New Yorkers Aren’t Jumping on the Hyped Cosmic Crisp Apple Bandwagon Yet

New Yorkers aren’t buying the Cosmic Crisp apple yet

The most hyped apple in recent history apparently isn’t getting a ton of bites in New York. The Wall Street Journal reports that the local sales of the Cosmic Crisp — a buzzy apple that’s supposed to taste like a Honeycrisp but be durable like an Enterprise — “are tepid.”

It’s expensive, with wholesale prices as high as $2 a pound, and grocery stores are slow to stocking it if customers aren’t already asking for it. One Brooklyn Heights grocery store bought some, but due to slow sales, it lowered the price to $2.99 a pound, from $3.99 a pound. Cosmic Crisp, bred at Washington State University over the course of 20 years, also seems to have more West Coast presence than East Coast, where supply is hard to come by.

Cosmic Crisp launchd at the end of the last year and was being hailed as the biggest thing to hit the apple industry in years, pumped out with an unprecedented $10.5 million marketing budget.

Dante’s new West Village location moves forward

The awning’s up and a new opening date is set for Dante West Village — the follow-up bar from the hitmaking Dante team. Australian wife-and-husband duo Nathalie Hudson and Linden Pride, who are credited with the meteoric rise and rebrand of Caffe Dante and pushed it to No. 1 on on the 2019 World’s Best bars list, will now be opening the 75-seat sequel in February. The new Dante will draw influence from the Mediterranean coast, with seasonal produce, seafood, a wood-fired grill, and a charcoal oven.

In other news

— Restaurants are still raising money for the fire recovery efforts in Australia, and on January 30, Del Posto is hosting a $200-per-person dinner where all the revenue goes to the Australian Red Cross. It’s a star-studded line-up: Besides Del Posto chef Melissa Rodriguez and pastry chef Georgia Wodder, Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, pastry chef Renata Ameni of Crown Shy, Eunjo Park of Momofuku Kāwi, Stephanie Prida of Major Food Group, Pascaline Lepeltier of Racines, Ariel Arce of Tokyo Record Bar, and many other chefs and sommeliers are participating.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio followed up his bagel tweet by buying toasted whole wheat bagels for the City Hall press corps.

— On the Upper West Side, a broken water main flooded a bunch of businesses earlier this week, and some are still closed, including Melissa’s Gourmet.

— An episode of Law and Order: SVU last night featured an UWS restaurant.

— Greenpoint staple Brooklyn Standard closed temporarily after the basement flooded.

— Chef Chikara Sono — who helped lead Japanese restaurant Kyo Ya to a Michelin star — has found a space for his solo project on the Lower East Side.

— In reviews, the Times’s Hungry City columnist Ligaya Mishan dug the rustic Georgian home cooking at Chama Mama, while New Yorker’s Tables for Two visited the renovated Aquavit.

— Seems nice: