All stories about "Momofuku"
5 minutes ago, Changster, speaking at the New Yorker conference, on the Momo pork bun: "It was an 11th hour addition to the menu. Who would have thought people would be so crazy about, basically, a 'fat bomb'?" [ChangWire]
Ko-BOOM: Greene's Review of Momo' Ko, Craigslist Tom Up
Gael Greene files her awaited review of Momofuku Ko, following last week's Craigslist Tom/double booking debacle. For the record, Tom is cute, the chefs, bored, and Chang, rude. As for the food, Greene finds it impressive but uneven overall. Some highlights:
· On Tom: "He seemed unimpeachably righteous to me in his business suit, taller than Clint Eastwood, with curly, dark blond hair and blue eyes."
· On the chefs: "The crew nimbly slicing, slivering, plating, announcing each dish as it was presented - were too joyless, rushed, indifferent, possibly bored".
· On girls and boys dishes: "And I’m sure an anti-feminist plot can be found in analyzing which dishes go to the 'ladies' and which to 'the gentlemen,' in courses that don’t come in pairs." On the resy confrontation, next.>>
Thursday, March 20, 2008
EaterWire: Pies & Thighs Update, The Elvis Costello Momofuku Album, New Beatrice Inn Project
WILLIAMSBURG— If their appearance on last month's CB1 agenda wasn't enough confirmation that Pies & Thighs is moving to Driggs at South 4th Street, Gothamist has the triple confirm: "A scrap of news is no replacement for pulled pork, but fervid fans of the defunct Williamsburg DIY barbecue joint Pies ‘n’ Thighs will have to take what they can get. It seems the owners are indeed moving forward with their new location on the corner South 4th Street and Driggs, and there will be another Community Board meeting next month." [Gothamist]
EAST VILLAGE— Rolling Stone notices the curious name of Elvis Costello's newest album—Momofuku: "Did Costello, who currently lives in New York, name his new release after the hottest restaurants in the city: chef David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, and the new, impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko?...Costello’s reps weren’t immediately able to provide an answer, so I went straight to Chang...'We’ve heard he’s a fan of the restaurant, but I doubt he’d name his album after us,' says Chang. 'That would be too weird. It blows my mind. There’s just no way! He’s Elvis Costello, for Christ’s sake!'" [RS]
Another project from the Beatrice Inn team, next.>>
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Ko-BOOM: Resy's Go in Under 2 Min
The Momofuku Ko added a fun new feature: it shows the exact time you tried and failed to get resys. Today, the first seats released since Tuesday's Ko ResyGate went in two minutes at the latest. Could have been 30 seconds. Either way, chances of you getting a table anytime soon are looking downright bleak.
UPDATE: Official word from the Ko: "It sold out in one minute and 32 seconds. At 10:00am there were over five hundred unique users logged onto the system at the same time. The system got hit unbelievably hard and it survived."
· Ko-BOOM: Ko Resy Site Live [~E~]
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
> Ko-BOOM: Still Hope —This just in from the tipline: "Ko-ancellations do happen. I just picked up a two-top for 9:00pm tomorrow night." Cancellations— resulting in new prime open seats—could be a by-product of the new ID rule forcing resy scalpers and those who made multiple resys to hand over the goods. [MomofukuWire]
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Ko-BOOM: Wrap UpWhat a day. Those of you who managed to refresh at the right moment and scored the choice resys, well played. The rest of you, meet us back here tomorrow. Unless that is you were never able to set up an account; we're not sure what the story is there. Seven hours in, there are already resy scalpers in the comments, on Craigslist, and eGullet, and one can witness the entire spectrum of human emotions splayed out in the comments. Anger (at us, at Momofuku, at the scalpers), joy, doubt, self righteousness, and of course, greed. These sum it up:
Best comments of the day, next.>>
> Ko-Boom: Resy Scalpers —Annnd, we already have our first resy scalpers for two seats at Ko. Commenters jumped in early to this game, but the rest will most likely play out on Craigslist and TableExchange: "I have reservations on Thursday night for Momofuku Ko that I might not be able to use. It is the night after opening night and the best offer gets it. I will accept paypal. Email me if you are interested and your offer." [Craigslist]
Ko-BOOM: Is Someone Attacking the Momo Server?
We just had a chat with Drew Salmon, the Momofuku official who has been overseeing Ko reservation ops, to get his reactions to the shitshow in progress at http://reservations.momofuku.com. Turns out that, get this, someone is actively trying to crash the site:
The word from the hosting/it provider is that the site is currently under a 'denial of service attack.' Of course we planned for the site to be busy and we tested the heck out of the application but—apparently—there are just some things that are very, very, difficult to guard against. Currently we are trying to identify the attacker(s) and bring the system back online. Even if we spent another “x” amount of dollars or used something like “opentable” the reality is if someone really wants to bring down a site then it will go down. It happens often. The bottom line from our end is that we are really sorry for the inconvenience. That someone has chosen to attack the site is unfortunate for a variety of different reasons.The non-tech speak, up next. >>
Ko-BOOM: Ko Resy Site Is Live
Available 2-tops, 10:54 AMGet your credit cards ready: the wait is over. The Momofuku Ko reservation site just went live at http://reservations.momofuku.com/. It subsequently crashed, but looks like the tech problems have been worked out. The site will open up tables for a week to the day every day at 10 a.m., so if you can't get in today, have those interns and assistants ready tomorrow morning. Place is closed on Tuesdays. [MomofukuWire]
UPDATE 10:08AM: The site is back up, but the CAPTCHA on the account creation screen isn't coming up. Office-wide meltdown in progress at Eater HQ.
