oakapple

The Spotted Pig.

Bruni has improved, to an extent. I can't remember the last time he committed a monumental injustice, such as the two-star smackdowns meted out to The Modern and Gilt. He still has plenty of weaknesses and blind spots, but they're the same ones as before, and at some point there isn't much to add, other than pointing them out again & again.

This is the first "recession-related" closure that I'm truly sad about. All the others I've seen have either been neighborhood places, or restaurants that simply weren't that great. The other interesting thing is that Fiamma is part of a large conglomerate, and was arguably its flagship. If Hanson has a better or more acclaimed restaurant, I'm not aware of it. For reasons of pride and prestige, if nothing else, you'd think he at least considered propping it up for a while, with revenues from his other places. You can imagine what the prognosis would be for independent restaurants—those with no corporate structure to fall back on.

He still gets talked about in other forums. Probably the best way to re-invigorate a dormant discussion is to post some thoughts and see what kind of response you get.

Restaurants will practically always agree to substitute a dish in that case. Call them in advance to settle your mind on that score, but I'm positive they'll do it.

Eater.com has word that Le Cirque's RW menu will be available through February 13 (weekends excluded). This stands as typical of many stories I'm reading these days. "Restaurant Week" isn't just a week.

I'm not really sure it has gotten the buzz it deserves even yet. But that's sort of typical of any chef change, as it always takes a few months for the new menu to be fully installed, and a while longer for those with a penchant for writing to get around to visiting.

Last June, per the Times.

That's true, but I expected more of the pro critics to report by now. There have been at least 3 pro reviews of the Oak Room. Veritas is a bit different, as a chef change within the same space nearly always gets less attention.

The silence is really remarkable, for a restaurant of that repute. The only reports I know of are a capsule review by Ruth Reichl and a more substantial one at the Pink Pig. I dropped in for a drink one night and had a glance at the menu. It seemed like a work-in-progress, and for a meal of that expense I'd rather wait until the restaurant is more settled. or until I read a few more reviews. Bouley's website still has no menu posted.

Maybe, but my experience at MSB was very underwhelming, much like it sounds your experience at Shang was. I should go back and give it another shot. ← To an extent, Shang and the Momos suffer from the same phenomenon. Shang is run by an acclaimed chef from out of town. He arrives here with hype that's hard to live up to. The Momos didn't arrive from out of town, but some of us never dined there until the hype became so loud that it couldn't be ignored. Inevitably, some people dined there with inflated expectations that were impossible to satisfy.

I also enjoy the "sense of discovery" in visiting new restaurants. But if you're passing judgment or giving recommendations, you need to develop a sense of how a restaurant is likely to evolve as it matures. You also need to consider sampling error—that's why Bruni pays a minimum of three visits before writing a review. In a forum where most posts are based on one visit, you should expect to see widely divergent reviews of a new restaurant—even beyond the usual reasons for disagreement (i.e., different tastes, experiences, or judgment). For what it's worth, the reviews of Shang by Dryden and Kathryn didn't seem all that much alike. Dryden compared it to Wakiya, which basically means it is a lost cause. Kathryn's view sounded more mixed (i.e., she actually liked some stuff).

If you're flexible, there's no doubt you can get in. If you just call them, I can practically guarantee that there is a time slot available for 1 person sometime in the next month.If it's not this month, but a future month, you can score a table the usual way, by calling 2 months in advance. Tables at Per Se also sometimes show up on OpenTable.

Sure enough, they're going down. Here's FloFab in the Times:

Well, in any case the poster asked for sushi, and I think there's a separate thread for Katz's. Although the LES is not particularly known as a sushi destination, as raji noted there are plenty of options if you venture not far away from there.

I just had a look at the online menu. It has changed considerably from the last time I saw it. I've no idea whether it will be the dramatic improvement that Ducasse wants, but I'd give Schaedelin a good 3 months before passing judgment.

Justin Bogle - Gilt Website ← He was Lee's sous-chefs, and the two worked together for many years, so I assume he's going to stay the course.

