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Eater
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
This Frozen Penicillin Recipe Is the Cure for Mid-Aughts Nostalgia
is the James Beard Award-winning managing editor at Eater and Punch. Living in Baltimore, she prefers her crab cakes broiled and her Boulevardiers with rye whiskey. The year was 2005 and bartenders were nose deep in cocktail books. 'I was happier to find an old recipe and give that some shine or adapt it rather than just snatching one out of thin air,' says bartender and restauranteur Dan Greenbaum. 'We were looking for hidden jewels.' Greenbaum's former business partner, Sam Ross, was doing just that at the subterranean West Village bar Little Branch. While he was tinkering with variations on a classic whiskey sour, the owner of Compass Box Whisky came in with some Scotch and the nutty, caramel-like qualities of the Peat Monster added complexity to Ross's simple formula of honey, lemon, and ginger. And the Penicillin was born. 'The fact that those flavors are curative and familiar, but you just add a twist of smokier whisky really speaks to that moment and Sam and the ethos of the time,' Greenbaum says. 'No one had done it on paper, but it felt like it had been a classic for years.' So when the two bartenders (plus Michael McIlroy) opened up the tropical bar Diamond Reef in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, they brought the Penicillin with them. Using the same ingredients, but tweaking the ratio a bit, they made a frozen version to put inside their Frosty Factory machines, and came up with the 'cheeky' name Penichillin. To add to the playful spirit, Greenbaum found Kikkoman soy sauce bottles and poured a Scotch floater out of them right before serving. 'The idea behind the bar was to put out drinks very fast in a bit of a rowdy atmosphere on the patio,' he remembers. 'By putting the Penicillin in the frozen machine, it bridged the gap between this serious cocktail bar and a tropical, fun environment.' A commercial slushie machine isn't necessary to recreate that vibe at home. Just break out the blender and play with your ratios, Greenbaum advises. 'The rule of thumb with frozen drinks is to up the sweetener a little bit because you perceive something as dryer when it's ice cold,' he says. Start with three-quarters of an ounce of honey-ginger syrup to two ounces of Scotch and a scoop of crushed ice, and then taste along the way. Even though Diamond Reef closed in 2021, the Penichillin remained a top-seller until the very end. And its predecessor can be found on menus around the world, has become a modern classic in its own right, and is something that cocktail aficionados make a pilgrimage to New York to experience. 'The drink changed so many people's minds about Scotch,' Greenbaum says. 'Even a mediocre Penicillin is more interesting than most drinks.' Frozen Penicillin Recipe Serving: 1 Ingredients: 2 ounces blended Scotch whisky (or black tea, to make it N/A) ¾ ounce honey-ginger syrup (see below) ¾ ounce lemon juice ¼ cup ice Peated Scotch whisky (or lapsang souchong as the float, to make it N/A) Instructions: Step 1: In a blender, combine the first four ingredients and blend until smooth. Step 2: Pour into a footed Irish whiskey glass. Step 3: Gently pour the peated whiskey on top of the drink. Step 4: Serve with a straw and garnish with a paper parasol. Honey-Ginger Syrup Recipe Ingredients: 8 ounces honey 1 (6-inch) piece of ginger root, peeled and sliced 8 ounces water Instructions: Step 1: Combine the honey with the ginger root and water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. Refrigerate overnight, then strain, discarding the solids. Dina Ávila is a photographer living in Portland, Oregon. Recipe tested by Ivy Manning
Eater
23-07-2025
- Business
- Eater
How L'Industrie Keeps Customers Happy Despite Long Lines
