http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/dining/riedel-creates-a-new-champagne-glass.html 2014-12-15 17:22:41 Riedel Creates a New Champagne Glass A California Olive Oil Bar in Brooklyn, Holiday Capons and More Food News === To Toast: Riedel, the Austrian company that has created specially shaped stemware for just about every type of wine, has taken a new approach for Champagne. Its latest line of stemware, called Veritas, does not include a flute. “It’s a wineglass for Champagne, and it’s what the professionals prefer,” said Maximilian Riedel, the company’s president. The elegant egg-shaped glass has a generous bowl that narrows toward the top, the better to appreciate the aroma of the wine. With these glasses holding almost 16 ounces, your bottle may not provide as many servings as with skimpier flutes or coupes, but you will avoid losing some of the bubbly to overflowing froth as you pour. And in a trick known to many Champagne lovers, the makers have put an imperceptible scratch in the bottom of the bowl that keeps the bubbles lively (the imperfection forms a gathering point for the carbon dioxide bubbles): To Wipe: As you mix cocktails for guests this holiday season, deck your arm with these bar towels imprinted with whimsical illustrations and sayings (“Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle”). They’re made of lint-free flour-sack cotton, excellent for polishing glasses. Consider them as a gift for a party host: To Sample: At We Olive, a new olive oil and wine bar, you can get an idea of the range in aromas and flavors of a variety of California olive oils. This is the first East Coast franchise of a California-based company, and the oils, ranging from rough and pungent to smooth and buttery, are all available to buy as well as to taste. The wine bar serves a limited selection of reds and whites, as well as local beers, and plates of flatbreads, panini, dips and salads. There are balsamic vinegars for sale, too, along with other condiments: To Roast: For December’s holiday feast, consider a plump, meaty capon. Roast it, stuffed or not, as you would a chicken, only longer, resulting in gorgeously burnished crackling skin encasing juicy meat. It serves eight: To Decorate: Chocolate lovers can dip their own truffles, bars and other chocolate confections at Voilà Chocolat To Serve: The aroma grabs you as soon as you step into the bland-looking TriBeCa office building. Yes, it’s baking bread, sometimes mingled with a whiff of pizza. The new Arcade Bakery is tucked into alcoves in the walls of the lobby, a clever use of dead space by the entrepreneurial baker Roger Gural, whose family is one of the owners of the building. Starting as an amateur 20 years ago, Mr. Gural honed his craft at the French Culinary Institute, then worked in New York at Bouley Bakery and Amy’s Bread, with stints in California and France. He’s a sourdough baker who turns out baguettes, round loaves and ovals, some enriched with buckwheat, quinoa, olives and nuts. He also bakes croissants and other breakfast items, and pizzas at lunch. For the holidays there is a traditional German stollen heavy with fruit and nuts, and a new gingerbread flavor for his line of babkas: