Fat Guy

You're just saying (again) that VIPs get better service, but that's non-responsive to Sam's question.

There was that Ruth Reichl review of Le Cirque where she claimed to go both anonymously and non-anonymously and had very different experiences. That was probably about 10 years ago. I'm not sure if it bears directly on that query, though.

He (and we) would gain a level playing field for all restaurants, regardless of whether they recognized him or not; an end to the destructive game of cat-and-mouse that currently lingers in every aspect of the reviewing process; he would no longer be complicit in perpetuating the toxic myth that all restaurants are out to cheat us; he would no longer be living a contradiction, knowing that he's mostly recognized but projecting a myth of anonymity for the public "benefit"; and he could improve his access to chefs and restaurants so as to be able to spend time in kitchens, interview his subjects face to face, and do what normally would be considered good reporting in any other area of journalism.

So, having concluded that the 10am game is about as productive as playing Powerball, I decided to shift to a different strategy: looking for cancellations. I opened up a browser window on the Ko reservations site and refreshed it lots of times throughout the day -- just sort of in between any other two online things I was doing. At around midnight, a reservation popped up and I grabbed it. Unfortunately it was for a date and time that didn't work for me, so I canceled it soon after booking it (more on that later), but at least the strategy seems workable.

Part of the job in any service profession -- whether you're a waiter or a lawyer -- is putting up with a certain amount of rudeness from clients. That's why being nice to servers (and lawyers) can give you an advantage as a customer: because so many other people are rude. If every server reacted this way to rudeness, the streets of Manhattan would be littered with corpses. At good restaurants -- and even at Applebee's -- servers are trained to de-escalate conflict regardless of blame. This guy at Fatty Crab instead chose to escalate conflict, which is just stupid.

The Sunday brunch is $48 and doesn't offer anything like this variety of herring dishes. If you're cheap and into herring there's no comparison.

Alex, the Ducasse list may be annoying (though I got the hang of it pretty quickly) but it's higher tech than what you're describing at Can Roca. So if the goal is to chronicle high-tech wine lists, I think Adour has it all over anything else I've seen or heard about.

Here in New York City, the restaurant Adour Alain Ducasse at the St. Regis Hotel has the most high-tech wine list I've ever seen, at its wine bar. It's projected onto the surface of the wine bar by ceiling-mounted projectors and you navigate the list by hovering your hand over the selections you want to read more about.

The restaurant and the cafe have separate listings on OpenTable.

People are getting in, but the odds have shifted. I think awhile back we had a few things working in our favor. Needless to say, the place was less in demand. But also the average dabbler didn't have the system down, so it was possible for astute individuals to get a jump on everybody else simply by clicking at the exact right time and moving quickly. But now if a few thousand people are doing that at the exact same time -- call it 1,000 people on any given day -- then you have, whatever, something like a 12 in 1,000 chance of getting a reservation (there are, remember far fewer reservations than covers, because most of the reservations are for 2 and 4 people) and it's much closer to a truly random system. No matter how many times you make the attempt, with those odds your chances of success are weak.

AYCE for $27 at lunch. They are definitely going to lose money on me. I just made my reservation.

The Aquavit Cafe herring buffet is coming up next week: I'm so there.

All those items are regularly available, and they're listed on the online menu -- you just have to click "NEXT PAGE" to see them. I've been twice now and will post some thoughts soon.

We had lunch at the burger bar today, as is becoming our Friday tradition (I've already made a note to bring the camera next Friday), and chatted with Waldy for a few minutes. The renovation is still in the planning stages and won't likely be until after the winter holiday season (in other words not until early 2009). He has some ideas about converting "the pit" (the area down a few steps, by the open kitchen) into a restaurant within a restaurant (as in the Tavern at Gramercy Tavern) with a more rustic menu, but it was all very speculative. It didn't sound like the restaurant would be closed long, and it sounded like the Thursday night Kitchen Counter dinners would remain a once-a-week thing. Although it seems that, informally, they'll now allow a party of six to book a Kitchen Counter Thursday experience on another night.

According to exec. pastry chef Chris Broberg the restaurant will be open until 21 June. And to confirm what Sneakeater said, yes, they will serve the tasting menu to solos at the bar.

Right, everything he did after he lost his cool was unacceptable.

Noticed via Eater, from the Snack blog, Cafe Gray may close earlier than the end of the month. I really need to look at my calendar: http://snack.blogs.com/snack/2008/06/hotsnack-cafe-g.html

Anybody know what the "special thank you treat from Chef Kunz and the team at CAFÉ GRAY" is?

