Fat Guy

I'm sure you're right. I pulled a random sample of 4 reviews. There were 2 x 2-star reviews (10 Mar 1978, 6 Feb 1977), a double 2-star review (2 Dec 1977) and a 1-star and a 2-star together (21 Jan 1977). And I remembered that multi-Thai review, which I've now looked up and it has 6 x 2-star ratings and 2 x 1-star ratings all in a single piece (4 Feb 1977). My sample was obviously not big enough to establish a reliable baseline, though.

The Ethiopian restaurant Zoma opened earlier this month (I think) on the corner of 113th Street and Frederick Douglass Blvd. (aka Central Park West, aka Eighth Ave.). It's not what you think. This restaurant is fresh, young, stylish, sleek, intimate, modern -- it's the Ethiopian (actually they call it Abyssinian) equivalent of the new wave of Indian places that are popping up, or the smart nouvelle bistro-type places on the fringes of Harlem. Nice graphic design on the menu, business cards and -- yes -- website. Bar bottle display nicely illuminated from underneath. I found the food to be categorically superior to what's served at the standard Ethiopian places around town. The staff was incredibly solicitous and really seemed to want to promote the cuisine -- in addition to what we ordered, they brought out tastes of honey wine and a couple of extra vegetable sides for us to sample. The man who waited on us most of the evening seemed to be a combination of manager and bartender, super-articulate and enthusiastic about the cuisine. A waitress who came on later and took over half the room was equally friendly. After long consultation, we chose the Tibs Wett and the Assa Tibs. The Tibbs Wett is described as "strips of sirloin" but is actually chunks of beef. It's stewed in the most amazing mixture of spices, herbs and other things -- garlic, berbere (sun-dried hot peppers ground with ginger and a blend of spices), kibe (seasoned butter), cardamom, coriander and certainly a dozen others. Most of the entrees come with two vegetable sides. We chose Gomen (collard greens simmered with onion, garlic, ginger and spices) and Misir Wett (red lentils with berbere, black cumin and many other spices), and they also sent out Fassolia (string beans with garlic and tomato) and Kik Aletcha (split peas with green peppers and onions). The manager guy was right about the Fassolia -- it was the clear winner among the vegetable sides, though all were excellent. The Assa Tibs is a pan-fried tilapia filet (it's also available grilled), maybe cooked more than I'd cook it but not overcooked, which comes with chopped tomatoes (the single item in the entire meal that was not good, because the tomatoes were poor specimens) and cracked wheat. In the Ethiopian style, all the food for the table is served on one big platter and eaten with torn-off pieces of Injera (soft fermented flatbread), using your hands. The presentation is much more elegant than most, though. The platters are square white ceramic, with the round piece of Injera extending almost to the edges. The dishes come out in nice white square ceramic bowls and on square plates and the staff makes a careful composition of everything for you on the Injera. They also brought us a ton of extra Injera -- more than I could comfortably eat -- without us needing to ask for it, and it's a milder, more subtle Injera than most places offer. I had a beer as well (there's a cocktail and wine list that gets an A for effort but didn't offer anything that really appealed to us), and some very good spiced mint tea afterwards. Bill came to $37 and change, before tip. Zoma 2084 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (corner of 113th) 212-662-0620 http://zomanyc.com/index.html The website has the full menu.

I think that's right, and also from reading a lot of Mimi Sheraton's reviews I get the sense (I'd have to do statistical analysis for it to be more than a sense) that the two-star review was her baseline -- and I do remember one instance where she gave two stars to something like six seemingly casual Thai restaurants at once (the multi-restaurant review was pretty common for her). At the same time, a one-star review from her could be very flattering. Of course the really noticeable contrast between her reviews and those of the current critic is that her reviews are very rich in food content.

That's a pretty interesting chronicle of grade (aka star) inflation in action, and I should know better than to try to argue against grade inflation -- I'm not sure anybody has ever won that argument. Sheraton's comment in particular is telling: "It seems appropriate to point out that that rating [one star] is a positive one, meaning good, and it is not easily come by. It has become apparent that such a rating is all too often taken as a put-down, meaning, in fact, not very good at all, so some clarification is definitely in order."

