The Samovar’s most honored guest by far was Brodsky, another friend from Leningrad. It was he who bailed out the restaurant with money from his Nobel Prize for Literature and recruited Mr. Baryshnikov to help. Mr. Kaplan set aside a banquette for him: Table 16, in the back. The Samovar’s longtime pianist, Alexander Izbitser, a…
The European Commission on Monday authorized a Covid-19 vaccine made by Novavax, making it the fifth vaccine available in the 27 nations of the European Union. “At a time where the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading, and where we need to step up vaccination and the administration of boosters, I am particularly pleased with today’s…
When it comes to holiday gifting, Katie Sturino prefers to think outside the box, which really should come as no surprise to those familiar with her beauty brand, Megababe, which reimagines personal care products, and/or eponymous blog, known for changing perceptions around plus-size fashion. “I’ve always been a practical gift giver,” Sturino says. “I want…
Good morning. It’s getting quiet here in New York City, and I write that knowing it’s been quiet in a lot of precincts for going on two years. The proprietary business communication platform on which I spend my working days is not pinging quite so frantically as it has in past weeks. Video meetings are…
A new sideline for La Tourangelle, a company that specializes in fine nut oils, is a smooth almond butter made from nuts roasted, like the oils, in cast-iron kettles. It’s the technique used by the company, originally from the Loire Valley in France and with headquarters now in Woodland, Calif., near San Francisco. There are…
Pozole — the Mexican stew of meaty hominy, enriched with pork or chicken and fortified with chiles, other vegetables and a rich mingle of seasonings — highlights the Christmas and New Year’s tables in Mexico and the American Southwest. Masienda, the Los Angeles company that sells high-quality ingredients, cooking utensils and condiments, has assembled a…
In 2010, Jaynelle St. Jean had already tried journalism and fashion and was considering farming when she began baking pies in her mother’s San Francisco kitchen, handing slices out the kitchen window as gifts to passers-by. The window experiment led to Pietisserie, a storefront in Oakland, Calif., closed since the Covid crisis, with pies available…
There are two new sources for food news, one audio, the other visual. Whetstone Radio Collective, a network for podcasts founded by Stephen Satterfield, a writer and media entrepreneur, started with a narrative about climate and food on Dec. 8, with nine more programs covering topics like rituals and culinary traditions, mezcal and ancestral foodways…
Replicating spirits like gin and rum without alcohol is a challenge that’s best met with the addition of other flavors and lively carbonation. Enter the premixed alcohol-free cocktail. Among the best is the new canned Amalfi Spritz by Lyre’s, a company based in Australia that in a little over two years has developed one of…
Upward Farms, a company in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn that grows U.S.D.A.-certified organic microgreens aquaponically indoors, has added fish to its inventory. They’re hybrid striped bass, a crossbreed of freshwater white bass and striped bass and nothing like the latter except for the stripes. The whole fish, about a pound and a half, comes…