BryanZ

I think the cheapest option EMP has for lunch is something like a 3-course, chef's choice menu for $38 or something where you don't have any choices. I doubt EMP would fit into the budget. $35 is really tough to work on.

Ahh, but if you came to the Triangle in NC you'd know that Jujube does a 20-course meal for $60 w/o wines. This is perhaps the greatest dining value I have ever encountered, ever. A digression, but I gotta represent the Dirty.

That is so well said.

I go 70-80C on confits.

SK + Ideas in Food? Only the most baller combination ever. Seriously, I wish I had more substance to add to this thread. Again, soo cool.

Insanely jealous doesn't even begin to encompass how I'm feeling at this moment.

Seriously? Our impressions are diametrically opposed. I'm not even talking about the the subjective liking of the redesign or not, but "soft" and "warm" are not how I'd describe the room now, especially compared to the old color scheme that was much heavier in greens, browns, and darker creams. The current aesthetic is one of starker contrast. Love the new chargers though.

I thought the white room is used only for private events. Am I wrong?

Picholine is a great restaurant, and the cheese cart will blow you away if you choose to partake. I'm not sure it's trendy or hip AT ALL--that my family felt out of place says a lot, and I can't imagine how I'd feel if I went alone/with my usual accomplice--but it's the company at your table that fundamentally sets the tone for the meal more than those at the neighboring tables. Just don't wear anything with even a hint of purple.

I would argue the brussel sprout leaves were there to add vegetal bitterness. I actually thought they improved the dish.

I think the "$30 is the new $20" comment was something that Nathan first wrote. At least it sounds like something Nathan would write. I would have to say I agree with it. The type of dining out in New York I do admittedly skews to the higher end. I live in NJ when I'm home and am a pretty decent cook, so I don't need to get into the city for neighborhood-style meals. That said, I think it used to be a "moderately" priced restaurant was one whose mains were under $20. Now, I consider a "moderately" priced restaurant to be one whose mains are under $30. Of course, if everything is $28-$29 vs. $30-$32, that doesn't really make much of a difference. The most striking think about A&D's menu in my opinion is that there's not a single green salad or squash soup or what have you for $8 or $9.

Yes, of course. It was meant as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek comment. But when I saw the menu, I was actually surprised to see no mains over $30. To me, it seems rare for a new, serious (none of this small plates song and dance) restaurant to open with mains less than $30. Of course, that's based on purely non-random observation. I do agree that, considering the prices of the mains, the apps do seem a couple dollars higher than I'd expect. Then again, price is not likely to be major draw for this restaurant. It seems to have priced itself at the going market rates.

I've never been to the place, but johnder's report makes me want to go. Still, with not a single main over $30, I'd say that's far from excessive. Again, I haven't been to see the space or get a feel for the service, but, as they say, $30 is the new $20.

If shows like Top Chef are to be believed then men season food with their sweat, women with their tears.

Must say that particular thought never crossed my mind. Fried eggs, then just pureed in water? The image is not quite as pleasing as chocolate- or fruit-based consomme.

Simmer, braise, much the same. Just be sure to defat whatever liquid you're using afterward. I like: CSV 20-ish hours at 70C, remove belly, reserve liquid, chill, defat cooking liquid. Add belly and approx 2-3 tbs. gelled liquid to pan, cover and steam for about 3-4 minutes, remove cover and cook until lightly crispy on all sides, maybe 3-4 more minutes total. Unadulterated pork belly goodness. You don't lose out on all the texture that you would from a braise, but it's more tender than you get in a roast. Sam Mason is doing a miso-butterscotch that I'm riffing off of that's quite delicious.

Was at JG for lunch earlier this week. Great as always. First, the room. I was on the fence after seeing pictures, and after eating there I'm not sure if I'm a fan. It's definitely nice and there's nothing offensive about it, but it seems colder and more sterile. I've actually said the previous dining room looked threadbare in places (carpets, walls) and everything looks really tight right now; it's just a bit generic I suppose. The "alcoves" are even more alcove-like. As is now commonplace on my visits, JG was in-house, checking his Blackberry, scanning the dining room, etc. Sampled the foie, peekytoe crab with mango and champagne-chili sabayon (really a foam), the shrimp with avocado and bacon, the skate with chateau chalon sauce, halibut (likely cooked in the C-Vap oven) with honshimeiji mushrooms and an awesome lemongrass-tomato consomme, and the short ribs with jalapeno and mint. All of it was totally delicious. I think these takes on the shrimp and halibut are somewhat new preparations. I had everything else at least once before. ETA: I forgot to note we were comped two desserts, a very nice gesture to be sure. One explanation could be that I had congratulated our captain on the restaurant keeping its three stars (this was the day after the '08 release). Then again, it could've been that my mother felt the need to say a discrete hello to JG as we walked in. Perhaps he feared an Amateur Gourmet-esque shitshow if we didn't feel like we were treated like royalty. Needless to say, I was duly mortified.