Right, when it's made clear that an entire category just isn't being considered for star ratings, nobody holds that against any restaurant in the category. It just makes things clearer, and the stars more useful. The more apples, oranges and other fruits you try to rate on the same scale, the less useful the scale becomes. If you have a tailor-made system for reviewing each type of fruit, it's more useful.

So nobody goes to the restaurants reviewed in "$25 and Under"?

I'm sure you know this, but just in case it isn't obvious to all possible readers, I don't think anyone is arguing that a restaurant lacking "four-star amenities" should get four stars. The argument is that restaurants with excellent food should be able to get two stars, even if they lack amenities. ← It's not just the argument, it's descriptive of current reality. However, what Bryan Miller (and a lot of other folks who used to find more value in the star system) would likely say is that restaurants with awesome food but no real amenities should get rave reviews and no stars. I think that system makes more sense than the "give them three stars for food. deduct two for amenities, add one for price. end up at two" system that has, to evoke the tired example, the Modern and Sripraphai rated the same.

Cost is just not the issue here. The same resources they've already committed could easily be reorganized -- and a very minor reorganization it would be -- to allow a third review of a modestly priced restaurant. If that's what they wanted to do, they could do it no problem. I doubt it is what they want to do, but I think it would help bring the system in line with current dining reality.

They switched to a "Diner's Journal" blog format, but clearly they're spending enough money already to support a third review.

A few points in no particular order: - Bryan Miller's letter about Ruth Reichl, quoted in Salon, said "How do you think she comes off giving SoHo noodle shops 2 and 3 stars? She has destroyed the system that Craig, Mimi and I upheld." - As far as I know there's no budgetary constraint that would prevent three reviews, because there already are three reviews: the main review, "$25 and Under," and "Diner's Journal," every week. In addition, there are pieces like Ed Levine's category roundups, which would pretty easily fit into a middle tier review product. - The confused diner is no straw man; he or she is just not involved here for obvious reasons. And the confusion actually transcends the star system. Unless you're totally explicit about it, masses of people assume that any restaurant being written about in a serious, full-length, featured review is going to be a "nice" restaurant -- and they send you hate mail when they show up at the place and it's a "dive." I have dozens if not hundreds of email messages like this from when I used to write weekly reviews; I'm sure any recent New York Times reviewer has thousands -- Ruth Reichl probably has enough to sink an aircraft carrier. By segregating the reviews into categories, the Times could avoid this problem -- indeed I believe that's part of the reason "$25 and Under" came into being. - The four-star Chinese restaurants of old offered four-star amenities.

I don't think the system is antiquated as much as incomplete. Assuming we're going to have a star system, the way to make it more complete is to limit its scope to the type of restaurant it was intended for: full-service places that meet basic standards of starred restaurants. There's this other thing, "$25 and Under," for places like ST and SRI -- use it. And at this point, there's also a need for a middle category -- a third weekly review (perhaps replacing the waste-of-space "Diner's Journal") -- because $25 and Under should really be for cheap eats, and there should be something for places that are not cheap eats but are too modestly priced to offer star amenities and also for places like steakhouses that don't offer enough interest to sustain full-on star reviews.

I'm not sure that, in principle, there's anything wrong with giving them ten stars. The issue isn't principle, it's the comprehensibility of the system. If the Times wants to define the two-star category to include dives that serve excellent food, more power to them. The problem arises when people expect -- based on long experience -- two stars from the Times to mean one thing but then learn that it means something else.

I attended the WGS in Singapore in 2000 and had many of the same observations, though it sounds like the marketing aspects of it have gotten even more shallow and vapid. The nice thing, back then, was that the WGS and Singapore Food Festival were at the same time -- nice from the perspective of a traveler who's only going to endure nearly 24 hours of travel to get to Singapore maybe once per decade.

