Nathan

the measure of Nathan's agreement with Sneakeater is directly related to who is undertaking the said increased objectification of men.

well..of course the nomenclature is a. elastic; and b. context-dependent. that doesn't make it meaningless. and offal can still be mainstream and still be offal (today). one of the world's great offal traditions is found in Lazio...cause between the regular aristocracy and the Vatican aristocracy...all the good cuts of meat were taken. but today, things like pajata are a fancied-up delicacy...but it's still offal. (too bad we don't have any place like Checchino dal 1887 in NY)

I've had pretty decent pho there...I wasn't there 14 years ago.

agreed.

No. NY has one. Chicago has two. (in the strict sense that Bryanz is using.) dessert bars don't count. yeah, NY has plenty of restaurants that are influenced by hypermodern food....but so does Chicago and any other major restaurant city.

Chicago still has twice as many as NY! but it's really the fact that Alinea is there and full every night that creates the image. Alinea is at the same price point as Per Se (after tip) but serving challenging, hypermodern cuisine. Alinea plays it safer than WD-50 (which is definitely a bit more more avant garde than Alinea) but at a radically higher price point....and it explicitly follows the four-star model....in terms of service and decor (and its policy on customer attire for that matter)...I don't see that working in NY right now.

hmm....the WV seemed quite busy last night. the Waverly Inn was packed, with paparazzi parked outside (literally), EO was busy, Little Branch was busy, etc.... but Morandi was dead. I guarantee you that Balthazar, Pastis and Schiller's were full at eleven last night.

To return to this for a moment, I was struck by this passage in Restaurant Girl's write-up on Le Cirque: http://www.restaurantgirl.com/restaurantgi.../le_cirque.html ← I guess they didn't recognize her.

yeah...I was trying to figure that out. its definitely more than a venial sin....probably will require a pilgrimage or two.

I think he's on to something. I think that Ssam Bar, Bouley Upstairs and the like are the harbingers of a new trend...but it'll be another two to five years before that will fully emerge. that all the avant garde chefs are in Chicago has been pointed out for years. I think part of the problem is that the high end of the NY dining scene is so highly dependent upon expense account diners and tourists (who at that price point tend to be old and stuffy). the high start-up costs are definitely a massive factor.

this place has a while to go before it's another Balthazar or Pastis. it may not be critic proof after all. it was nearly dead at 11:00 last night (and Thursday is a weekend night!...it wasn't raining yet either)

How can you say that Alinea is the best restaurant in the US when you haven't even been to Per Se - which is (for you) a local restaurant. Did you ever go to Alain Ducasse before it closed? On my part - I wouldn't presume to say what the best restaurant in the US (or any other country) is (although I can give opinions about those restaurants I consider the best where I live - I just go out more at home than anywhere else). Just haven't been to enough of them (although I have been to Per Se and Alain Ducasse). All I can say is where I've had my best/favorite meals. Robyn ← best restaurant in the U.S. that I've been to. as for Per Se, I simply won't deal with the reservation system. Ducasse never struck me as being worth the money on my budget. fwiw, I've heard (more than once) from people who have eaten everywhere that the best restaurant in the U.S. is the Mansion.

that's good news... I find it interesting that two of the dishes you reference (in succession) sound similar to signature JG dishes: the frog legs with young garlic soup and the scrambled egg (served in the shell) with caviar.

he's probably referencing eater's mention that Bruni visited Morandi 6-8 times (apparently he wasn't recognized...at least initially...on every visit...something also indicated by the review)... other restauranteurs have made similar statements... I would surmise that one reason why the Per Se review took so long is garnering the necessary number of reservations...(of course...with a tasting menu type restaurant it's probable that he would visit it on fewer occasions)

of course, that six plus visits is admirable thoroughness...but agreed that it limits the number of reviews...

The advent of this liqueur has been discussed lately in the cocktail world...but not much has been done with it of yet. It can certainly be subbed (with alterations) into drinks calling for elderflower syrup or cordial, but drinks featuring it are still thin on the ground. Last night I had an elderflower sidecar at Little Branch that was a revelation. I think it'll sub for curacao or cointreau in many drinks...but its properties are unique enough that it should be the basis for quite a few more.

I like Pho Bang for pho. Nha Trang as well. to the best of my knowledge, every Vietnamese restaurant in NY is run by ethnic Chinese...but that doesn't mean that some aren't significantly better than others.

you should have come here first. there is one wonderful Italian food store in Little Italy...DiPaolo's. otherwise it's a joke. however, there's one excellent Italian restaurant (Peasant) and three decent ones (Bread, Cafe Falai and Epistrophy) in what was historically Little Italy and is now known as NoLIta. Peasant is on the east side of Elizabeth between Spring and Prince. Cafe Falai is on the east side of Lafayette between Spring and Prince, Bread is on the south side of Spring between Elizabeth and Mott (you might be able to enter through its garden on Kenmare as well) and Epistrophy is on the east side of Mott between Spring and Kenmare. DiPaolo's is on the corner of Mott and Grand and they have excellent mozzarella. P.S. Montreal's Little Italy is fabulous....picturesque too.

The problem here is that although Manhattan is filled with excellent Italian restaurants, Italian-American is a separate cuisine to itself. and those places don't seem to exist anymore in Manhattan. isn't there a sister restaurant to Rao's somewhere in midtown?

thanks for the heads up on opera...wasn't aware of that. as far as six weeks of rehearsal goes....I'd say that three is more standard for a well-financed production....

I've never been there. what should I recommend in Manhattan -- there really aren't any Italian-American restaurants left that I'm aware of. I suppose Rao's is the obvious recommendation!

probably Carmine's, Arthur Avenue in the Bronx or Staten Island.

I don't follow that. does the Amato Opera get reviewed? Juilliard has lots of concerts but do they put on full-fledged operas?

that's why I said "major" and mentioned Adam Rapp as an example. Broadway musicals are the Meat Packing District of the theater world. primarily taken seriously by out-of-towners. its obligatory to review them because of the expense and prominence (as with the MPD restaurants). Adam Rapp is like a Paul Liebrandt. He can get financing, a following and will automatically be reviewed by the Times for anything he does (and he's kind of an enfant terrible). That doesn't mean his plays can afford much of a preview period or a long rehearsal. But they're definitely major. Stoppard is the Thomas Keller or the Robuchon of the theater world. there's one production of that prominence a year. the Times is reviewing plays 52 weeks a year. the vast majority of restaurants reviewed by Bruni can't afford months of rehearsal and previews. the vast majority of theatrical productions reviewed by the Times can't afford it either. ditto for dance. opera is a different matter. first, for all practical purposes, there's only two companies in town. second, those two companies have large endowments, huge professional casts who can be in multiple productions simultaneously. third, the majority of both companies' productions are well-known works that every opera performer already knows in their sleep. fourth, most of their productions are old productions from the inventory. the staging, costumes and choreography was done years ago.

we agree on the larger point. on the tangential one: most professional productions are not Broadway musicals. most professional productions are not by Stoppard or Mamet. most major professional productions (i.e. something by Adam Rapp or the like) don't have the luxury of weeks or months of previews and rehearsal. just as most restaurants are not opened by JG, Chodorow, Hanson or Meyer.