BL

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:52:44 -0500

2009 Hamptons Burger Bloodbath

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:51:47 -0500

The winner of the 2009 Hamptons BURGER BLOODBATH is father/son restaurateur team Jeffrey and Zach Chodorow. Their official list of ingredients, as filed with contest officials:

LaFrieda Custom 80-20 patty
salt
Martin's Potato Roll
Boar's Head Bacon
McClure's Spicy Pickles
Maille whole grain mustard
Gulden's spicy brown mustard
Red Onion
Butter
Sriracha
Balsamic
Mayo
Paprilka
Pepper
Boar's Head American cheese

Good coverage of the contest from BLOODBATH judge Kate Krader and the estimable Joanne Wilson.

A Tale of Two Twitters

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:22:31 -0500

So, a few weeks back I sent a friend a link to the initially genius and now futzing around /THE_REAL_SHAQ, the certified legit Twitter existence of Shaquille O'Neil, and she pinged me right back: "What is this? I still don't get Twitter." And while Twitter's recent explosion, especially around the 2008 Election and, then, the Mumbai hotel attacks, is clean and clear evidence that people are starting to understand the service, the girl's got a point. Twitter still hasn't really figured out how to package and present its content effectively.

The product and design guys at Twitter surely have plenty of cool bells and whistles in the works, and I hope one of the things they're focused on is doing a better job of playing up the aggregate power of their service. For example, perhaps one of the key advantages that Twitter has over other social net services is that extensive repurposing of archived content is possible. The minority of 'private' users aside, the one-way Twitter relationship (one doesn't have to follow you for you to follow him) gives Twitter, Inc. tremendous license. Tweets can be packaged and publicly consumed in myriad ways. Such as:

—Here's instant reaction to Mahalo Answers, a Q&A service attached to the currated search service. Answers launches today and the real-time react is in progress.

—Or here's a feed of the search for 'is down' across Twitters. Again, real time, Tweets that use the prase 'is down', which loosely tracks websites that are down.

—Lastly, and more base, a community reaction to the Giants loss to the Cowboys last night. Score, color, fan emotion all available.

The first two of these search feeds were Twitter-suggested, but only via a small sidebar on Twitter's search page (which, see screen grab, is itself barely revealed across the site), the Other Twitter. The third I retrieved manually via search.twitter.com. And even better examples of good meta-Twitters surely exist.

The point is that this type packaging is tremendously powerful and should be one of the key ways Twitter relates to users, both current and potential. Twitterers shouldn't have to switch over to an RSS app to follow any of the feeds like the ones above. Plus—again, using to aggregation to enhance utility for the individual—one click should allow a user to 'follow a feed' or, get this, follow everyone who contributed to a search feed (and to keep profiles clean, how about the ability to follow for a specified length of time?Follow...'for today'...'while trend is hot'...'until manually removed'...). There should be other packaging, too: follow all..."New York shops" or "Giants fans" or "VCs" (in theory, there are lots of cool ways Twitter could curate and fine-tune these with the help of user feedback). It's the difference between a la carte and prix fixe menus—and both should be offered at Twitter.

Yes, there are offerings like /vctips, and, such as we're doing with /eaterny, group Twitters, which pull in content from many users when prompted. Regardless, Twitter, Inc. needs to focus on, and own, meta-Tweet pages, which are highly monetizable (to strengthen this content, maybe even incentivize individuals by giving them pennies any time someone clicks into their Tweet from a meta page?) in myriad ways and fantastically useful in this age of insta-blogging and feed-as-content web consumption. This has surely been suggested elsewhere and, again, Twitter probably has some spectacular stuff in the works. But, right here and now Twitter could come a long way by just getting the right hand to talk to the left hand.

Dear Pete Wells

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:50:03 -0500

Yelp is at the core of why the internet has a terrible reputation in the restaurant community. Since you didn't ask, here is why we 'tend to be dismissive' of the website: There is zero fact-checking or accountability; Yelpers can be bought by both the restaurants they're reviewing and, with either ridiculous posting incentives or bullying , Yelp itself; and Yelp burns the candle at both ends by giving restaurants editorial incentives to place ads. (Hat tip to our editor in San Francisco, Paolo Lucchesi, who has done an excellent job covering misadventures in Yelp.)

Commercial blogs -- the 'pretentious' ones you identify, like Eater Grub Street and Serious Eats -- are always and unfortunately grouped in with sites such as Yelp, because writers like yours, Donald G. McNeil, fail to examine and grasp the differences between the two types of sites. Your article is a massive opportunity missed to paint an accurate and realistic picture of -- and here's the one thing Eat and Tell does get right -- the growing Yelp presence on the Internet. Hope it gets you some good traffic, at least.

· Yelp Wanted [Eater SF]
· Eat and Tell [NYT]

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:14:22 -0500

So, I'm feeling the Twitter, people. (Late to the dance, indeed. Steele's got a two-digit Metafilter ID. In aggregate, we're where we need to be on the curve.) As my marginal understanding of the thing goes, Twitter is an amorphous Web 2.0 interface designed to broadcast...you. Call it Facebook, but with two important limitations:

1) Just because someone loves you, you don't have to love back.

2) You've got 140 characters to get your point across. Be precise and economical. No photos, Super Wall messages, "Lil' Green Patch Society" requests.

