Taste of the Seaport 2019

Downtown’s premier food festival, Taste of the Seaport, returned for the 10th year for a day filled with food, fun and fundraising on Saturday, October 19th at Pier 16 and 17 in the Seaport District of New York City.  A record number of 15,000 attendees turned out to Taste of the Seaport to sample over 40 of the best restaurants in Lower Manhattan alongside an array of local vendors, artisans, entertainers and family friendly activities, making it the perfect day out for children and adults alike.  The event was followed for the first time by a fun-filled Front Street Block Party to keep the party going.

An eclectic mix of the best food and beverage retailers and brands came together at Taste of the Seaport highlighting one of the city’s fastest growing neighborhoods and its vibrant restaurant scene. Food lovers explored a variety of culinary options from the Seaport and Financial District and purchased delicious tastes from The Fulton, CUT by Wolfgang Puck, Hole in the Wall, Barbalu, Fresh Salt, Financier, Cowgirl Seahorse, Taco Playa, The Fulton, 10 Corso Como Restaurant & Café, Cobble & Co, Malibu Farm, R17 and Suteishi to name a few.  Guests also got the opportunity to relax in the Pier Bar with wine, beer and soda. Live musical performances occurred on the main stage throughout the afternoon and children of all ages had a blast participating in family-friendly activities at the festival’s KidsZone, presented by New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital.

The annual event raised much needed funds for the arts and enrichment programs at Public School 397 (The Spruce Street School) and Public School 343 (The Peck Slip School) and was sponsored by The Howard Hughes Corporation, the leading real-estate developer working to revitalize the Seaport District after Hurricane Sandy, the South Street Seaport Museum, New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, Basil Hayden, Olivia’s Organics, White Claw, the Old Seaport Alliance and the Downtown Alliance.

For more information, please visit http://www.tasteoftheseaport.org

Photos by Taste of Seaport

NY Grand Tasting: Celebrating the State's Best Wines

France. Italy. Spain. California… These are the regions that usually come to mind when thinking of quality wine, but that list is about to change: Today, the Big Apple produces more than 200 million bottles a year, and has 451 wineries, as well as 35,000 acres of vineyards. In celebration of that, “NY Drinks NY” launched its 8th annual Grand Tasting event on April 27th, in the Rockefeller Building’s Rainbow Room.

New York was very pretty that day: Manhattan, sunny sky, warm weather, and wine. The perfect match, and I couldn’t have been more excited to have a taste of the city. When I got there, a smiling host walked me through the hallway into the Rainbow Room.

It is an elegant, rounded venue with majestic windows and a glamorous pink ceiling, set off with a crystal chandelier that dates back to 1934. But I wondered: “Why was it called the Rainbow Room if it wasn’t multicolored?”

The area was crowded with wine lovers and experts that were walking around 50 winery stands from different New York areas (Finger Lakes, Greater Niagara Region, North Fork, Hudson Valley, Brooklyn, Long Island…). I joined the crowd and wandered around the stands. I had a wide variety to pick from, and ended up tasting everything: the sparkling, the white, the red, the rosé, the fruity, and the aged.

As I was exploring the breathtaking room, I saw the perfect compliment for any wine tasting: a huge table of quality cheese and charcuterie, but not any kind: New York-made (of course), artisan breads, spreads, sweet butter, figs and grapes.

Carrying my plate of charcuterie and cheese, I walked around the room again, and visited more stands to explore new NY wines: Wölffer Estate Vineyards’ Summer in a Bottle is a peachy rosé, bottled in a retro, eye-catching design. Rooftop’s Red is a Brooklyn-based winery that grows its vineyards on the rooftop of its building, to produce their deliciously-dry white: Grüner Veltliner. Clinton Vineyards’ award-winning Cassis is a fruity, 100% black currant wine, with a strong yet delicious aroma.

The exploration of wine didn’t stop there. The event also included two seminars hosted by esteemed award-winners and experts in the field: “The Past, Present and Future of New York’s Hybrid Grapes”, and “Simply Red: Exploring the Variety of Red Vinifera Grapes from Across New York State.”

Grand Tasting felt like having a winery tour-NYC style: On the 65th floor of one of Manhattan’s most prestigious venues, with a spectacular view of the beautiful city, facing the Empire State Building. As I sipped from my glass, a little tipsy, I realized that the sun’s light was hitting the crystals hung across the glassed venue. The reflection was creating beautiful dancing rainbow beams, that decorated the room, the ceiling, the floor, the people, and every single wine bottle in the Rainbow Room.

Kellari Fall Tasting Menu

Kellari, the perennially popular Greek hotspot in Midtown West known for its delicious traditional and modern Greek Mediterranean menu, and terrific Greek wine list, welcomed Executive Chef, Themis Papadopoulos to their team this month. Papadopoulos has over 20 years of experience working in fine-dining restaurants and 5-Star hotels in Paris and Greece.

Chef Papadopoulos earned his education from Ecole Lenôtre and as a visiting chef at the Michelin-starred The Kitchen Gallery in Paris and the 2 Michelin starred Greenhouse in London. Papadopoulos' worked as a gastronomy consultant at the Athens Was Design Hotel from 2015-2017 and spent the last seven years as the Chef de Cuisine at the Michelin-starred Le Mavromattis in Paris. Papadopoulos is now continuing his journey with a big move to the United States, helming the kitchen at Kellari.

Upon entering the restaurant, guests were welcomed and made to feel like a regular — in a part of midtown where most places treat you like a tourist even if you’re a local.

Chef provided the press with a first look at a new five course tasting menu, which will debut this fall at the restaurant with Greek wine pairings from Santorini and beyond. The tasting began with pickled beetroot salmon with mango and fresh turmeric root coulis followed by a Cannelloni bean soup with mastiha extract.  A stand-out avocado cannelloni with smoked almonds, crab meat, red peppers and squid ink tuille followed. Seafood dolmades with pan seared langoustines and fresh herbs was served over a lobster bisque and then came a picture-perfect Branzino Tart with tomato concasse, yellow zucchini and a watercress pesto.  The perfect ending came in the form of poached figs in Mavrodafni sweet wine with salep cream and walnuts.

Kellari Hospitality Group owner Stavros Aktipis continues to grow his restaurant empire which boasts Kellari, Cesca on the Upper West Side and a new Greek restaurant called Lefkes in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Kellari is located at 19 W. 44th Street and has a sister location in Washington DC. https://www.kellariny.com/