New in New York: In its Grand Openin', Puddin' Takes a Lickin'

By Mitch Broder

Puddin’ by Clio opened its doors on January 6, 2012.

It closed its doors on January 11, 2012.

This could be a record in New York City. But if it is, it’s a good one. Puddin’ didn’t run out of customers. Puddin’ ran out of puddin’.

It ran out of the fifty-six pounds of puddin’ that were supposed to last that whole first day but were instead sucked out of the place in an hour and a half. It kept running out for the next four days and then it finally shut down for two, both of which Clio spent in the Puddin’ kitchen doin’ nothin’ but cookin’ puddin’.

Since then the store’s been releasing pudding starting at 4 p.m. (though it opens at 9 a.m. for coffee), while remodeling a kitchen that had just been modeled. Clio’s had orders for pudding in England and offers to franchise in Hong Kong. Not to mention a parade of petulant pudding-eaters passing by on St. Mark’s Place.

Clio, crumbling banana cake.

“We expected a nice, slow, steady pace,” she told me when I visited on the 11^th — “a quiet soft opening that never happened. … On Sunday we opened at four o’clock and sold out by 4:40. I started taking reservations for pudding cups.” She somehow looked like an overworked pudding chef.

Things were different when I went back last week. They’d just installed the blast freezer, which cuts the production time of a pudding from three hours to one. “The blast freezer works!” Clio yelped when she determined that it did, and she suitably jumped up and down. She thinks she can keep the place open now. Still, don’t count on your flavor.

On the other hand, there’s no bad flavor, which is why they keep running out. Puddin’ could conceivably be the best pudding ever made. Clio, after all, has worked for Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, who are two giant food stars, though I’m not sure either has ever had to close a joint for two days.

Clio is Clio Goodman, who after working at several restaurants became a personal chef with a vision for a dessert that diners give away. A client passed her puddings around, and everyone knew the world was waiting. Puddin’ opened next door to Jane’s Sweet Buns, so the owners could borrow each other’s sugar.

Tim Zydek, the sous-chef, smiling.

I tried the chocolate. It was such a deep and dusky chocolate that it made the chocolate pudding that I had previously thought of as the best seem like vanilla. Clio called it “smoky” and “earthy” and talked about its tannins. When customers tell her how much they like her pudding she likes to explain to them why they like it.

She also has vanilla, banana, butterscotch, coffee, lemon, and rice, the latter perhaps for those still tempted to go to that rice-pudding place in Nolita. She has toppings of sauces, creams, fruits, nuts, candies, cookies, brownies, and cakes, and parfaits with preset toppings so you don’t leave with a headache.

Clio’s been getting more offers, but she said she couldn’t tell me about them, which was OK, since she did tell me that she names her kitchen appliances. But at 23, she’s also getting a crash course in the less-sweet side of success.

“They all want a piece of the pie,” she said wisely. “They all want a spoon of the pudding.”

Get your share at Puddin’ by Clio, 102 St. Mark’s Place, between First Avenue and Avenue A, New York City.

Strangely New York: At Last, Have Your Martini and Eat It, Too

By Mitch Broder

Last week I brought you the new downtown place that makes food inspired by drinks.

So this week I bring you the new uptown place that makes drinks inspired by food.

The downtown place is Jane’s Sweet Buns, in the East Village, which sells things like raspberry tartlets containing gin. The uptown place is the 2nd Ave Deli, on the Upper East Side, which sells things like gin containing half-sour pickles.

The 2nd Ave Deli just opened on First Avenue, which in itself reveals something of an appetite for the incongruous. And with the incongruous address has come improbable concoctions like the Apple Latke Martini, the Dirty Pickle Martini, and the Lokshen Kugel Cocktail.

The premise was that you don’t see a lot of drinks based on Jewish food. The deli opening seemed as good a time as any to make some seen. Jeremy Lebewohl, who owns the deli with his brother Josh, convened a cocktail caucus, and in a few weeks had a drink list perhaps unprecedented in Judaism.

