BryanZ

Ask nicely. That's the main thing. For my meal there back in early March--I believe I called the morning of--I was begging and name dropping like whoa. I had the hostess laughing at me and my desperation, but it all worked out in the end. Moral of the story, if they have space and you're nice and flexible and don't have to do the Tour, I'm sure they can fit you in. ETA: 8/1 is a Monday, I think, and the restaurant is closed.

Last Friday evening I enjoyed a meal at North Pond with my family. Before our meal even began, our experience with the restaurant was marked with a bit of uneasiness. In the end this wouldn’t come to define the meal, but the situation was rather strange. We had made a reservation for 8:45 and called ahead to let them know we’d be running maybe 15 minutes late. Not laudable but not exactly a travesty either. The hostess, after checking with the dining room manager, informed us that if we were not there by 9:00 they might not be able to seat us, 9:10 at the absolute latest. This wasn’t because they had booked the table to turn but because the restaurant claimed the kitchen starts to break down after 9:10. I realize North Pond is in a park but to have what is effectively a fine-dining kitchen close at 9:00 on a Friday is absurd. Fast-forward a few minutes to my sister running from taxi to restaurant in heels in order to secure our rather transient table at the hostess table. It would turn out that other parties would come in after us and the kitchen did not in fact start to break down until well after 9:10. I understand they’re probably trying to contend with alcohol regulations in the park, but after we’d told the hostess we were on our way a little bit more flexibility, or even reassurance, would’ve been nice. Anyway, things soon improved when we were seated. Although we weren’t even able to dine in the front room, I found the main dining room quaint, the open kitchen fitting the rustic lake house vibe. Our server was very pleasant and friendly, again maintaining the image that the restaurant was something of an escape from the city. Between the four of us we were able to sample a nice selection of highly seasonal menu. The cooking here is solid, if a little bit lacking in finesse and complexity. This comes out in the dishes—comprised of good ingredients, well executed and conceived but somewhat one-dimensional. The most memorable savory dishes of the night were the crab salad—light, fresh, subtly creamy—and the salmon draped with lardo—subtle with its light seasoning, the fish and fat were foiled by a parsley-onion coulis. That these dishes are memorable is perhaps notable because they were so simple. Those dishes with more components became somewhat muddled. On the sweeter side, we were served an intermezzo of aggressively herbal sorbet—anise-mint, I believe—with a rhubarb compote. An assertive palate cleanser to say the least, but also a welcome surprise. A vanilla-raspberry parfait-pot-au-crème-thing was also quite tasty. North Pond isn’t a restaurant that will inspire fits of culinary enlightenment. With that said, it’s a solid restaurant from concept to execution and somewhere I would definitely go back to. Something of an escape from most “city” restaurants can be a nice thing from time to time.

Did they card you? ← My first meal when I get back home to NJ will undoubtedly be at Eleven Madison Park. I can only hope that they'll try to card me. Something like that. I have a flight and some free time tomorrow in which I'll try to upload and post my photos.

I thoroughly enjoyed that rant. The pleasures of great fries are, well, great but so often instead lead to disappointment.

Celebrated my 21st at Alinea last night. Did the Tour with my family and enjoyed the wine pairings for myself. It's almost needless to say but my meal was awesome, probably my favorite of the three. Pictures and a full report are in production and will be posted in a couple days.

What are crowds at this place like? On a weekday, on a weekend? Can I grab a seat solo, or with a group?

The above recs are pretty much all solid as hell. I was also at Alinea last night. Totally awesome. It remains my favorite restaurant in the country, no question.

I'm glad this is being discussed here. When I got this story via my wsj.com newsfeed I literally laughed out loud. Seriously, I could see myself getting into this kind of trouble. But with the SEC looking to open up an investigation, Mackey should be pretty scared. In this post-Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate leadership is held to a higher and often times irrational standard. As best I can tell Mackey did not divulge any insider information, so in that regard he "should" be alright. The fact that few if any people knew his real identity further limits any effect his postings may have had on WF's stock price performance. With that said, what he did was pretty damn stupid. The Wild Oats merger was a pretty big deal in the grocery world and tying yourself to any shady behavior in a deal of that magnitude, especially as a CEO, is absolutely positively stupid. I don't think Mackey was in technical breach of his fiduciary duty, but if I were on WF's board of directors I would not be pleased.

