Fat Guy

On our recent 3-week road-trip through the Southeast in our luxurious Plymouth Grand Voyager SE minivan we traveled with, among other things, a bulldog, a Tempur-Pedic pillow, and a carton full of espresso apparatus. We aspire someday to have a clothesline stretched across the back seat of our Buick. Our DeLonghi "caffe espresso" unit, Solis Maestro grinder, Brita pitcher, a 1-pound bag of coffee beans, and the various attachments all fit snugly into a standard-size file box (like they use at law firms, um, not that mine was stolen from any previous employer) with the lid off. I've just gotten to the point where, at home, with all the variables pretty well under control, I can pull a consistently acceptable shot with this setup. On the road, however, the challenges were greater. I often found myself discarding the first shot, recalibrating the grinder, adjusting the tamping pressure, and otherwise taking stabs at improving the situation. Usually after about 10 minutes of fiddling I was able to produce a decent second shot, despite all the variables introduced by setup, takedown, humidity changes, rapidly aging room temperature beans, etc. In South Carolina we ran out of beans (consumption was much higher than expected on account of all the waste) and actually found a great little coffee place just across the border in Gastonia -- Blue Coffee -- where the guy (his name is Blue thanks to his hippie parents) roasts in-house in small batches and really knows his stuff. Still, I had to make adjustments for using a new product. Then there was the time I packed up the apparatus and drove off without remembering to empty the drip tray. Oops. That was a little messy. All in all, an interesting experience. I imagine we saved about $10,000 by not buying several $4 espressos everyday -- not that we could even buy a decent espresso without a 30 minute drive in most of the places we were visiting. Thank you for listening.

Disclosure of the Hesser/Vongerichten "relationship" is a red herring. If she disclosed it and still wrote a sycophantic, inappropriate, wrong-headed review, she'd still be in the wrong. If she didn't disclose it but she wrote an independent, fair, well-reasoned review then she'd be in the right and such a disclosure would be a screaming, gratuitous distraction. The problem here isn't that she failed to disclose Vongerichten's book blurb. It's just a fucking jacket-quote; who gives a shit? And as Lesley and I have said, if you're going to put a long-time local food-reporter in a critic's position, and then you're going to act surprised when that reporter has relationships with every major chef in town, well, in that case you're what's known as a moron. The problem is that the review demonstrated bad judgment on its own terms. By focusing on an ethical non-issue the Times has managed to humiliate and discipline Hesser for something she didn't do while ignoring the underlying deficiencies that are rapidly eroding what's left of our confidence in the Times reviewing system.

That's called Bouchon and it's in Las Vegas!

Maybe Keller is waiting for the Times to install a real restaurant reviewer. Were I him, I wouldn't open on the interim watch.

That's pretty harsh: an editor's note on the main page. I don't even think this merits a note in the dining section, no less humiliation in front of the whole Times audience. And really, what was the New York Times thinking when it appointed Amanda Hesser to the interim reviewing position in the first place? Every editor involved in that decision surely knew that she had been reporting on the dining scene for years and has relationship upon relationship with most major chefs and restaurateurs. Were they expecting her to bog down every review with a disclosure statement? And talk about failure to see the forest for the trees. The three stars and the failure to mention Kunz are what's wrong with this review. Not the failure to disclose some stupid book-jacket blurb. Were I in Hesser's shoes, I'd feel betrayed by my editors and my newspaper -- this should not have happened. The Times is so confused and panicked about journalistic ethics in the wake of the Blair incident that it's now hanging its reporters out to dry with no good reason.

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These guys apparently sell the Francis! Francis! X5 for $299 in orange. http://www.aabreecoffee.com/aabreecc/frx5esma.html This guy on ebay has one new-in-box for $300 buy-it-now, or maybe you could do better: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=38252 If that's indeed the case, the savings when taking advantage of the Illy deal are $125. Is a $125 savings worth a commitment to buy $400 worth of Illy coffee? What you're talking about is, what, a 30% discount on the coffee? For that to be attractive to me, I'd have to be pretty damn sure that I'd buy the Illy anyway.

Your comment caused me to consider, for the first time, how significant the issue of inheritance must be in the wine world, especially in France where most every inch of acceptable land is spoken for.

