In Fermentation We Trust and Other Gut Feelings

Friends, how’s your tummy treating you these days?

Jun 17, 2025

Friends, how’s your tummy treating you these days? For quite some time I’ve been hearing of stomach bugs (thank you CDMX), stomach aches and bloats. It’s also conveniently that time of year us Americans pilgrimage to various coasts of Europe. Is there a culprit to poor GI health? Surely not European Gluten.

Welcome to your regular hodge podge of digestives incl. sourdough, lots of corn tortilla, some relevant announcements that felt worth flagging, some updates (proving shelf topics that last!). I’m not one to make a guide but in the spirit of stomach ache and bloat, I’m also sharing some delicious dishes if you so happen to be in Sicily or Paris. Grateful you’re here.

What’s on the shelf?

Sourdough pizza: The story begins here but there’s so much more to it. Newly opened and already acclaimed Ceres, a sourdough pizza shop in Soho opened by two Eleven Madison Park alums has won stomachs over with their high quality, thin and chewy slices. Bushwick favorite Ops is opening its 2nd location in East Village (EV Grieve has the latest). Is sourdough pizza a remedy to American gut issues? Maybe. It’s easier to digest given natural lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast in sourdough partially digest gluten during fermentation. The organic acids formed slow down the rate at which glucose is absorbed. This fermentation activates phytase, which breaks the bonds in phytic acid that bind to nutrients so that we can absorb these nutrients instead. Sourdough also has a longer shelf life than other breads (lactic acid bacteria creates acetic acid which prevents mold) and a deeper (often uniquely tangy) flavor and chewy while crispy texture that sets it apart. Perhaps it’s a call to finding white space, especially in the ever bloated New York pizza place landscape. The biggest thing restauranteurs need to keep in mind when going sourdough? The extra space needed for storing dough given longer fermentation times. Somehow all roads lead back to yogurt, a most conventionally obvious example of fermentation — three posts in a row!
A Three-Stop Taco Crawl. There is a New York City Mexican food wave and it keeps coming! Last week I finally tried 1) Santo Taco, 2) Carinito, and 3) Tacqueria El Chato, all of which opened in May. I was impressed by how different each place was, in energy and in food. Some brief thoughts (as I am not yet a restaurant reviewer in any traditional sense):
- 1: Santo Taco was my best bite. It’s executed well. An iconic space prime for a summer Friday afternoon (Polonsky and Friends is incredible so this makes sense). They serve a pineapple cucumber agua fresca of my dreams. And I would come just for the drink and the STEAK TROMPO taco — the meat-to-tortilla ratio is unmatched. Is it the kind of place that blows up on TikTok? Yes, but I’m not mad about it.
- 2: Carinito was interesting and fun to try but probably doing too much. I find it funny that news articles highlight this spot as “Michelin-recognized” when it’s neither Bib Gourmand nor Michelin Star. Something I wonder about is in Mexico City, where Asian food is fewer and farther between, how Asian-inspired tacos attract and taste in ways it wouldn’t or shouldn’t here in New York. I was intrigued by the taco flavors (Thai fish sauce, Chinese hoisin), the corn husks each taco were served on but it didn’t quite taste right? Comforting? I did love their CANTONE taco’s chewy flour tortilla (my accompanied eater felt otherwise) but something about a reinterpreted Mexican bao bun feels a bit forced.
- 3: I was holding out for Tacqueria El Chato’s second location in Greenwich Village. With their original location just 4 big blocks south of Ramirez (probably, still, my favorite) in Greenpoint, I thought something had to be clicking. There’s not much more I’d like to say besides it looking and tasting like an oily Walmart Ramirez. And I do feel sorry for saying that.
Addendum to the alumni group chats: Why start a restaurant between Eleven Madison Park alumni when you can start one between Cosme, Pujol, Eleven Madison Park, and Atomix. Olmo, call me intrigued!
Addendum to Eataly’s expansion — Upper East Site reports that they’re expanding to the UES. Guess Eataly Caffè at the Rockefeller has been a success.
The big food news of the week is The Times’s announcement and appointment of Ligaya Mishan and Tejal Rao as Co-Chief Restaurant Critics following famed predecessor Pete Wells. My favorite quote of their Q&A on forgoing anonymity: “I love the idea that women who look like me [Ligaya] and Tejal are about to get the best service of their lives. Filipino and Indian women, now is your time.”
I feel better about my Place des Fêtes obsession knowing Gramery Tavern’s Head Chef enjoys it too.
Two important UI releases last week: Notion (people seem to hate it but I get it, change is hard), and Eater.
I guess they’re bound to be reporting on the same things but does The Infatuation and Eater really need to look the same? Am I asking an impossible question of restaurant list schematics?
Why are some restaurants still BYOB?, a very dear friend posed recently. To be frank, not many are BYOB today. Liquor license barriers are relatively low and most restaurants want to serve alcohol for higher margins. But I’d suspect those that remain are in the realm of sourdough’s finding white space. As we know, a restaurant is so much more than the food itself. Restauranteurs are architects of both the story they’re trying to tell and experience they want to leave with diners. I.e. finding product-market-fit is a real thing, and for the likes of Lucali and Wu’s Wonton King BYOB fits with the casual dinner party narrative.
This feels like an ad for AI. Why are all the images labeled “Generated by A.I.” and why is the foundation model prompted not disclosed? I do like a message here that AI is a creativity catalyst for chefs to bring to a human conversation but never the end state or solution. And I do think for us overstimulated AI folk, Pete’s article reminds that most industries are still very far from an AI-native world.