Jimmys No. 43

It was our lucky seventh year hosting the annual Cassoulet Cook-Off, and a great crowd assembled to celebrate with our professional and amateur chefs scooping out casserole lovin’ all to benefit GrowNYC’s Regional Grains Program.

Among the chefs and dishes were:

• *Chef Annette Tomei for Jimmy’s No. 43 served up two different cassoulets (not up for awards): an American-style cassoulet with turkey and bacon; and a Vegetarian cassoulet
• *Claire Hartten and Pixie Yates teamed with Michael Yezzi of Flying Pigs Farm to make an all-local cassoulet with meat from the farm, duck from Hudson Valley, and beans from the Regional Grains Project
• *Lynn Ripley added Indonesian spices to create Lynn’s Cassoulet: A Taste of Java
• *Riley McCormick served his lucky New Year’s Cassoulet with Black Eyed Peas
• *Chris Livingston created a lightly spiced Green Chili Cassoulet garnished with pork croutons and cilantro
• *Sandra Rerecic served up an ethnic, mixed-style cassoulet, Croatian Gulaŝ with Beans and Sauerkraut
• *Chef Davide Navarro and chefs from Jimmy’s No. 43 created a traditional-style cassoulet with savory pork

• *1st place went to Jimmy’s No. 43 Savory Pork Cassoulet
• *2nd place went to Riley McCormick’s New Year’s Cassoulet
• *3rd place went to Chris Livingston’s Green Chili
• *Special judges prize for meatiest was awarded to Claire Hartten*Special judges prize for chocrute mashup went to Sandra Rerecic
• *Special Jimmy prize for best use of spices went to Lynn Ripley

• *1st – Claire Hartten (with Pixie Yates and Michael Yezzi)
• *2nd – Jimmy’s No. 43
• *3rd – Sandra Rerecic
  

Winning chefs received cookware and knives courtesy of our sponsors Anolon and WÜSTHOF.

Didn’t get your cassoulet fix yesterday? A few seats remain for tonight’s five course cassoulet dinner.

And you can check out all the photos from yesterday’s event on our Facebook page.

It’s probably the worst kept secret at our East Village bar: We now have a liquor license! But just as we’ve always been careful to curate a great line-up of craft beer and ciders, we’re bringing that aesthetic to spirits. We’ll be offering a solid line-up of artisanal NY State spirits (with a few friends from Massachusetts and other regions thrown in for good measure). We’ll be offering drinks “neat” or on the rocks (no cocktails at this point).

Why the addition to our bar menu? Owner Jimmy Carbone has been keeping an eye on the emerging craft spirits scene and wanted to offer local distillers the same opportunities we’ve given to brewers and cider makers to reach a larger audience that really appreciates fine artisanal products.

“Quality spirits, especially from our home state of New York, are the perfect way to round out a meal and finish the night after a few good craft beers,” Jimmy notes. “We are proud to offer a specialty NY and indie spirits list: Whiskeys will be our specialty.”

And as we grow our whiskey program, you can enjoy the following spirits currently on our menu:

• *From Kings County Distillery: Moonshine Corn Whiskey, Bourbon
• *Astoria Distilling: Queens Courage “Old Tom” Gin
• *Breucklen Distilling: 77 Whiskey (both wheat and rye varietals)
• *Pine Barrents (Long Island): Single Malt Whiskey
• *Catskill Provisions (Fingerlakes region): New York Honey Whiskey
• *McKenzie (Fingerlakes): Pure Pot Still Whiskey, Rye
• *Berkshire Mountains Distillers (MA): Bourbon, New England Corn Whiskey
• *High West Whiskey (Utah): American Prairie Reserve

We’ll be incorporating spirits in to many of our upcoming events (including next Monday’s Cassoulet Wine Dinner, which will close with Calvados), and we hope to see you in spirit (you know we were going there!) soon!

This Friday is National Cassoulet Day, and New York City is celebrating all week long the delicious, hearty casserole dish that originated in France. Jimmy’s No. 43 is one of the first restaurants in the city to bring cassoulet to the masses, and our signature event, the Seventh Annual Cassoulet Cook-off returns on Sunday, January 11th, offering great prizes for both judges’ and people’s choice winners (you still have time to enter!).

