Nathan

I'm sure you can scam some people with that. People purchase "organic" wine or shampoos after all. Some people will buy anything if they can feel good about it. Of course, having gone through distillation any putative benefits of organically grown grain are long since gone. So the idea is basically a joke. But if you want to make money this way, more power to you.

Interesting thread. I've been a gin drinker all my life but never realized there was such a gamut of specialty gins. I've always used Tanqueray with tonic and either Tanqueray or Plymouth (cause it's cheap) for cocktails. Martinis have always been Sapphire or Old Raj....looks like I need to find some others. 209 or Junipero sound fascinating. btw, maraschino in an Aviation? I use kirsch....what does maraschino liquor do for the taste?

You might need to add some chorizo essence made from genetically modified swine to really bring out the flavor though.

"delicious organic vegan" ??????????????????????????????????????????

A&M should be fine. Although I had no real desire to go back, I had a decent enough meal there a couple years ago. Just order one of those monstrous steakhouse Sapphire martinis and they won't want any wine anyway.

or, I'd put it this way: Little Owl is exactly what a superlative neighborhood restaurant would be; except that I can't think of too many neighborhoods fortunate enough to have something like it.

CraftSteak has ordered a broiler. http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/food/o...teve_cuozzo.htm

It appears that Del Posto drops their prices on Sunday nights. http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/food/o...teve_cuozzo.htm

I'd be pretty comfortable in saying that there is no such thing as a "100% organic restaurant" or even "100% organic cooking" but that's a point that could also easily lead to a thread belonging elsewhere than here. As for "organic" dishes....any decent NY restaurant uses local produce where possible....sometimes local fresh produce is "organic" and sometimes it isn't...(freshness being the main determiner of nutritional value)...but I don't think they usually bother to list it as "organic"...but that might be changing since it's such a faddish selling point.

very hard. waited an hour despite the downpour. they take reservations now. I wouldn't go there without them....

The new Tasting Room is larger. Based on my one dish and perusal of the menu at the Tasting Room I'd say that its culinary aesthetic is more ambitious. And its use of ingredients is certainly broader. The level of execution (including the thought put into dish composition) at Little Owl is awfully high though.

This place has gotten some great press lately (from Bruni, Time Out, etc.) but I think there has been some cynicism treating it as probably yet another overrated neighborhood place. I went last night with EatMyWords and his lovely guest. The bad: very small and confined -- seats 32 with the bar, and that's pushing it. Just wine and beer, no real booze. Excellent lists in both categories though considering the size of the place. The good: everything else. The service made up for the space....and had a very Danny Meyer-esque quality. We shared the sliders to begin -- they were as good as a cross between a sloppy joe and a meatball sandwich can be. The ricotta cavatelli with fava beans and bacon. Simple, hearty and terrific. BTW, they split this app three ways (without our asking) and I think threw in a little extra. Sliced duck breast, almond and arugala salad with shaved truffles (and additional truffle oil)...I would have done without the extra truffle oil, but this was also quite good. Hamachi with slaw. The slaw had a nice crunch. The hamachi was cooked just fine but being hamachi (I don't know they didn't call it yellow tail or whatever considering there is nothing Japanese about the restaurant) it was tasteless. The pork chops. Each one was served on the bone and in a size sufficient to feed at least 2 people. These were massive. So massive that the promised medium rare didn't materialize (more like medium flat) but still juicy and flavorful. We also had a side of asparagus with roasted potatoes. Which was just fine. I'd go back for that pork chop anytime. I'd go back for the rest of the menu anytime. There's nothing particularly innovative about the cooking at Little Owl, nor is it intended to be. Simply high-quality ingredients, cooked with passion and served warmly. Oh, and at exceptionally low prices. total bill with 2 glasses of wine each, tax and tip...about 65-70 apiece. and we ordered way too much food. I'll take this over those tourist traps in the MP anyday...

those were weird recommendations. they're not walking between all that.

I'm going to partially disagree. often, you will receive a somewhat different experience if you eat at 5:30 and there's no way around it. "If a restaurant is not prepared to open, it shouldn't open. It would be inexcusable for a restaurant to give sub-par service because they're just "getting into the groove" just as much as if they gave bad service near closing time because they were "tired and wanted to go home."" yes and no. I've often seen this criticism used when a restaurant performs sub-parly on opening day or in the first week or so (witness the comments on opening day on RUB at chowhound -- pretty fricking hilarious -- "I will never eat there again because they ran out of this and did this.....")...if we all lived in Oz we could expect a restaurant to have sufficient financial backing to go through 3 months of soft-openings and paying its staff while they worked out the kinks before charging anyone. Reality is different. Likewise, although we would like for a restaurant to provide exactly the same experience at any time of day, its not going to happen. That doesn't mean you can't notice this and critique it, but it is part of the context that should also be noted. Obviously, our expectations are different based on the price point as well. To analogize, we all know that Friday and Saturday evening are "amateur night" and the worst time to eat at virtually any NY restaurant. And I'd suggest that as knowledgeable diners we are all more tolerant of restaurant errors on Friday and Saturday night than during the week.

