Grub Street Grub Street New York

After telling us about his new gig at Chipotle and then further explaining himself on Zagat Buzz, Nate Appleman tells the Times more about what’s going through his mind (“All the chicken we get right now is legs and thighs, so the question is what I’m going to do with the breast meat”). Meanwhile, according to Newsday, all of the burrito joint’s Long Island and metro–New York locations are now using “plant-based environmentally preferable cleaning supplies and technologies.” The place has come a long way since it wouldn’t hire David Chang!

'Green' cleaning at Chipotle [Newsday]
Nate Appleman, Rising Star, Turns Up in a Chipotle [NYT]

Alan Richman isn’t the only critic picking favorites today. Bloomberg’s Ryan Sutton drops his top ten New York openings of the year and they include (from top to bottom): the Breslin, Má Pêche, Torrisi, Maialino, Colicchio & Sons, the Mark, ABC Kitchen, Peels, Seersucker, Eataly, Brooklyn Fare, and Kajitsu. You’ll notice Lincoln isn’t on there; Sutton points out that Benno’s restaurant has cut prices after lackluster reviews, but that’s bucking a trend of price inflation at other spots like Masa, Eleven Madison Park, Del Posto, and Minetta Tavern, where the strip steak has gone from $36 to $48. Also not on the list: the Lion (“by far the worst restaurant of the year”) and Faustina, where the “crummy Italian” confirms Scott Conant’s role as “the next Todd English, a talented chef more interested in expansion than improving his existing venues.” How does Scott Conant feel about that? Who knows! He’s busy opening a couple of places in Vegas today!

Best Restaurants of 2010 Heralds Breslin, Ma Peche, Octo-Dogs: Ryan Sutton [Bloomberg]

Remember when Tom Colicchio, David Chang, and Wylie Dufresne showed up on Treme? Well, they’ll all be together again on tonight’s episode of Top Chef, this time with the addition of David Burke and Michael White. No, Eric Ripert won’t be there, but his bro Bourdain will be! Do these guys all have the same TV agent or something? Meanwhile, Chang has been putting his Twitter account to awesome use. If his recent sit-down with the Huffington Post starts to bore you (we really needed to hear what Chang thinks about cooking school yet again?), check out what happens when a wine aficionado going by the name of AYduhFOYluh makes the mistake of asking him, “When will you be issuing an apology for what milk bar has become?” Uh-oh.

Around the time that the Gap debuted a Mast Brothers chocolate bar, we noted that the Brooklyn Flea aesthetic had finally gone mainstream. Now the Times does the same, in a larger piece that has inspired the food section to coin the term “boroughwashing,” for the mainstream appropriation of Brooklyn artisanal food culture. Of course, the Brooklyneer gets a mention, and Jeffrey Steingarten expresses the kind of reservations that he first voiced in his New York Diet: A certain Brooklyn pâté is “made by someone who has probably never been to France, or if he has, he wasn’t there very long.” But the Times fails to ask: How exactly did the whole Brooklyn scene blow up like this, anyway? Maybe, just maybe, the Times had something to do with it?

Brooklyn: The Brand [NYT]

Red Rooster doesn’t open till this weekend, but it has already stolen some VIPs from Sylvia’s. We’re told that after his concert at the Apollo, Sir Paul McCartney hosted an after-party that brought in Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Val Kilmer, Tony Bennett, Chris Rock, Paul Simon, Ben Stiller, Lorne Michaels, Jimmy Fallon, and much of the Saturday Night Live cast. Naturally, the menu was strictly vegetarian. Apparently the fete went into the wee hours, so it’s safe to say the booze was flowing, but don’t assume that’ll be the case when Marcus Samuelsson opens his doors to the plebes on Friday.

This week, Diner’s Journal brought news that Arizona-based burger-and-wine chain Zinburger was coming to Clifton, New Jersey, with plans to open in Manhattan next year, and now a tipster tells us that the Counter, a build-your-own-burger concept that was founded in California in 2003 and now has locations everywhere from Connecticut to Australia to Ireland, has soft-opened in Times Square. Before you shake your head at yet another Smashburger-Elevation Burger–type invasion, consider that Alan Richman named this one of the “20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die.”