The main point of Restaurant Week is to attract more customers, during a slow season when many of the restaurants wouldn't otherwise be full. Some places participate just for PR reasons, e.g., Gramercy Tavern, which is generally full anyway. Restaurants approach RW in many different ways. Some places offer the same menu all year long, so advertising it as a "special" is just a gimmick. Some places offer the RW special only at lunch. As it's a discounted menu, there are usually limited choices, and you might not be getting the most interesting dishes, but you ought to do well—within the context of what a particular restaurant is capable of. Many places will honor RW pricing even if you didn't book thru the RW site, so don't cancel your regular reservation at Gramercy Tavern before checking with them. If you give up your reservation, you might not get it back again. At any time of year, lunches are often a better deal than dinners, as you get the same or very similar food at a lower price.

We dined here last night (blog report here), and we were impressed. I had my doubts about this place, mainly because Burke is so over-extended. Right now, they're getting a lot more right than wrong. Of course, on such a big menu a lot depends on whether you happen to order the right things, and if the taxed kitchen executes them correctly. Last night, they mostly did. There was something funny about seeing David Burke in street clothes. In the first few days of Bar Boulud, people saw Daniel Boulud there in his chef's whites. Now, everybody knows that Boulud doesn't cook at Bar Boulud—never did and never will—but he was maintaining the illusion. Burke just skips the pretense, and no longer even looks like a chef. But Eric Hara was there too. It's really his restaurant now.

For a failing business maybe not, but for a business on the edge as many restaurants always seem to be, it may make all the difference in the world, especially if other costs go down. We are currently in a deflationary economy for better or worse. As a result the current pressure on prices across the board is downward. ← I am just pointing out that a hypothetical 10% reduction of an item that's only 33% of the cost, amounts to about 3% overall. I doubt that any restaurant that closes has a mere 3% problem. A lot of things would need to change (though rent could be one of them) to keep such a restaurant in business.

What's the bread service? And they charge you for it?? ← It's an à la carte format, and I'm fine with that. For instance, the Naan in Indian restaurants is usually not free. You could also make a case for giving it away, especially as it's only 37½ cents a slice. Then again, maybe not everyone wants bread; or maybe some folks want rice instead.

We dined at Shang last night (blog report here). While I respect Dryden's report, it almost seems like he is describing a different restaurant. The food here, by design, is international fusion inspired by Chinese cuisine, but untraditional. We found everything inventive and impeccably done. I never dined at Susur, but based on reports, I can understand why those who did would find Shang a tad disappointing, as it is clearly less ambitious than its Toronto precursor. Given the economic climate, I think there was a conscious decision to introduce the restaurant at a more accessible price point. Most of the dishes are in the $13–20 range. A party of two can put together an excellent meal for under $100—not cheap eats, but very reasonable by current standards. Many of the dishes could be ordered as standard appetizers or entrées, but the staff steer you towards the "family style" format. We were advised to order four to six dishes to share, which was about right. I don't mind that format—my girlfriend and I often switch plates anyway—as long as the courses are judiciously timed, and as long as the dishes really do lend themselves to sharing. Both tests were met here. The server's ordering advice was reliable. The dishes she suggested were good ones, and she didn't induce us to over-order (another common pitfall at such places). She also volunteered to reduce our bread order to a half-order, as the full portion (priced at a whopping $3) is more than two people would normally eat. Restaurants usually have some service glitches in their first month. What I usually look for is: A) Does the restaurant realize when they screw up, or are they oblivious? B) What do they do to make up for it? As an example, we ordered a half-bottle of white wine, which took seemingly forever to come up from the cellar, or wherever they store it. That shouldn't happen. But the server (without prompting) wisely told the kitchen to slow down, so that we wouldn't be drinking water with our appetizers. It's that kind of attentiveness that makes me think that Shang will do very well indeed.

Landlords, like restaurants, are in business to make money. If it is in their enlightened interest to reduce rents, they will. (Free months and other incentives are rent reductions by another name.) If it is not in their interest, they won't, and shouldn't.Rent, of course, is only one element of a restaurant's operating cost. If a restaurant is paying 33% of its costs in rent, and gets a 10% concession from the landlord, how significant is that? It means that 1/3rd of their costs just got 10% cheaper. For a failing business, that might be nowhere near enough.

Might some of them lower prices in an attempt to stay open? ← The wine list strikes me as the best opportunity. It's hard give much ground on the price of the steaks, because beef is so expensive.

I have some informed guesses, but it's unfair to the restaurants to name them publicly.As a category, steakhouses could come under some pressure. A glut of them opened in the 2005–07 time frame. You hardly ever see a steakhouse close, but all of these places are pitilessly expensive, and many of them depend on expense account dinners.