The Apple Latke is made with potato vodka, apple sauce, and lemon, and is garnished with a potato pancake, also known as a latke. The Dirty Pickle consists of gin, or the vodka of your choice, along with pickle brine, garnished with a half-sour pickle.

The Lokshen Kugel is the most complex, comprising rum with pineapple purée, peach schnapps, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice, and non-dairy creamer. It, too, is garnished with its namesake, which is sweet noodle pudding. The deli also serves potato kugel but that is not yet in liquid form.

There are five other original cocktails, like the 2nd Ave Balanced Diet, which is Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Soda with gin and plum brandy and a celery stick. But those first three are reportedly the leaders out of the gate, which is not surprising, since between celery and pancake, which would you choose?

Your mixologist Jeremy suggests the Dirty Pickle for pastrami sandwiches and other meat dishes, whereas the Apple Latke and Lokshen Kugel, he says, would pair better with pierogen and blintzes. His co-creator David Teyf concurs, though he adds that the Dirty Pickle also works well with lox, herring, and assorted smoked fish.

I imagine that Jane of Jane’s Sweet Buns will like Jeremy’s food-laced drinks. But I have reason to believe that Jeremy will like Jane’s liquor-laced pastries. Among his own cocktails he is partial to the one made with orange vodka, Dr. Brown’s cream soda, chocolate soda, and orange juice. It’s called the Creamsicle.

Mix it up at the 2nd Ave Deli, 1442 First Avenue, at 75th Street, in Manhattan.

Strangely New York: At Last, Have Your Cake and Drink It, Too

By Mitch Broder

Jane Danger believes that New York City doesn’t need another cupcake shop.

She believes that what it needs instead is a rum-spiked cinnamon-bun shop.

It’s the logic of a bartender who’s a baker, but it fits the ethos of the East Village, which is luckily where she has just unveiled Jane’s Sweet Buns.

She has taken a Hells Angels souvenir shop and turned it into a tearoom — but the sort of tearoom that a Hells Angel might patronize for a snack. It’s got sticky buns with bourbon. It’s got raspberry tartlets with gin. It’s got Aperol tarts and Harvey Wallbanger cake. It’s got both ends of a meal in a pastry.

The store’s concept, in fact, is “pastries inspired by cocktails,” with is why the pastries have names like the Frenchie and the Dark and Stormy. Within this concept, Jane sees herself as what you could call the buntender. “I’m saying, ‘I made this for you. I hope you like it. If you don’t like it, I’ll make you something else.’”

That’s been her credo at nearby spots like Cienfuegos, where she has worked for Ravi DeRossi, a cocktail impresario. Inspired by her profession, she started whipping up spirited sweets. She brought them to her boss. He liked them. He became her partner at Jane’s Sweet Buns.

As to cupcakes, she’s not against them. But she’s sure there are enough of them. “I think they’re cute. I’ll eat a cupcake. It’s just an oversaturated market. And if I were to make a cupcake it would have to be different. It would have to be, like, really weird.”

Despite her signature ingredient, her pastries are still pastries. Alcohol gets upstaged by things like banana cream cheese frosting. And though she favors uncommon flavorings, she’s not getting too exotic: “We don’t have any muffins with crickets in them. Yet.”

Jane’s also done fashion modeling, which is where she took on the name of Danger, but her décor is less Witch’s Castle than it is Merry Old Land of Oz. Jane’s is a sunny place where you're served baked goods on mix-and-match china. The baked goods are identified by Jane’s sunny hand-lettered labels.

She doesn’t know if she’ll slow down the cupcake, but, regardless, her goal’s more personal: “I have energy. I have to get it out somehow.”

And the way she sees it, she’s getting it out in a way that’s good for nearly everyone: “It is fun to bring booze into every facet of your day.”

Don't forget your moist towelette.

Have one for the road at Jane’s Sweet Buns, 102 St. Mark’s Place, between First Avenue and Avenue A, in Manhattan.