Chef Dan & The Edible Garden

Last Monday, while the rest of us were fleeing the 100F+ heat at the beach and the movies, Cornelia Chef Dan Latham was out at the New York Botanical Garden to participate in their season-long Edible Garden series. Amidst many and varied Bronx-bound species, Dan performed a live-action cooking demo in a sweet semi-covered kitchen, showcasing three recipes based around edible plants. His dishes: Summer Corn Risotto with Tomato Basil Coulis and Cornelia Black & Blue Berry Squares. More pix and his full recipes after the juuuump!

Happy Birthday Cornelia Street Cafe

Sunday marked an illustrious 33rd birthday, celebrated all afternoon with the Shinbone Alley Stilt Band. If you’d been wandering through Cornelia Street around 3 in the afternoon Sunday, you would’ve seen something like this…

More sights after the jump…

Valentine’s Day

Whether ensnared or single, seeking or contently solo, Cornelia Street Cafe invites you to spend Valentine’s Day basking in our collective love. The kitchen has prepared a special menu brimming with delicious and stands ready to accommodate you from 6pm to 11pm. Meanwhile our downstairs offerings are no less notable.

At 6pm, Lisa Faith Phillips appears with pianist Ellen Mandel to bring you the inimitable How To Be A Bad Girl: Mistress Edition. Charismatic comedian and former stripper, Phillips brings her new show to Cornelia Street Downstairs following a sold-out tour of her popular parody musical 7 ½ Habits of Highly Successful Mistresses in Dublin, Ireland, New York and at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington D.C.. She has subsequently been sued for trademark infringement by the FranklinCovey Corporation, owners of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People trademark. Now she’s back, accompanied by the gifted Mistress Ethel on piano. Lisa gives the “411 on romance, love and security in this entertaining off-the-wall performance” (Time-Out New York). Updating with the latest current events and highlighting the 7 1/2 secrets with a riding crop, maracas and witty original songs, such as “How To Be A Bad Girl” and “The Fellatio Tango”, this hilarious seminar “is fun for wives, for husbands, for everybody” (Pagina 12). Drawing on her colorful experiences, working as a stripper to pay her way through graduate school at the London School of Economics, and her background in stand-up comedy and music, Lisa Faith Phillips weaves topical humor and songs into a clever, thought-provoking and ultimately touching show. Part comedy, part cabaret, part one-woman theater piece, it all adds up to an evening of sophisticated, fun entertainment.

Then at 8pm and 10pm, we are joined by the Jo Lawry & Fred Hersch Duo. Pianist and composer Fred Hersch has been called a “one of the small handful of brilliant musicians of his generation” by Downbeat and has earned a place among the foremost jazz artists in the world today. From the late 70′s onward as a sideman to jazz legends including Joe Henderson, Art Farmer and Stan Getz, he has solidified a reputation as a versatile master of jazz piano, as well as a relentlessly probing composer and conceptualist. Australian vocalist Jo Lawry at once tests the limits of technical facility and explores the furthest reaches of musical expression. Her debut album “I Want to Be Happy” earned 4.5 stars in Downbeat Magazine, and recently made the publication’s “Best CDs of the 2000s” list.Jo’s involvement with Fred Hersch began with the development of his quartet, the Fred Hersch Pocket Orchestra, also featuring Richie Barshay (drums) and Ralph Alessi (trumpet). Wall Street Journal named the band’s debut album, “Live At Jazz Standard” (Sunnyside) among 2009’s best new releases. For this unique duo performance at Cornelia Street, Fred and Jo will perform repertoire from the Pocket Orchestra book, as well as exploring some jazz standards and their own originals.

Cover is $15 + $15 food/drink minimum.Our Special Valentine’s Day Dinner $55 upstairs/$65 downstairs including show

UPDATE: Check out the article from the Times Magazine about Fred Hersch here.

Waitangi Day

As they say on Wikipedia, Waitangi Day commemorates “a significant day” in the history of the people of New Zealand.  Waitangi Day, which is a national holiday in NZ, commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, in 1841. While Waitangi Day is celebrated throughout New Zealand and elsewhere in the UK, substantial controversy pervades as to whether or not the anniversary ought be viewed positively, as it officially designated New Zealand’s indigenous Māori as subjects of Great Britain. Annually there appear manifestations of the well-established Māori Protest Movement, who view Waitangi Day as an occassion to recognize their longstanding subjugation at the hands of the British.

