Starting on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, Joanne Trattoria, the cabaret owned by Lady Gaga’s parents, will be serving up a weekly drag show. According to Playbill, the series, billed “Drag Me to Joanne’s,” will deliver “ample Lady Gaga action” for fans of the singer.
Doors for performances will open at 6 p.m., with the show beginning at 7 p.m. and running two hours. There is no cover charge for the show beyond the cost of your meal.
Joanne Trattoria, 70 W. 68th Street, 212-721-0068.
World’s Hottest Chicken Sandwich
I’ve never been one for turning food into an endurance test, whether it is seeing how many hot dogs you can cram down your gullet or some other show of machismo that ends with a visit to the emergency room or the morgue.
I was unimpressed therefore by the frat house bonhomie that attends the well-publicized dare of eating the DNE Chicken Sandwich on the menu of an unassuming fast-casual Chelsea outpost called Brine. The descriptor DNE is short for “do not eat,” but that is precisely the opposite of Brine’s dare to all comers. Consider all the folderol surrounding the challenge, which includes booking an appointment, specifying the type of milk you prefer, and signing a hold harmless agreement.
As to what’s in the sandwich, a press release from the restaurant cited by Food & Wine notes preemptively that each ingredient is hot enough alone to be labeled as “DO NOT EAT” and that “[I]n tandem, they’re certain to push your spice tolerance boundaries.”
The sandwich starts with a Carolina Reaper extract-glazed bun. On the inside, you’ll find ghost pepper-seasoned onion strings, Carolina Reaper sweet chili sauce, and smoky aioli, plus a homemade hot sauce featuring a blend of Reaper, Ghost, and Arbol chiles.
If you succeed in eating the sandwich, your prize is a $50 gift card valid at both the Manhattan location of Brine and a second location that recently opened in Fair Lawn, N.J.
Brine, 106 Eighth Avenue (nr, 15th St.), 646-559-1660.
See also…
