oakapple

I bought the guide. The printed book is correct, although the website is clearly wrong.

The menu gives their URL as http://www.bltburgernyc.com/. However, it turns out that this, too, is a "parked" domain.

I just called for a December 30th resy. The reservation agent told me about the dining room's dress code (jacket & tie for the gentleman, "smart dress" for the lady), but she spoke in an American accent and idiom. The only notable quirk was that, after I requested a table for two, the agent asked, "Will that be Mr. and Mrs?" I don't have any secrets about whom I'm dining with, but these days that might be considered a needlessly intrusive question. (In another 17 days, we'll have more to talk about than just the reservations line.)

I think the demise of Cello hit him hard. One day his investors ripped out the carpet from under his legs, and suddenly the restaurant was done. BLT Steak, Prime, and Burger are basically formula restaurants. If strong management is in place, they should be able to operate for years with only occasional tune-up visits from Tourondel. With at least two more BLT restaurants in the planning stages, I don't see him going back to a Cello-like concept anytime soon. Of the existing brood, BLT Fish is the one that most clearly needs a strong hand in the kitchen, and I suspect he hasn't been there very much.

The Bistro Laurent Tourondel empire keeps growing, and this week Tourondel added another offspring to the brood: BLT Burger. If first impressions are any guide, the new outpost will be just as successful as the first three (BLT Steak, BLT Fish, BLT Prime). A post upthread mentioned that the place was packed on a weeknight just a day or two after it opened, but I had no trouble getting a table at 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon. The restaurant doesn’t much resemble the other BLT’s, except for the chocolate brown upholstery on the banquettes. The prices certainly set it apart. Unlike the other BLT restaurants, BLT Burger could actually be called a bargain. In addition to the “Classic Burger” ($7), there’s the “BLT” Burger (two patties, $11), a Kobe Burger ($16), Lamb Burger ($10), Turkey Burger ($7) or Veggie Burger ($7). All burgers come with tomato, onion, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard and mayo. Cheese is an extra $0.50, other toppings (such as bacon, avocado, portobello mushroom, chilli) are $1.50. A “combo” of the classic burger with fries and a milkshake will set you back all of $13. There’s a variety of sandwiches ($10–15), salads and appetizers ($9–14), sides ($2–5), and desserts ($3–6). The whole back page of the menu shows an impressive array of drinks, including nine kinds of milk shakes ($5), five kinds of floats ($5), four kinds of alcoholic milk shakes ($9), house cocktails ($11), twenty-seven kinds of beer ($3–10), and six wines by the glass ($6–9). Sodas are $2 or $2.50. Tap water (free) comes in a beautiful tall glass caraffe. I had the classic burger with cheddar cheese ($7.50). The burger was enjoyable, but nothing special. I would have preferred a thicker patty. The “BLT” Burger, with two patties, is always an option, but I thought that would be too much of a good thing. Onion rings ($4) were delicious. I especially admired the lightness of the batter. A strawberry-banana milkshake ($5) was plenty of fun. Service was friendly and efficient. You have to wonder if Laurent Tourondel can keep up the quality as his empire grows. Ominously, BLT Fish was stripped of its Michelin star, and I must admit my last visit to that restaurant wasn’t stellar. At least two more BLTs are on the way: BLT Market in the former Atelier space, and BLT D.C. But for now, Tourondel is happy to go downmarket, and at these prices BLT Burger is sure to be a hit.

