Ellabess NY

From Recipe testing to soft opening to grand opening.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  I was asked to delete the previous entry I made about Ellabess because it was supposed to be a secret, WOOPS! It's cool, I'll share everything with you now.  Executive Chef Troy Unruh, executive sous chef Ty Kotz, and Pastry Chef Carmine Arroyo.

 
                                           

From Grubstreet

New Chapter: Ellabess

I left Oceana for personal reasons but I can say I learned a lot there doing 300+ on a regular night handling a protein station. What's next? Ellabess with Chef Troy Unruh, Pastry Chef Carmine Arroyo and Executive Sous Chef Ty Kotz.  Ellabess It's going to be a seasonal American restaurant.  It's expected to open in July along with the Nolitan Hotel it's located in.  I hope you can join me in this journey because it'll be epic, legendary, okay I'll stop there but seriously it'll be a wild ride.

The first restaurant I stepped into as a cook

Ramen Setagaya

I spent over a year in this kitchen.  This is where it all started.  I miss it a lot and on a rainy day, I would go in for a bowl of shio ramen, cha shyu zara and a cold sapporo.  Hits the spot and brings back many memories.  It's not what it used to be.  The place changed, the owner changed.  Year 2007 was when this restaurant was at it's peak.  We won New York Magazine's Best Ramen award in NYC that year.  The original Setagaya spot was on 1st avenue between 8th and 9th street.  We would play rock, paper and scissors to see who buys coffee across from the corner deli owned by Korean man who was pissed off all the time.  I would sneak downstairs with the cooks and chug beers leftover from the New Years party we had.  We were so busy that year.  Customers were lining up around the block! I remember the ticket number 301.  That's probably 600 customers we served in one night in a 25 seat restaurant.  Best night ever, I felt like the ramen king, no seriously.

Street Festival: Fresh Maine Lobster Rolls.

April 30th, 2011.  65th street and Lexington Avenue.  12 pm-5 pm.

Menu
Classic Lobster Roll, Mayonnaise, Celery
Connecticut Style Lobster Roll, Butter
Bahn Mi Style Lobster Roll, Carrot, Daikon, Cucumber, Cilantro, Sweet Chili Sauce

All lobster rolls were $15

Memorable/funny quotes
Customer 1: "Oh my God, that's drenched in butter?"
Chef: "Yeah but it's low fat and low calorie."

Customer 2: "They all sound good, I don't know which lobster roll to get, which one do you recommend?"
Chef: "If you can't decide, just get all three of them."

Mad "props" to Anais for making my blog look so damn good.  Makes me wanna blog more, no doubt.

Preparing Refreshments for Remnant Church

Passion NYC Revival (April 7-9 2011)

Vegetable Crudite with Blue Cheese Dressing & Russian Dressing
Cheese Platter (Brie, Argentine Parmesan, French Chevre & Holland Smoked Gouda)
Crackers and Salami
Mini Open faced Sandwiches (Ham & Turkey with Cheddar Cheese and Piquillo Pepper Aioli)

Mark Burger

Mark Burger is known for their amazing sliders.  I decided to try it after all the hype and buzz.

original ($2) & with bacon ($2.75) & fries ($3)

Candied Bacon (that's right) Shake ($6)

The cook rocking a fitted worked right next to the bartender.  I could see this guy working the flat top, cooking more than 10 burgers at once accurately, I think the beer he was drinking helped with all of this  The burgers were cooked to order and were cooked to a perfect medium.  Quality was great and they even grind their own beef.  To end the meal, I ordered a bacon shake.  It was really unexpected.  It worked well but left a weird aftertaste.  The bacon added a smoky and salty touch to the sweet and rich shake.  4/5

Cook's Ink

Tattoos are not widely accepted in many professional fields and if you do have tattoos, the boss might encourage you to cover them at work.  But, in the kitchen, it's a different story.  For some odd reason, it's normal to see cooks with ink.  So if you have a lot of tattoos and can't find a job, start cooking, just kidding.

Quick story: When I was working at Tabla as a line cook, I remember I kept my sleeves down to hide my tattoo from Chef Floyd Cardoz.  I was cooking papadum in the salamander (I miss those crab cakes) and of course Chef saw it.  "AY! what's that?!"  I replied, "Chef, it's a tattoo" (I probably looked a little embarrassed) and I remember him saying, "this is why I shouldn't give you guys a day off, you always go off and do something crazy."  HAHAHA, well a couple of hours later he told me something in the lines of, "it's okay, it's how you express yourself, I'm not against it."  I was really relieved.

My tattoo started last year on September 1st, 2010.  It's still in progress and I'm guessing it'll be done by next month.  The parlor I go to is located in the Bronx, called Bronx Ink Tattoo & Piercing.  Hoga is my tattoo artist,  also one of my close hyungs.  He's a very talented man that specializes in Asian art.  I'll post up progress pictures I took in the course of 7 months to show you how it started and ended for those who are interested.  By the way, it's a full sleeve of koi fish.  I know my former senior cook Josh would hate me for posting these pictures up, he's one jealous dude, just kidding on that too.

Hoga working

Retouch