The thing is, either way (Adour overrated or Adour correctly rated) the logic doesn't argue for occasional anonymity. The star ratings are relative. Under an occasional anonymity scenario, if Adour was overrated (which I doubt), it's because Bruni was recognized and successfully gamed there but not at some number of other restaurants. Perhaps 100% anonymity would have some merit, but 15-20% anonymity is at best a joke and at worst a game of Russian roulette.

I finally got a chance to look over that farewell tasting menu and it's an astonishing value: These are some of Kunz's best dishes ever, from his whole repertoire, and all for $85 . . . that's pretty great. I have to look at my calendar.

Up until the hostile exchange, I don't think the server really did anything wrong. Speculation like "there was something in this guy's tone in the way he asked that made me want to lie and say yes ... that made me think this is the question that he uses to separate local/foodie types from tourist/b&t types" does not establish wrongdoing. Many restaurants of impeccable service credentials -- especially ones that serve "family style" -- ask every customer, as a matter of policy, whether they've been before and recite a prepared set of speeches to those who haven't. This happens at the Bread Bar at Tabla and lots of other fine places. Lots of restaurants instruct their servers to offer advice on how to eat a dish: spoon, fingers, one bite, whatever. Some percentage of customers will always complain about it but most are fine with it -- see the Alinea topic for many examples. Confronted with a customer outburst, the server should have had enough competence and training not to let things escalate. But he's a human being and, when attacked, he lost his cool. It happens. It shouldn't, but it does.

Most of the Brie available in the US is not very good, so whatever it is about the sandwich that rocks it's probably not specifically the amazing, complex flavor of AOC Brie. The cheese is probably contributing creaminess for the most part. So . . . why not play around with some Brie alternatives that may be cheaper per pound? There are several Brie knockoffs from Canada and the US, as well as various non-Brie soft European cheeses that might cost less per pound. Or you might be able to find a cheaper source of Brie than whatever you're using. Most generic Brie is equally bland so switching shouldn't make a huge difference. President Brie is pretty cheap.

I just utilized my first sandwich coupon. Incidentally the retail on the sandwich in Manhattan is $2.99. I was surprised at how much I liked the sandwich. It's clearly a Chick-Fil-A knockoff but it's a good one. The minimalist aesthetic reflected in the toppings is right up my alley. The quality of the thick chicken patty and the breading were surprisingly high for McDonald's and seemed on par to my memories of Chick-Fil-A. I should say there are very few Chick-Fil-A stores in my region but whenever I'm in the South I try to get a sandwich there because I think it's one of the best fast-food items out there. I will miss it a lot less now that this McDonald's equivalent is on the table.

I'd suggest making the request in advance when you confirm your reservation, rather than in the heat of service. Neither strategy is guaranteed to work but I think you increase your chances with an advance request.

Because all adults who dine out with any frequency eventually learn that every restaurant has bad nights. Even Taillevent. Even Gramercy Tavern. I've had bad service experiences at both. If a critic visits a restaurant 3-4 times (or, in most cases, 1 time), but the restaurant serves 10,000 meals a year, there is little statistical significance to minor service glitches. Though perhaps 4 visits and a 100% disaster rate can be meaningful, glitches on 1 or 2 visits are, I believe, from a mathematical standpoint, as likely as not to be random occurrences. The statistically reliable way to rate service is through a mechanism like Zagat, adjusted for Zagat's laughable lack of a qualifying process or a serious audit process. Not to mention, most any critic can tell you dozens of stories of being recognized but still getting bad service. In both my Taillevent and Gramercy Tavern experiences, my identity was known, and though I'm a small-time critic it's still pretty interesting that they could have screwed up as badly as they did. Knowing that you're serving a critic can trigger mistakes. There are managers who, for that reason, don't even tell their service teams and cooks that a critic is in the house. So the whole "it just seems self-evidently true that if the restaurant knows you're an influential critic, you're going to get the best soignée treatment they're capable of, and you'll never get the experience of the average diner" thing is just empirically not true. Yes, it does just seem self evident. But it's wrong, sort of like how it seems self-evident that the Earth is flat but it isn't. And even if it's right, you can just look around the room. And even if the restaurant stacks the deck and fills the room with friends of the house (as happens once every few years I guess), you can still read your mail. Which all together is why Frank Bruni, even though he's usually recognized, does not generally overrate restaurants.