Wow, this sucks, too. Never got to Schwa (through no fault of my own, though), never got to Element. I suck.

ue, Fat Guy, we're on the same page. This was the story of my summer. The Blackberry becomes your only friend.

The foie/squab/bacon/cabbage dish looks sooo crazy delicious. I would imagine one could achieve a similar "vacuum-cooked" leafy green using a FoodSaver through light freezing. Emphasis on the light. I doubt a FoodSaver can pull a hard enough vacuum even through repeated packings. An hour in a home freezer MIGHT change that. This is purely theoretical, by the way, so please don't think I'm doing anything but thinking off the top of my head.

wd~50 and terroir are rarely used together in the same sentence, but I would have to agree. To me, the whole experience is very new, New York.

Go on a weekday at an off-hour and you'll be fine. On a nice weekend afternoon like this past Sunday, I waited probably 30 minutes. Didn't have anything else to do so it was fine, but if you're crunched for time it's probably not worth it.

In it's short existence, much has already been said about Tailor. Some people love it, others hate it. Such is the territory for a hotly anticipated, much delayed, category-busting, modern restaurant with rock star pastry chef. Given all the hype, I think Tailor lives up to expectations. Does it serve the best food, the best desserts, or the best drinks? I would say no to each, but the whole experience is largely satisfying, educational, and cool all at once. I now present the much-anticipated (by me anyway) Cocoa Tasting Menu at Tailor. This was from Sunday evening and only the second day Sam had rolled it out. Sam claims that it's still a work in progress, but I was quite impressed. In addition to these dishes, my dining companion and I had a good bit more fun, also sampling the following dishes: Peeky toe crab, pineapple, basil, pine nut puree Duck tartar, marjoram pesto, pickled cherry jam Snapper, avocado-pistachio, watermelon, black olive Passion fruit poached char, lime pickle, coconut Pork belly, miso butterscotch, artichoke Pretzel ice cream, beer foam Manchego cheesecake, concord sorbet, sage Rum braised banana, mustard ice cream, brown butter cake We began our evening in the downstairs bar with the violet gin fizz and a paprika punch. The violet gin fizz was a refreshing, if somewhat unsettling, mixture of acid and cream. I wish the floral component would've been more assertive. The drink has promise, but still could use some improvement. The paprika punch really plays up the savory cocktail trend that seems very popular right now. I've had a couple drinks now that do the jalapeno, cilantro, cucumber, thing, but this took the vegetal idea in a somewhat different direction. Nice and refreshing but for some reason I wasn't totally enamored. Maybe it needed one more layer of flavor. Smoked paprika? Also tried a splash of the smoked Coke. Totally smoky, totally delicious. When we went upstairs we did the Bazooka and the Crumble, the cocktail with the brown butter rum. The former is totally hilarious and at once nauseatingly tasty. It's kind of sad that I liked it more than my tiny, female dining companion. The brown butter drink was among the best cocktails I've had in recent memory. I totally dug this brand of savory, butterscotch-y goodness. Even the mouth feel of the drink is rich and unique. A very generous pour(s) of '06 Au Bon Climat chardonnay brought us back to earth. The '06 seems to me to be more restrained than previous vintages. With all the drinks and dishes I tried, the evening was something of a whirlwind. We were very excited to be there and I think it's quite clear the staff is excited as well. Our captain knew the food down cold and was great throughout the night. The manager, also a very cool guy. It's easy for a place like this to be standoffish, but I felt welcomed and in my element. Then again, I'm something like their target customer, so I suppose that makes sense. Everyone who's complaining about the music and uniforms has to be crazy. Seriously. The "hot pants" that were such a big deal are nothing but nicely tailored shorts. Comparisons to Hooters? Give me a break. The iPod on this evening belonged to the same general manager and included an eclectic selection of music ranging from indie to country to hip-hop. Volume was fine. I really don't see what people are complaining about. I wouldn't even write about this if people didn't make it seem like Tailor was like a burlesque club with head-thumping music. The entire vibe is downtown, vintage, urban cowboy chic. I buy into that kind of thing. The food itself was quite impressive. Although I think enjoyed the items from the a la carte side of the menu more, the chocolate side was certainly more adventurous. Although I felt the theme was made a bit too apparent at times, if I were to back I would still prefer to order the chocolate menu (or whatever special menu was being featured). The value of innovation and experimentation on that side of the menu outweighs what may be a higher tastiness quotient on the a la carte side. Highlights were the char (best dish of the night), duck tartar, cheesecake, and pork belly. The duck and eel terrine with chocolate consomme and mango was perhaps the dish that best struck a balance between really interesting/ballsy and tasty. The chocolate consomme was assertive in itself and with the interplay between the duck and eel there a lot of richness going on. The foie dish is really, really tasty, but I see merit in the complaint that it does not taste strongly of foie. Like many dishes at Tailor, and in modern cooking in general, the best experience is achieved by dropping preconceptions of how a given ingredient should taste and just experiencing the dish as a whole. By doing that the diverse components in the very tasty snapper dish also make more sense. All in all, I really enjoyed myself. This is, without question, a category-busting restaurant, but one that executes at a rather high level. Although people may try to compare it to p*ong, I don't think this is really apt. p*ong is a much less ambitious restaurant that is fundamentally a dessert bar with some cold savory items. Tailor is much more like wd~50 in that it, especially in this cocoa menu, asks diners to subtly reconsider what makes a meal a meal.

