bye bye trotsky...

so, yet another les establishment that i've visited has closed: cafe trotsky. i didn't love the coffee (even though it was julius meinl coffee) but i thought it was a cute space and i had planned to return for a relaxing morning of reading, over a latte and a fresh pastry.

but after getting the skinny on the economics of running a coffeehouse from the former owner, in slate (via eater, of course), it's probably just as well. i'd have felt totally guilty for lingering over breakfast and ordering a croissant. negative quarter, indeed!

i'm definitely going to dine at colors, the first week that it opens...

not only is colors a restaurant started by some of the former employees of windows on the world at the world trade center, it is also a cooperative enterprise. cnn reported the story about a year ago, but anthony depalma has a follow-up in today's new york times. here are some highlights:

"Restaurants open in New York all the time, but there has never been one like this. Mr. Moog and 50 other waiters, busboys, bartenders and dishwashers, many of them immigrants who worked at Windows, have formed a cooperative that will run one of the city's first worker-owned restaurants.

Each one of them will claim a piece of the restaurant, called Colors, as their own and share in any profits. Each one submitted a family recipe to help shape the restaurant's eclectic menu - which they describe as American fare with a global twist...

Rarely has one project had to carry so many expectations. Besides memorializing the 73 who died in Windows, which was atop 1 World Trade Center, the co-op is trying to do no less than change an industry.

Nobody in the restaurant, not even the dishwashers, will receive less than $13.50 an hour, far higher than average restaurant wages. They will share tips and be eligible to receive overtime and vacations. Eventually they will be covered by health insurance and have pensions.

And, of course, each will share in the profits of the restaurant, if and when there are profits...

The new restaurant will feature 1930's decor because the workers feel that era represented the height of labor power in New York. The name Colors reflects the 22 nations from which the members come, as will be shown on a giant mural in the restaurant.

These veteran restaurant workers realize that the emotional link to 9/11 will bring in diners, but it will become secondary to the things that really determine a restaurant's success - service and food."

o christmas treat, o christmas treat...

i love holiday shopping--even when there's a transit strike and i have to walk everywhere and the real feel temperatures are in the teens!

one of my new favorite stores is sur la table--i loved the april cornell 'rose hip' linens for my mom...(i also loved, but didn't end up buying, the riedel o wine tumblers, and the polka dot ice cream bowls and a whole mess of brightly colored silicone spatulas).

i went to the vosges chocolate store on spring street and picked up a couple of the naga and red fire bars and a few boxes of the caramel toffee--all were a big hit. i was glad to hear it--though i am a fan of the vosges wasabi truffles and curry truffles, i hadn't tried the toffee. it looked good, but basically, i crossed my fingers and thought, well, at the very least, the packaging is cute... but the toffee received raves...

i also took a trip uptown to elk candy co, to buy what is purported to be "the best marzipan in nyc." i had walked all over downtown--dean and deluca, balducci's, citarella to go, rocco's pastry shop, bruno's bakery (they had marzipan, but the candies were huge, and like $28./lb!)--and didn't find what i wanted, i was getting tired and frustrated, so elk was to be my last shot. elk is a charming little candy store, and they make the marzipan and chocolates, on site. i was thrilled with their selection...

(i bought an array of tiny fruit candies) and was really pleased with the fresh, light, sweet, almond goodness. it definitely worth the ride to the upper east side. (and thank goodness for the end of the transit strike, otherwise i probably wouldn't have made it uptown!)

and last but not least...i enjoyed my first taste of that seasonal treat, buche de noel. the buche de noel at ceci-cela on spring street has been haunting me for the last couple of weeks--i passed it almost every day, on my way to and from the gym.

how beautiful is this meringue? do you blame me?

and even though my mom is supposed to be watching her cholesterol, she started talking about the buche de noel after having seen it on the food network every day for the last two weeks! so i knew..this is the year to bring a buche de noel to the christmas table...
what i didn't know was that this particular white wonder was not a traditional buche de noel--it had chocolate raspberry filling--and the traditional ones didn't have the meringue icing...i thought that maybe i should just go the traditional route since it was our first time to try it, but oh that meringue...the fella at ceci-cela could see i was torn, and he assured me, by making some kind of whooshy woohoo sound, and saying "it is so delicious, really, you will love it..."

he was right.