The latest eG Radio foodcast -- an exclusive interview with the editor of the New York Times dining section (Pete Wells) and the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine (James Oseland) -- is online and available for download now. The announcement, download and subscription links are here. This topic is for discussion of the content of the current eG Radio foodcast. If you need technical support with, for example, downloading or playing the foodcast, please use the Technical Support forum. If you have questions or comments about the eG Radio foodcast effort that are not related to the specific issues dealt with in this program, please submit those to the eGullet Society Member Feedback forum. Thanks!

The latest eG Radio foodcast is now online.<BR><BR> Click here for the 24 November 2006 eG Radio foodcast.<BR><BR> (Clicking the above link should initiate a download of an .mp3 file, which is a recording of the foodcast; you can then play it on most any media player such as Windows Media Player, or you can transfer the file to an iPod or portable device).<BR><BR> In the latest eG Radio foodcast, recorded on location at Saveur magazine headquarters in New York City, we talk to James Oseland, the new editor-in-chief of Saveur, and Pete Wells, the new editor of the New York Times dining section. Steven Shaw ("Fat Guy"), conducts the interview.<BR><BR> The discussion topic for eG Radio foodcast 004 can be found here. Join us.<BR> <BR>To subscribe to our foodcast feed, just click the appropriate button...<BR> <A HREF="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=134732732"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with iTunes" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/itunespodcastbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://yahoo.com"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Yahoo! Podcasts" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/yahoopodcastbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.podnova.com/add.srf?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with PodNova" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/podnovapodcastbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://odeo.com/channel/79696/subscribe/"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Odeo" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/odeopodcastbadge.gif"></A> <BR>Or subscribe to our foodcast news feed with any of the following services...<BR> <A HREF="http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Bloglines" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/bloglinesnewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with My Yahoo!" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/yahoonewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/subext.aspx?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with NewsGator" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/newsgatornewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://client.pluck.com/pluckit/prompt.aspx?GCID=C12286x053&a=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety&t=eGullet%20Society"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Pluck" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/plucknewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.rojo.com/add-subscription?resource=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Rojo" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/rojonewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Google" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/googlenewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><br> Members can also click "Track this topic" at the top right of the topic view page in order to get automatic email notifications when new foodcast announcements are added to this topic.

I'm not sure that counts as a double review, and I'm even less sure that it matters. I think, just as most reviews are neither "positive" nor "negative" but rather a combination of the two, the folks at Porter House are likely to be neither pleased nor displeased but rather have mixed feelings about the review. Lomonaco is too much of a pro, too much of a veteran to dwell on it very long, though. Chances are, even this one-star review will generate additional interest in the restaurant if only because it will reach people who didn't even know the place had opened. Whether Porter House wins those people over when they do come in to check the place out depends on Lomonaco and his team -- I'm sure that's what they're focusing on.

A lot of steakhouses -- not just Porter House -- are both critic-proof and foodie-buzz-proof, because such a huge portion of the steakhouse audience doesn't care what critics or foodies think. I have a feeling Lomonaco has cracked that code and created a restaurant with broad-based appeal that doesn't much depend on the approval of the gourmet subculture. I think he would have liked that approval, but so far he hasn't received it. I mean, the restaurant has my approval. It's the first steakhouse I'm planning to visit after the holiday season. But I seem to be in a very small minority on this one. On the one hand, mentioning Outback in the same sentence as Porter House is going to come across as a condemnation to the urban-sophisticate subset. On the other hand, the review was indeed friendly and the comparison to Outback was favorable. I think, whatever Bruni meant by it, it was ill-considered. This is what he said: The thing is, I think he's just wrong about that. For one thing, I don't think of Outback as a mall restaurant. There may be a few Outbacks in malls -- not that I've ever seen one -- but most of them are standalone restaurants on highway strips. For another thing, I can think of very few points of similarity between Outback and Porter House that wouldn't be the same for the comparison between Outback and any real steakhouse, even allowing for the "sophisticated upgrade" adjustment. And for still another thing, Lomonaco was certainly not inspired by Outback -- if anything, Outback is a dumbed down version of old-school New York chophouses (like "21" where Lomonaco was chef around the time Outback was founded) with a faux-Australian look: the walls are covered with boomerangs and surfboards.

