Nathan

A. she explicitly never wrote negative reviews until last October. she announced it in a post at the time. (not that she started writing them...like A.S....her negative reviews all seem to involve her not getting recognized) B. yes, she's a shill. like A.S. she relies upon press releases and comps. go back over her archives...its pretty bad. C. go back over her archives...her food knowledge (and her poor writing..) speak for themselves. unlike Bruni, she walks in with a track record. D. she stated yesterday that she intended to "review" restaurants as a an explicitly recognized reviewer. we know for a fact that Bruni isn't recognized a lot (almost certainly the majority) of the time. I find this damning. all of it.

miracles can happen...but I tend to think that: a. once a shill, always a shill. b. her food knowledge is such that it makes Bruni look like a culinary polymath. that's scary.

have you checked D'Artagnan and the butcher shop at Les Halles?

Well, I agree with that part. It's a pity to see a chef with his talent spending more time in the boardroom than in the kitchen. But I have to think that the way Cello was just yanked away from him must have had something to do with that. And many very successful chefs (Vongerichten, Colicchio) have created large empires while still maintaining a very high quality. Well, I was responding to the suggestion that his restaurants are awful. When you consider that even Per Se and Le Bernardin don't hit a home run 100% of the time, the BLT franchise is doing pretty good at 75%. It's high enough that the BLT's are on my return-to list...and not many restaurants manage that. The original poster stipulated that he wanted porterhouse, mashed potatoes, dessert, and quiet conversation; and didn't care much about wine. With those stipulations, I wouldn't recommend a BLT restaurant either. ← yup. I'd suggest Craftsteak in many contexts....any where sides were as or more important than the steaks. Craftsteak has identical appetizers and sides to Craft (literally...compare the menus)....its just that the steaks are only ok. quality control and sourcing on everything else is superb.

don't you think Hearth or BH would be pretty tight? the Tavern Room is awfully casual for a celebratory dinner...

well...you have no "great" options in that range....(the best you'd do is probably Ssam Bar, Bouley Upstairs or Bar Room at the Modern...you'll have to order with some care...). literally zillions of "good" options...that's why it's a tough question to answer without specifics.

yes. it's the best cocktail bar in NY right now. always busy. if you search the forum you should find plenty of info. you can also google their website.

ah good point

the food tastes of the general populace are more diverse now than ever before. I think it follows that it will be hard for a single cuisine to have a massive market share...rather...you have many more discrete cuisines available in the past. in other words, what replaced delis was BBQ + ______ + _______ + _______

does that include alcohol, tax and tip? no preferences at all? even geographic?

you could sub in Perry Street....which is $25 for 2 courses plus dessert.

Most sushi bars, if open for lunch, offer some sort of a sushi lunch in the $12-$25 range...year round... Shimizu's is very good too. Yasuda's is about 8-12 pieces, right? with a standard assortment tuna, yellowtail/kanpachi, egg, shrimp, eel, mackeral... like that. You'll do well with Yasuda because their level of sushi, even doing the basics, is among the top few in the city. ← its a truncated list but it varies daily...and there's always something interesting on it....an unusual kind of fluke or three different kinds of mackerel...a couple types of eel...it varies.

.... so, this won't be offered in a little over a month, when I plan to visit??? ← no no! it's year round! the reason why RW is such a joke is that most RW deals (or equivalents) are offered year round!!!

yup...or Vya or Dubbonet. on the other hand...I wonder what rye, Apry, Lillet Blonde and a touch of citrus (probably lemon...I think that would play better with the Apry) would do? I guess whether that would go with the rye is questionable...

it's $22 base...with another $2 added for dessert (useful if you're trying to fill up). I think it's basically intended to be a RW thing.

