Nathan

There's a Red Lobster in Times Square. I imagine they might. maybe Bubba Gump's as well.

you can't tell me that it wouldn't be prima facie evidence that they're operating a restaurant? of course it would. it may not be dispositive in and of itself...but it sure as heck would help... ← Of course it wouldn't. Do you really think Pegu Club is a restaurant under any accepted definition of the word? ← What you or I think is absolutely irrelevant. what is relevant is that a "review" of the food by no less than the official restaurant reviewer for the NY Times is a pretty strong argument in front of the CB. its documentary evidence that it is taken seriously as a restaurant. (I'm not saying that PC actually is a restaurant in any meaningful sense...I'm saying that if I were their counsel and had that as an issue that I would be arguing that a great deal of weight should be placed on the judgment of Frank Bruni.)

Yup. Sri Lankan place in Flushing. They bring out a big pile of grey matter on a plate.

see...since I am completely lacking in committment to the egalitarian delusion, I have no problem with saying that Death & Co. should be treated differently because of what it is.

you can't tell me that it wouldn't be prima facie evidence that they're operating a restaurant? of course it would. it may not be dispositive in and of itself...but it sure as heck would help...

I think this is exactly the CB's position. ← well, maybe we should petition Bruni to quickly do a food writeup in his blog.

word. personally, how could a big pile of meat not be good?

More importantly, as one of the only five real cocktail establishments in all of NY, they need the help of anyone who actually cares about that (like egulleteers).

they're as much a restaurant as Pegu Club...which did get its food reviewed by Bruni in a Diner's Journal column...

I believe Masa's prix fixe is now up to $450. If there are several restaurants in NYC offering truffle menus at that price, can you name them? ← didn't realize it was up to $450. Sea Grill charged $1,000 a head for theirs. Ducasse was a relative bargain at $320. Cru charged $399. the standard going rate seemed to be about $385 this year....which was darn close to Masa at the time.

900 sq. feet? In a decent Brooklyn neighborhood? lol. try anywhere between 3 and 5K a month. (which may not leave much left over...) in Manhattan start at 4K.

well, yeah, that's true across many industries...not just fashion (where virtually anything besides clothing is licensed entirely out....and sometimes even clothing -- Donna Karan hasn't had anything to do with DKNY in years...but she made far more money selling that than she did off of any of her "real" lines....heck, Giorgio Armani probably makes more off his licensed Armani Exchange crap than any of his "real" lines). but even when you keep it in-house, using your premium brand as a "loss leader" is common practice. for example, take photography. the professional DSLR market is almost exclusively cornered by Canon and Nikon (there are a couple more lens players...). its not clear that either of those companies make money at all (after R&D costs) on their top of the line DSLRs...but both those companies make plenty off of their consumer DSLRs (even those sell in the $500-$1500 range...compared to 8K for the Canon IDsMkII) (of course they make plenty of money off of pros on lenses..but that's a separate subject).

dude, I live four blocks from Magnolia. those ain't NY'ers. its B&T and tourists (whole tour buses drop them off there).

hmm...it's not like there aren't several restaurants with seasonal white truffle tasting menus at exactly the same price point as Masa. in addition, once you throw in alcohol (and I'm not talking about ordering an $800 bottle) it is very easy to spend just as much at Per Se or L'Atelier. as well, the Mansion and Guy Savoy in Vegas also charge about the same as Masa for their tasting menus.

agreed. the fever is because it's a mcnally operation that isn't a bistro. fwtw. you know, I just looked at the menu again. what is cutlets smoking? I want some of it. there are two recognizably Sicilian items on the menu...and I recognize most of the dishes and where they're from.

the street level I believe I imagine that you can find out more details better than I could.

Bouley Upstairs is expanding into the downstairs space below it this year.

actually...the $20-25 range is a sweet spot for mixing-worthy Calvados...you can find several, like Château du Breuil or Busnel that are decent enough to be drunk straight in a pinch and just fine in a cocktail (you'd probably be most likely to notice the difference in a Calvados Sidecar). nevertheless, I see your general point...because you can substitute applejack in virtually any drink calling for calvados (playing with proportions sometimes)...but the reverse is not necessarily true.

there's one. this is interesting: http://playingwithblocks.blogspot.com/2007...dents-over.html I like this McNally description of the restaurant because it's exactly right: "the kind of country place you might stumble upon when unable to find the grander place you were searching for.”

