Renowned Chef Daniel Boulud drops off a gourmet meal and jokes with a resident of Stuyvesant Town. The visit highlighted the Citymeals-on-Wheels program which helps to get food to homebound and elderly.

Downtown Getting Back to Business
The Downtown Alliance has made it their mission to mold and maintain Lower Manhattan as a world-leading central business district of today. The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy pushed this organization to launch the Back to Business Small Business Grant Program that is now able to provide grant distribution for the first time. “Small businesses have been instrumental in the success of Lower Manhattan as a premier destination to live, work and visit, and so it has been vitally important to come to their aid during this period,” said Liz Berger, the president of Downtown Alliance.

As a result, small businesses located in Flood Zone A below Chambers Street, including a nail salon, dry cleaners and wine shop, have been awarded $266,000 in grants and $120,000 in deferred grants. These businesses were the first to apply on the first-come, first-serve basis, and were certainly not the last. The period for small businesses to submit a grant application ended Dec. 13, but all applications received after will be held and processed if funds are still available.

Contributors to the grant fund include Goldman Sachs, Trinity Church, Citibank, the Durst Organization, Howard Hughes Corp., AT&T New York and Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, CB Richard Ellis, the FiDi Association, Platinum Properties and real estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Sen. Squadron Presses for State Gun Control
New York state Sen. Daniel Squadron has strongly advocated for gun restriction legislation throughout his time in Albany. In light of the unimaginable tragedy in Newtown, Conn., other politicians are now joining the fight. Squadron announced last week that the special legislation session he had called in October to pass essential gun control laws may soon be taking place. After thanking Gov. Cuomo and fellow colleagues pushing the cause, Squadron said in a statement, “A package of common-sense measures—including my bill to crack down on assault weapons, as well as critical background checks and limits on guns sales, and the vital crime-solving tool of microstamping—would create the basic protections we need to truly save lives.” He added that the military-style weapon used in the Newtown attack would be banned if his assault weapons bill were passed.

In a statement issued in October, Squadron had called for stronger legislation before another murder could be committed with an assault weapon. “There is simply no reason for a civilian to carry these types of high-powered weapon,” he said. “Before another drop of blood is spilled and another innocent life is lost, New York’s Legislature must do our job and pass these bills.”

An Early Christmas Feast
Last week, New York chef Daniel Boulud and chefs from his finest restaurants teamed up with Citymeals-on-Wheels to make sure the elderly confined to their homes could taste a bit of gourmet comfort this holiday season. On Dec. 20, elderly residents of Stuyvesant Town affected by Hurricane Sandy opened their doors, and mouths, to meals of expertly prepared shepherd’s pie, beef ravioli with carrot confit, coq au vin with pasta, braised lamb with polenta and cassoulet Toulousain.

The meals—300 in total—were prepared by Boulud and his team, who volunteered to help make Christmas extra-special this year. Joining Chef Boulud was William Cox, Bar Boulud; Aaron Chambers, Boulud Sud; Gavin Kaysen, Café Boulud; Eddy Leroux, Daniel; Jean Baptiste Alexandre, DB Bistro; Eli Collins, DBGB; Beth Shapiro, executive director of Citymeals-on-Wheels; and Robert Grimes, Citymeals-on-Wheels board member.

“As a professional chef, I have the privilege of cooking for food-loving guests every night, but Citymeals provides the opportunity to share my passion with those who are less fortunate,” Boulud said.

Citymeals-on-Wheels will continue to provide nourishment and companionship through the weekend and on Christmas Day, supplying over 7,455 meals and 14,694 “Season’s Greetings” boxes to elderly residents throughout the city when many senior centers are closed.

Compiled by Jessica Mastronardi

Just a few of the market offerings at Épicerie Boulud.

The avenues of the Upper West Side, in spots, can feel like someone dropped the Mall of America in the Grand Canyon, a wide-open valley of enormous glass-fronted chain shops and banks. And while elected officials and community members work to change zoning restrictions to prevent this disorienting trend from spreading, there are many spots where it’s already too late.

It’s a community of local favorites—residents know where to go for the best bread, the quiet drink before dinner, the best burger. But these aren’t always obvious to the naked eye. A casual stroller can end up pounding the pavement for hours just to find a non-Starbucks cappuccino, wondering all the while, “This can’t be it, can it?”

No, it can’t. Thankfully, one of the city’s most beloved chefs, Daniel Boulud, has taken it upon himself to relieve these huddled masses, opening not one but three of his eponymous establishments as a beacon to the confused, the hungry, the frustrated. If you have no idea what’s good around you, just look for the magic word “Boulud,” and you know you can stop trying to puzzle it out.

Boulud Sud is a Mediterranean take on his classic French training. Bar Boulud is a more casual approach to that classic French food, minus the starched tablecloths. And Épicerie Boulud is…everything else.

Going to Lincoln Center but have some time to kill beforehand? Taking a stroll in Central Park and want to take along a picnic? Need to pick up something to make for dinner? Épicerie Boulud has you covered.

The market/cafe/bar opened just under a year ago next door to the established Bar Boulud at Broadway and 64th Street, creating a mini-empire on the block. The glass-fronted shop is studded with elbow-height steel tables, with a granite-topped bar along one side and a dazzling array of deli cases stretching the length of the back wall. Baked goods and cashiers take up the other wall, while minimal market shelving separates the shopping and eating zones.

