52 replies to this topic

[Liza]

Does he handle signature duties as well?

[Wilfrid]

Responding to Awbrig, the presentation by Gourmet is ambiguous. The guide is entitled "America's Best Restaurants", but then, for each city, they name - as I originally said - restaurants in the categories business/buzz/favorite/neighborhood, with no ranking between them. So while one cannot infer that Gourmet thinks the Four Seasons is the single best restaurant in New York, one can only suppose that the half dozen or so restaurants listed in the various categories for New York are together the best. Which is why I'm surprised The French Laundry isn't anywhere - as the guide isn't entitled "Best Restaurants in Big American Cities".

Rachel???

[awbrig]

why would they do that...from what you're saying..its the cover that is misleading...

[tommy]

Which is why I'm surprised The French Laundry isn't anywhere - as the guide isn't entitled "Best Restaurants in Big American Cities".

Rachel???

allow me:

gourmet and its ilk are generally big-city-centric. hell, they're NYC-centric for the most part. people know what they're getting when the read the cover and buy the thing. if they don't, well then they're stupid and the publisher deserves to take their money.

[Wilfrid]

No, if they think the restaurants inside are the best, the cover's not misleading. They just don't put them in any order inside. I would agree that the selection implies they have been looking at factors other than which are the best - namely, they've been making sure they choose at least one for each city for each category. But that's only my surmise - maybe they really do think that The Four Seasons, Pearl Oyster Bar and Washington Park are three of New York's seven best restaurants. Misguided loons.

[hollywood]

Which is why I'm surprised The French Laundry isn't anywhere - as the guide isn't entitled "Best Restaurants in Big American Cities".

Rachel???

allow me:

gourmet and its ilk are generally big-city-centric. hell, they're NYC-centric for the most part. people know what they're getting when the read the cover and buy the thing. if they don't, well then they're stupid and the publisher deserves to take their money.

Well, I had to run down to the newsstand to figure this out. French Laundry is not listed. More significantly, they've got an article on 100 cool things they've discovered at restaurants all over--Paris, you name it. A perfect opportunity to mention FL. I couldn't find any mention there either. Maybe somebody pissed somebody off.

[Wilfrid]

Which is why I'm surprised The French Laundry isn't anywhere - as the guide isn't entitled "Best Restaurants in Big American Cities".

Rachel???

allow me:

gourmet and its ilk are generally big-city-centric. hell, they're NYC-centric for the most part. people know what they're getting when the read the cover and buy the thing. if they don't, well then they're stupid and the publisher deserves to take their money.

Yes, we all know that. We were just trying to work out if Rachel was hallucinatin'. Apparently so.

[wingding]

In general,I've found the new restaurant issue to be a big nothing,with too many fat adverts to wade through,and not much to read.The problem that I have with advertisement heavy magazines is that the graphics and visuals of the ads overwhelm the articles,and make it hard to really train my attention on them.I don't give much of a damn about lists,and the 100 whatever they were weren't of much interest...

[hollywood]

In general,I've found the new restaurant issue to be a big nothing,with too many fat adverts to wade through,and not much to read.I don't give much of a damn about lists,and the 100 whatever they were weren't  of much interest...

Tell us how you really feel. Actually, the 100 are listed in a little pull out booklet which has Lincoln ads in it.

[wingding]

Well,I got it in the mail yesterday;went through it last night,and tried again today-there isn't much there there,considering the weight of the damn thing.Guess I can't go to their celebration party this Tuesday...

[hollywood]

Well,I got it in the mail yesterday;went through it last night,and tried again today-there isn't much there there,considering the weight of the damn thing.Guess I can't go to their celebration party this Tuesday...

So, I can have your ticket then?

[Wilfrid]

A positive note: I did enjoy reading the "100 Great Things About Restaurants". Essentially, a hundred little snippets on interesting dishes or other aspects of restaurants around the world. Just light reading, but it made me want to get my passport out. Also, it gave some indication of the depth of resources a magazine like Gourmet can command. There would be a year of issues just developing these brief items into articles.

