Fat Guy

Well, I certainly think the only "value" of Frank Bruni's Ago review was entertainment. But no, my point was simply that in a world of bloggers and zillions of anonymous eaters there's little additional merit to Frank Bruni's very occasional anonymity other than that it might yield a punishing review here and there. I say punishing because the cat-and-mouse scenario can mean that restaurants are punished for not recognizing Frank Bruni and, on top of that, eliminating service glitches while he's in the house. Bryan Miller's statement, in his 1985 review of the Four Seasons -- before blogs but not before the invention of the US Mail -- seems unassailable to me. He wrote:

More on the rest of what you said later, but I think this statement may call for a refresher course in mathematics. Being recognized 80% of the time (and the real number may be higher) does not translate into being not recognized 1 time at every restaurant, even assuming a 5-visit average (which is not the average -- it's probably 3 or 4 at the most). Mathematically, it can just as easily be that he's recognized on 0% of his 5 visits at one restaurant, but recognized 100% of the time at several other restaurants. Indeed that is the far more likely scenario. Although there are a few notorious instances when top-tier restaurants (like Ducasse at the Essex House) have missed him on one visit, for the most part the better restaurants have multiple members of their service teams who are familiar with him as well as with scores of other critics and other writers. This ongoing game of cat and mouse, which is the inevitable response to "Gotcha!" journalism, hardly demonstrates the value of occasionally anonymous reviewing. If anything, the "Gotcha!" rules overall work against any restaurant that doesn't play the game and play it well. (Edited to add: Sam cross-posted this better than I did)

So you don't think that, for example, Alan Richman being the former host of a show on the Food Network is a rejection of anonymity? It seems you're saying that all critics other than Restaurant Girl dine anonymously, which is certainly the belief most critics want to hoodwink the public into holding. But surely you know better. In addition, I still don't see how you've made the case for the "value of critic anonymity" with this example. Am I to understand that the "value of critic anonymity" is that a few service glitches -- and the occasional total breakdown -- might happen that wouldn't have happened otherwise? If so, big deal. And as a matter of logic it's still clear that, in order to demonstrate the "value of critic anonymity" in anything more than a purely speculative and asserted manner, one would have to demonstrate that recognized (which is synonymous with non-anonymous) critics give more favorable reviews to restaurants than anonymous ones. I can't think of any recent examples of that happening in a statistically meaningful way. Sure, there are a very few cynical restaurants out there that operate in the old stereotypical Le Cirque mode where there are very clearly two classes of diners and one class gets treated like crap. It's possible that the alleged "value of critic anonymity" is that we may occasionally unmask such a place, but such places rarely operate in secret. Again, the information on Ago was out there without any help from Frank Bruni, who merely amplified in a funny way what had already been published. And, if anything, the New York Times critic is the person least likely to unmask such restaurants -- and even then will do so in a statistically insignificant percentage of cases. So there are really three possibilities: Ago is so bad that its badness would have been easy to grasp even for a non-anonymous critic (my guess is that this is the case); or Ago is capable of putting out a great meal with flawless service for a recognized critic (in which case let's see the evidence in the form of rave reviews); or every journalist to visit Ago has been anonymous/unrecognized (fat chance).

So based on this scenario the "value of critic anonymity" is what exactly? That in the 20% of cases where Frank Bruni is not recognized and the 5% of cases where Alan Richman is not recognized, if a restaurant screws up service really badly then we'll all be treated to a very public "gotcha!" in print? That seems like a very limited value proposition. And where are all the positive comments about this restaurant from non-anonymous critics? We already knew of the consensus that Ago sucks before Bruni's review was published. Eater, for example, correctly predicted zero stars before the review ran. So did you, Marc (edited to add: even though you yourself gave it one star?). Apparently the information is getting out there just fine. In order to provide actual support for this theory of the "value of critic anonymity," we'd need to see a statistically significant number of examples where the same restaurant was reviewed by anonymous and non-anonymous critics and the anonymous critics as a group thought it was terrible while the non-anonymous critics as a group were duped into thinking it was great.

