I was talking to Brian Galvin on the phone the other day, and he was telling me he’s so excited that Nantucket Bay Scallops are in season again. He’s right: they are just a jewel of a fish, so sweet, with a velvety texture.

“I love them — they’re delicious” he told me. “I eat them [...]

From a press release:

The 9th “Book & The Cook Series” at Plates Restaurant in Larchmont on Dec. 3rd features “Over the Rainbeau,” the new recipe book and lifestyle memoir of cheesemaker and farmer Lisa Schwartz and her journey from tending a pair of goats to building a multifaceted, sustainable farm, Rainbeau Ridge, in Bedford, [...]

My colleague Karen Croke and I went to lunch at the new Chat yesterday. It looks very similar to its sister, Chat 19 in Larchmont: a color scheme of black and red, mosaic tiles at the bar and big picture windows.

The difference here: a roaring fireplace.

A couple fun stories in today’s food section. Two local moms wanted to tweak their Thanksgiving staples, so we helped them by turning to the Culinary Institute of American in Hyde Park.

The results: Finding new ingredients for Thanksgiving standards. (Linda Lombroso/TJN)

Other stories:
The word on the bird: Tips and tricks for making a delicious turkey. (MCT)
Fairway [...]

Cafe Barcel, the new restaurant in Nyack, was the hoppin’ place to be for food people on Monday night. I walked in to find Joe Printz, the owner of the Grape D’Vine in Tappan, at a table with his wife, Pam, and their daughter, Emma.

Then my husband and I took a seat at the bar [...]

Cafe Barcel, the new restaurant on Nyack’s Main Street, opened on Saturday.

I haven’t had a chance to get there for dinner yet, but I did have brunch across the street at Didier Dumas. So while I was there, I snapped these photos so y’all could see the huge change they made, well, to Change:

They opened [...]

Good morning and happy Monday. Yesterday was a stunning day, wasn’t it? Saturday? Not really. I spent it at a car dealer buying a car. How painful.

So when we got home in the dark and the rain Saturday night, it was nice to light a fire and cook together with our neighbors. We started with [...]

Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, the authors of the best-selling book, “Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make,” will be at the Rye Free Meeting Room from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Nov. 19 to demonstrate, step-by-step, how to make amazing cupcakes for the holidays. More info, after the jump.

I’ve just reported on three new restaurant openings. Here’s a quick look, and links to the posts.

Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Neopolitana opened November 2 in Yonkers. It’s the fourth outpost of the original, which opened in 1925 in New Haven. The coal-fired, brick oven pizza is popular the world over, and the clam pie and the [...]

I’ve tasted 5 pies from Frank Pepe’s in Yonkers over two visits in the last three days. And I’ve learned a few things:

1. Frank Pepe’s, founded in New Haven, Conn., in 1925, inspires rapturous loyalty in legions of fans.
2. The pizza is different from the cracker-thin, Brooklyn-style a lot of us are used to.
3. Tradition [...]

Café Barcel will open tomorrow in the space where Change used to be on Main Street in Nyack. The restaurant has been completely redone. There is a wall of windows that open to the street, floors made of dark wood, walnut tables and a Jacobean wood bar.

If you remember Change (and before it, Hunter’s), you [...]

Jean Parker and her family — former owners of Yvonne’s Southern Cooking — will open The House of Soul in Mount Vernon Saturday, Nov. 21.

The restaurant will serve good, old-fashioned Southern dishes such as fried chicken, oxtails, smothered turkey wings and spare ribs. Chef Roy Dailey, who has been with the family for 15 years, [...]

A great event for food lovers is coming up next weekend. The Russian Holiday Boutique at the Holy Virgin Protection Church in Nyack. If you’ve been to Nyack, you’ve seen that beautiful golden dome. Now the promises of what’s inside are not just intricate carvings and paintings inside the church — they are also delicious [...]

The first Beaujolais wine of the 2009 vintage is released the third Thursday of November each year. Here’s one event where you can taste the version from Georges Duboeuf.
On Thursday November 19 at 6PM Aries Wine & Spirits, 128 west Post Road in White Plains, will be hosting a Beaujolais tasting. Aries will be sampling [...]

My apologies for not posting much these past few days. I was on vacation, but also I’ve been working hard behind the scenes on a few cool projects.