A version of this post originally appeared on July 23, 2025, in Eater and Punch's newsletter Pre Shift, a biweekly newsletter for the industry pro that sources first-person accounts from the bar and restaurant world. This send is the first in a three-part series on high-volume restaurants, presented by Square — the technology company that makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible. L'Industrie Pizzeria, according to co-owners Massimo Laveglia and Nick Baglivo Where: New York City The backstory: Tuscany native Massimo Laveglia opened his New York-style slice shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2017, with Nick Baglivo joining in 2018 as general manager and co-owner. The staff went from the two of them and a dishwasher to about 80 people as business exploded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading them to expand their original location twice, then add a second shop in Manhattan's West Village in 2023. Here, the partners discuss their business strategy and managing the ever-present lines. On long lines Laveglia: As much as people think that we love it, we hate lines. We're trying to be as fast as we can. The problem is the capacity we have in the oven: We can only make eight pies at a time. Baglivo: We can't even get another oven because we're low on electricity. We try not to think about the line too much. We're saying the quality of the pizza's got to be good. Somebody's going to wait 30 minutes, 40 minutes at most. Then we've got to make sure that they're getting an acceptable piece of pizza. On keeping waiting customers happy Baglivo: We have a great staff, a very charismatic staff. We hand out menus, we go down the line, we answer questions, we interact with the customers. We have the stationary [point-of-sale] system and then we have two handheld POS systems, so when we have a moment and we're stacked up on some pies, we'll have two or three people taking orders at a time. But just because you take the order fast, doesn't mean it gets made faster. We're doing our best to make sure people aren't complaining about the line because that's a big, big issue for some people. Nobody ever complained when Juliana's had a line, or Grimaldi's had a line. They only complain about us because we're young. On expanding Laveglia: The space next to the first pizzeria became available and our space was very tight, and the landlord [said,] 'If you want to take it, I'll give you a better deal.' We knocked down the wall and we were able to do more pizza. We changed some equipment; we introduced gelato to the shop. On building a following Baglivo: We're just being consistent in reinvesting in the products and getting better and better. When the pandemic hit, we were able to be consistently available for people in the neighborhood. When we closed for renovations, people really missed us. When we reopened right around spring, everybody was really excited to come back and see the new space and how much bigger we'd gotten. We've really succeeded as far as keeping the quality at such a high demand. Plain and burrata slices from L'Industrie. Luke Fortney/Eater NY On their seasonal patio Laveglia: When we expanded in 2021, we had more space, but it wasn't enough for all the customers. After COVID, we had to remove the patio structure. Now the patio is open from April to October. It's good that we have extra space, but it didn't really change the business. Baglivo: It keeps the customers from loitering in front of the [neighborhood] residents' apartments. When they don't have a place to be, it's a free-for-all and that creates more waste and more garbage. We're able to contain it now to the front of the shop and be mindful and diligent. We try our best. On their equipment Baglivo: When we first started working, we had very janky equipment. I remember on a Friday night, a stone broke and we chipped a piece of brick from the building to wedge the stone in there so we could get through the night. [When we expanded,] we reinvested in the shop and we [wound] up getting better ovens. We were doing our diligence looking for the best equipment and figuring out how to work with it. On customers placing orders with the wrong location Laveglia: In the beginning, it was a drama. It happened probably once a week. We had to change the website. When you go to the website now, before you place the order, the website asks you four or five times if you are in the right location. It doesn't happen anymore.
