Nathan

Eater now has it as "Breaking News"...or they could have just read it on egullet a week ago

If the space isn't properly soundproofed (and they have not apparently made any moves to improve it), then the sound leakage can be substantial, even if the music isn't very loud. ← Ella Fitzgerald? ← It doesn't matter what sort of music they are playing. If it's too loud for people to sleep, it's a problem. ← it was impossible to hear their music from outside

If the space isn't properly soundproofed (and they have not apparently made any moves to improve it), then the sound leakage can be substantial, even if the music isn't very loud. ← Ella Fitzgerald?

Whatever the circumstances of their garnering the liquor license...there's no way around the fact that NY has a paucity of places with an entire bar staff who really know what they're doing....five to be exact...and that number could now be four. Anyone who cares about the finer things in life (like every person on egullet I would hope) should care about that. It's not like the B&T clientele that had been frequenting the place in the early months was still going to be there in another month or so....and the drinks were too expensive and complicated to attract much of a student crowd for long. and some of those claims are suspicious ("bass from the music" at D&C????????")

I haven't noticed such a soft spot. Just ask Paul Liebrandt. Bruni calls 'em as he sees 'em. When I wrote that I thought of Liebrandt as the exception that proves the rule...I still do. (of course, I'm not sure that Bruni thought of two stars as the slapdown that we did)

Sneakeater is about to go ballistic. http://www.weekendepicure.com/site/home.aspx

actually, I just read them..and you're right! (but only because they're so deliciously over-the-top) but, it's not something that he would normally do... regardless, she misses everything.

oh g---d, someone couldn't play a better stereotype of the "feminazi with no sense of humor" then this one: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/004018.html (is she really so ignorant that she thinks Bruni writes the captions on the slideshow?)

But you did get the slide show on-line. How could we have lived without that? Wonder what the reaction would be if Penthouse published an issue without photos of naked women, just for laughs? ← I have to admit I thought it was a little inappropriate. of course, that's probably something to take up with Wells, not Bruni. As for Varietal...I predict a star. I think Bruni will be nicer than other critics have been...he has a soft spot for young chefs with ambition.

I knew that was going to be said. of course, there's really not much you can say about the food at a steakhouse. in contrast, almost every word in the Ssam Bar review was about food. but, yeah, he has had a tendency to spend too much time on extrinsic factors.

this was my definition up the thread and I think it matches with what you're saying. put differently, there's the old saw that Picasso got to break the rules cause he also knew how to paint perfectly well within them (which he did)

reread the review, he said the waiters weren't great. but yeah, he basically gave it a star for having the best steak in the city, in his opinion. which if true, is a perfectly defensible rating. (indeed Eater called it exactly right)

this fricking sucks... I'm sorry I didn't make it more often...the EV isn't that convenient for me and I was waiting for it to settle down...

a lot of it comes in from Jersey truck farms daily...I think.

I need some coffee.

Why would a sublime steak being served in those evirons be the fault of the reviewer? ← For those of us who know Sneakeater....it's safe to say that this comment was very tongue in cheek...

Haute-cuisine is like obscenity.

I think this is a case where the common-law style of reasoning celebrated by Karl Llewellyn is especially apt. Meaning, you go through a process of deciding what does and doesn't fit, and then you articulate the general principles that you discover to be behind the intuitive common-sensical decisions you've made. ← d___, how do you remember that? I'm just over four years out and I barely recall that stuff....

In a recent Sunday Times, AA Gill said that GR @ The London was inferior to *all* restaurants bearing the Ramsay name in the UK. Si ← I'm prepared to believe that. But that also explains why his reception here has been underwhelming...it just isn't that good right now.

this I absolutely agree with. but it'll never happen. you'd have virtually every restauranteur in the city pulling a Chodorow.