At breakfast you can take your pick from a delicate yogurt parfait to a Spanish egg tortilla. Lunchtime will get you anything from a thoughtfully composed cheese plate to a classic Parisian jambon beurre sandwich (with housemade ham, naturally) and lobster bisque. In the evening, choose from a selection of East and West coast oysters shucked to order or pick up a few éclairs for a late-night treat.

It’s rare that an all-things-to-all-people approach to food is successful, but Épicerie Boulud makes it work. Much of this is thanks to the strength of Boulud’s talent and approachable charm. He comes from a now-endangered species of chef who, while armed to the teeth with accolades and training, ultimately wants to make people happy. He is a chef who, if you want a hamburger, will make you a hamburger—not a deconstructed hamburger or his evocation of the memory of a hamburger, just the best possible hamburger he can make.

This is why one of his perennial bestsellers, so popular it made the leap from his Lower East Side menu to the bar here, is the DBGB dog. Using his impeccable French charcuterie training and his decades of American service, Boulud created a hot dog so perfectly hot doggish it needs no innovation. Similarly, the banh mi uses those same charcuterie skills to make the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich a thing both Lincoln Center doyennes and Saigon natives would happily call their own.

It’s a genuine delight to pop into Épicerie Boulud in any state of mind and be able to find just the thing to sate your appetite, but it’s at its best around 7 p.m. That’s when theatergoers lean against the bar with a glass of wine and a dozen oysters, nannies stop in with their charges for a final treat before handing them back to mom and dad and commuters pick up a loaf of bread for the next morning’s breakfast. It’s when it feels most like a community—which, after all, the UWS is.

By Regan Hofmann

In the ever-shifting neighborhood creep of Downtown, it seems nothing is what it’s supposed to be anymore. Little Italy has become Chinatown, Nolita has become Soho and Soho has become Times Square. Walking from block to block you’re not quite sure what you’re going to get—but you can be sure it’s not what you thought it was supposed to be.

Enter The Pan American at 202 Mott St., by all appearances a sleek, shiny restaurant of the New Nolita bent. There’s just enough signage on the all-glass front to make sure you know you’re in the right place, but not enough to be so outré as to advertise itself. A turquoise gleam emanates through the window, and a glance at the menu gives an impression of the sort of Nuevo Latino cooking that came up quickly a few years ago and is de rigeur for those model types who want to prove they eat food by nibbling at miniature empanadas.

But look again. On closer inspection, the menu reveals a curiously vegan streak, listing snacks such as carrot chicharron and kale chips. Then again, entrées include a plate that includes both skirt steak and oxtail, so it can’t be just a meat-free zone. Accompanying some dishes are health-food buzzwords like quinoa and kale, but you can also get fried chicken and taquitos, so it can’t be an ascetic bore. And peer through the door at the bar; tucked in with the shifting lights and gleaming white surfaces are a rainbow of jars and bottles, unlabeled, moonshine-like—housemade infusions and syrups that prove they won’t just give you a model-approved vodka soda.

There’s a point at which you have to let go and let god at The Pan American, when your instincts have been so thoroughly baffled that you find yourself willing to try anything. This is as it should be. When your server recommends a Rosey Palmer from the list of original cocktails, order it, even though it’s vodka-based and you prefer gin, even though you can’t stand sweet, fruity drinks and it comes in a pretty shade of pink. In fact, the tea-flavored vodka is balanced by the bracingly tart hibiscus (housemade, of course) and the result is compulsively drinkable.

Order those chicharrons, too, though you hate the idea of meat substitutes and would rather vegans stop trying to fool themselves. Don’t worry, here the word chicharron is used as a frame of reference more than a literal interpretation. Like their fried pig skin namesake, the sweet, smoky crisps make a perfect bar snack.

And don’t write off the more straightforward Latin American dishes, even if you catch a glimpse of the chef, looking straight off the Wisconsin dairy farm. His salsa verde, which accompanies the cheese-and-chile taquitos, reveals he’s no pretender; it’s bright and vegetal, with a citrus edge that hides a serious kick underneath.

Entrées are fully conceptualized plates with a number of components, at least one of which is invariably a curveball. Duck breast, seared to perfectly rendered skin and tender, medium-rare center, was served with collard greens and quinoa in a recognizably Native American bent—and then there was the pineapple gooseberry glaze.

This topsy-turvy ride closely mirrors the path of the restaurant’s chef, Harry Stoehr, who arrived in New York via the Midwest, a stint in Napa and a turn with Daniel Boulud. Like a true (adoptive) Californian, he wants to provide vegan and gluten-free food that doesn’t scare away everyone else—why not? He came up in working farms, so an affinity for his ingredients comes naturally. And years of cooking family meal in kitchens has him comfortable with the spectrum of Latin American flavors and traditions (rumor has it his tamales are better than most abuelas’.) Everything that can be made in house at The Pan American is, even some improbable ingredients like garlic powder and dulce de leche. You’d be worried he’s going to run himself ragged, if you weren’t so busy devouring everything he puts in front of you.

The next time you’re walking around the space between Houston and Canal, trying to sort out why the block with the Italian Christmas lights has three Chinese groceries and a designer eyewear boutique but no Italian restaurants, you’re in just the right frame of mind for The Pan American. Forget what you think you know is around the next corner—just dive in and go along for the ride.

Photo credit: A nuevo Latino eatery with vegan flair in Nolita.