Eater
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
We've Arrived at the Summer of Produce Prints
is the James Beard Award-winning managing editor at Eater and Punch. Living in Baltimore, she prefers her crab cakes broiled and her Boulevardiers with rye whiskey. Shopping has gotten pinpoint precise. Going to a celestial-themed wedding on the Amalfi Coast? There's a dress for that. A meta-thematic tank for the cottagecore gal in your life? Sure, why not. Hair clip for your ska-loving friend? Naturally. And now, a farmers-market-centric textile trend that has been culminating for years finally has its own name: Enter 'Farmstand Graphics.' Subscription clothing site Nuuly, which allows members to rent pieces before they decide to buy, has many niche filters to help users find the perfect 'fit (a trip to Copenhagen or a hip-hop show are both options). This summer, it has officially bestowed a title onto that increasingly visible category of clothing emblazoned with the edible: fruits, vegetables, seafood, bread, and beyond. Howard Mini Dress by Rachel Antonoff Nuuly 'Two years ago, we had some styles from [designer] Rachel Antonoff that did really well, and we noticed picnic fabrics like gingham picking up,' says Sky Pollard, Nuuly's head of product. 'So this year we spoke about it a little more loudly and decided, this is it. These food prints are our summer seasonal story.' In fact, the pandemic itself could be credited as a springboard for the popularity of these patterns. After years of embracing athleisure and function over fashion, we were all a little hungry for clothing that told a story. Or, as Pollard puts it: 'A lot of the things that we all did during the pandemic, like cooking at home or gardening, now you can take those to the street.' New York-based designer Tyler McGillivary started her business in 2019, and noted it was a minimalist time, one where you didn't see food prints outside of children's clothing or high-end fashion. 'It hadn't proliferated into different brands yet, and people weren't ready,' she notes. 'But as a maximalist person, I'm happy to see people get more playful when getting dressed.' Indeed, we're seeing a menagerie of farmers market finds splattered onto dresses, coats, and blouses. Produce of any kind is everywhere, but especially cherries and citrus, which can be seen on a ruched camisole or used as not-so-subtle chest placement, respectively. 'Cherries alone have such a sensual context,' McGillivary says. 'They feel flirty — with the cherry stem of it all — but the key is you want people to feel cute without it being kitschy or overly sexual.' McGillivary says her best-selling item is this tomato tee, which screams summer fun in a totally different way. ('A tomato is inherently more silly; it could never be sexual.') So why have we gravitated towards these gourmet garments? Sure, they are a way to convey to the world that, yes, we love food. But this is different than repping your favorite restaurant or food brand — it's more wearable, aspirational art. Maybe I can't be on the New England coastline right now, but I can live vicariously through my two-piece lobster set. Tropical fruit signals vacation, too, and Jell-O mold patterns have become a nostalgic subsect of their own. For her latest collection, McGillivary took inspiration from Economy Candy in Manhattan's Lower East Side, staring at all the vintage candy wrappers on the shelves. 'The key is finding something that feels very familiar and placing it in a different context,' she says. 'I see potential prints everywhere — my camera roll is truly deranged.' 'It's about meeting the moment,' Pollard adds. 'Whether you want to be in Portugal eating tinned fish or you're attending a rooftop get-together serving spritzes, you can find that perfect outfit that will tell a story to friends and through social media.' Customers embracing these prints has opened up the possibilities for designers. Pollard says that the number-one pattern at Nuuly will always be stripes, but farmstand graphics will be a solid runner-up this year. Looking forward, McGillivary says martinis will be a big part of her fall collection and Nuuly is looking to continue the food trend into the holidays. 'Not to quote everybody's favorite movie, but sometimes florals just aren't very groundbreaking, right?' Pollard says. 'This is a way to do what a floral does but give it more personality. You will start a conversation as the girl at the party with the sardine sweater.'
Eater
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Overheard at the 2025 James Beard Awards
A version of this post originally appeared on June 18, 2025, in Eater and Punch's newsletter Pre Shift , a biweekly newsletter for the industry pro that sources first-person accounts from the bar and restaurant world. Subscribe now for more stories like this. Along with the usual flood of tourists and locals enjoying the summer weather, downtown Chicago was packed this weekend due to both the 'No Kings' march that brought tens of thousands of people to protest the Trump administration, and the parties and pop-ups tied to the 35th annual James Beard Awards. The tension between resistance and revelry was felt throughout Monday's celebration at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Finalists shared their thoughts with Eater, discussing what the awards mean to them, ways the honors can continue to evolve, the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry, and the biggest challenges they face when it comes to making the best food— from housing, to staffing, to protecting their teams from ICE raids. '[After being nominated] we were busier right away. The response