Nathan

I took it as given that neither Andrea Strong nor RG sees themself in such a job. Among other things, you'll notice that there's hardly ever a negative review from either of them. Even within a broadly positive review, negative comments are held to a minimum. They just don't think like critics, or write like critics.Frank Bruni doesn't have the background for what he's doing, but at least he has a critic's mentality. ← eh...they wouldn't turn it down. but of course they don't write negative reviews....it'd be pretty ungrateful to do so.

How many such jobs do you count? ← in the U.S.? 6-10.

that's exactly what I meant...a credible restaurant reviewer job with a major newspaper is closed to writers who have pursued the Strong/RG/AG path. (I'm also of the opinion that the latter two know considerably less about food then Bruni.)

where, where, where? we desperately need something besides Little Branch!

so...this place has been talked up on Eater and the like as a competitor -- overflow-pickup of Balthazar. its by Didier Virot of Aix. anyway....they had a "friends and family" shinding last night. it completely rubbed me the wrong way...massively so actually. they had a velvet rope, red carpet, bouncers. I get the bouncers...but the rope and carpet? Is this a club or a bistro? Hopefully it was a onetime thing...but it still p_____ me off. Good way to tick off the neighborhood as well. What were they thinking?

I agree with respect to Marc's blog 100%. And yet, it sounds like Marc would agree that Bruni's word holds more weight and has more influence, and that Bruni is able to accumulate vastly more experience. More to the point, there's no restaurant in the City that would trade a single positive review from Bruni for a dozen great reviews from people like Marc. Or perhaps even more to the point, it may not be good to use Bruni as an example, since most of us agree that we don't particularly value his opinions. Maybe he does. IMO he's the textbook example of high knowledge and expertise that's unfortunately greatly devalued by axes to grind and other factors. One thing that having a professional gig in the print media brings along with it is editorial oversight and supervision. No publication would employ a restaurant reviewer with Steve Plotnicki's intractable biases (unless, for example, they never intended to review Italian restaurants). None of these are amateurs. The Strong Buzz, Restaurant Girl and Snack are all written as part of a strategy for developing the respective bloggers' professional writing careers. And again, I'm not saying it's "right," but I think the general perception from the public is that, for example, an article Jennifer Leuzzi has written for the Sun has more cred than one that is only published on Snack And, of course, everything on her site benefits from the cred she brings to the table by being a writer in the print media. ← yup. though ultimately their cozy relationship with the industry and acceptance of free meals will ultimately prevent them from getting the jobs they really want....

savory desserts, of course, never put in an appearance at Alinea, WD-50, Cru (in the Goldfarb days), Room4Dessert, Otto (the olive oil and rock salt gelato), or Kyotofu

well...when you're a guest of the management your service is usually good....so if that was the case with Mercat it's not surprising that she wouldn't have anything to say.

well, yeah, food bloggers aren't writing about multiple visits and having ordered the entire menu. sometimes they order three dishes and announce "the emperor has no clothes" (the most common cliche in amateur food writing).

that's a scary prospect considering the current state of customer reviews on citysearch, yelp, menupages and nymetro. generally speaking, the positive reviews are written by restaurant shills (I know for a fact that a number of restaurants have their partners and employees write weekly reviews on these sites of their own restaurant -- eater also covers this extensively) and the negative reviews are written by idiots. (part of the problem is that people are most motivated to write something when they had a bad experience)

I believe that it's industry practice for newspaper restaurant reviewers to not receive comps and to attempt anonymity (this is the standard practice at every newspaper that I'm aware of (not just NY))...indeed, there have been a couple mini-scandals where small-city restaurant reviewers were caught taking comps... as for bloggers, let's just say that several of the most well-known food bloggers in NY have no problem accepting comps (they also seem to almost never meet a restaurant they don't like...and when they do it immediately lends itself to the accusation that maybe they're really just panning the restaurant for not treating them)

well...a significant credibility difference that comes to mind between professional reviewers and many bloggers....is simply that newspapers pay for the meals...and generally make an attempt at anonymous dining. a fair amount of food bloggers have shown themselves to being amenable to being bought off (even if not consciously so)....this is pretty understandable since they don't have expense accounts but it does alter their credibility. (I think amateurs in any field have a reputation as often being easy to buy off or co-opt...even if it's just a matter of developing too cozy relationships with people within the field they're ostensibly covering.)

where in the U.S. are you from? what is and isn't available here varies widely. for example, in NY most wild mushrooms, blood sausage and the like are readily available. elsewhere it varies (although I think you can find dried morels and the like pretty much anywhere in the U.S.) some cured meats (Jamon Iberico of course) and raw milk cheeses are the items that really stand out. legitimately good absinthe (not the Czech or Spanish varieties)...are often shipped to the U.S. but you can buy it in person in Switzerland (and to some extent, France). many other alcohols are also unobtainable or very difficult to obtain in the U.S. (creme de violette only being the most lamented of many such).

