Menu Talk with Pat and Bret is a collaboration between Restaurant Business senior menu editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.
Menu Talk: Pat and Bret chat about the latest food and beverage trends, and share an interview with Eric Huang, chef-owner of Pecking House in Brooklyn.
Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group just reopened the restaurant space atop the Marriott Marquis Hotel in NYC’s Times Square, called “The View.” Bret had a chance to attend the opening reception, and he remarked that while revolving rooftop restaurants are not generally known for their great food and cocktails, clearly Danny Meyer and his team are not following that route.
They hired Marjorie Meek-Bradley as executive chef, who was previously corporate chef with Stephen Starr’s restaurant group in Philadelphia, and the reception food and drinks were memorable. He was impressed with the above-par shrimp cocktail, made with tiger prawns and a house-made cocktail sauce, and a flavorful tuna tartare. With USHG at the helm, the hotel’s revolving restaurant has the potential to become a destination for locals as well as tourists.
Limited-time offers are designed to boost traffic and sales, and lately, convenience stores have been competing with restaurants to lure customers with their own LTOs. Pat talks about a couple released this month, including RaceTrac’s Taco Pizza and tasty new chicken nuggets from Krispy Krunchy Chicken, a brand popular in convenience stores as well as freestanding units.
Pat and Bret also dissected the dirty soda trend, in which branded soft drinks are mixed with cream or coconut milk and often candies and cookie pieces. They agree that the trend is still in its early stages, as most consumers really aren’t that familiar with dirty sodas.
Then, the hosts shared an interview with Eric Huang, chef-owner of Pecking House, a fried chicken concept that he started during the pandemic as a delivery-only brand. Huang has since grown Pecking House into two brick-and-mortar restaurants, the original in Brooklyn and a smaller outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Both frequently have lines out the door.
Huang talks about how he blends Asian and American flavor profiles to set his menu apart and how his fine-dining training has taught him valuable management skills. And as Lunar New Year celebrations draw to a close, Huang shares some of his family’s culinary traditions, including sticky rice dumplings made from a cherished recipe. Give it a listen.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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