There's something to this. Rule one sets up the same relationship that makes for the best, if not the most cuddly, blog eco-systems. Rule two is just elegant. And does have me wondering if our bloggers shouldn't be given a maximum number of daily characters to play with?

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:07:15 -0500

There are a great many holidays penciled into the baby gazelle-skinned agenda book of the modern gentleman, and among the most enjoyable of all these holidays are those that surround the consumption of gratis meals...

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:05:46 -0500

There are some nasty bugs that come with the standard MT4 install, turns out. Many thanks to ES for getting me back on the rails here.

Client Nine Too Good for Facebook?

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:45:30 -0500

Minutes after the Spitzer blockbuster hit, both client9.com and clientnine.com were registered, up, and running (clientnumbernine.com and clientnumber9.com were also registered). But at present, there's still no profile for "Client 9" on Facebook. Exactly the reason I keep deactivating my account.

On Ko

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:42:02 -0500

Eater is fortunate enough to have a relationship with Dave Chang, Mayor of the East Village, as we say, and perhaps the most talented chef experimenting with food in New York at this moment. The relationship is simple: we like what he's doing, a lot, and he's generally tolerable of what we do at Eater. As a bonus, he's also a friend: I find him to be a genuine, humble, and kind person. With an absolute shit ton of talent.

Anyway, this has Steele and I among a very lucky few who got a seat at Momofuku Ko for friends and family. [steele's photos]. What has to be said about this place is that it is an epiphany. The tempo, intimacy, presentation, philosophy, and flavor profile of Ko is spectacular and new—and I think it's something that other restaurateurs have seen coming and themselves tried to capture with less success. Robuchon NY, for example, or the evolving idea of the chef's table. It is a restaurant where raw fluke with whipped buttermilk, poppy seed and soy, good enough to be the envy of most kitchens in the city, fades into obscurity here. The show-stopper, and the point of this post, is the shaved foie gras with lychees and pine nut brittle. In 8-12 months, variations of it are going to be all over the city. See also, what Nobu Matsuhisa's Miso Black Cod did for sablefish. Everyone and his mother is going to be shaving foie gras. By virtue of it being frozen and shaved, the first spoonful is ice cold, rich, creamy and vibrant like a good gelato; then you want to dirty the dish up, mix the lychees, brittle and the foie. The foie softens in consistency and temperature a bit and so you're eating a nutty, crunchy melange of fruit and foie. Cereal for a king.

Back to Chang for a moment, who's watching us eat this from behind the bar, his arms folded in a kind pose of perverted satisfaction. Beaming despite his lower back being in shambles and, by the way, drinking diet Coke with ice out of a plastic take-out soup container.

Ground Rules

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:19:36 -0500

Written as much for my own reference as anything else. 1. No photos of me, especially not self-portraits, series of self-portraits, and/or photos of me just woken up. 2. Nothing too long, introspective, preachy. 3. No series of posts offering a chronicle of a milestone event and/or undertaking in my own life. 4. Where possible, invoke the name of Matty. 5. Help non-readers keep tabs on our blogs.

About BL

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:47:03 -0500

Web entrepreneur Ben Leventhal is the co-founder of Curbed Media, a network of city websites, and the Creator and former Editor-in-Chief of Eater.com, the largest independent restaurant and nightlife blog on the Internet. He’s written for publications including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Details, Food & Wine, DailyCandy and Hampton Style, where he served as their restaurant critic. Food & Wine awarded Ben a Tastemaker Award in 2006 and called Eater “required reading.” He has also been featured in the New York Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle and the LA Times.

BYLINES
Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks: Ratio vs. Seven Fires, Food 52, October 2009
[All Posts by Ben Leventhal], New York Magazine/Grub Street, c. 2009
Lard Times, Details, August 2009
Molto Mochi, T, Spring 2007
Lexicon XII: Nightlife, Daily Candy, May 24, 2005
Lexicon XIV: Sexicon, Daily Candy, July 19, 2005
She Loves NY Guide to Etiquette and the Like, c. 2005

MEDIA CLIPS
Mr. Cutlets Radio Show, Heritage Radio Network, October 2009
Aspen Classic Video: Navigating New Menus, Food & Wine, June, 2008
Aspen Classic Video: Alan Richman, Food & Wine, June, 2008
Aspen Classic Video: Which Critics to Trust?, Food & Wine, June 2008

RANDOM EATER POST
Dispatch from Steerage: McNally Nixes Civilian Prime Time Reservations at Minetta Tavern, 9/1//09

ABOUT
Reconnaissance Man, NY Post, November 8, 2003
Tastemaker Awards 2006, "Intrepid Web Masters", Food & Wine, November 2006
Celebs, gossip! Sure, we'll bite, Los Angeles Times, January 3, 2007
Blog Wields Power in Restaurant World, AP, January 12, 2007
Sharp Bites, New York Times, February 4, 2007
Day in the Life: Ben Leventhal, Travel + Leisure, September 2007
Heeb 100: Ben Leventhal, Heeb Magazine, Fall 2007
Eater Overlord Tipples with David Chang, New York/Grub Street, October 17. 2008
Eater's Leventhal to Guest Blog on Grub Street, The Feedbag, March 26, 2009
Hamptons Burger Bloodbath, Food & Wine Mouthing Off, September 9, 2009
NBC Grabs a High-Profile Blogger..., WSJ Media Memo, October 27, 2009

google "ben leventhal"
@benleventhal
bleventhal [at] gmail.com