Flipper’s, the renowned pancake chain from Japan, just opened its first US outpost in Soho. On my second try, I got in. And not only did I taste the most divine pancakes, but I also discovered two celebs in line (one of whom Instagrammed it was the first time she had ever waited in line for anything!).

The Flipper’s menu is vast and includes regular pancakes, salads, bubble teas and so on but I came for the “miracle pancakes.” And they were miraculous indeed.

It takes them 20 minutes to make so things are a little slow-going at the moment.

On Friday, when they opened, the line was three-to-four hours long. I decided to try again on another day.

My next attempt was yesterday morning (Sunday). I arrived at 10:05 and was among the first 10 people in line.

In front of me: Daym Drops, the YouTube food reviewer with 1MM followers and Bethenny Frankel (one of the initial Real Housewives of NYC). She could not believe she was waiting in line. Truth be told, she had a guy waiting in line for her until about 10:50 at which time she rolled up with her daughter. Pics below.

A few more details on Flipper’s:

• It’s in Soho at 377 West Broadway (corner of Grand)
• Hours are 11am – 7pm.
• It’s a 2-story restaurant with seating upstairs and take-out downstairs (although that’s not operational yet)
• It’s a gorgeous space, beautifully designed
• I ordered the classic souffle pancakes and they were as divine as I had imagined they would be.
• They come three to an order which is a bit too much for one person.
• Unfortunately, they have no take-out boxes but I was able to share them with a family at my communal table. They had just been informed there would be an hour wait for their food.

Scroll down for photos and most importantly, videos of souffle pancakes in the making.

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Lately, going out to eat – or recommending restaurants – has become a huge challenge. It may also explain why so many restaurants are shuttering.

The latest casualty is Delicatessen. This spot went off the rails years ago but hung in there until earlier this month when without warning, it shuttered overnight.

I believe we will see more of this.

Twice this week I’ve been to favorite restaurants only to be disappointed by the food and the service. I also had a friend tell me that several people he had sent to one of our favorite restaurants, had reported disappointing experiences.

It always comes down to service and the food – or rather the people preparing the food. Restaurants that have a hard time attracting and keeping staff are just screwed (or more to the point, we the customers are screwed).

I always check reviews on Google and specifically sort them by Newest and Lowest Rating.

The fact that a restaurant can get both a 1-star and a 5-star review a day apart suggests that there is a problem with providing consistent service and cooking.

I’m not going to name names (because I haven’t given up on my current favorites and don’t want to burn bridges) but when a dish that you have ordered once a week for months, suddenly looks and tastes completely different, there is a problem in the kitchen. It’s also not good when you ask for salt and they leave you hanging for 10 minutes while your food gets cold.

It’s appalling that there is not a single restaurant in NYC that I can 100% recommend to consistently deliver great service and delicious food.

To make up for the hard stuff, i.e., reliable, quality staffing, restaurateurs are emphasizing what they can control which is the superficial.

Restaurants today are consistently designed to be beautiful and Instagrammable. However, they are inconsistent in virtually every other way. The service, the food, the overall experience varies radically from day-to-day.

At the same time, prices are rising. It’s almost impossible to have a meal out at a full-service restaurant without paying $100 per person.

Restaurants also have much shorter lifespans. I attribute some of that to our insatiable desire for novelty but a good portion of the blame belongs to the restaurants themselves and their inability to provide consistent experiences.

Bottom Line.

Whichever way you look at it, it’s not a good time to be in the restaurant biz.

For those of us who eat out a lot, it is becoming a less satisfying experience.

I may have to go back into my own kitchen and start cooking again. I’m not looking forward to that!

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Lately, every second shopper at my Whole Foods is an Amazon employee picking an online order. Anyone else noticing this?

I shop at my downtown Whole Foods at least three or four times a week. I’m definitely aware of even the minutest changes in that store – whether it’s the merchandise, prices, staffing or my fellow shoppers.

Over the last six months, I’ve seen a huge uptick in “pickers,” i.e., workers who roam the aisles with shopping carts and scanners in hand as they fill up cold-storage bags with an online order.

And the makeup of the picker workforce is changing as well. I’m seeing many more guys, college students, and retirees. It’s almost like Amazon is dipping into the same gig workpool as Uber and Lyft. The pay is $15-$17 an hour plus bonuses. Online reviews of the job are fairly positive.

I asked one of the pickers how the online ordering works, how would I sign up. She explained that the orders are done through Amazon Prime and that all the pickers are Amazon employees, not Whole Foods. Apparently, Whole Foods has a separate group of employees to fulfill online orders for people who don’t have Prime.

She also confirmed that the number of online orders is booming.