UPDATE 10:10AM: Oh, the humanity: an eGulleteer has scored a precious 7:30PM reservation for March 14. Keep trying, people.
UPDATE 10:11AM: Official word: "The server is getting pounded."
UPDATE 10:23-24AM: Two Eater commenters have scored. As a public service, please do let us know what times and dates have been procured. Merci.
UPDATE 10:27AM: Uh oh. This is going to leave a mark. Per an Eater commenter, "if you put in your cc number and the server errors out before you complete the registration, it won't let you go back in and continue the registration. it says your cc has been used. wtf!?" Handy tip: early word is that any 15-digit number works to secure a RESY.
UPDATE 10:28 AM: Email from team Momofuku: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The complete liveblog insanity continues after the jump. >>
Monday, March 10, 2008
> Ko-BOOM —Patient kiddies. Official word now puts the launch of the resy site at tonight or tomorrow morning. Bad news: your refreshing nightmare continues. Good news: opening night tables still available. [Momowire]
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
KO-BOOM: Online Resy System Sneak Peak!
Funny, with all this talk of Momofuku Ko and its friends and family week that is redefining the very notion of a VIP event, we've been thin on content related to Ko's Fort Knox-like system that gets civilians access to the joint. Chang has said the reservations system will be online only, completely democratic, with reservations offered exactly one week in advance and no more. But what of the effen URL for this thing and when does it go live? Those questions, friends, we cannot yet answer with a degree of specificity that will sate your anticipatory fury. But we know this (and this is all we know): The system will go live sometime between now and Saturday and we'll have that URL for you here as soon as it does. Furthermore, feast your eyes on this screen shot (and this one) of the test site, leaked to us today by a secret mole we have insid—ok, fine, that Chang sent over. It's glorious, no? And as for all these open slots, think of it like that moment just before tickets for the Rolling Stones at the Hammerstein went on sale. It'll never be this easy ever again.
· KO-BOOM: From the Desk of Dave Chang [~E~]
KO-BOOM: From the Desk of Dave Chang
You did get the email, right?
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
KO-BOOM: Night 2, A-Listers EverywhereJust as riveting as Momofuku Ko food shots now starting to pop up in photostreams are the pictures of the people who got coveted invites to the friends and family preview. It's the A-list invite of the decade, people, and as you can see from night two, Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl (first from the right) and Spotted Pig poobah Ken Friedman (third from the right) already stopped in. 10 points per VIP you can spot in this photo.
· Momofuku Ko Photoset [Kathryn Yu/Flickr]
Monday, March 3, 2008
> Ko-BOOM —
Spoiler Alert: if you want to be surprised at the contents of the Momo' Ko tasting menu, please look away. An eGulleter scored a spot to friends and family night and posted photo documentation on Flickr of how it all went down. We normally forbid food porn, but for this we'll make an exception. See especially this photo of Chang pouring the final touch on a dish right in front of the diner. Swoon, etc. [Flickr]
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
> Momo Up Yours —Eater PSA: Call Google's free 411 service at 800-GOOG-411, and ask for Momofuku. Robotic pronunciation hilarity ensues.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Plywood Photo Gallery Special: Momofuku KoWe'll have more of the good 'wood coming your way later this afternoon, but our East Village mole has just returned with the following. Brace.
The latest word from David Chang's forthcoming knitting circle, Momofuku Ko, located in the old Noodle Bar space on First Avenue: a) they're looking to upgrade from a beer and wine license to a full liquor license, hence the community board notification; b) word from the inside is that they're a few weeks away from open; c) word from the dark side is that they may be close enough to open next week, at least for friends and family. And so we wait—and in the meantime, play with our brand new photo gallery tool seen above. Go ahead, have a click. C'mon.
· Peter Serpico Named Chef at Momofuku Ko [~E~]
· Momofuku Ko: The Full Reveal [~E~]
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
From The Desk of Dave Chang: Peter Serpico Named Chef at Momofuku Ko, More Changes at the Momo EmpireContinue reading "From The Desk of Dave Chang: Peter Serpico Named Chef at Momofuku Ko, More Changes at the Momo Empire"
Dave Chang—man of the year, Mayor of the East Village, keeper of the bo ssam, ice cream shoppe king (he could if he wanted to)—writes us today with news from his growing empire. He's made some personnel changes at all three of his East Village restaurants, including the unopened Momofuku Ko (currently on a track for February/March), where Peter Serpico has been named a chef/partner. From here, we better to go directly to his note, which arrived on Chang brand letterhead, sealed with an orange peach embossed into melted orange wax.
Friday, November 16, 2007
MomoPorn: Look at the Pretty Cones
Let's be clear. This isn't food porn, which is verboten, this is MomoPorn, which is 'nother level type stuff. Captured by the Kalina at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Really, Dave Chang? Soft-serve swirl in American flag-covered cones? You are an 'effen genius. More, please.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Late Night at Ssäm Bar Returns!
Click for full reveal, svp.Ever since Dave Chang and his boys learned how to stop worrying and love the Ssäm, the people have come in droves to their East Village hotspot—from open until close, which was for a time at 2 AM. But with the summer slow came reduced hours and closure at the far too civilized hour of midnight. Now, The Chang sends word that "summer is over," and late night at Ssäm is back. Starting this Thursday, 9/27, the East Village temple of Korean culinary circus tricks will be open until 2 AM every night, offering their full menu, the most current of which we bring you above and below. (Bonus: the price of the ribeye, one of the unsung heroes of this menu, has been price slashed from $110 to $100.) Summer is over, indeed; as are your early morning meetings.
· Momofuku Ssäm Bar Menu [Camp Momofuku]
· Ssäm 2.0: New Menu Revealed! [~E~]
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