Most of the discussion here has been about the stars. I thought I'd have a look at the added and deleted restaurants overall. I compared the tables of contents of the two books. It was rather annoying, as the 2007 guide uses a new alphabetizing system, so restaurants don't always appear in the same order. Hopefully I didn't make too many mistakes. Anyhow, the following restaurants have been added to the 2007 Guide. I've prefaced the name with [N] if, to the best of my knowledge, the restaurant didn't exist when the 2006 guide was prepared. (Any restaurant that opened after mid-2005 was probably too late for last year's guide.) I've prefaced the name with [O] if, to the best of my knowledge, the restaurant opened before mid-2005, and certainly could have been (but wasn't) included in the '06 guide. A lot of them have no "N" or "O", simply because I don't know when they opened. Aburiya Kinnosuke Aja Ammos Estiatorio Anna's Corner Antica Venezia Antique Garage [N] A Voce Barbès [N] Barbounia [O] Barbuto [N] Barca 18 Bay Leaf Beccofino Belleville [N] Bette BG Bianca Blair Perrone [N] Blaue Gans Blue Mahoe (The) [O] Blue Smoke [N] Brasserie Ruhlmann Brisas Del Caribe Brooklyn Fish Camp Butai Cacio e Pepe Carlyle (The) Chiam Chikubu [N] Chinatown Brasserie [N] Cookshop Copper Chimney [N] Country Restaurant [N] Craftsteak Crema Da Antonio [N] Degustation [N] Del Posto De Marco's [O] Dinosaur Bar-B-Que [N] Dona El Parador Falai [N] Fatty Crab Fiesta Mexicana Frankies 457 Spuntino Ginger Gum Fung Gusto [N] Harry's Cafe Hiro Isle of Capri J. G. Mellon Jaiya Kanoyama [O] Katz's Kitchenette La Bonne Soupe [N] La Esquina [N] Le Cirque Le Refuge Inn Liberty View Londel's [N] Mainland Max SoHa Maya Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too Molly's Pub & Shebeen [N] Morimoto New Yeah Shanghai [N] Nobu Fifty-Seven Noche Mexicana [N] Orchard (The) [N] Perry Street [N] Piano Due PicNic Market & Café Prem-on-Thai [O] Quartino Regional Russian Samovar S'Agapo Sakagura Saravanaas Sarge's Serafina Fabulous Pizza Sip Sak Soba Nippon Spicy & Tasty Spiga Sushi Ichimura Taboon [N] Telepan Tildes Triangolo Uva Wonton Garden Aside from the obligatory new restaurants, I'm sure that many more of the above restaurants existed a year ago, and the inspectors have only just now gotten around to visiting them. It appeared to me that a high percentage (though not all) of the "Bib Gourmands" went to restaurants new to the '07 Guide. There's a lot of small ethnic restaurants on this list. The following restaurants in the 2006 guide have been deleted in 2007. If I know that the restaurant has closed, or in the case of ADNY, has announced that it is closing, I put a [C] in front of the name. If I'm fairly certain the restaurant is still open, I put an [O] in front of the name. Again, there are many for which I'm not certain either way. [C] Alain Ducasse Aleo [C] Amuse Banana Cafe Barbaluc [O] Bar Americain Bellini [C] Biltmore Room Bistro Cassis Bistro Du Vent Bistro 60 BOI [C] Caviar and Banana Fives Giovanni Ian I Coppi Ida Mae Il Menestrello Il Monello Il Tinello Iron Sushi Jane [C] Jewel Bako Makimono Josephs Citarella Khyber Grill Kitchen82 Koi (East Village) Lenox Room [O] Les Halles (Downtown) [C] Le Zinc [C] Lo Scalco Luca Lucy Magnifico Manhattan Ocean Club Nadaman Hakubai Nanni New Wonton Garden Nice Restaurant (The) Nippon [O] North Square [C] Pace [O] Palm Paola's Park Avalon Petrosino Pipa Pongal Porcupine [O] Post House [O] Roy's New York [O] Sarabeth's Scaletta [C] Second Avenue Deli [C] 71 Clinton Fresh Food Shaan of India Shaffer City Note that, although the downtown Les Halles was deleted, the midtown Les Halles remains in the guide, and the entry for it mentions the downtown branch.

I don't know what Raji is talking about. I have the book in front of me now. Masa is listed in Midtown West, along with all of the other Time-Warner restaurants.

