Miscellaneous

🍥 Chef Alex Tronstad pairs fluke with strawberries, radish, and fermented tomato water at Maxwell Alley, Jersey City, N.J. Chef Chetan Shetty brings Indian flavors to hamachi in NYC's Flatiron District. At Meili, Brooklyn, Chef Peter He serves mala-spiced bullfrog. Nashville’s Gray & Dudley offers a banana bread-inspired cocktail. In Whitefield, N.H., Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa serves a gin, lemon, and lavender drink.

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🍴 Starr Restaurant Group is set to open Pastis Nashville in summer 2025 at Wedgewood Houston, 512 Houston St. The 2,774 sq. ft. interior will seat 170, with an 18-seat bar, and a 1,300 sq. ft. patio for 75 opening late summer. Located in the historic May Hosiery Mills, it will offer French bistro dishes like onion soup and steak frites. Pastis, founded in 1999, will be the fourth location, joining others in D.C. and Miami.

🥃 Ad Gefrin in Wooler, Northumberland launches Tácnbora Limited Edition: Cognac Cask Finish on 14 June 2025. This small-batch whisky, finished for six months in ex-Cognac oak, is bottled at 58.6% ABV. Only six casks will yield 1,800 to 2,000 bottles. The release follows October 2023's Tácnbora Peated Islay Cask, which sold 1,629 bottles by January 2024. First access is for Corenkyn and Corengyst members, with benefits starting 7-11 June 2025.

💸 Almost 18,000 PSG fans headed to Munich for the Champions League final on 7 May, causing flight searches from Paris to Munich to spike by 465%. Return tickets soared to €867, a price increase ratio of 1 to 5. Munich, hosting 18,000 Inter Milan fans as well, saw hotel occupancy rise by 15.6 points to 74.8%. European consumer spending on live events jumped to 33.7%. The final coincided with the May bank holiday, boosting travel.

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🍝 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor, has been with Nation’s Restaurant News since 1999 and joined Restaurant Hospitality in 2016. His career highlights include winning the 2006 Jesse H. Neal Award and serving as IFEC president in 2005. Thorn, a Tufts University graduate, studied at Le Cordon Bleu and in China. Notably, he contributed to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2012) and was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

🏨 SalesAndCatering.com has partnered with Champion Hotels, the largest privately-owned hotel operator in the U.S., to implement STS Cloud across 21 of its over 150 properties. Champion Hotels, based in Oklahoma, aims to optimize sales and event management with this cloud-based platform, which offers end-to-end event management, real-time collaboration, and comprehensive reporting. Mike Farney, Area Director, praised STS Cloud for enhancing communication and decision-making across departments.

🍴 Bret Thorn, host of "In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn" podcast, is the senior food & beverage editor at Nation’s Restaurant News since 1999. He earned a BA in history from Tufts University in 1990 and studied at Le Cordon Bleu in 1986. Thorn has been involved in journalism since 1989, winning the 2006 Jesse H. Neal Award. He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014 and resides in Brooklyn, NY.