The latest in top luxury restaurant news this June

Every month, our Food Editor Nicole Douillet shares her top headlines from the world of restaurants, food and wine. So if you’ve got foodies in your life (or if you’re one yourself), here are our quick news bites for the month of June 2018. Curious about big events in the world of food and drink this month? Click here.

1. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, one of the most highly anticipated awards ceremonies for top chefs and restauranteurs (not to mention the foodies who love them) will take place on June 19 in Bilboa, Spain. Sponsored by San Pellegrino and Aqua Panna, the awards began a world tour in 2016 after being held in London for over a decade. Bilboa, the capital of the Biscay province in northern Spain, is known for its rich culinary history. In fact, Spain’s Basque Country is home to the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita, and maintains a strong representation on the 50 Best list. The big question on everyone’s mind this year is whether New York’s Eleven Madison Park will hold onto the top spot, especially after closing last summer for several months to undergo renovations. The only ways to find out are to watch live on facebook or to follow @TheWorlds50Best and #Worlds50Best on Twitter.

2. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, there have been significant shake-ups in the restaurant world. Chef April Bloomfield announced that she is severing her relationship with long-time business partner, Ken Friedman after numerous accusations of sexual misconduct were made by former staff members. Mario Batali is now under criminal investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct, prompting his former business partners to speed up their divestiture negotiations. While it may seem demoralizing that this behavior was so prevalent for so long, there is a positive side. Finally, people are paying attention and making it known that inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated or supported. And, we’re seeing this reflected in the top honors being awarded to chefs and restaurants. The awards so far this year haven’t felt like the usual boy’s club, and that’s a welcome shift. This year, the James Beard Foundation Awards boasted it’s most diverse line-up of honorees, featuring more women and people of color on the podium than ever before. This year’s Food and Wine list of the Best New Chefs included more women than men, also a first.

3. Wedding Parties. Were you one of the nearly 2 billion people worldwide who tuned in to watch Prince Harry and American Meghan Markle exchange vows at St. George’s Chapel on May 19? My wife was! She and nearly 29 million Americans awoke at the crack of dawn to watch the celebration. In Britain, an estimated 18 million people watched from their homes, many throwing big parties. The only companies happier with the viewership than the networks and social media channels were British grocers. In preparation for a day of royal celebration, Britons spent GBP 415 million (just over $550 million) on food and drinks to host friends and family and celebrate the Royal nuptials. Those must have been lavish spreads!

4. An iconic restaurant on the French Riviera is no more. For those planning a summer getaway to the Cote d’Azur, there will be one vast difference than in seasons past. Iconic Cannes restaurant Tetou has been torn down. The restaurant was most famous for it’s bouillabaisse and its star-studded clientele. Everyone from Picasso to President George H.W. Bush to Robert Di Nero dined there when they were in town. Authorities enforcing a local law that required the removal of all beach terraces along the Golfe-Juan demolished the nearly 80 year old restaurant in early May. The loss will certainly be felt by locals who cherished the restaurant, as well as by its loyal international following. Mr. Di Nero even placed a call to the owners in the days just before the closing to offer his support. One can only hope that the owners will find a way to rebuild and reopen in the coming years.

5. It’s barbecue time in New York! Every June, there is a huge street festival surrounding Madison Square Park in Manhattan. I don’t usually get excited about summer street festivals because most offer the same, tired Italian sausages and boring kebabs week after week. However, this particular festival is what my wife refers to as “Nicole’s Christmas in June.” This is no ordinary food festival. This is the Big Apple BBQ. On this weekend, I get up early, and am giddy to get out door to walk around, even before the stands open at 11am. Now, you may have heard that it’s a mess of people crammed in the streets, sweating in the hot summer sun while they wait in long lines to buy BBQ and beer; that it’s not worth the trouble when one could just go to Blue Smoke on any given Saturday and enjoy a plate of fine BBQ. But, don’t listen to these philistines. This can be the holy grail of summer weekends if you do it right. Pick either Saturday or Sunday to go, and then buy the corresponding Big Rig VIP Pass ($275). This pass entitles you and one companion access to a tree-covered VIP area with an open bar and BBQ delivered to the area. Every hour, a different Pitmaster will be serving up their featured dishes in this area, so you might not even need to venture out onto the streets. But, this Pass also comes with a FastPass for those of you who, like me, want access to more than just one or two plates of BBQ per hour. The FastPass gets the holder and one companion behind the BBQ trucks where the lines are shorter and a bit shadier, so you can get exactly what you want when you want it. The FastPass is also good for $100 of BBQ, desserts, soft drinks, and beer. And, if you’re a bourbon drinker, or a lover of southern style jazz music, then you can’t miss the Pappy Van Winkel bourbon bar which pops up outside of Eleven Madison Park (and is run by the restaurant). So, my perfect day starts by arriving at 10:30a to peruse the BBQ selections. Then, at 11a, purchase at least two different plates of BBQ while things are still quiet, and continuing to purchase plates until I’m stuffed or it gets too crowded. And, then grabbing a table at EMP to cap off the afternoon sipping a glass of Pappy’s Family Reserve 23 year while The Crooners strum away (occasionally featuring Will Guidara on drums and Julian van Winkle on the triangle). Sweet.

That’s it for this month. Forks in the air! And for a run-down of the upcoming events in the world of food and drink in June, click here.

Nicole Douillet is Dandelion Chandelier’s Food Editor. In addition to sharing her love of all things food with our readers, Nicole is a finance executive who has spent nearly 18 years on Wall Street in a variety of roles. She began her career as the first woman hired as a trader on the block trading desk at UBS.  For over 13 years, Nicole was a quantitative trader and portfolio manager on the proprietary trading desk at Credit Suisse. She then served as Head of Product Innovation and LGBT Strategy for Wealth Management Private Banking New Markets at Credit Suisse. Most recently, Nicole co-founded Reboot Investing, Inc. where she served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer. A recognized leader in socially responsible investing, Nicole created the ground-breaking Credit Suisse LGBT Equality Index ® and co-authored “What’s the Effect of Pro-LGBT Policy on Stock Price?” for the Harvard Business Review in 2014.  Nicole currently serves on the Advisory Council for Action Against Hunger | ACF International. She is a former junior Olympic skier, food and drink aficionado, serial restaurant regular, and chili cook-off champion. She and her wife live in Brooklyn with their son, whose favorite restaurant is Lilia. Nicole is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.

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