Cornelia Street Cafe commemorates Waitangi Day with a full menu of New Zealand offerings, including an amazing-sounding lamb roast and a dessert that marries meringue, kiwifruit, passionfruit, and strawberries. You can check out the full menu here.

Elevation // Ouverture des Archives

Friday, January 29th at 9 & 1030pm we are joined by Elevation, a new project from pianist Lucian Ban, bassist John Herbert, saxaphonist Abraham Burton, and  Eric McPherson. Lucian Ban recently collaborated with John Hebert on the unique Enesco Re-Imagined, Eric McPherson has been played with Mr. Burton for a more than 20 years, then the romanian born pianist has been playing duets and quartets with Abraham Burton from 2005 on going on to name their musical partnership elevation … and Hebert & McPherson played with the late Andrew Hill for years appearing on his last blue note records album. Apropos of them, NY Times has what’s got to be one of my favorite jazz player blurbs to date: “ If the young saxophonist Abraham Burton was ever to be drawn in a cartoon, he’d have flames coming out of his saxophone”. Cover’s just $12.

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After many years shrouded in secrecy (dust, mostly) the Cafe’s vast archives have been unearthed and digitized. Endless photos, reviews, missives, drawings and all manner and sort of ephemera from our 30+ year history are now queued up to make their way to the public on these very pages. Stay tuned!

NEW YEAR’S EVE : RIB & BRISKET REVIEW

Still searching for the perfect New Year’s Eve night? Je te present: The Ribs & Brisket Revue

One night in a dream-fugue Paul Shapiro was visited by the ghost of Fats Wallard. Fats conferred on Paul one great secret: RnB meant not Rhythm & Blues, but rather Ribs & Brisket. So began the Ribs & Brisket Revue, a six-piece firecracker band marrying Klezmer and Jazz, Borscht Belt and Blues, Rhythm & Jews. Ribs and Brisket Revue is chicken soup for the weary, postmodern soul.

Say the critics:

“Hard blowing, finger-snapping, klezmer-inflected jazz and wailing big city blues that suddenly slips into Yiddish.”
— Jamie Renton, Straight No Chaser UK

“Mr. Shapiro, transforms the ritual of a Friday night Shabbat service into a rollicking downtown jam.” — The New York Times

“Suppose Mickey Katz were alive today. Not alive in tribute. Not alive as a mere incredible clarinet player, but suppose someone could play like Mickey Katz, someone who got how Mickey would sound today and made his music sound like today’s hip R&B. Then suppose that this person could channel the earlier craziness of Slim Gaillard, Cab Calloway, the Barton Brothers…. It would take someone like, say, Paul Shapiro, him of the Midnight Minyan, yes it would. And here he is with his Ribs and Brisket Revue doing just that.”-Ari Davidow, KlezmerShack

$55 includes a glass of Nicolas Feuillatte Vintage Brut Champagne at midnight…or the do whole thing right, with dinner upstairs and ribs and brisket downstairs, all for $100.

Here’s a video of the Revue in action on NYE ’09.

Straight from Chef Dan : Part One

Another masterpiece

I asked our battle-tested commander-chef to reflect on bringing Cornelia’s holiday meals together, from Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Eve. Here’s what he had to say about November’s 400 plate operation…

“Thanksgiving, I love the holiday. It’s great fun to bring so many families together and give them a feeling of home with great food.  It has mushroomed from a smallish day to to this fantastic event, the joyful start of holiday season, before we have become worn by the weather, gift buying stress and party frenzy.

How do I accomplish this? By starting to plan for next year when the last turkey with gravy and stuffing has just left the kitchen.  We write all the great ideas that worked (or didn’t) as each owner, chef, pastry chef and manager gives their perspective of the day and their suggestions for the next. Good notes are very important–the battle plan.

Staff, my amazing crew, make me able to pull off this event from our two small kitchens.  Every Kitchen Staff is on hand to anticipate the waves of customers. They work like a family, each having a specialty, whether washing the gravy pot or carving the turkey.  Most of my crew has been with me over 10 years, so they know a lot!

My Purveyors: Pino’s Prime Meat Market for the thirty-three farm raised turkeys he butchers for me.  Ron McDonald Vegetable Produce Company provide the hundreds potatoes that we make into yummy mash. Selig Dairy Company provides the cream and eggs for our pumpkin pies.  You need great supplies, and these guys really deliver!

Finally there’s the Front of the House. Nicola, our General Manager is truly amazing. She takes the flood of calls, hand picks the staff, then works with every detail starting when school starts in September till Thanksgiving day.

Then all a have to do is cook…and cook.”

More to come soon!