Mister Cutlets has another "dog bites man" post over at Grub Street, complaining that, "The descriptions are all breezy, self-contained little blurbs which seem more like something you would read in an airplane magazine's advertorial insert than in the American edition of the oldest and most powerful restaurant guide in the world." This "feature" is unchanged from the 2006 Guide. The traditional Michelin guides, of course, didn't contain blurbs at all—just lists of restaurants without editorial comment. When they added blurbs for the NY guide last year, quite obviously there was a considered decision to describe the restaurants, not to publicly critique them. Some of the blurbs last year were factually incorrect. What interests me more is whether those errors have been fixed, and how many new ones have crept in. The bare fact that the guide doesn't overtly critique the restaurants isn't news.

Unless you're a fan of long waits at the bar, you would probably need to pop in around 5:30 p.m., or so. I just checked http://www.bltburger.com/. It's a "parked" domain. For a savvy business like the BLT chain, I am surprised they don't already have the website up with at least a splash page.

I can't really see any sensible way the Michelin NY Guide could have been unveiled with no 2 or 3-star restaurants. Perhaps restaurants formerly had to earn their stars one at a time. But for a brand new guide, to leave the 2 and 3-star categories empty wouldn't have been credible. I've been reading the various descriptions of what the stars mean, and I don't see the wild inconsistency that some people complain about. That doesn't mean I agree with the ratings, but the explanations aren't wildly divergent. If the current guide describes Masa as Midtown East, that is definitely an error. Wherever you think Masa is, it certainly isn't in a different neighborhood than Café Gray or Per Se.

To clarify I am not defending Michelin's Euro-centric ratings in the least. But if Takayama is at all pragmatic, he will be aware that very few Asian restaurants get more than a star, and to be awarded two of them is—in the context of that particular system—an unusually high honor.Yes, of course I'm sure he would prefer three—who wouldn't? But since no Asian restaurant in NY has been awarded three, and no other Asian restaurant has been awarded two, he's sitting in a pretty good place.

There's been a lot of press coverage of the guide. One of the better articles is in the New York Sun. Jennifer Leuzi writes that "appearing in the book boosts business by as much as 25%." I don't know her source for that stat, but it seems believable to me. Given the obvious elation of the starred chefs—and the sour grapes of those passed over—I think it is indeed very good for business. The article says that the 2006 guide sold 100,000 copies. That's a lot of people making dining decisions, and presumably relying on the guide to some extent. Leuzi says that there are 100 restaurants added and 80 eliminated, amounting to a 20% turnover, which is much higher than I expected. You may love the inspectors or hate them, but there clearly is an element of serious thought that has gone into this. Frank Bruni says that the guide's Italian choices are peculiar. He has no quarrel with Del Posto at two stars, but he wonders about the exclusion of Felidia, L'Impero, and Alto. He is "extremely surprised" to find that Urena is totally absent from the guide. In a shockingly ill-informed post, Mister Cutlets suggests that "Messrs. Boulud, Bouley, and Takayama are no doubt having lousy afternoons." That is true, perhaps, of David Bouley, who lost a star at Danube. But the new guide had no surprises for Daniel Boulud or Masa Takayama — their restaurants are precisely where they were a year ago. Masa is probably feeling pretty good about his two stars, as there aren't many Asian restaurants with more than one Michelin star.

I simply assert that if you are offering a travel guide, as Michelin is, it would be a mistake to overlook three restaurants operating at a level superior to their counterparts which can only be experienced in the place you are referencing. ← Thanks to Augie for clarifying. This, indeed, is what I thought he was saying in the first place.When last year's ratings came out, everyone had their favorite examples of the "unjustly overlooked," and I think Blue Hill was one of the most meritorious of these.