Run! Don't walk!

That's all I know. Dude said he's building a spice lab. You heard it here first.

I think when you use such assertive spicing you're taking a risk: a percentage of your customers are going to find the food repellently over-spiced. You really have to be a huge fan of spices, and not everybody is. That may very well force a menu change -- very few restaurants, no less on the Upper West Side, are going to push that hard on so many dishes unless they're specifically destinations for chef-driven cuisine. But for now, I think for folks who like this style of food, where spices are almost a main ingredient (Sosa is actually in the process of constructing a "spice lab"), may find a lot to like at Loft.

Correct.

Angelo Sosa -- formerly involved in Yumcha, Jean Georges, Spice Market, Buddakan and others -- has recently taken over the kitchen (his title is "consulting chef") at Loft, the year-old restaurant on Columbus Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets. The restaurant opened with little culinary interest, but has hired Sosa in an attempt to go in a new direction. Sosa's presence at an Upper West Side (really the Upper West Side, not the Midtown North extension that includes Time Warner, Jean Georges and Picholine) restaurant made me take notice. I recently accepted an invitation to a tasting of his new menu, and found the food to be boldly creative not just by the standards of its neighborhood but by the standards of any neighborhood in the world. The restaurant is self-consciously downtown. It's supposed to evoke a SoHo or TriBeCa-type lounge space and it does. And there are a few dishes I tried that are worth a trip from downtown -- plus one that's worth a trip from Saturn. Sosa has chosen to express himself with powerful spice combinations -- not spice as in heat (though there is heat in some dishes) but rather spice as in fenugreek, dill, mustard seed, mint and cumin. The primary set of flavors is Middle Eastern, though there are plenty of Asian influences (not surprising given Sosa's background and preferences) as well as general international and local components of the menu. Even the house-baked rolls that come out at the beginning of the meal are robustly spiced. The best dish on the menu comes in a square, squat Mason jar. It contains poached lobster and an egg (from the Union Square greenmarket) in a fresh mace (not sure I'd ever had fresh mace before) and fenugreek broth scented with a little soy sauce and Thai chili. The broken egg yolk runs into the broth and around the lobster chunks to form a luscious sauce. It's incredible -- one of the best dishes I've sampled in 2006 at any restaurant. It's $30, which may be a high price for the neighborhood (that's near the upper end of the range for the Loft menu) but is low for an haute-cuisine dish of this quality. The other two items I felt were really extraordinary are both from the $80 four-course Wagyu/hookah menu: First, a Taiwanese egg (infused, hard-cooked and peeled), served in a broth of chicken stock with pancetta, star anise, cardamom and "Saigon cinnamon." Once you eat the egg, you drink the broth like tea. I could easily imagine dropping in and having one of these at the bar as a fortifying winter hot beverage -- not that it's offered that way (though one could ask I suppose). Second, a Wagyu steak (I've seen a few menus with different cuts, the one I had was a ribeye) crusted with four different peppers (black Madagascar peppercorns, Turkish peppercorns, chipotle peppers and white peppercorns) and Himalayan rock salt. According to the printed menu those two items are served together, as course number three on the hookah menu. A couple of other dishes were quite good: sauteed foie gras with kabocha squash and cumin; tuna "mole," basically a tuna tartare with avocado, tapioca and bitter chocolate. One dish, which I though was not Sosa's best work but is apparently one of the restaurant's best sellers (I can see why -- it's good lounge food) consists of thin slices of Wagyu beef on a flatbread with crumbled Roquefort, white truffle vinaigrette and mixed greens. I don't believe there's a pastry chef installed. The one dessert we tried -- chocolate hazelnut dumplings with white truffle froth -- was delicious, though. The cocktail and wine programs at the restaurant seem to be as ambitious as the culinary program. We tried some of the recommended hookah-menu wine pairings and they were not only smart but also, like the food, at the edge of the flavor spectrum. For example, the 2005 Tesch Reisling St. Remigiusberg, served with the tuna, is bone dry. (The wine pairings with the hookah menu are $45).

