The latest in top luxury restaurant news this September

Every month, our Food Editor Nicole Douillet shares her top headlines from the world of restaurants, food and wine. Here are some quick news bites for the month of September 2018. Curious about other events in the world of food and drink this month? Click here.

As summer draws to a close, our attention shifts from lobster dinners and beach barbecues to fall festivals and harvest celebrations. These events are happening all across the Northern Hemisphere, so no matter what your favorite fall fruit, vegetable, or tipple, you’ll be able to find a festival that features it.

1. If you have a trip to Europe planned, skip the crowds at Oktoberfest, and head to a lesser-known beer festival, Slunce ve Skle (“Sun in a Glass”), in Pilsen, Czech Republic on September 21 and 22. Pilsen is the birthplace of the Pilsner beer. Beer fans will relish the mix of classic Czech lagers and modern style brews which make this two-day festival one of the best in the world. Last year, there were 78 breweries from 7 countries on hand providing just what festival-goers needed to wash down the smokey sausages and goulash served. Just be grateful that bikini season is many months away. Na zdraví!

2. If you’re heading to the West Coast of the United States in search of eternal summer, head up the Pacific Coast Highway and check out any one of the festivals happening in California’s wine regions. Monterey County hosts their 4th Annual Celebration of Harvest on September 29th with over a dozen local restaurants and wineries serving their specialties, alongside live music and wine-making demonstrations. Or travel a little further north to Sonoma County, where celebrations will be taking place nearly every weekend this fall at various wineries and in many town squares.

3. Brooklyn has been a culinary hotbed for some time (as we noted here last October), and the trend continues. If you’ve been following the NYC food press, you will likely have read about two hot new restaurants in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. One block away from one another, the restaurants offer vastly different, but equally delicious cuisine. Oxomoco is a new Mexican restaurant that applies the flavors and techniques of authentic Mexican fare in unexpected ways. I’m addicted to the Tlayuda Oxomoco, which is sort of like an amazingly thin and crispy Mexican pizza – it’s a thin tostada topped with cheese and, for now, corn, epazote, and salsa roja. The restaurant boasts a wood-fired oven so the tacos and main dishes pack a welcome smokiness. One block west, is another terrific newcomer called Di An Di. The Vietnamese menu features favorites like Pho and Cuõn which could be the best I’ve had outside of Vietnam. And, the daily specials only add additional depth to the already wonderful offerings. I suggest bringing a date or a few friends on you visit to either spot so you can try more than a couple of dishes.

4. In keeping with the Brooklyn theme, I should also mention that Missy Robbins’ new pasta shrine, Misi, is opening the second week of September in Williamsburg. The press around this opening has been nothing short of frenetic. It’s been covered in the Vanity Fair September issue, the New York Times Dining section, and The New York Times Magazine, and named by Eater as one of the hottest openings of 2018. . . all in the last few weeks. The chef expects to serve 500 bowls of pasta per day between lunch and dinner service, which justifies the 325-square-foot windowed room pasta room which faces the newly opened Domino Park. The menu will comprise 10 pastas and 10 vegetables, with the occasional special, and gelato for dessert. If the popularity of the chef’s first restaurant, Lilia, is any indication, be prepared to wait for a table.

5. Another hotly anticipated opening is expected to hit the Los Angeles restaurant scene this month. Top Chef 2015 winner Mei Lin is set to open her first restaurant, Nightshade. After working at top restaurants such as Spago Vegas and Ink in LA, she’s branching out on her own. At a pop-up dinner this summer, Lin opened up about the concept. She wants Nightshade to be a refined, yet approachable restaurant showcasing LA’s different dining cultures. If you didn’t see her on Top Chef, her culinary approach relies on taking traditional Asian ingredients from her childhood, and transporting them into gorgeous, sophisticated dishes.

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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