Wow, this sucks.

Anthos is at once familiar and unique. It's familiar in that this is a midtown fine-dining restaurant; one that, on the surface, looks like many others. Think of the room as a more posh Insieme. It's unique in that it presents what is most definitely fine-dining cuisine using a repetoire of ingredients that skews toward Greece. Although I'd be hard-pressed to call Anthos an authentic Greek restaurant--just as many would feel uneasy calling Tabla an Indian one--the culinary experience is quite unlike any other NYC restaurant I've been to. I'll qualify that statement by admitting that my experience with Greek cuisine, on all levels, is significantly less than my experience with other European and Asian cuisines. I will also write the report in more detail than I would otherwise because of what I deem a lack of content on what is a worthy and exciting restaurant. There was brief debate over whether Bruni should have awarded Anthos three stars. Although a case for three stars can most certainly be made--Anthos is significantly better than many other three-NYT-star restaurants in the city--given Bruni's track record this rating is entirely defendable. If a three-star restaurant is one where effectively every dish is at least very good and a couple reach excellence--Picholine and, even more so, EMP come to mind for me--then I think Anthos is right on the cusp. Every dish was very good, at least one eye-opening and excellent, but small quirks kept surfacing and could not be kept at bay. As I mentioned above, my family enjoyed the chef's tasting menu, priced at an entirely fair $95. Although we made it clear that one diner would prefer to stay away from heavy dishes and the rest would eat anything, the kitchen chose to send out the same dishes throughout the evening, save for the final dessert. This wasn't so much a problem--the meal flowed very sensibly--but I would've preferred the kitchen rise to the challenge of sending out a couple different dishes, at least for the main course where some meat would've been welcome. The tasting menu is not printed and the captain takes the order for the said menu with an open ear for guidance, so with this much flexibility afforded to us I was expecting perhaps a bit more range. Nevertheless, I can't technically fault any dish that we were served. The main quirk that kept surfacing, however, was the repetition of various ingredients, even those that weren't necessary to a dish's success. Yogurt sauces, chanterelles, celery and celery leaves, and baby pickled onions appeared in various instances, likely pulled from the same mise pan. In a vacuum, each dish was not made worse for some of these additions, but as a whole seeing the same thing more than once seemed to be an oversight or lack of creativity. To harp on this issue misses out on how tasty the food was, however. We were served the following dishes: Hot meze - Three warm bites; served to all diners Raw meze - the Greek take on crudi. I was a fan but may have preferred Chef Pasternack's work at Esca. Matsutake mushroom salad - One of fundamentally tastiest dishes of the evening. Piney and unctuous. Octopus - One of the better pieces I've had in memory. This was lightly smoked to great benefit. Scallop - A dish not unlike something I would make, this had braised potato, fig, and perhaps one other component I'm forgetting. A dot of vinocotto reduction added acidity. Rice - This dish was not only the highlight of the night but one of the most striking and memorable dishes I've had in recent memory. An egg yolk sits in a small pool of white Greek yogurt, looking like a fried egg (cue memories of wd~50--always a good thing for me). To the side is an artfully arranged melange of dill and other fresh herbs. At 12 o'clock a perfect quenelle of sturgeon caviar. Our server then spoons over something like Greek risotto, chock full of lobster and crab. Mixed all together this dish was pretty out of control. Dourade/Veal - A pretty typical but tasty combo of seared fish with perfectly crispy skin and braised veal cheek. The dish was somewhat disjointed but very tasty all the same. Whipped feta mousse and tomato water sorbet- The surprise hit of the evening, this pre-dessert was totally delicious. The cheese mousse was faintly salty, the sorbet faintly sweet. It all worked in a totally unexpected way. I wouldn't be surprised to see this dish served in any of the country's best modern restaurants. I suppose I would've liked to see a bit more of the creativity shown in this dish and the rice dish throughout. Dessert - Here, we were served an assortment of dishes. I most enjoyed the apricot custard tart with saffron. The beignet-type things with bergamot and honey were nice but very simple. The baklava trio was too sweet for my tastes. I heard that the pastry chef who opened the spot left recently? These desserts seemed to be a slight step down from the savories. Considering the weather I'm surprised not a single fruit-centric plate was offered. With the dessert we were comped a couple glasses of dessert wine for no apparent reason. I'm not complaining; it was good, kind of like a sherry, I suppose. With the petits fours came the check and all was well. This was a very, very strong meal. With just a bit more emphasis on variety the experience would be a strong three stars. Still, I think this restaurant should have a lot more buzz than it does.