1. the "review" was quite positive. did we read the same one? 2. RG is invited and comped by restaurants. it is her "job" to write up their opening nights. I don't know if she was specifically invited by Mercat...but it seems quite likely since that is her modus operandi.

Saracen's is awful, awful, awful, awful.

yup

well...yeah (although it's still filled with tourists in the summer). I've never experienced it as it once was...but I lived in NoLIta until I moved to the WV last fall and part of the problem is that there is no support for Little Italy in the neighborhood. There are a few elderly Italian-Americans left...and that's it. And no one in the neighborhood wants the San Gennaro festival anymore, etc. (well, the festival is an embarrassment). as for Arthur Avenue, it remains successful despite there being few Italians left there anymore either. The difference is that it's been bought out by recently arrived Albanians...who after all speak better Italian (and are more familiar with Italy) then the third and fourth generation Italian Americans that they've replaced.

I'm not going to name names in a public forum. I understand if you don't take my word for it.

yeah..I wonder. Pastis is across from the Gansevoort though...it's tourist/B&T central. hmm..on the other hand...Morandi's near the PATH station. cheez...I hope it doesn't turn out like the Spotted Pig (which is seriously unpleasant to go to anytime before midnight)

whenever sturgeon is on the menu (which isn't often)...grab it. sturgeon usually sucks anywhere you have it. Pasternack knows what he's doing. that bucatini with octopus is one of my top 10 favorite dishes in NY.

I agree about the lack of a clear template.Except on Saturdays and Sundays, breakfast for most people is more about expediency than anything else — where can I get something decent, as quickly as I can, so that I can get on with my day? I can't imagine that Landmarc's English Muffin for $3 is that much better than the the diner down the street, but to get it at Landmarc, you have to go into a mall and up two flights of escalators. The exception is the business breakfast, in which case diners are less price sensitive, and usually want something a bit fancier than Landmarc appears to be offering. Doc referred to the Landmarc business model, a lot of which doesn't seem to readily translate to breakfast (e.g., the wine program). Anyhow, it's not that I'm predicting that the breakfast menu will fail, only that I don't see the same obvious path to success that I can see for the rest of what they're doing. Having said that, I don't really think it matters one iota if, next January, they announce new hours of 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. ← that's where Balthazar is an interesting analogue...(and precisely where I got the "template" from)....there's nothing elaborate about the Balthazar weekday breakfast (brunch is different). edit: the breakfast at Balthazar works because many NoLIta and SoHo residents do not work normal business schedules but have high disposable incomes (it's a mixture of unemployed Eurotrash and Australians, models, fashion, PR and design types (their office hours seem to start at 10 or 11, or they work from home), kept women, etc.)...what I don't know is whether this applies to the UWS.

I've certainly never claimed that four-star restaurants (or restaurants with four-star aspirations) do so. Or restaurants that actually have pastry chefs. But most don't. Many of the better restaurants don't actually lie, they just don't volunteer.

that doesn't follow: a. it has to be a very large restaurant...such that it really does have ample staff there early in the morning. b. it has to be able to plausibly serve simple comfort food breakfast items that don't really require any work. that rules out large places like Buddakan. c. it has to be in a residential neighborhood (the question mark with Landmarc uptown). d. its owners and chef have to be willing to have it open even though they'll just break even on breakfast and won't make much, if any, extra cash. Balthazar is the classic example of a restaurant meeting those criteria. I can't think of many others that it would apply to. heck, the same logic applies to lunch at JG and Perry Street...Jean Georges prices the lunches at cost...he just does it to generate good will and allow his FOH to make a little extra money. (at least that is the stated reason within his organization)

I've got a feeling that some of these will look familiar: http://www.bindiusa.com/presentazione/index_usa.html and here's the one media article I know of on the topic: http://www.slate.com/id/2160284/

dude...whatever the practice may be at your restaurant... its simply not a secret that restaurants are sourcing desserts from the same places (unless you can afford a full-time pastry chef...which the vast majority of restaurants do not...its simply easier to purchase them). if waitterrant can be believed, restaurants routinely instruct their wait-staff to refer to their desserts as home-made when they're not.