[Steve Klc]

Do you mean it's tough reading magazines, press releases and clippings all year and saving the best ones for yet another catch-all compilation or list?

[Liza]

2 mentions of Lagos in the top 100!

[Wilfrid]

I didn't say it was tough. I thought it was a geographically widespread (okay, some empohasis on the States), unusual and entertaining compilation. I read very few of the paragraphs and muttered "I knew that".

[Wilfrid]

I went back to the archives at the weekend, and compared the 2002 restaurant listings with 2001, taking New York as an example.

Last year, the magazine listed their top 50 US restaurants. Jean-Georges was at number 2, and Daniel, Le Bernardin, Babbo, Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, Gotham B&G and Peter Luger all made the list. A year later, all those have fallen out of the listings except Babbo, which has been joined by the Four Seasons, Cafe Boulud, and Pearl Oyster Bar - all of which must have improved dramatically as those others declined - as well as the new Washington Park.

Silly those these lists are, I am impressed by the degree of thoughtlessness, inconsistency and arbitrariness displayed here. And both lists were produced under Reichl's editorship.

[Steve Klc]

Perhaps for the better comparison of this "guide" rather than the Best 50 ranking, you have to go back to October 2000, Gourmet ran a "America's Best Restaurants" guide--by city. It was the one with Rocco on the cover cradling the huge fish. Most cities had a "Top 5"-- Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Montreal, New Orleans, Seattle, Toronto, DC--and then they mentioned a few other categories--Specialties-- for also-ran restaurants--really whatever catch-phrase fit the bill of whichever restaurant they felt like mentioning--fun, sleeper, casual, etc.

NYC, SF, LA and "Texas" were accorded a "Top 10" overall followed by Specialties.

The minor leaguers, who didn't rate a Top 5 were: Cleveland, Detroit, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Philly, Phoenix, Portland (Oregon--though not specified) St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Sante Fe.

That year, Wilfrid, NYC's top 10 were in order: Jean-Georges, Lespinasse, Daniel, Le Bernardin, Babbo, Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, Bouley Bakery, Union Pacific, Honmura An.

French Laundry was 3rd under SF Bay area.

[Wilfrid]

Steve, I did take a look at that issue too, and felt it reinforced the point. Either Jean-Georges, Lespinasse, Daniel, Le Bernardin, Nobu, Gramercy Tavern, and Union Pacific have been overtaken by The Four Seasons, the Pearl Oyster Bar and Cafe Boulud in the last two years, or Gourmet isn't taking its lists (or its readers) terribly seriously. I know which I vote for.

[Lady T]

Most of the business people I know blanch at the idea of a business meal that costs more than $50 - $75. Wine included. Where on earth did the 'Gourmet' people get the concept of Trotter's as a great business-meal destination?! It is true that Boeing's board celebrated, chez Charlie, their decision to locate their home base in Chicago...but Boeing is a megabucks operation.

I can hardly wait to get my copy, to see what other peculiar conclusions they've reached for myself!

[thelastsupper]

I believe Rachel was originally referring to the 2001 Gourmet Best Restaurants list. Someone provided a link earlier in the thread:

http://eat.epicuriou...aurant_reviews/

And yes, The French Laundry is still at #3.

[SteveW]

In previous years, Gourmet magazine compiled their Top 10 restaurants & etc. in the major different cities across North America, from soliciting comments from their subscribers in those cities(not all the subscribers were chosen in each of those cities, for comments). That's how they explain it at the time.

----------------
Steve

[Howie]

For those that haven't picked up a hard copy of the annual restaurant guide, I think they recently posted some of the issue's contents up on the web in the past few days:

http://eat.epicuriou...2002/intro.html

[Deacon]

I prefer the "Top 5 in Each Major City" format myself.

But both versions seem to have achieved their goal: foodies of the US storming the corporate offices with lit torches and improvised weapons, pissed at having their favorites left off the list.