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“We are sold out! Thank you so much everybody!!!!” Former Gramercy Tavern pastry cook Lauren Tran types out the note and publishes the update to her Instagram feed. Months into the venture, Tran, 32, still can’t believe customers often snap up her $40 pastry boxes within hours of posting her weekly menu for Bánh by Lauren, her Vietnamese-French pastry business, on Instagram.
On a gray, snowy Monday in mid-January, with customers anchored to their apartments and scrolling through the app, Tran’s macarons and banh bo nuong a chewy, striated Vietnamese pandan honeycomb cake are irresistible. While customers light up Tran’s DMs to see if they can squeeze onto her waitlist, she’s plotting out her baking schedule for the next five days. Over 60 cumulative baking hours, she’ll make 80 langue de chat biscuits, 320 macaron shells, and five to six whole cakes. She’ll also test her recipe for banh bo nuong at least five times before getting up at 6 a.m. on Saturday to bak
New York’s storied Italian destination,
Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Del Posto, has permanently closed. The news was announced April 12 by the restaurant’s executive chef, Melissa Rodriguez, and general manager, Jeff Katz. The duo also revealed that they’ve teamed up with chef James Kent to purchase the space in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood from B & B Hospitality Group, with plans to fill it with three new concepts this fall.
Since debuting in 2005, Del Posto has been known as one of the top Italian restaurants in the country. Most recently helmed by wine director Evan Clagnaz, the wine program first earned a Grand Award in 2008 for numerous strengths including Italy and Champagne. Rodriguez was named executive chef in 2017, further cementing the restaurant’s reputation during her tenure.
The two hospitality veterans have both spent time working in notable New York restaurants, with Tracy serving as sous chef and Arjav as manager at the popular Grammercy Tavern, and met while working at United at the Whitney, the museum restaurant operated by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group for almost a decade.
Despite their fine dining pedigrees, Birdie’s will be a casual, counter service restaurant. Tracy has not finalized her menu but says diners should expect simple American cuisine that takes culinary cues from Italy and France. The wine list, overseen by Arjav will, like the food menu, take a seasonal approach that responds to Austin’s intense heat.
The restaurant director of Kerridge’s Bar & Grill on his love of restaurants, and why more needs to be done in schools to emphasise the importance of the hospitality.
Why restaurants?
I never really thought I would be working in restaurants long-term. I had a part-time job washing pots and pans during my last few years at school, but once given the chance to be part of the front of house team and work ‘tableside’, I realised the beauty and fun of looking after people over something as simple as eating and drinking, and I’ve never looked back.
Tell us something you wish you had been told at the start of your career?