1. since I read the Times online I don't really have the foggiest clue what's on the front page...if the Robert's steakhouse review is on the front page...that's just amusing. regardless, that's not Bruni's fault. 2. only a few weeks ago there was at least one complaint that Bruni was ignoring steakhouses. 3. I've heard it claimed for years that the steaks at Robert's were good. Bruni seems to have written a non-objectionable review here...comparing Robert's to other steakhouses and even noting the "mineral quality" of dry aged steaks....something which FG noted in the past that he had missed. 4. I really liked DaveH's post...I don't think multiple categories are possible though. 5. the problem with the expansion of the $25 and under category is that it doesn't do justice to places like Ssam Bar. they're competing with the best restaurants in the city and should be treated as such.

I was talking specifically about lunch. Agreed that Perry Street's dinner is considerably more casual and stripped down than dinner at Jean Georges. edit: the specific reference you objected to referred to the room's decor, not anything else. Stylistically, they're in the same milieu.

see here's the problem...you're awfully opinionated about a city that you're not very familiar with (not anymore anyway). almost everything creative and interesting being done today in food, fashion, art, dance and music in NY (excepting ballet and classical/jazz -- my personal preferences actually) is downtown or in Brooklyn. literally. but anyway..the fact that you would confuse Graydon Carter and the Little Owl is just embarrassing (since you're so opinionated about the topic). furthermore, um, no, none of us have any interest in waiting at velvet ropes...that's a mug's game. the last thing in the world that Little Owl, Degustation, Ssam Bar, etc. are, are "velvet rope" places. (edit: put differently, there aren't too many people from NY waiting outside of those velvet rope joints....) I'm a lawyer too, I have the same tendency to talk like an authority on everything, but I'm not going to claim to have the slightest clue what the habits are of a different generation than mine own in Tampa. ← Ah - mea culpa. That's what happens when I write a message after a martini or two. Remember Dorothy Parker - and what she said about martinis. More or less. I like them - two at the very most. Three and I'm under the table. Four and I'm under my host. Still - you didn't answer my questions. And I don't have the slightest clue about dining in Tampa either (go to New York more often than Tampa - haven't been in Tampa for over 10 years). Robyn ← There was nothing to answer. You don't understand the way we live. I don't know who the heck is fighting for a poolside chaise...but it's not anyone I know. Those aren't NY'ers (except for some young and clueless Normandie Court and financial district types) waiting in the velvet rope line outside of the Chelsea and MP clubs. Maybe this will help: Here's what waiting in line can be like at say Tartine (which is about as hot as a WV joint that is byo and has been around for 20 years can be....no one's been writing it up for a long long time...but it's always full...of people from the hood)...it's a small place...and in the summer the line can be twenty people waiting outside. Everyone brings bottles of wine. Everyone uncorks them. People drink wine, chat, make friends and have one great party....while waiting... You know what else? There are people making millions in that line (literally) and NYU grad students making a T.A. stipend. That's the NY I know.

dude, when you walk into Perry Street for lunch you are met by a French guy in a suit (or a similarly appointed woman)...the entire wait-staff is similarly dressed. they pass the napkin test and most other formal service tests. I've eaten lunch there close to ten times, I should know. furthermore, the Perry Street lunch has the same price point and casual vibe as Jean Georges itself or JoJo. (indeed, the decor in Jean George proper is very similar to that of Perry Street..they're both understated, demure and yet somewhat formal). in other words, the same definition that you're using to get Perry Street in applies equally well to Jean Georges. and if a four star restaurant qualifies for this thread, it has no meaning whatsoever (the only difference in formality between JG and PS at lunch is in the absence of table cloths at the latter). there already are threads on great lunch deals in NY. this isn't one of them. FG opened this thread specifically working off of his contention in the Bouley Upstairs thread (a contention echoed by Bruni in the Ssam review...and also made by several of us elsewhere) that there is a new paradigm in NY dining, heralded by Bouley Upstairs and Ssam Bar. if Jean Georges and Perry Street qualify for this thread, it has no meaning.

the decor and service at Perry Street are light years away from that at Ssam Bar or Bouley Upstairs. parsecs really.