A lot has changed in seven years, beginning with the fact that we no longer have to define what a cassoulet is (for those who may not know, it’s a slow-cooked casserole of meat and beans). In fact, our annual event now features an array of cassoulets both traditional (farm-to-chef duck-based cassoulet) and nouveau (Ecuadorian cassoulet, which came in second in last year’s cook-off). We’re looking forward to what our chefs will come up with this year.

This year’s Cassoulet Cook-off will be book-ended by two other events featuring cassoulet: Cider & Cassoulet on January 10^th (1-4 p.m., get your tickets here) will include 10 ciders paired with three different cassoulets and our annual prix fixe Cassoulet Wine will take place on January 13^th at 7 p.m. (tickets here). Additionally we will be featuring cassoulet on our new winter menu during different times this season.

We hope you’ll join us for a great weekend and enjoy National Cassoulet Day!

We’re girding our loins (or stacking our kegs, at any rate) in anticipation for tonight’s ringing in the new year! We’ll be opening at 4 p.m. (until who knows?) with a great selection of craft beer, cider, wines and – of course – Prosecco to bid farewell to 2014 and toast to 2015.

Among tonight’s offerings are an open bar ticket from 9 p.m. until midnight, plus pay-as-you-go options and plenty of food from our craft beer kitchen.

Some beers expected to be on draught? We’ll have a wide range from Rocky Point/Secret Engine plus our new favorite “sleeper” brew, Barrier Brewing’s Evil Giant Rye IPA (an India Pale Ale at 6.4% ABV, nothing evil about drinking it all night long!). Plus many others on tap and a wide range of “Champagne-level” bottles to choose from.

What will Jimmy be drinking for New Year’s? Well, you can find out in this post about the Best New NYC Beers of 2014.

And if it’s hair of the dog you seek, we’ll be open at 4 p.m. on January 1st, as well.

Happy New Year!

From our annual cassoulet cook-off in January through Battle of the Belgians just a couple weeks ago, Jimmy’s No. 43 was host to countless events, tastings, dinners and meet-and-greets. We look back fondly on some of our favorite moments we shared with you in 2014:

• *Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini visits! We were truly honored to have the opportunity to meet, interview and host the leader of the slow food movement when he came to NYC this past October. We really hope to see him again in the spring when he has tentative plans to return to the city. You can read more about Carlo’s visit with us here.
• *Food & Wine Magazine names us one of the Best Gastropubs in the U.S.! We were truly humbled to be named to this list. Grazie!
• *Liquid Lent! Based on a blogger who decided to consume nothing but beer during Lent, Jimmy Carbone decided to undertake his own Liquid Lent this year, exploring vegetarian foods paired with great Belgian beers.
• *The Launch of Pop-Up Sundays. Jimmy’s No. 43 has a long history of discovering and nurturing talent in the kitchen, and this year we started a series of pop-ups on Sundays that featured many different food styles. Our favorite had to be August’s Perfectly Evil Pop-Up with Revolving Dansk and Evil Twin’s Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø.
• *Battle of the Belgians. It was back to basics for us at Battle of the Belgians on December 6th, with a wider selection of beers and a roast pig to round out the fun. You can reminisce (even if it just happened) on the event here.
• *The Real Cider Manifesto and Ciderwick. The “craft cider” movement is still in its infancy, but we’re trying to remain a leader in what we like to call “real” cider. In June, we brought you the Real Cider Manifesto and Ciderwick, a week’s worth of cider-related events focused on the new vintages. Among the ciders we discovered this year was Redbyrd, and we look forward to an expanded cider focus at all our events moving forward. Read about what the Village Voice had to say about it all in this profile.

And the year’s not over! Coming in the next week:

• *On Thursday, December 25th, it’s time once again for Craft Beer Christmas: $25 gets you a plate with drinks pay-as-you-go (tickets here)
• *On Friday, December 26th, it’s our annual Boxing Day Coat Drive: Your new or gently-used coat donation gets you a free American pint
• *On Wednesday, December 31st, we’ll be offering up a three-course Early Bird Prix Fixe Pairing Menu: $45 gets you dinner with drinks (last seating 7:30 p.m. – tickets here)
• *On Wednesday, December 31st, it’s our famous New Year’s Eve Open Bar: from 9 p.m. to midnight you’ll have an open bar to ring in 2015 (tickets here)

We truly are grateful for all of you who have joined us at Jimmy’s No. 43 in 2014, and we wish you the happiest of holidays and a fantastic new year. See you in 2015!