I'm assuming this includes tax, tip and alcohol? 2 lunches: A. Jean Georges. figure $75 apiece to get a good sampling. B. Yasuda. figure $50 apiece (start with the $24 lunc and then add some pieces ala carte). so we're $250, $750 to go. A. Babbo. pasta tasting menu. about $60. after a couple quartinos of wine and tax and tip? you're out $250 total. $500 to go. (alternative? Esca..one of the two best seafood restaurants in the city. $65 tasting menu with $35 paired wines. same total) B. Momofuku Ssam Bar. you can go crazy for $80 apiece. $340 to go. C. Eleven Madison Park. or the tasting menu at WD-50. that'll use it up. that's what I would do.

Yasuda offers a $24 lunch. it's terrific. add a couple pieces ala carte and you still stay at around $32 edit: basically you get to pick some sushi and sashimi from a truncated list of the day's offerings...(you're still looking at 3 kinds of mackerel, a couple kinds of eel, etc.) plus soup, a roll (the amazing salmon skin roll is always offered) and moji for dessert. for $24!!! and you can even get that at the bar while sitting in front of Yasuda (albeit, I'd be embarrassed to)

I'm not a purist either in the sense that I think it matters whether you're showcasing the juice or not. a citrus forward cocktail needs fresh squeezed if at all possible...(some bottled OJ's are pretty good in a pinch). but I think if it's merely an issue of putting in some lemon or lime juice to balance out some sweetness in a drink that isn't intended to be tart....someone would have to have an awfully sensitive palate to tell.

I wonder what Lillet would do instead of the Punt e Mes....

sounds like you want: Pearl, Mary's, Ed's or Ditch Plains.

my recs: Shanghai style: Shanghai Cafe (it's better than Yeah or New Green Bo) Cantonese seafood: Oriental Garden (I need to check out Ping's) general Cantonese: NY Noodletown I don't have any faves for Fujanese or Formosan or dim sum...but I'd like to hear some.

thanks! I'm a pretty serious cocktail geek so by all accounts Southwark is pretty much it for what I'd be looking for (heck there are all of five cocktail bars here in NY that I'd get a drink at (as opposed to wine or beer)). my friend just vetoed Osteria...and she's eating at Snackbar this weekend...so that seems to narrow things to Southwark or Mercato (with Southwark for drinks regardless). too bad about Vetri being closed...that was still high on my list and I've done Le Bec-Fin, Paison and Lacroix. I guess I'll suggest Ansill as well.

my friend just suggested either Southwark or Mercato...for dinner. it sounds like Southwark is best for cocktails from what I've read. I might trust her suggestions for nightlife after that... unfortunately I gave up late-night eating after the late 20's metabolism shift...and I heartily dislike both cheese whiz and mayo...

I guess it's my day to dissent... I was at Del Posto recently, and found the bartenders there so incompetent that I was shocked they were working at ANY restaurant, let alone one of that supposed caliber. There may be plenty of very solid ones on their staff, but the ones that night were clueless. And I'm not talking about esoteric cocktail requests or anything out of the ordinary. The main bartender in question that night started out by leaving the bar unattended for over 10 mintues while he took a smoke break, and left no one but barbacks behind the bar. So no one waiting could order. When he returned, I asked a question about a wine on the "by the glass" list (I asked a question about the region it was from), and not only did he not know its region, but he happily told me that he didn't even know what COUNTRY it was from!!!!!!! Here's a hint for him: GUESS ITALY. It's a Batali joint...even if you're totally incompetent, I'd say you're in pretty good shape if you guess that a wine on the list is from Italy. The other bartender that night managed to forget our entire food order and never put it in, then he didn't apologize, and later poured a glass of white wine when a barolo had been ordered. I'm not sure which is worse: not knowing what country a frequently ordered wine is from, or thinking that barolo is a white wine. ← wow! I haven't been there in about six months or so...they were competent then and had the best cocktails of any Batali bartenders I'd seen to that point....

yeah...I think we're thinking in opposite directions in our view of "civilized"! 6:30-7 is pretty much impossible for me on a weeknight...an 8:30-9 start is as early as I can do it. now if they'd do it on a Saturday....but I imagine that would be too great a revenue loss....but maybe not on a Sunday? a lot of people work late in this town.