The Times "Off the Menu" note implies, to a neutral reader, that Psaltis was responsible for gimmicks like "the must of Mix" and the petri dishes, and that the chef change was about addressing that issue. Yet when William Grimes reviewed the restaurant in October, a different position was articulated in the Times: "Somewhere deep in the kitchen of Mix in New York, a chef is struggling to get some attention. His name is Douglas Psaltis, and he has talent. His instincts are wholesome and honest. But he has a lot of visual and conceptual clutter to break through, courtesy of Alain Ducasse and Jeffrey Chodorow, two overheated imaginations working at full throttle to make Mix a nonstop thrill ride." I believe both of the above accounts are imperfect, but they are more interesting for being at odds with one another. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't forsake Mix just on account of Psaltis's departure. The whole Ducasse system is engineered to avoid particular dependence on the chef-de-cuisine. If Didier Elena left ADNY to become the chef at some restaurant back in France, and Ducasse replaced him with a top toque from one of his other establishments and made the proffer that it will be business-as-usual at ADNY, I'd say fine, I'll keep going to ADNY because the Ducasse system is more important than any one chef. But here we have a bizarre situation where the chef on the scene, who was doing great work, has been unceremoniously dumped and scapegoated, the PR apparatus is generating suspect explanations, and there is a strongly developing presumption that dumbing down will be the order of the day. Should the indicators keep resolving in that direction, Felonius won't be the only customer Mix loses.

Aside from any issue relating to the quality of the machine, which everybody seems to think is quite a decent unit, I'd be extremely reluctant to commit to $400 worth of coffee from a single source. You may find, within weeks of getting an espresso machine, that you want to try your hand at roasting. And you may find, once you've roasted your own, that you don't want to drink another $350 worth of Illy. You also may find a local source that you prefer, such as a coffee shop that roasts every day, in small batches, and offers a blend you favor. When it comes time for me to get a serious espresso machine, I'll most likely get a Rancilio Silvia. It seems these can be had for $445 from many online vendors. Until then, I'm quite happy using my little <$100 DeLonghi as a training machine.

Let me try to break this down into two areas in which I think Per Se is failing: Customer relations. It seems that every customer who received a call in early March was told something similar to what I was told. As I reported on March 2, "The woman I spoke to this morning said that they would be calling each canceled-reservation-holder to reschedule. She said the calls would come in March, and that they'd be rescheduling for dates during the couple of months following." Now that March is ending, it seems that we won't be getting those calls. That, to me, is by definition such a fundamental customer-relations mistake as to be beyond reasoned debate. The restaurant promised calls, and didn't make those calls. They should be calling each of those people to say there's no scheduled reopening date yet, and to reaffirm that rescheduling will be a priority once the restaurant is back up and running. To do anything less is bad customer relations, bad service, bad business, and just not particularly smart. Media relations. When journalists say they would like to see press releases, sit up and take notice. It doesn't happen very often. But rest assured every food journalist in America with the slightest bit of interest in Per Se (in other words, every food journalist in America) would like to have more information than what has been clumsily doled out. Even just looking at eGullet, if Per Se's PR team would simply give periodic updates to journalists, including our NY News team, then our team (and the "Off the menu" column in the Times, and the similar products in New York Magazine et al.) could relay that information to a significant number of prospective Per Se customers. You know, the ones Per Se never called back. And I really don't think there's any evidence that Per Se would be ridiculed for providing update memos on occasion, especially since it's so hard to get anybody on the phone there. At eGullet we get dozens of press releases every week -- some of the big hotels and institutions send out press releases every time someone sneezes -- and I don't think we've ever made fun of anyone for sending too many. We appreciate being kept in the loop.

The basic point here doesn't involve any agendas or sweeping generalizations about New Yorkers, the people on this thread, or anyone else. What we are looking at here is a fundamental failure on the part of Per Se's management to communicate some very simple information to its clientele. Apparently, neither you nor your husband is bothered by that lack of information. Presumably, most people won't be. But a percentage of those who went to the trouble of getting reservations and planning around them -- regardless of whether the impetus for a reservation represented a deep character flaw or a simple desire to eat at the restaurant -- do seem to be bothered by it. And while it didn't bother me back in February, to me it's starting to get a bit irritating as April approaches. So I very much sympathize with the annoyed group.