NoLIta....lots of restaurants, wine-bars, boutiques, street-life, etc....

People accept paying $100 a diner at Oriental Garden. It also received a two-star review. People have also been willing to pay that much at 66, Mr. Chow, Shun Lee etc.... Based on that, I'm going to disagree with your metapoint. Whether CB deserved more than one-star, I don't think its been downgraded because it's Chinese.

I stopped in last night for a glass of wine and a snack. The wine by the glass list overrepresents rather poor wines from LI (although I find admirable the desire to showcase local vintages). Had razor clams with oranges and pickled ramps. This was very nice. Good ingredients, prepared simply but well. Looking forward to a full meal here. My hood's becoming interesting just when I'm looking at moving...

fwiw: Del Posto has a sweetheart deal on the rent, which is why their prices (at least the original ones) were especially egregious. Ditch Plains, no matter what their rent, couldn't get away with selling clam strips (for goodness sakes!) at $15. for many of us price can be an obstacle. last week I paid $400 for the meal of my life at Alinea....and it was worth every penny. but I'll never pay $15 for clam strips again, no matter what the location. if your rent is that high, you change your restaurant concept. rightly or wrongly, the star code for the Times explicitly states that price is taken into consideration. Bruni noted that the ingredients were better at CB; he also noted that for most dishes it didn't make much difference. which I can believe, if you're serving Americanized Cantonese. Bruni gave two stars to Oriental Garden...which isn't necessarily cheap. but that's a very different restaurant. I think if you're going to serve takeout food (even with better ingredients) at higher-end prices...a rating might well take that into account.

you know, I live a block and a half down the street...this could be perfect. I'll stop in tonight or tomorrow and make a report.

Food was $41 and the wine pairings were $19. It is a good deal and the quality is more than sufficient for the price point. I also plan to check out the alacarte lounge menu...some of the other pastas may be better than the one we had.

the drinks did taste quite similar. it might be a relatively sedate place during the week but on Friday night it was jam-packed with the under-30 B&T crowd (unfortunately it received heavy play in Time Out)

They've been purporting this for two years...last I heard it is supposed to open this fall.

Bruni praises the burger at Nice Matin today in his blog. Also notes that the restaurant is very good for the UWS but then notes that the restaurant is overpraised by some due to the paucity of competent competition on the UWS...

I'd vote for Yasuda. I have friends that found it "boring" and "uncreative" but then they don't like Italian food either...I find the sensibilities to be very similar: simple ingredients, subtlely and perfectly prepared, speaking for themselves. and, of course, the eel is amazing at Yasuda...