On the rare occasion the I'm the recipient of a VIP turndown treat, I almost never eat it. The last thing I need moments before bed is a shot of sugar and, if it's a chocolate item, caffeine. So I always appreciate turndown treats that come in little boxes and can be held overnight or even for a couple of days without refrigeration. That way I can use them as a midday snack the next day or bring them home to my family. Whereas, if it's something like chocolate-covered strawberries I just throw them out.

So there have been rave reviews from non-anonymous critics? Incidentally, in the Gawker coverage of the review they once again post Bruni's photograph.

There are a number of seafood-and-cheese dishes that I love, such as lobster Thermidor (France) and oysters Rockefeller (New Orleans). There are also various dairy-based seafood recipes that I think can be excellent, such as clam chowder and lobster bisque. All of these dishes operate against what I see as the basic Italian culinary aesthetic, which would say that in all cases the dairy overwhelms the seafood. But that's just one culinary aesthetic. It's also the case that plenty of serious gourmets think these dishes are absolutely delicious. No, you don't get a pure clam taste experience when you eat clam chowder, but the clams contribute to the wonderful overall flavor of the dish.

The lunch menu at Ssam Bar is abbreviated. My standard recommendation for people who want the Momofuku experience at lunchtime is to go to Noodle Bar where the menu is the same at lunchtime and dinnertime.

The New York Times recently had a story, titled "Just Grate," debunking the "no cheese with seafood" claim. The author, Robert Trachtenberg, found many exceptions to this supposed rule: And Katie, he spoke to Lidia too.

"A great show! Why not on a major network?" is one of those questions that kind of answers itself.

I haven't had one yet but just received two McDonald's coupons in the mail for free sandwiches. One is a free sandwich coupon usable at lunch- or dinner-time and the other is for a free chicken biscuit sandwich at breakfast-time. Apparently they're pushing the chicken biscuit sandwich as a breakfast item.

Food cost may very well be a factor. But the laws of supply and demand are what allow Chang to raise his prices when other restaurants would get creamed for a $85-to-$100 hike. Many other restaurants, faced with the same food-cost issues, are keeping their prices level because price hikes would depress demand. Restaurants like Ko (and Per Se and a few others) don't have to worry about depressing demand because demand so radically exceeds supply anyway. So they can afford to say "We're going to serve more and better, and we're going to charge for it," while so many other restaurants need to serve less or otherwise find creative ways to cut costs in order to maintain current prices. The Wall Street Journal just covered this issue and the Grub Street Blog picked it up. The Grub Street blog summarized it thus: Some might say Chang's position represents a principled stance. Maybe so. But sometimes principles are what you can afford.

Supply and demand. There are a zillion people competing for those dozen seats. Without fail, even on Memorial Day, Momofuku Ko books solid within one minute of the reservations being offered online. But all Momofuku Ko needs to do to have every seat full is book solid within ten thousand minutes (aka one week). So there's quite a bit of leeway to raise prices even if it quiets demand somewhat. I imagine half or a quarter of the current level of demand could support $250 no problem. Maybe not forever, but for the foreseeable future.

Per Eater.com, the menu at Ko is now $100.

Doc, were you able to discern any smoked-crawfish flavor?

No luck here either.

I did very well today in terms of not having a bad bite of 'cue. The only disappointment: I finally got to try one of those hush puppies and it was both raw in the center (I don't think mine came from one of the batches prepared by the esteemed Brooks Hamaker) and lacking any discernible crawfish flavor (there was supposed to be smoked crawfish in the batter, right?). It was pretty cool that they were using a Jerry-rigged electric drill to stir the batter, though. Boy, I really wanted to like these things but I guess I just got a defective specimen. I imagine the production requirements of the event were just insane. I'm going to continue to evangelize for Blue Smoke's ribs. I again started and ended my day at Blue Smoke and I really enjoyed several things about their ribs: first, finishing them over hardwood coals (which I wish they did in the restaurant) gives them an extra bit of flavor on the exterior; second, they're not smoked to death -- they still have structure, though they be tender; and third, I like that the application of sauce is conservative -- you can really taste the meat. When they started this thing six years ago I felt that Blue Smoke was the beneficiary of barbecue affirmative action and just got an invitation because the Union Square group was the event sponsor. But today Blue Smoke totally deserves to be there. If you served these ribs at a barbecue event in barbecue country, I don't think anybody would suspect it of being Yankee barbecue. I also thought, on the New York front, that both Dinosaur and Hill Country did us proud. Maybe I'm just a local yokel ignoramus, but I felt that in all three styles -- ribs, pulled pork and beef ribs -- the New York places were totally in the game. Big Bob Gibson's pulled pork was delicious and so professional -- you could have grabbed any one of those little paper trays, of which they served about a villion -- and entered it in a top-tier barbecue competition. That Chris Lilly guy is amazing. Also quite good was the chopped pork from Checkered Pig, though Ed Mitchell's product really dominated the chopped-pork category. That's all I ate. Did anybody else notice that it started raining at exactly 6pm?