“There are 400 Amazon workers at this Whole Foods on Houston Street just doing online orders. The delivery guys work for another company.”

Amazon picker at Whole Foods

The delivery bikes are another new development at my Whole Foods over the last few months (see pic below).

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised, I buy a lot of my kitchen staples online, e.g., cereal, coffee, condiments. However, all my fresh produce I like to pick up myself in store as I need it. The latest studies indicate that half of us are doing at least some of our grocery shopping online.

Read on below for e-marketer‘s findings on online grocery shopping.

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Anybody else noticing the pushback on organic? My Google News feed for “Healthy Eating” is filled with anti-organic articles lately.

 

More doctors and nutritionists are questioning the value of organic from Philly Voice’s “Is organic food really more healthy? It’s difficult to tell” to Real Simple’s “No need to spend money on organic avocados or any of these 14 fruits and veggies.”

At the same time, there’s more guidance than ever on “healthier” diets, e.g., Men’s Health just ran a great piece on “31 Easy Ways To Eat Healthier.” Their #1 Tip is to ditch processed food. Organic comes in at #29 and is only recommended if your budget allows.

Well + Good is focusing on the “psychobiotic food pyramid” which is all about gut health and draws its inspiration from Nordic and Mediterranean diets — no mention of organics.

Also, seeing more scientific articles on fasting, especially Alternate-Day-Fasting (ADF) which sounds like a bunch of hokum but is getting traction. I had dinner last night with a friend who just started on this.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, it looks like the most significant shift is coming from plant-based diets, many of which take us right back to crappy, unhealthy processed food. That’s how I perceive it – and so does John Mackey, Founder, and CEO of Whole Foods, who was just quoted in Business Insider as saying:

“If you look at the ingredients, they are super, highly processed foods. I don’t think eating highly processed foods is healthy.”

Bottom Line.

It’s been 40 years since Whole Foods first created the organics market. That’s an exceptionally long run for any food or diet trend.

I’m going out on a limb here but I don’t feel it has ever been firmly established that organic products are better for us than conventionally grown local produce that is consumed seasonally.

There’s also a lot of fraud and scams going on in the organic category as outlined by Eater earlier this year.

I, for one, am not convinced that organic products taste better or are healthier.

“Organic” is luxury branding for the food category. It provides a halo effect that makes us feel better about ourselves and what we’re feeding our families.

Ultimately, it’s on a par with believing a pair of Gucci $1600 sneakers will somehow, miraculously, get us better quality “steps” than if we were wearing $100 Nikes or $40 Vans.

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Open for only one month, but Chef Kyle Knall of STARR Restaurants is already serving up absolute deliciousness at the slick new Equinox Hotel at Hudson Yards.

But as we all know, there’s more to a great dining experience than the food. The vibe and how you feel at the restaurant are equally important.

So although the kitchen is firing on all cylinders, everything else is still in startup mode.

Sitting at the bar, I was appalled to overhear one of the manager’s chiding a worker for his appearance (he looked perfectly fine to me). She has the perfect right to maintain the restaurant’s standards, but I’d rather it not be done within a guest’s earshot.

The vibe and décor of Electric Lemon (and indeed of the whole hotel) is not my style. It’s way too slick for my liking. I was shocked to learn this is a Rockwell Group-designed restaurant. I usually love the Rockwell aesthetic. But perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Everything I’ve read about the Equinox Hotel has focused on their efforts to dial up the hedonism and sexiness. It’s as though “healthy” needs to be countered with a nightclub vibe lest it be considered “boring.”

It must be working. From what I hear, the hotel is fully booked despite the drama around Stephen Ross and his fundraiser for Donald Trump. Based on the guests I saw, they attract an international clientele, not exceptionally stylish – but moneyed. I checked the room rates online for mid-next week; they start at $800!

Scroll down for more on the food (which was yummy) plus photos from in and around the hotel. Read More >

 

I’m always astonished at the number of views some of my photos get on Google. And I’m especially baffled when an unremarkable photo gets a gazillion views – WHY?

 

As a Google Guide (Level 7), I routinely post reviews and photos from my travels. I also rely on other people’s reviews to determine where I want to stay or what I want to do or see.

To date, my photos have garnered over 7 million views. I was curious to see which places from my recent trip around the Mid-and Western States were connecting with my fellow Googlers.

My #1 photo from this trip, with over 24,000 views, is from the Mother Road Market in Tulsa. It is the first food hall to open in the city (at the end of 2018) and was jam-packed the day I visited.

My itinerary for each city was built around art galleries/museums, cool hotels and restaurants and an array of quirky or iconic activities, e.g., the Western Idaho State Fair.

Always fascinating to see what the Googlers want to know more about!

 

Scroll down for my most popular photos from this trip.

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