I had the pleasure of eating at Alinea on Friday night. I can say without reservation that Alinea (and by extension Achatz and Stupak) deserves a place in the upper reaches of the American culinary pantheon. I came to Alinea ready to compare it to WD-50, albeit as a more upscale and refined version. That comparison/description is not entirely inappropos on one level; however, a valid (perhaps more so) comparison could be made to Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, Daniel and the general NY modernized-French 4-star model. Although Alinea certainly makes its bows (and assured ones at that) to "molecular" cuisine, and its debt to Thomas Keller is obvious (the conception of a long procession (24+) of courses, each no more than a few bites, designed to constantly intrigue and invigorate the palate), I found myself comparing Achatz' aesthetic (albeit not his method) to Jean Georges again and again. The same sense of flavors, light saucing, calculated use of aromas, if anything, it is the fullfillment of what nouvelle cuisine intended to be (and wasn't). In decor, Alinea is demure and satisfying. The rooms (there are three small dining rooms) a cross between Jean Georges (that name again) and The Modern. In other words, Alinea has a mainstream modernist sensibility combined with the tonal warmth of the main room at Jean Georges. The vaunted gimmicks (mood lighting, individual music) were (thankfully) absent. Although Alinea has the feel of a "four-star", the jackets required, the necessary server to customer ratio, the tone of formality is broken simply by the sheer youth of the staff (in direct contrast to NY four-stars). However, the staff were appropriate, affable, extremely competent; indeed, perfect. The wine list, although relatively small, seems of interest. However, the menu as such seems to require individual pairings. I did have a discussion over what type of bottle could be paired with the entire menu if that was insisted on...I suggested a sparkling wine, while the sommelier articulated a pino grigio or gris as a more appropriate foil. I went with the recommended pairings and these proved to be immensely suitable. In the interest of space, I won't describe every course, but ones of interest included: The amuse made from corn (and a number of other flavors) would have been quite interesting if it had been served a couple years ago. The use of olive oil as a (almost dominant) flavor component was good and technically proficient...its also prevalent on quite a few NY menus (as is the use of corn's sweeter side). However, this was followed by an immediate hit: a yuba stick encircled by a prawn which also served as a utensil. One then dips the yuba stick into a sauce (with miso as its most dominant flavor component). This was one of my favorite dishes of the night for its understatedness and conceptual factor. It was successful on both the texture and flavor levels. This dish was also similar to something that Wylie Dufresne might concoct thus leading me at this point in the night to see Alinea as a 4-star version of WD-50. The cooked green tomato that had been "unbound" and laid out like bruschetta -- covered with various toppings -- was both whimsical and interesting. The mackerel served on a spoon in bowl was delicious in its own right One then followed by drinking the poppyseed broth resting in the bowl, this served as a palate cleanser and was quite nifty. The hamachi (poached in buttermilk?) covered with crushed peanuts was almost a perfect dish. Hamachi is somewhat boring and tasteless in my view, but this quality also makes it a perfect canvas for the peanut coating used at Alinea. The problem with this dish? The Hamachi was slightly overcooked (although I recognize that many/most might view it as perfect cooking). The wagyu beef course was fantastical and sublime, simultaneously. As much for the artist as the gourmand, it was composed of cubes of wagyu beef, cooked perfectly adjacent to identically proportioned cubes of charred watermelon. The watermelon had been turned into such a perfect simulacrum of the beef that I was completely surprised with my first bite of watermelon, mistaking it for the beef. In this dish, play met taste in a perfect union. The one jarring note? My first bite of beef was grossly oversalted, making me apprehensive over the rest of the dish. However, every other bite was perfectly seasoned, so that was apparently simply a stray fleck of salt. The squab course, served three ways, including as a rillette, was fantastic. The piece of squab skin could be best described as KFC original recipe chicken on steroids (this is a positive comparison!). The menthol palate cleanser served after the squab also bares mentioning. The porcini course was one of my favorites of the night. It revealed the utter bare essence of the mushroom, ever so slightly and appropriately accented with fruit...this was a Jean Georges style touch, although he doesn't pull this off course after course the way Achatz does. In contrast, the very next course, the "puffed lobster" was a complete disappointment. This dish was similar in appearance (and unhappily, in taste), to the "prawn crisps" seen at Chinese buffets in Vancouver and San Francisco. I don't know what they were trying to do with this course, but it didn't work. Of course, this misfire was immediately followed by a fabulous success, the langoustine with vacherin, litchi and ginger. Here, a Jean Georges or Keller style dish was combined with a Wylie-esque sauce made from langoustine shells. This dish worked so marvelously that I can't imagine any chef who wouldn't be envious of what Achatz achieved here. The black truffle "explosion" (a classic dish from Trio) was exactly what it sounded like. It also need not be described further. It lived up to its name. I also know what dish I will ask for as my last should I ever be condemned to the gallows for shooting an incompetent chef. I know of no greater plaudit for a dish. The lamb with summer vegetable jam was one of the most simple dishes of the night. It was also one of its most ineffable. Served on a hot stone into which a rosemary twig was plugged at the table, this was perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, perfectly proportioned (although I would love to see this as the main entree at a traditionally formatted meal) and, well, perfect. The rosemary twig, placed in a hole in the hot stone, provided an instant release of aroma which mingled with that of the lamb, creating an almost heady feeling (and adding to that provided by the southern Rhone served with it). The hot potato, cold potato has been described many times, so I'll only say that I second those opinions. I'm not much of a dessert person, so I'll only say that the dessert courses were (thankfully) not sweet, well-chosen and well-constructed. Though creative, they're of a nature oft-seen in the NY culinary scene, but perfectly appropriate to the meal. However, I did dislike the peanut butter with jelly and other condiments served as the very last course. It tasted, well, like peanut butter and jelly. Which is fine as far as it goes...but pointless. The plating and use of specially-designed dishes for each course (never repeating) was beautiful. I also have some reservations concerning it. Although I'm of the Gautier school when it comes to art, I see Achatz as somewhat analogous to Calatrava. Although he always seeks to soar (and thus oft produces miraculous and beautiful work), sometimes the result looks, well, like Disney. Crowd-pleasing but ultimately more gimmick then substance. The bacon on the wire was the latter for me, while the hot stone with the rosemary was the former. However, when it comes to the food itself, Achatz has no master that I've tasted. He combines the cerebral nature of Dufresne's cuisine with the refinement and balance of Jean Georges. And makes it work. This is no mean accomplishment. Overall, without question, this was the best meal I've ever had. I can only hope to have one like it again.