has been incredible. It's such a good burst of business in January, at a time that's classically slow, that we are mostly grateful for. It's been amazing.' — Jeanie Janas Ritter, Bûcheron , Minneapolis (2025 winner, Best New Restaurant) 'We have so many people visiting Buffalo to just come hang out. Every Saturday, people fly in, eat barbecue, see [Niagara] Falls and fly back out. Our volume has increased probably like 45 times [since being nominated].' — Ryan Fernandez, Southern Junction Barbecue , Buffalo, New York (2025 finalist, Best Chef: New York State and 2024 finalist, Best Emerging Chef) 'I love that the [James Beard Awards] expanded and added these new categories for beverages. I think that it's so important to continue to see that the front of house and the back of house work together. Of course, the chef is the star of the show. People go to restaurants to eat, but you've got to have something to drink too. I think continuing to expand on the front-of-house recognition would be a great call.' — Cassandra Felix, Daniel , New York City (2025 finalist, Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service) '[I'd love to see an award that] celebrates general managers. I just hired Daniel Harrington and he has shifted the dynamic in such a beautiful way. I'm a very hands-on owner. I'm either there way too much or I'm traveling somewhere and he's that anchor. He keeps me steady. He executes. No one really recognizes the GM. They make less money than everyone else and typically work way more hours, much like chefs. I think GMs could use a little bit of love.' — Julia Momosé, Kumiko , Chicago (2025 winner, Outstanding Bar) 'I love beverages and I'm a horrible cook. Like, I can't cook for shit. I would love to see a little bit more separation of spirits, nonalcoholic, beers, and wine [categories] so there's more representation of beverages just like we do the chefs.' — Felipe Riccio, March , Houston (2025 finalist, Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program) 'I wonder if coffee [could] be an additional [James Beard] category. Coming from Portland, we have so much coffee, and Chicago does, too.' — Tommy Klus, Scotch Lodge , Portland, Oregon (2025 finalist, Outstanding Bar) 'We live on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere, so every single thing makes it a little harder. Employee housing is really, really tough for where we are. It's kind of become an affluent area, and so finding places reasonably priced for our talented team to live is difficult.' — Jay Blackinton, Houlme , Orcas Island, Washington (2025 finalist, Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific) 'Where we are in the world, which is a pretty small community with 50,000 to 100,000 people, it's very difficult to retain really strong talent. That's always been the focus of our restaurant, to do exactly that, to retain and keep our people as long as possible. At first, our mission statement was to create well-paying, long-term hospitality jobs. After 2020, that has shifted to retaining [them]. We do care about quality of life with the way we operate the restaurants, with the way that the kitchens operate. We just try to make as pleasant an environment as possible.' — Josh Niernberg, Bin 707 , Grand Junction, Colorado (2025 finalist, Outstanding Chef) 'Post-pandemic, a lot of people left the industry just because they got so stressed out during that crazy time. Finding good people [is my biggest challenge, but] there's a lot of young folks that are coming up in the ranks that show a lot of initiative, so we're hopeful on that.' — Daniel Castillo, Heritage Barbecue , San Juan Capistrano, California (2025 finalist, Best Chef: California) 'The big challenge that my restaurant is facing right now is staying motivated as we continue this absolute roller-coaster ride. It's a good roller coaster, but keeping people focused is really hard. Keeping myself focused is really hard. The intellectual focus it requires to be a restaurant of our type is not something you wake up out of bed and have, so I think that's the hard part. We're supposed to be having more fun.' — Erling Wu-Bower, Maxwells Trading , Chicago (2025 finalist, Best Chef: Great Lakes) 'We're in Downtown LA and our restaurant has been completely surrounded with the protest — the peaceful protest — so it's been a little bit challenging for the last two weeks. We can't wait to get back open and welcome everyone in our community back to celebrate Los Angeles in general and hopefully a win for me at the James Beard Awards.' — Tobin Shea, Redbird , Los Angeles (2025 finalist, Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service) 'The general public is really strained at this point. That affects small businesses, especially the restaurant businesses with such tight margins. The geopolitical climate, the state of the world, the unrest, I think is exponential right now in terms of its impact across the globe. It's making everybody a little scared and I think that affects the way they spend their day, as it should. I think potentially [people are] afraid to spend because of all the uncertainty.' — Derek Wagner, Nicks on Broadway , Providence, Rhode Island (2025 finalist, Best Chef: Northeast) '[The biggest challenge facing us] is the current state of the state, for sure. Immigration, keeping the team alive and safe. [The award nomination] definitely gives us a platform to talk about uncomfortable subjects. It definitely gives us the courage to keep going.' — Emmanuel Chavez, Tatemó , Houston (2025 finalist, Best Chef: Texas) Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2025. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.
