Most restaurateurs would consider serving free drinks a losing proposition. For Michael Della Femina, who recently opened a Soho branch of his Beverly Hills hit Croft Alley, it’s about building community. At the West Coast location, he set up a vintage red light on a bar that’s visible from outside and which staff turn on … Read more
The exchange was spicier than the sauce. A restaurant customer in Tulum, Mexico, was spit-roasted by the saucy owner after leaving them a lukewarm review on Google — with the brass telling her to open her “own restaurant,” per a viral X post. “We will not be listening to you because we don’t cater your … Read more
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s radical policy proposals have prompted high-profile restaurateur Stratis Morfogen to cancel plans to open new businesses. He told Side Dish he’s pulling the plug on three new establishments, including one in Midtown West. “I waited for the election before signing and now I’m not signing,” he said. Stratis Morfogen … Read more
Shelly Fireman, the colorful restaurateur who created long-lived Trattoria dell Arte and Fiorello and filled his places with his own whimsical, sometimes bawdy sculptures, passed away at age 93. His passing leaves a deep rupture in the city’s Italian hospitality scene. “If New York City’s restaurant industry had a Hall of Fame, Shelly Fireman would be listed among the … Read more
A roster of top chefs will join the tennis world’s biggest stars at the US Open in Queens next month – headed by the debut of restaurateur Simon Kim and his cult hit Coqodaq, Side Dish can reveal exclusively. The Flatiron District hotspot – which featured Mayor Eric Adams, Gossip Girl 2.0’s Evan Mock, designer … Read more
She’s investing in a bear market. A once-successful Wall Street restaurateur whose business was 86ed by the pandemic is cashing in on an unlikely second career — sewing one-of-a-kind memory bears for families across the country. Jin Kim, 64, spent her first 30 years in New York City catering her raw fish and rice delights … Read more
Sylvia Wu, whose famed southern California restaurant drew Hollywood’s biggest stars for four decades, has died at the age of 106, the LA Times reports. Madame Wu’s Garden on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica became a dining destination shortly after it opened in 1959, popular for its cuisine and pagoda-style decor featuring jade statues, a … Read more
Madame Sylvia Wu, whose Santa Monica Chinese restaurant served generations of Southern Californians and many celebrities, died on Sept. 29 at 106, her family confirmed. In her later years, Wu stayed in the West side’s mind with cookbooks, television shows, and charity work, particularly at the City of Hope cancer center. Her restaurant was one … Read more