I agree with Nathan that the Michelin guide has the best published New York ratings, although I agree with Fat Guy that they ought to be a lot better. Any expert list is going to have some choices that you disagree with. Somebody thinks that davidburke & donatella should have a star; another thinks Sushi Yasuda; another thinks Eleven Madison Park; another thinks Blue Hill. I was surprised by the number of demotions. I expected a few, but not this many. Was 2006 the precise year that Nobu stopped being consistently good? Somehow I doubt it. Nobu's star last year was probably just wrong in the first place. It's hard for me to say what happened with Danube, March and Scalini Fedeli. I've been to all of them, but they don't get reviewed very often, so it's hard to say what happened. I've considered JoJo and BLT Fish overrated for a long time, so I was surprised they were ever starred to begin with. That leaves Lo Scalco, for which there was an obvious reason: it closed. Of the newly starred restaurants, Del Posto's deuce is the most surprising. I wouldn't have given it even one, but some reviewers—not just Michelin—have been smitten, so it's not an outrageous decision. The stars allotted to A Voce, Country, and Perry St seem to be legit, given the positive critical buzz those restaurants have received. Although receiving stars for the first time, Sushi of Gari, Devi, and Kurumazushi aren't new, and I have trouble believing that they actually got any better over the last year. It just took the Guide an extra year to catch on to them. By the way, I don't have a problem at all with Devi's star.

Will Goldfarb has made a name as the mad scientist of desserts, cooking up kooky but delightful sugar rushes at such restaurants as Papillon and Cru. Neither the Times nor the Post liked his creations at Cru, but he took some time off, had a baby, and resurfaced with his own dessert bar in SoHo, Room 4 Dessert. And this time, the Times was smitten. The wonderful thing about it is that Goldfarb doesn’t have to subsume his vision to somebody else’s concept. The drawback is that diners have to get there from someplace else. So far, it seems to be working. My friend and I dropped by after dinner Friday night at nearby Peasant, only to be told there was a 40-minute wait at 10:00 p.m. The next night, after a dismal meal at the much-farther-away Trestle on Tenth, we gave it one more try, and luckily there were a couple of seats free. The restaurant occupies a long, narrow storefront. Signage is subtle, and you could easily miss it. Inside, it’s probably 100 feet deep, but so narrow that an NBA player could stretch his arms and touch both side walls. All seating is at the bar. On the menu, which changes regularly, every category begins with “Room 4,” as in “Room 4 Dessert Glass,” “Room 4 Alcohol,” “Room 4 Sweet Wine,” and so forth. Desserts at R4D have funky names like “indecent proposal” and “laissez pear.” Individual desserts are $10 each, while tasting plates of four selections are $14 each. My friend tried “choc ’n’ awe,” a four-dessert tasting of white chocolate cake, cacau mousse, sucree safranee with chocolate cream, and chocolate ice cream. I had bites of each; the mousse and the cake were particularly decadent. I had “virtual mauritius,” which came with a brown sugar creamy, little pieces of green mango, a iogurt biscuit, and whipped frozen carrot puree. (I am using Goldfarb’s spellings in each case.) The connection to Mauritius was lost on me, but the “iogurt biscuit” was the best of the bunch, closely followed by the creamy brown sugar. The pieces of green mango were cut too small and were rather annoying. There’s a variety of wine and hard liquor pairings recommended for every dessert. I had a drink called mar.ti.ni ($15), which is what it sounds like, and my friend had champagne ($14). Other drinks have names like “who says cali can’t age” and “hey man, nice priorat.” Goldfarb prepares most of the desserts himself. When he came over to serve us, I introduced myself by my eGullet handle, and we had a nice chat about the restaurant. When I told him we were turned away the night before, he replied wryly, “You should have complained to the owner.” We talked about his baby girl too, and he brought over a stack of photos. Later, he comped us a “tootsie roll” (warm chcolate praline mousse, truffled streusel ‘sex panther’, raisins, and tequilla fluid), which was terrific. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Room 4 Dessert is an expensive indulgence. With two tasting plates at $14 each, and drinks at $14–15, the bill was $57 before tax and tip. For the record, individual desserts have gone up by $1, and tasting plates $2, since the Times review came out in February. The liquor is particularly expensive. We found it a luxury well worth it—but a luxury nonetheless.

Actually, I re-read those old comments of mine, and I don't think they're inconsistent with what I've said more recently.

