The Bon Vivant of Brooklyn

As we approach Winter in the city, my thoughts turn to some of the trends I've noticed in food and dining - restaurant openings and closures, what's "hot" and "not" and so forth.  So I've decided to start a new quarterly feature highlighting the current gustatory whims of New York, and I'm blatantly stealing a page from WIRED magazine and inventing my own categories:  Gold, Old, and Mold.

GOLD  (indicating the hottest, freshest trends)

Australian - The quest for novel foodstuffs has lead many New Yorkers to the outback; good grief no, I'm not talking about that horrific chain steakhouse - I'm talking Australian national cuisine.  Light-hearted and vivacious Aussie restauranteurs have been opening up new places all over the city:  Kingswood and Tuck Shop in Manhattan, and Wombat in Williamsburg, to name several.  While it remains to be seen whether this trend sustains or is simply the fashion of the moment, there's no doubt that folks are currently intrigued by what comes from down under.

Barbecue - Undeniably the hottest meal ticket in town; literally, if you end up going to Hill Country.  Blue Smoke still rules the roost, but other contenders keep popping up in and around the Meatpacking District, and also notably Fette Sau in Williamsburg.  Also much muttered about:  Mason Dixon in the LES (note mechanical bull in picture).  While there's still no comparison to the real Cue you get much further South, a lot of people are trying very hard to bring that "down home flava" to the big city.  There's no doubt the glistening pulled pork, rubbed spicy beef, gooey sauces, and heaping mounds of side dishes are bringing in the customers!

OLD  (indicating trends on the downturn)

Molecular Gastronomy - I'm actually not sure if this ever caught on in the first place, but it's definitely not something anyone's talking about in restaurants these days.  Maybe it's the high cost of preparation in both time and materials, or maybe it's because people care more these days about actually eating their food rather than staring at it and thinking about how cool their food is.  Presentation and preparation are very important, but nobody wants to see those taken to the extreme.

Sushi - While it hasn't quite reached Mold status yet, sushi is about as commoditized as it gets; it's practically a bodega item at this point, though there are still a lot of folks skeeved out by the idea of raw fish.  It seems like more places are opening with pan-Asian themes, centering on exciting things like noodles and dumplings and pork products of various sorts.  Maybe people are getting a bit tired out by all the rice and nori?

MOLD  (why are we even talking about this?)

Burgers - Remember the $100 burger?  Yeah, me neither.  Who cares about that overly massaged Kobe cow these days?  Everyone's got a burger on the menu now, especially for brunch.  "Sliders" have moved away from the traditional miniature burger to all kinds of other tiny sandwiches.  And if there were a death knell for the burger, the closure of Burgers and Cupcakes on West 23rd would be it.

Italian - I don't think anyone gets excited by the opening of a new Italian restaurant any more.  Which on one hand is a shame, as there's so much to be said for this cuisine, but no one seems to really be doing anything interesting with it these days.  Some restauranteurs will claim regional differences in their menus, but it's rare to find an Italian place with menu items and recipes that venture into uncharted culinary territory.  There definitely needs to be a new Renaissance here - maybe some new kind of fusion with barbecue??