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They weren't kidding when they said 10:00 a.m. At 9:59, the password box was still there. At exactly 10:00, it opened up. And at 10:02, it crashed.

I read somewhere that this thing is booked solid through July, which basically means for most of us it exists only in fantasyland. You'll be able to get into Momofuku Ko easier than that.

Let us generously suppose that Per Se's business is 85% "tourist, expense account and special occasion meals." That would exactly correspond to the ratio of Per Se's seating capacity to Ko's seating capacity.On top of that, it's already clear that Ssam Bar has become a destination restaurant for "food-aware tourists," and Ko—if it's that good—will probably be even more so.

Well, it's less money than Per Se, and far less seating capacity than Per Se, and it took a lot more than just a month for the furore at Per Se to die down to any noticeable degree.Of course, what we still don't know is whether it's as good as Per Se. If Bruni and/or Platt give it four stars, or even an enthusiastic three, you could be talking a year or two. I think that Bruni is itching—positively itching—to give four stars to something.

You're "live-blogging" the whole meal, and you're concerned about keeping a low profile?

It has a website, http://www.wineisterroir.com/, but it's nothing but a doormat right now.Terroir is at 413 E. 12th Street east of First Avenue, just down the street from Hearth. In fact, the Hearth kitchen supplies some of Terroir's food.

In the early days, a lot of the patronage is driven by the owners' reputations: old friends stopping by to say hello, or people like me dropping in out of curiosity. The extremely gentle price point suggests that they expect their long-term survival depends on it being an East Village neighborhood wine bar. If it were a destination place (or if it becomes one), the prices could be a lot higher. This is, after all, the kind of food Canora served at craftbar, and Grieco's wine choices are always first-rate. I suspect he'll roll out the funkier stuff later on. If this place were in my neighborhood, or on my way home, I'd be in all the time.

I'm envisioning thousands of folks in their pajamas hitting the refresh button at exactly 12:01 a.m. each day.

Ed Levine is on board.

It may well be that if you string together a meal with Ssam Bar's best offerings at any given time, and ignore the service and ambiance issues, perhaps it is a four-star experience (though I have never been persuaded of that).But there's an awful lot on the menu there that, however tasty it may be, isn't four-star food by any rational measure. And I do believe that for a restaurant to get four stars, there needs to be a high probability that you'll have a four-star experience practically no matter what you order. I mean, there are only 5 four-star restaurants in New York. I'm sure there are plenty of others that, if you order right, are capable putting out a meal better than the average at Jean Georges. But the measure of a restaurant is the overall level of everything they serve, not merely the best handful of things that they serve. So it would seem to me that, unless Chang is crazy, he ought to be able to increase the "average" significantly by serving only one set menu to 14 people at a time.

I think Chang knew he was pushing the edge of the envelope. He couldn't possibly have envisioned the kind of public reaction that he got.

I believe he still does regular podcasts, radio pieces, and even TV appearances with his face blurred out...so no, this wasn't the first opportunity to hear his voice. I'm afraid I don't see how his reviews would have any more context if he wasn't anonymous.

It's for precisely this reason that I was skeptical that any kind of paradigm shift had taken place. Ssam Bar could very well have been a one-off, and now Chang is doing something much closer to conventional. It may also be that he just doesn't have another Big Idea like that in his quiver. To be fair, how often do such ideas come along?

I haven't been there yet, but from the photos and various descriptions it certainly looks like Ko is aiming for a higher standard than Ssam Bar.

Well...yeah, it's like saying that Gramercy Tavern and Irving Mill are the identical concept, but for the small detail that GT is one of the finest restaurants in the country, and Irving Mill is not.I'm not suggesting that Ko will be another Gramercy Tavern—that remains to be proved—only that it could be.

In terms of ambiance, I had the same reaction: it's very similar to Degustation, though with not as many seats. One big difference, as I understand it, is that Ko will serve multi-course tasting menus only, whereas Degustation lets the diner construct the meal from a succession of small plates à la carte.

It was too long ago for me to remember the chef's hat (if he wore any), but yes, it was very high-quality beef and vegetables, impeccably prepared.I'm not in a position to know the history of it. I'm just asking if there are any examples of it being done well in New York, or if the only options are circus acts with mediocre food à la Benihana.

Incidentally, Craig Claiborne awarded two stars to Benihana on May 8, 1970. If there is a more recent NYT review, I can't find it.

You all know teppanyaki (a.k.a. hibachi), right? That's the Japanese cuisine where you sit in a semi-circle around a flat steel grill. The chef prepares your food and performs a bunch of slapstick knife and spatula tricks. Benihana has popularized the style in the U.S., though there are other practitioners. This weekend, I wanted to take my son (age 12) to a hibachi restaurant. Benihana was booked, so I tried Ginza (295 Fifth Avenue between 1st & 2nd Streets, Park Slope). Ginza is a lot less "Disney-fied" than Benihana, but the food is no better. I'd recommend it as a show for the kids, but not as serious cuisine. I have had great teppanyaki once in my life, but it was in a five-star hotel in Tokyo. Anytime I've had it in the West, it has been a Benihana-like show with forgettable food. So it made me wonder: does great teppanyaki/hibachi-style cooking exist in New York? Or are the only options Benihana and its imitators?

It certainly looks ambitious, in terms of plating and presentation. Unfortunately, you can't taste a photo.Does the place really only seat 10 people?

Obviously this is unresolvable, but I thought he did that at ADNY, but is failing at Adour; both conclusions, however, were reached after only one visit. Unlike Frank Bruni, I am willing to give out high marks for classics done well, but when you don't innovate, then what you offer needs (at those prices) to be impeccable. I loved Le Périgord, for instance, which is, if anything, even more ossified than Adour. No, I had something different: the Bluefoot Chicken with black truffles and the baba rum stood out.

Marc, am surprised that you didn't like it as much. As mentioned earlier, the food is not particularly creative, but I haven't seen or expected that at other AD restaurants.Well, the only other data point I have is a single meal at ADNY, which I thought was exquisite. But I also have a considerable number of meals at various restaurants in town at Adour's price level, and I doubt that this mailed-in effort is going to attract many new fans. Obviously any Ducasse restaurant (like any Vongerichten restaurant) is going to attract a certain number of clients based on the name alone, and it could even succeed. They are similar in the sense that Robuchon can pull in customers based on his name alone. But Robuchon—admittedly at some of the highest prices New York has ever seen—is offering some extremely inventive, almost revelatory cuisine. Ducasse, from what I can see so far, is not. Anyone who would love Robuchon would find Adour dullsville.I'm a strong believer that one doesn't necessarily need to innovate. There will always be a strong market for doing the classics well. But Adour just seems to me a lazy effort.

The irony, though, is that parties of two at Per Se are mostly seated at four-tops anyway. On all three of my visits, I've observed multiple parties of two at four-tops, and I've done that twice myself. I think there are only 2 actual two-tops in the whole restaurant.

We've already named more than 10 with no bar dining, or a different/limited bar menu, and that was without breaking a sweat. Obviously, as far as trends go, you're right: at most restaurants nowadays, the full menu is available at the bar. The exceptions tend to be at the luxury end, or at restaurants where the bar is non-existent or too small.

I think it's because of the disproportionate labor involved in making very small pasta orders for one person.