My devil's-advocate question is: Suppose Perry St had been so fantastically successful that one could not walk in there without a reservation, and expect to be seated. Would that change your view of it?From my perspective, the only reason you're able to do this is that Perry St hasn't quite succeeded the way Little Owl has. So whereas Little Owl is clearly the "humbler" restaurant by far, it also just happens to be a "hot" restaurant, and therefore hard to get into. Among restaurants showing available 8:00 p.m. (i.e., prime time) tables this evening are Country, Oceana, and San Domenico. Unless something changes dramaticlly in the next few hours, I'll bet you can walk into any of them and be seated this evening. And if that works on a Friday night, then I'll bet it works most nights. So, are they "neighborhood restaurants" because anyone in the neighborhood can pop in at any time?

I don't think the definition of a "neighborhood restaurant" turns on the degree of success, or whether it's possible to be a regular there. Even Jean Georges has regulars. Why should a particular number of tables be held for walk-ins? I actually think it's pretty generous of them to keep two tables open, when they quite clearly could have booked them in advance.

Yesterday on Bloomberg.com, Ryan Sutton reviewed the new Gilt, with chef Christopher Lee. Inside, it still looks like the old Gilt, but the prix fixe has gone down from $92 to $78 (there is also a pre-theatre menu at $44). Sutton says this may seem like a bargain, but you can still get "fleeced" with $12 bottles of water, and he's not in love with the food:

Three courses at $85 is around the going rate at the city's high-end restaurants. If anything, it's a bargain if you assume that NYT 4/Michelin 3-star restaurants are Ramsay's peers. Unless Ramsay falls flat on his face, I suspect the $85 dinner price will go up after the restaurant finds its legs. Just a few comparison points:Per Se, $210 (7 or 9 courses; service included) Alain Ducasse, $150 Le Bernardin, $105 (4 courses) Daniel, $96 Jean Georges, $95 (4 courses) Chanterelle, $95 Country, $85 (4 courses) The Modern, $82 Aquavit, $80 Gilt, $78 Gramercy Tavern, $76 Veritas, $76 Asiate, $75 Cru, $74 (In each case, I've listed the restaurant's least expensive dinner option. I also omitted restaurants that offer their food à la carte — even some fairly expensive ones like Bouley and The Four Seasons that would be comparably expensive if you order at least three courses.)

Yes, according to Eater, Moskin will review the Morgan Dining Room tomorrow, a restaurant that serves dinner only Fridays from 5-9 p.m. (they are open other days for lunch).

RUB is my favorite BBQ in the city, and I haven't had a bad meal there yet.

Right. I thought it was particularly unfair given that Bruni admitted that he'd heard the fan's comment through hearsay: "A recent comment that a reader posted raised the worthy subject of attention given big versus small restaurants, and said that the restaurant Uovo, on its website, partially blamed its closing on such a lack of attention. I hadn’t seen that website; I’ll take the reader’s word for it." ← Bruni seems to be saying that he gets a lot of questions similar to this one, and people don't seem to realize that he visits many more restaurants than he writes about. As is often the case, he used the Uovo example to make a broader point.

He does say that, but I wouldn't call it "benificence" (i.e., an act of kindness or charity). He is simply allocating a scarce resource — reviewing slots — where he can provide the most useful information to the reading public. As he noted in another blog post, it usually doesn't doesn't make journalistic sense to call attention to a minor restaurant for the purpose of telling people to avoid it.

The problems seem fixable to me. Whether they will is a whole other story.In any event, there are plenty of restaurants that are somewhat maligned by the food cogniscenti, but survive for years or decades nevertheless. Cafe des Artiste, One if By Land, and Tavern on the Green are the poster children in this department, but there are many others. Besides, with three stars from the Times and four stars from Crain's, the reviews haven't all all been negative — as they have been for Crafsteak. We on eGullet tend to forget that there are an awful lot of diners (and not just the B&T/tourism crowd) that don't come to this website for restaurant advice.