The Lunch Menu Has Changed; Ice Cream High Life; Martha Does Vegas; Tomato Inflation; Are Jalapeños Magic?

Workday Lunch— Urban business districts across the nation may be forever changed by a post-pandemic, work-from-home mindset. Even as more people return to the office, priorities have shifted. Flexible work schedules have become the norm, resulting in less weekday foot traffic for urban business district restaurants and lunch havens. Naya, a Middle Eastern restaurant chain in NY is managing to make it work, serving inexpensive, authentic fare to the midtown crowd coming in for an abbreviated work week. Sweetgreen, on the other hand, is showing signs of struggle. We All Scream For…— Last year it was candles; fried chicken candles, burger candles, candles that smell like thanksgiving in your hometown. This year it’s frozen pops. When your frozen treat contains the champagne of beers as an ingredient, it seems wrong to call the final product “Dive Bar.” But we get the pun. That’s living the high life. Martha, Happens in Vegas— She’s done TV, cookbooks, a magazine, has a friendship with Snoop Dogg; and now after all this time, can you believe Martha Stewart has her FIRST restaurant? It’s in Las Vegas. It’s meant to evoke a Westchester, New York farmhouse. You can add caviar to menu items and make them laughably expensive. Sounds just right.  Tomato Jeopardy— California is responsible for 25% of the world’s output of tomatoes; which is a problem, because California is also experiencing one its driest periods since around the year 800. Seriously. So one can imagine the effect that’ll have on the tomato yield (and prices of tomato-based products). Oh, and since this is the result of climate change, it’s not expected to get any better. Is it déjà vu or didn’t we just see something eerily similar about olives? Finally— Rosé with a kick.