The brutal heat defined the day for most humans (and canines) in attendance. I'm actually amazed at how much Kathryn accomplished in four hours. I felt that, in order to insure my survival, I had to adopt a very slow pace. Blue Smoke is overlooked by many as a barbecue option, as are many of the local places, but each year I find that for pure joy of eating Blue Smoke's offerings hold up when placed alongside the out-of-town barbecue. Blue Smoke's Kansas City ribs were great, and the pickled okra served with them was one of the best bites of the day. Later, just to recalibrate, I circled around for seconds from Blue Smoke and remained impressed. Mike Mills's ribs were terrific, as were his beans. These ribs have, over the years I've sampled them at the Big Apple Barbecue, become my reference standard for baby-back ribs. I sort of randomly tried Ubon's pulled pork shoulder and was very happy with it. I also gave Salt Lick another try this year and was unimpressed by both the brisket and sausage. By the time I made it around to Ed Mitchell's pit, he had sold out of everything. So that's my first stop tomorrow. The banana pudding from Wildwood was excellent. I too failed to get hold of any of those fantastic-looking hushpuppies. The line was long and slow-moving all day long. Maybe tomorrow. The Wild Magnolias lived up to their reputation as one of the great bands, though all the music was good today. Last year the event organizers paid a ridiculous sum of money to air condition the seminar tent, and the weather was mild -- it was in the 60s. So this year they didn't opt for air conditioning. Woops. Tomorrow at 1:30 there's a terrific short film being shown in one of the seminar tents, "Mutton: The Movie," by Joe York. I'll be introducing the film and interviewing Joe afterwards, which some of you might find amusing. Also at 3:00 there's a rib demo with Fred Thompson. I'll also be MCing that.

In a recent "Diner's Journal" blog entry, Frank Bruni reports, regarding David Chang and Momofuku Ko, that "the no-special-treatment rule is proving tough to stick to." Bruni writes: No mention of "concessions" for regulars.

Had lunch at the Burger Bar again today. Nothing new to report except that it is fast becoming a regular haunt because it's so good and such a good value.

We just received an announcement of the media awards winners:

Actually the prediction is for 97. Schedule in a few seminars as a way to cool off. The tent provides nice shade. There are also lots of nice trees in the park. Bring plenty of water. And on a typical summer day in New York City the hottest part of the day is around 3pm -- not noon -- so come early to beat the heat.

In addition, there will be live blogging, as per this announcement we just received:

This year, for the first time, those who aren't able to attend the ceremony will be able to watch live video of the James Beard awards on the new Devour.tv website. David Rosengarten will be hosting the broadcast, interviewing the nominees as they walk down the red carpet. And he will be covering the press room after the awards to interview the winners. Coverage will be broadcast on www.Devour.tv starting at 9 PM EST this Sunday.

Doc, I've also had trouble connecting to the BABBP website, since last night. Steve, the world of what's available at the surrounding USHG restaurants is something that a lot of folks overlook. Both food- and beverage-wise, however, there's a lot to be said for a pit-stop at Tabla or Eleven Madison Park. Tabla, in particular, usually has some very nice food items. Over the years, Floyd and his team have done soft-shell crab sandwiches, brisked with Indian spices, sausages and various other things. Of course it's understandable that most foodies want to sample the 'cue from the visiting pitmasters, but if relaxation is the goal then Tabla and EMP are oases.