I love how the Times will correct factual errors, however picayune . . . "A picture caption last Wednesday about Anson Mills grits, a brand served at many prominent restaurants, misidentified the purée served with a grits cake at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago. It was black trumpet mushroom, not chocolate." But has no mechanism for saying something like . . . "We fucked up by not mentioning Gray Kunz in the Spice Market review."

Is Kennedy Fried Chicken an actual chain with franchises, trademarks, investors, and such, or are there just a lot of places out there named Kennedy Fried Chicken?

We're a significant statistical sample of Per Se's target audience. Look at the number of people on eGullet who had reservations during the first 60 days of a 16-table restaurant's existence. It would be foolhardy for Per Se's management to ignore the feedback being given here. The general public doesn't eat at Thomas Keller's restaurants. What I see here, among a group that does eat at Thomas Keller's restaurants, is a desire for information and, among a portion of that group, a growing annoyance at the lack of information. Even if that information was "we have no idea what's going on, but we promise to take care of you when we do know what's going on" it would mean a lot to a lot of people.

Without a base of customers eager to try new restaurants, there would be no new restaurants. This isn't a problem with the New York restaurant scene. This is a simple lack of clear communication between Per Se's management on the one hand, and the media and the restaurant's client base on the other hand. That's bad business, in any business, no matter what the circumstances. Per Se is apparently keeping its staff on the payroll during this downtime. And presumably the restaurant is paying fat retainers to its West Coast and East Coast publicists. So put them to work for crying out loud. Put out a weekly breifing to the press. Get all those servers and managers on the phones with the customers. Be smart. Show some finesse.

"PR" isn't a dirty word. Especially in a restaurant context, PR is an extension of service, just as reservations and coat-check are. Right now, there is a prevailing sense developing among Per Se's client base that they are not being provided with adequate service. Or, to use Keller's vocabulary, that the current state of Per Se's service lacks "finesse."

I'm going to go liquor shopping on Thursday, so there won't be any activity on "the project" between now and then. But as soon as I've got the booze and the equipment, I'll report back. And stay tuned for April 14. More dental work, so I'll totally need several cocktials that day. Not to mention on April 15.

There used to be a Bojangle's right near Times Square -- it was a totally prime Broadway location, maybe at 46th? But now the only locations they have in NYC are in Brooklyn and Staten Island. In the Southeast, where Bojangle's is much more prevalent, my impression has always been that it tends to be favored over Popeye's by those who care about this sort of thing. In any event, I'll happily defend the fried chicken at both Popeye's and Bojangle's as actually good, not just good-by-junk-food-standards. I rarely encounter a single-unit fried chicken place that performs at the level of a Popeye's or a Bojangle's. Of course they exist, but they're few and far between.

I think most sophisticated diners are flexible regarding the reservations game: if you have to call at 9:21am 53 days before the date, that's fine. If you have to leave a credit card number, no problem. What really pisses these good customers off, in my experience, is when the rules of the game aren't revealed, or when it appears the game is rigged. So I agree, Rich, that this is being mishandled.

I'd rather not poke fun at a suffering business, but I do think the resonance this guessing game is having with our members demonstrates a PR lapse on Per Se's part. Per Se's publicist has an e-mail list of local food journalists -- I know because I've received e-mails from them in the past -- so why not send out the occasional update?

What's up with this cold-brewing business?

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They tend to rotate through the regions. If you look in January and February, you'll see plenty of California wines featured.

It certainly makes sense for members of the press to state with accuracy the business relationship between Vongerichten and Kunz. It is unacceptable, however, to omit Kunz from a feature story or other long-form treatment of Spice Market. Kunz is one of the top chefs in the world. He is one of a small handful of chefs who has held four stars from the New York Times in the past decade. Among chefs who hold three Michelin stars in Europe, he is spoken of as a colleague and, by many, as the top chef or one of the small handful of top chefs in America. To deliberately suppress any mention of his involvement in Spice Market -- and there can be no question that it was deliberate, because it surely wasn't out of ignorance -- is a very loud expression of poor judgment. Can you imagine if Alain Passard, Guy Savoy, or Charlie Trotter had been hired as consultants on the Spice Market project, and the Times had failed to mention that? Or if, instead of opening his Atelier in Paris, Robuchon had come out of semi-retirement to be Spice Market's consultant? Kunz is not some schlepper who Vongerichten hired to help with a menu. He's the most interesting part of the Spice Market story.