Nathan

the cilantro-infused Tanqueray martini is fabulous (and I don't like Tanqueray martinis...prefer a smoother gin)...

is there a bar and can you eat at it?

markcury: except that you're missing one little empirical fact: as Leonard Kim demonstrated, Bruni doesn't issue anymore inflated ratings then his predecessors....so if your argument holds, it holds for all of the NY Times food critics (heck, 3 stars for Honmura An??!?). (unless you want to argue that Bruni has been reviewing restaurants that are, in the aggregate, substantially dissimilar to those reviewed by his predecessors....which, considering his sample size after two years, is a rather implausible contention)

"RE: You do make a good point about location but do you think that downtown can support the 145.00 + tasting menu concept?" certainly. I can think of at least 6 restaurants below 14th street that have tasting menus in the 100-150 range. you're talking about some of the most expensive real estate in the city in some cases.

here's the alacarte menu (the small plate portion): http://snack.blogs.com/AtelierNYC_Plats_en...es_Portions.doc it appears the langoustine fritter is only $15 but that cappellini was $78!!!!! boy, they're practically forcing you to get the tasting menu....

"He doesn't think it's a three-star either." True. He called the old one a four-star.

"But the new Tasting Room isn't a three-star restaurant. To me, it's a good two-star restaurant." Don't tell that to Rich!

the dogs are indeed Old Vienna. as for a pre-made custard mix. maybe. the custard isn't as good as say Leon's...but it's the equivalent of Kopp's. With that said, um, where else in the NY area does anyone serve Wisconsin style custard? The burger is also a midwestern-style butter burger...which some won't like. but it's one of only a couple places in the area that serve it.

Sneakeater: I wonder what you would think of the service at Alinea. It's somewhere between Meyer-esque informality and four-star haute.

wow...I really will be able to get in anywhere....

and there I was thinking I would join you there on Labor Day....

I had a chef tell me once that she could tell whether a chef was an alcoholic or not by how heavy their hand was with salt.... (this is not an aspersion on Humm or whoever else was salting your dishes)

1 month is too soon. it'll be 2 months before a review.

yeah...that's me. blame false outsider misapprehensions of NY dining on the Food Network

Bruni paid a visit. http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=107 bad news: though he had positive remarks on the food, prices appear to have gone up considerately since Florence's preview. I was planning on eating there this week. Not anymore. to make matters worse, the prices are apparently worse than in Las Vegas or Paris.

doesn't Gilt serve lunch?

Exactly. I'm pretty confident in saying that the majority of the customers at both Spice Market and Mercer Kitchen don't even live here. As for Vong, the review wasn't that negative. In fact, it was more positive than I would have predicted.

I realized, reading over my initial post...how it might have gotten confused. I wasn't telling her to eat at a herna or dismissing some of the excellent pivnice food we had (and I gave recommendations on that score)....merely pointing out that a pivnice is where locals eat out.

Rehovot: I think my words came out differently than intended. As I noted, I had some wonderful meals in Prague that weren't high-end at all. But I detected no inclination on the part of any locals to sample haute French, Asian, etc. I had a long discussion on this topic with staff at the Black Rooster -- and this was their assertion. (we were wondering whether they received much local business...they do not.) On my last trip my friends kept asking cab drivers, hotel staff and the like for recommendations (I'm not sure where the idea comes from that cab drivers know where good food is, in my experience no matter what part of the world you are in -- including New York -- they don't) and we were constantly steered to what were obviously tourist traps. Curiously, when we were debating going to Alcron my friends asked staff at a couple different restaurants if they had gone to Alcron. They all claimed they had and said that it wasn't very good. Although our meal was indeed, uneven, we also ended up convinced that they had simply lied when they said they had been there.

"Although you've phrased it in a straw-manish manner" You mean the way Eddie attacked CB's critics? CB may be a great restaurant for all I know (I intend to find out soon-enough) but that spiel really rubbed me the wrong way.

I highly doubt that Vong, Mercer Kitchen, Spice Market and the like are losing money. So, I don't think it matters. But yes, JG may be Antoninus Pius right now, one can only hope that he doesn't end up as Romulus Augustulus.

JG without question. However, make sure you don't accidentally book the Nougatine...people do that a lot.

ok. Here's the thing. Prague is one of the places where you actually generally don't want to rely on the natives for advice. If you're trying to find something with local flavor they'll direct you to a tourist trap, in my experience. As well, there is fine dining in Prague (sort of -- you have the trendy places like the Kampa Park Empire and then you have places like the Black Rooster that basically use old Escoffier recipes (seriously!) but do some interesting stuff with game...you'll like it)...but the locals don't do it. Too expensive and they don't have the palates. With that said, I had an interesting meal at Alcron, a seafood restaurant in the Radisson SAS (we were the only diners on a Friday night!)...about $160 a person for a tasting menu and lots of wine. Part of the meal was 4-star (I've never had a comparable bread service in the U.S., the langoustines with foie gras in a champagne sabayon) and part of it was, eh...blah. It'd be a solid NY 2-star, with a shot at 3. The best meal in a pivnice (pub...literally "beer place") I've had (and I've been a couple times to Prague) was at a large place across from the mall in Andel (just take the metro to the Andel stop) ....I think the mall is called Nový Smíchov....just look for a huge pub (it has a small bowling alley in the basement!) ....had an amazing pork knee, some excellent fallow deer from off the menu...etc. I also highly recommend checking www.praguepost.com the English language newspaper. as for booze: you might want to try a herna once for an anthropological experience...a seedy, 24-hour gambling bar. They're all over the place in the non-touristy areas (the sign will say "herna"). Any restaurant where natives actually eat is pretty much just a bar...so do sample lots of the local beer and drink Frenet Stock at the end of your meal. Do a shot of Berovchka as well. For expat bars (generally tacky pick-up spots but a must to visit nonetheless): Chapeau Rouge, Madame de Sade and Joe's Garage are the standards. There are some interesting bars with a genuine mix of natives and tourists all on one street near the Powder Gate (and a couple blocks from Old Town Square)...I don't remember the name offhand but I'll look it up. There's also a lounge filled with locals with a dance floor (that plays the worst music...it's fun)....near the Black Rooster...just ask them.

Yes it is. A rather fruity one and usually too sweet for my taste. I'd never seen it on a NY menu before. I suppose, as with the pipian, customers would find it confusing if they referred to it as a mole....since Poblano is what immediately comes to mind for NY'ers.

fwiw, a friend of mine ate at Perry Street on Saturday night and had a wonderful meal. I intend to stop by again shortly. after all, JG lives in the building, one would think he would stop in the kitchen regularly. on the other hand, he probably hasn't been in to Mercer in months, if not years.