First, this Friday, we’ll have an expanded, pull-out dining section in our Weekend section. We’ve got suggestions on where to make holiday reservations at the most beautifully decorated [...]

The publicist for Morton’s tells me:
Andy Pettitte celebrated the World Series Championship last evening with a quiet dinner with his family at Morton’s The Steakhouse in White Plains. After a round of applause from surrounding guests, the celebration started with sparkling cider compliments of Morton’s. (Andy does not drink.)  They started with Caesar salads and crabmeat [...]

From an email blast:
Together with Duckhorn Wine Company, Trevi Ristorante invites you to attend a Wine Tasting Dinner on Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00 p.m. Frank Barbagallo will present new vintages from Duckhorn Winery,  one of the finest and most priced estates in Napa Valley.
The menu, after the jump.

Marcello’s Restaurant will host a special culinary event on Nov. 8, a meal designed not only to appeal to the taste buds but to help out those in need as well.

The info, from a newsletter blast, after the jump.

A story about Kara and her cocktails will appear in tomorrow’s Journal News.  Here’s a sneak peek at the video, though. Be sure to watch til the end for an especially hilarious blooper by yours truly.

On Nov. 9, there will be a four-course dinner paired with wines at The Cookery in Dobbs, to benefit the Broadway Training Center in Hastings. Ned Towle of the Westchester Wine School will discuss the wines.

All the info, after the jump.

I’m off for a couple of days, so I won’t be able to get to the new Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria in Yonkers until next week. Lucky for us, then, that  Jonny and Nikki Giannettino of sundaysauceNY.com have agreed to guest blog their trip for Small Bites readers.

They have a few updates since they posted about [...]

The indoor farmers market are coming back to the Westchester County Center on Sundays through the fall and winter. The dates are Sundays, Nov. 22 and Dec. 20, 2009, and Jan. 3, Feb. 7 and Mar. 28, 2010. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

More info, from a press release, after the jump.

A wine tasting to benefit  Burke Rehabilitation Hospital’s stroke, spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation programs, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday (that’s tomorrow!)  in the Rosedale Room, Billings Building No. 4 at 785 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains.

The fundraiser features Stu Levine of Vino 100, White Plains, who will pour several dozen [...]

The Saw Mill Club, high-end gym and fitness center in Mount Kisco, has a new cafe: Willy Nick’s Courtside Cafe. The cafe is operated by Andy Vitrone and Jeff Goodwin, owners of William Nicholas, the gourmet take-out shop, and Willy Nick’s, the bistro. Both are in Katonah.

Chef Michael Juers will oversee both Willy Nick’s [...]

Support Connection, which provides support and programs to people affected by breast and ovarian cancer, is holding a wine-tasting and buffet dinner fundrasier at Colonial Terrace in Cortlandt Manor at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10. Tickets are $50 and include entertainment by Butch Barbbell’s Streets of the Bronx Band and wines from Marco Vople, the [...]

This press release just came over my email:

New York Firm Recalls Fresh Ground Beef Products Due
To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination

(Released on October 31, 2009) WASHINGTON- Fairbank Farms, an Ashville, NY, establishment, is recalling approximately 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s [...]

Good morning and happy Monday. I spent the weekend in the city and had a blast. Fried chicken dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar; pizza at Co.; the Kandinksi retrospective at the Guggenheim and a walk along the High Line in Chelsea.

We started with drinks at Mayaheul, the tequila bar (it’s rather more like a tequila [...]

From an email from Aries Wines & Spirits in White Plains:
In support of Cerebral Palsy, Aries would like to invite you to join us for an international food and wine tasting event. Aries is helping to setup and run A Taste of Westchester, on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 6:30 P.M.

The event will be held [...]

I exchanged a Q&A with Frank Bruni, the former restaurant critic for the New York Times, and it ran in Monday’s paper, advancing his screening tomorrow of “Moonstruck” at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. He said he chose “Moonstruck” because the characters reminded him of his own family, and made him realize they’d [...]

I do this occasional series where I focus on ‘one great dish’ from a chef’s menu and ask him to explain how he makes it. Today, Andy Nusser of Tarry Lodge in Port Chester goes over the (very simple) steps for making his beet and goat cheese “caprese” salad.

Here’s the story that appeared in today’s [...]