I don't think Boswell's cuisine is about trying to have anything in particular to do with New Orleans. He thinks more like a sushi chef, looking for the best fish from around the world and getting it flown in. I think he uses local produce from small growers when he likes what he sees (the squash for the aforementioned soup), and he uses things from Louisiana when he thinks they're the best in the world (Gulf shrimp), but otherwise he uses FedEx. Stylistically, as well, I can't detect anything Creole, Cajun or Southern about Boswell's cuisine. It's quite international. Just scanning through the menu, here are a few of the apparently non-local ingredients he uses (there are also plenty of local ones): Valrhona Xocopili Italian Pancetta Tatamagouche Oysters Japanese Tobiko Caviar Canadian Lobster Italian White Truffle Oil Wild Burgundy Escargot Wild Tasmanian King Salmon Chinese Jellyfish Taylor Bay Scallops 100-Year Old Balsamic Vinegar Blue Sky Farms Mixed Baby Greens Georges Bank Diver Scallops Shortbill Spearfish Kalamata Olive Tapenade Butter Hawaiian Walu Rack of Australian Lamb Washington State Squab Hudson Valley Foie Gras Snake River Farm Kobe Beef Tenderloin

Scott Boswell and Bryan Dupepe, Jr. (the manager of the Hotel Provincial), were up in New York last week and Boswell prepared a luncheon for a small group of journalists. Boswell prepared two savory course from the current menu. The first was a squash soup -- excuse me, "Autumn Heirloom Squash Purèe" -- with pancetta *and* bacon, olive oil and Valrhona Xocopili (a newish Valrhona chocolate product meant for use in savory cooking). I had a couple of objections to the dish on paper -- I feared the use of Valrhona Xocopili might be self-consciously trendy, and as much as I like all parts of my dear friend the pig I worried that pancetta and bacon would make for strange bedfellows. Boy was I wrong. One bite, and I was in the "this guy can cook!" zone. The soup was served in a wide, rimmed soup bowl, and the bacon, pancetta and chocolate were in the center. The bacon and pancetta made for nice textural variety, and the chocolate was present in a very small amount -- just enough to add spicy/bitter/sweet interest. It really worked. The other savory dish was also excellent: "Panko and Parsley Roasted Hawaiian Walu with Wilted Chinese Spinach, Crisp Tofu Frittes, Petite Stuffed Cockle Clams and Champagne Sea Urchin Butter." This was my first experience of the fish called walu, so I've no other walu to compare it to, but it was a thick, white, fleshy fish without a lot of similarity to any particular fish I've had. The sea urchin butter was the highlight of the dish. Boswell's pastry chef Nolan Ventura wasn't along for the ride, but had come up with a simplified expression of the sorts of things they do at the restaurant: "Milk Chocolate and Fennel Seed Ganache with Toasted Brioche and Blood Orange." The chocolate and fennel was a nice combo -- again, not forced as I worried it might be. Boswell and Dupepe were charming hosts and stressed the importance of supporting the recovering city of New Orleans through tourism -- that just coming down and having a good time is a great way to support the recovery. One point they wanted to make was that most of the things that tourists have always come to New Orleans for (the French Quarter, the downtown attractions, etc.) are going strong -- that New Orleans is open for business and there are plenty of hotel rooms and restaurant tables available. http://www.restaurantstella.com/

Maybe there's a good one out there, but I've never encountered a fruit-of-the-month club that provides good fruit every month. Most companies that do mail-order fruit well specialize in one or a very few fruits. For example, Red Cooper's grapefruits from Texas are amazing ( http://www.redcooper.com/ ). Now, I understand that Red Cooper wants to be able to have income year-round, so he also sells things like mangoes and peaches -- but those are purchased from somewhere else, so I can't see what value Red Cooper adds to those items.