Regardless of whether the concrete becomes a winter wonderland, fondue is having its moment this season. Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new outdoor chalet, on Madison Avenue at the Mark Hotel, is serving fondue and other Swiss specialties to the Upper East Side. The Winter Chalet, a cozy new pop-up designed by Corey Damen Jenkins at the Hotel Indigo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, through Feb. 29, serves cheese and chocolate fondues. Another, Partridge at The Standard, East Village, open until Dec. 31, features cheese fondue, and fondue has returned to Andrew Carmellini’s Lafayette, in NoHo. You can count on the simmering cheese-based communal dipping pot year-round at La Bonne Soupe, in Midtown; at the Lavaux Wine Bar, the three-year old Swiss establishment in the West Village, there are six varieties, including porcini, tomato and truffle, with Swiss wines to discover and chocolate fondue for dessert. And at the newly opened burger spot Cantiere Hambirreria, an Italian import parked in NoLIta, there are handmade bowls that are filled with cheese fondue. Williams-Sonoma now sells nine different fondue pots, $79.95 to $870 with various fuels and accessories.
Fondue, themarkhotel.com/restaurant-bar, hotelindigo.com/williamsburgny, standardhotels.com, labonnenyc.com, lafayetteny.com, thelavauxwinebar.com, williams-sonoma.com.
Not Your Usual Black and White Cookie
There’s something fishy about this black-and-white cookie. Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, owners of the venerable Russ & Daughters smoked fish and appetizing emporiums, have New York in mind with the clever new caviar service they developed. Consider it for New Year’s Eve: Take a latke, cover half with crème fraîche, spoon caviar on the other half and voilà! Buy your own components, and make them as large or small as you wish, but Russ & Daughters has introduced a kit for assembling five servings with Siberian Baerii caviar, $200, ready for pickup at its shops on the Lower East Side, Hudson Yards and Brooklyn, with local and national delivery available.
Caviar Lover’s Black & White set, russanddaughters.com.
A Strong Korean Drink Locally Made
Makgeolli, a lightly carbonated alcoholic Korean drink brewed from rice, is the specialty of Hana Makgeolli, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Now, in collaboration with Matchbook Distilling Co. in Greenport, N.Y., in eastern Long Island, they have introduced Hana Soju 60, their first interpretation of the clear distilled spirit that can vary widely in alcoholic content. Theirs is 120 proof, clear, silky, a bit yeasty and aggressive, with heat that’s modified somewhat over ice. Adding a mixer or using it to ramp up a cocktail is the way to go. It’s being poured by the glass in the tasting room at Hana’s headquarters, and can be ordered by the bottle ($65 for 375 milliliters) at Bin Bin Sake in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, binbinsake.com.
Hana Soju 60, Hana Makgeolli, 201 Dupont Street (McGuinness Boulevard), Greenpoint, Brooklyn, hanamakgeolli.com; Matchbook Distilling Co., mdcdropshop.com.
A Caramel Twist on a Galette des Rois
Clement Loubeyre, the new pastry chef at Benoit, in Midtown, is baking galettes des rois, the French cakes for celebrating Epiphany on Jan. 6. His beautifully bronzed, shatteringly flaky version is filled with a light frangipane cream and has a slick of caramel on top instead of the usual incised pattern. Inside is a hidden tiny porcelain trinket, or fève (meaning bean, which is often used), and the person who finds it in their slice of cake is crowned king or queen. A gilded paper crown is included. Preoder with 48 hours’ notice at bistrot@benoitny.com or 646-943-7373.
Galette des Rois, serves six to eight, $42, Benoit, 60 West 55th Street, available for pickup from Jan. 1 to 31, benoit.com.
A Box of Wafels (& Dinges)
For year-end gifts and gatherings, Wafels & Dinges, the Belgian waffle specialist owned and founded by Thomas DeGeest and Rossanna Figuera, is selling a box with two dozen Liègeois wafels in three flavors: traditional (plain), cinnamon and almond-frangipane. They can be warmed in the oven or a toaster (but not microwaved), and served as is with tea, coffee, hot chocolate or a drink. Top them with ice cream or whipped cream for dessert, or use in pairs to make ice cream sandwiches.
Wafels & Dinges La Sélection Gastronomique, $65 plus shipping, wafels.com.
Steelhead Trout for the New Year
Hudson Valley Fisheries in Hudson, N.Y., raises steelhead, the large trout in the salmon family with orange-pink flesh, which can now be ordered in some holiday gift assortments until mid-January, perhaps even later. A cold-smoked steelhead box with four fillets in three flavors, four ounces each, comes with another four ounces of hot-smoked steelhead, crackers, pickled pink onions and farmers cheese, $125. A combination of two fresh 1.25-pound fillets ready to cook, with pin bones thoughtfully removed, and a one-pound fresh venison steak from Highland Game Farm in Germantown, along with horseradish sauce and spice seasoning, is $140. National delivery is available; within 200 miles of Hudson it’s free.
New York Steelhead trout, hudsonvalleyfisheries.com.
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