(Photo: Evan Sung)
Until now, we’ve known “Lowlife” as the title of Luc Sante’s history of Lower East Side vice and decrepitude, as well as the title of mad German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann’s moody free-jazz masterpiece. The name has never failed us. So we’re kind of curious about Lowlife, a new restaurant helmed by Alex Leonard, former chef de cuisine at Blanca, the Michelin-starred tasting-menu spot from Roberta’s.
This month’s issue of Vogue also includes a Brooklyn-themed fashion spread featuring Devon Aoki (right) outside of the Bedford Cheese Shop.
It’s apparently been too long since a middle-aged Manhattanite went on safari in Brooklyn, so none other than Vogue has gone and published “A Distant Shore,” in which Jeffrey Steingarten “table-hops around New York’s most talked-about borough.” Oh, boy.
If the name Steingarten sounds familiar it’s not because you’re thinking of Soundgarden — it’s because a few years ago, Vogue’s restaurant critic touched off a small shitstorm among foodie types when he told Grub Street about the “dangers of Brooklyn boosterism,” recalling the time his Brooklyn-proud assistant brought him a croissant from some bakery she liked over there and he found it “only acceptable” compared to the great croissanteries of Manhattan (you know, like, Au Bon Pain).
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