I don't recall any Sicilian dishes offhand. is he completely unfamiliar with Italian cooking? the pastas were all from parts north if I remember right. (hint to Cutlets: "Bolognese" refers to a city...and it aint in Sicily)

I didn't see that...cool... I can go there after an afternoon at Doma and kill two stones with one bird.

yup

"Of course, more generally it was indeed meant to touch upon a narrow class of Brooklynites, the sort of yuppie folks whose cohort forms the backbone of the restaurant dining class over here in Manhattan (but does not actually constitute all 1,537,195 of us! And many Manhattan yuppies don't know anything about food either!!). Broadly going by neighborhood (more generalizations!), this basically tends to mean Williamsburg, whose restaurants are obviously not even worth talking about (although Bedford Cheese Shop is nice); Brooklyn Heights, which amazingly seems to have been zoned restaurant-free (how did they manage that?); and Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, home to a relatively visible number of deluded residents who not infrequently make claims that their restaurant neighborhoods are equal to the best of Manhattan. Claims I find annoying." I'm going to agree with this paragraph only. (which dovetails with what I noted above..that Brooklyn Heights is filled with ex-Manhattanites who immediately developed an immense amount of reverse snobbery upon moving to the Heights....which doesn't make sense since their neighbors are also from Murray Hill or the UES....but anyway, the important thing is that I've eaten at three or four Heights restaurants that were supposed to be "amazing" and they all sucked.)

I ate at Morandi last night with Sneakeater. Obviously, it was already packed...but we eventually procured seats at the bar. What's exciting about Morandi is that you combine the front of the house acumen and sourcing management of McNally (all of whom's restaurants are better than they have to be) with the rustic Italian culinary sensibility of Jody Williams. The benefit to McNally is obvious -- he gets to push up the culinary ladder from mere bistro fare. The benefit to Williams is financing, sourcing and access to McNally's deep front of the house pool. Although Morandi may be in its soft-opening period, being a McNally operation everything was running smoothly...except that they seemed to lack a coat check. As with other McNally restaurants, there appears to be an undisclosed number of walk-in tables available in addition to reservations. McNally has publicly stated that he intends for the bar to be primarily aimed at diners...that wasn't in evidence last night as we had to wait quite awhile for people drinking to leave their seats. However, I was informed that they intended to start following the Babbo model of preserving bar seats for diners and using a walk-in list for bar seats. The cocktail program, although it has little new for the veteran, is exemplary for a restaurant of this nature. Heavy emphasis on Prosecco, Cynar, Aperol, Carpano Antica, Strega and Campari. The list of grappas is also excellent. Wines are structured by the glass, half-liter and liter -- another laudable aspect of the restaurant. On to the food: in two words, very good. Began with Williams' trademark fried artichokes. Just like they were at Gusto. Split an appetizer of roasted skate wing with peppers. This was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Better than a skate entree I had years ago at Union Pacific. From the very interesting pasta menu we split a baked dish which involved cabbage, speck and some sort of bechamel. Cabbage and speck with pasta is native to Alto Aldige (essentially, the Italian Dolomites)...bordering Switzerland and Austria. (the general sensibility at Morandi appears to be northern Italian dipping down through Tuscany.) There's actually been a cabbage and speck pasta dish on the menu at Otto for a couple years now. Anyway, this was superb. Highly recommend it. For mains we both ordered Coniglio....which came with perfectly roasted potatoes (in my experience most roasted potatoes are over cooked and lose any potato flavor..these did not) and was served in a superb porchetta-based broth. Unfortunately, of my three large pieces of rabbit...one was literally all bone. It was a tad dry as well. This was almost redeemed by the broth and potatoes though. Sneakeater ordered some sort of chocolate and berry dessert...which seemed to be quite good but I'll let him comment...I just don't have a sweet tooth. a couple more observations: standing at our location at the bar was some sort of manager who immediately introduced himself and was taking notes throughout the evening on the service and dishes. considering how well they're operating now it'll be interesting in a month or so what they'll have improved. as I noted earlier, the decor is quite theatrical (in the sense of wood beams and ceiling...brick....etc....its also the most Italian looking of any restaurant in the city (in the sense that one can find places similar to this in any Italian town))...which must have been achieved at great cost. this place is going to be around for a long, long time. highly recommend.

they just think it's good cause it's not in Manhattan. (that's not a slam on Brooklyn restaurants...of which quite a few I wish existed in Manhattan!) but I've also had enough friends (usually Brooklyn Heights residents who just moved there from Murray Hill or the UES -- the most Manhattan-like part of Brooklyn) who will rave about all the great Thai they have...Joya, Sea...etc. of course those places are just as equally insipid as their Manhattan equivalents (and equally priced). it's some form of reverse snobbery I think.