry’s continues, three wonderful things to know about the baklava guy, and an NYC bakery everyone’s going to be talking about opens this summer. Lastly, you should get to know this year’s James Beard Award nominees ahead of the big night next weekend.
If you have any food gossip to share, please send me a note or a DM. |
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It’s been a while since Ben Cohen, who co-founded the ice cream brand in 1978, has been actively involved in the company. Instead, he’s been leading the effort dubbed Free Ben & Jerry’s, in which he’s attempting to put together an offer—one that will likely need to be greater than $1 billion—from investors to buy the company back from Unilever, its parent company. Cohen claims Unilever has effectively strangled all of the socially conscious efforts on which the brand was built, using shady corporate tactics to dismiss the ice cream company’s oversight board, among other issues.
Now, Cohen is spending his days on calls with investors (and also apparently speaking to reporters—Ben, if you’re free give me a shout) to put together a deal to buy his company back. Is the deal likely? In her piece in the Intelligencer, writer Carrie Batton describes Ben & Jerry’s as a “crown jewel” of its parent company, so it’s a long shot. But then again, so was the idea of two hippies starting a premium ice cream company. |
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Dear Bon Appétit
Our cooking advice column is open for submissions—ask us a question! We’re here to help you get dinner (and lunch and breakfast) on the table.
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Dear Bon Appétit
Our cooking advice column is open for submissions—ask us a question! We’re here to help you get dinner (and lunch and breakfast) on the table.
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One Night at the “Most Interesting Dinner Party in the World” |
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Everything You Need to Know About the James Beard Awards 2026 |
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Michelin nixes its Green Star: In 2020, the Michelin Guide introduced the rating system as a way to honor chefs’ sustainability efforts. But just six years later, the guide is retiring this designation—you won’t see a green star on any of those restaurant’s listings on the Michelin website. Sustainable chefs the world over are pretty pissed off.
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Will restaurants face a World Cup tourism bubble? We also delve into the attempted Hooters rebrand, the wild world of stadium food, and revisit an LA bar helping its community.
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We’re talking about tipping at restaurants again: Plus, a protein powder crisis, tomato inflation, and the wonders of Route 66.
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