On this week’s podcast, Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, said that the holiday season is actually a quiet time for him, with fewer media events as restaurants are busy serving paying customers, so the only party he went to this week was the holiday party of his own company, Informa, where he drank martinis and ate some interesting spring rolls — one topped with trendy chili crisp and another with Southeast Asian aromatics like makrut lime leaf. 

Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, was at the party too, and noticed how many Espresso Martinis were being ordered.

She also found other events to go to, including one at Meduza Mediterrania in NYC’s Meatpacking District, which was, in fact, Yelp’s top restaurant for 2024, based on reviews. It was very trend-forward with Eastern Mediterranean dips, seafood towers and passed lamb chops.

She also checked out a new restaurant at Grand Central Terminal, Grand Brasserie, where she enjoyed a very French trout amandine. 

Then Bret shared clips from an interview with Daniel Garwood, who is chef at Acru, a restaurant that opened in New York’s West Village in October. Originally from Australia, Garwood arrived in the United States in 2022 and landed a job as sous chef of the popular modern Korean restaurant Atomix before being put in charge of Acru where, among other things, he is serving dry-aged steaks from dairy cows.