Eater
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Austin Food Truck Distant Relatives Expanded With No Investors
A version of this post originally appeared on June 11, 2025, in Eater and Punch's newsletter Pre Shift , a biweekly newsletter for the industry pro that sources first-person accounts from the bar and restaurant world. This send is the last in a four-part series on restaurant growth, presented by Square . Organize all your orders — dine-in, online, and third-party — and fulfill them in a flash, right from your POS . The growth: After a career creating fancy dishes in a starched white chef coat, Damien Brockway wanted to cook food more like what he made at home. Inspired by meats he smoked in his backyard pit, Brockway dreamed up Distant Relatives in 2018 to showcase the flavors of the African diaspora, and it opened as a pop-up serving out of his home kitchen in 2020. He moved to a food truck the following year and racked up accolades: one of Eater's Best New Restaurants in America, a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and two semifinalist nods from the James Beard Awards. Here, Brockway shares how he is building his restaurant intentionally, without investors. Size of restaurant in 2020: Brockway's home kitchen, 1 employee Size of restaurant now: Food truck, 5 employees I knew it was going to be a difficult project because cooking modern African American food may seem polarizing for some people. But to me, it's not. I'm the only investor in Distant Relatives because I needed to control the narrative, the style, the aesthetic, and the ethos of what we're doing. But this control came with financial limitations—I could only borrow enough to set up a food truck. With the pop-up, I had a schedule for pickups from a cooler outside my gate. People would Venmo me or throw a couple bucks in the cooler for their plates. But I was getting my reps in: I spent this much, I sold this much, I got my yield percentages hammered out. At home, I cook like a grandma — a pinch of this, a spoon of that — but as I scaled up I had to set ratios. When I was doing 40 to 50 plates per pop-up, I knew I needed to move to a food truck. The pop-up ended up costing me a lot: I destroyed my stove at my house and had to redo the plumbing in the kitchen. I didn't open with brisket on the menu because I wanted to focus on large, subprimal cuts of animals, but it was a rude awakening to see the number of guests that walked up, saw there was no brisket on the menu, and left. The crazy thing is that people will complain about $30 a pound for brisket. If you are running 30 percent food costs, we'd all be charging $40-plus a pound. There's a cap to how much you can charge, and all of us barbecue guys have banded together on this. In culinary education, we call dishes like this a dog: It's on your menu and it loses you money. With brisket, we want it to sell out — like, we want it available, but we also need it to sell out. Math is important. I average 35 percent food cost. If I was a chef anywhere else, I'd be fired already, but that's pretty standard for a barbecue-focused trailer. Food trucks have higher costs because we serve on disposable flatware and we don't have beverage revenue. Selling barbecue by weight involves loss from trimming and cooking it, so using that fat in sausage or sides is paramount. Our food costs are sustainable with proper controls on labor, rent, and overhead expenses—and a very modest profit margin. Barbecue is supposed to feed the masses. We use everything to keep costs affordable. We use tallow. We smoke bones. We don't buy ham hocks. Go visit the farmers you work with — they're sweating and working out here in the summer just like we are. They're not making a ton of money either. So when you use their product, respect it. Be conscientious about your price point. I made mistakes in the first four years, chasing expansion and buying more equipment. I needed to do those things, but now I need to show that all of this investment [became] profitable, which we are. But to get into a building, I need to show that I can handle an increased debt load. There's definitely a vision for a brick-and-mortar, but it's a process. A lot of the guys that I looked up to when I was starting with barbecue have taken up to 10 years to get into buildings. I'm not thinking that I'm the exception to the rule — it's gonna take time. See More: Chefs Expansions Food and Restaurant Trends