Lots of very nice restaurants pour Manni olive oil along with the bread and butter procession. Like others have noted, with good bread, the oil, and couple types of butter that's a meal.

Wow, those people looked like such douches. Camille was not a good cook. The shrimp plate looked pretty damn good. That is all.

The websites and menus do not instill confidence.

I'm guessing this was a joke?

I've been to Bin to eat a couple of times to eat and based on the wines I've seen on offer they're kind of generic-y. Not that this is a problem, as the prices are more than fair, I'm just not super impressed with the place. I feel like it's like the Target of restaurants, got some interesting stuff worth looking for (in food, wine, and cheese) but on the whole doesn't have cred of somewhere a bit smaller and more boutique.

In but two days I turn 21 and will take my first official steps down the long road toward a lifetime of borderline alcoholism. In order to make this journey as simple as possible, I'm asking for your help. I am looking for a collection of Chicago's best cocktail and wine bars. I don't really care about a trendy scene, cool music, or anything like that. What I'm looking for is crafted drinks and a knowledgeable staff that can shepherd me on my journey. Do such establishments exist in Chicago? I know New York is going through something of a cocktail renaissance in the past couple years and am wondering if such a movement has taken root here. I've been following the opening of The Violet Hour, and based on what I've read this is exactly the type of place I'm looking for. Are there wine bars that follow in the same vein of being low key and very product focused? I'll also consider places that can teach me all about beer, though this is of slightly less importance. I appreciate the help.

As best I know, there is no omakase to the extent that he was doing it in Atlanta. There is the $50 chef's selection of sushi, but a true omakase that encompases hot and cold dishes remains absent.

Bonnie: "Chef, I hate killing lobsters. I cry everytime." Rock: "So do the lobsters." Classic.

My visit to p*ong last night goes to show how much one's surroundings can influence his or her impressions of a meal. I'm usually one to focus on the food and, to a lesser degree, service. Rarely does the surrounding context in which I am enjoying my meal factor into my overall impressions of that meal. Yet the extent to which I enjoyed my visit to p*ong last night was more a function of my surroundings and company than the food itself. This may seem a knock to the restaurant, but I've had many meals at "better" places in which I've enjoyed the experience significantly less. I'm still not sold on the culinary merit of p*ong itself. There is still not a single cooked item on the menu--I'm not sure a twirl of soba noodles count--and execution remains lacking. The flavor combinations are good (but not great) and presentations novel (but not striking), but the food itself has yet to really wow me. From a food perspective p*ong is like Chikalicious-plus, more ambitious, more sexy, more daring but not so much that it really stands out. Beyond the food, however, I had a really encouraging visit last night, and the restaurant itself played a large role in that. Service was accommodating, if not expert, and I was allowed to roughly dictate what dishes my friends and I would try on our three-course dessert tasting. In addition, they let us put in our order in waves due to the tardiness of a couple members in our rather large party and let us stay well beyond closing time. We were also sent out an extra dessert course in lieu of petits fours, a gesture I appreciated. So last night I sampled the lemon ice with marscapone, pinapple upside-down cake, roasted peaches with rosemary shortbread, and sesame-chocolate napoleon. To further sweeten the deal, we happened to be seated next to a table occupied by two really cool guys, one of whom happened to be a sous chef at Per Se. When it comes to talking food, you can't get much better than that. Between getting together with a group of friends who I hadn't seen in quite some time, making new friends, and enjoying some pretty solid desserts until past 2 AM, it made for a really enjoyable experience. Of course much of my enjoyment was circumstantial but without p*ong's sound fundamentals the overall experience would not have been as fun.

Stopped by a pleasantly uncrowded Momo Ssam last night at about 6:20 before heading uptown to Shakespeare in the Park. Momo Ssam was the perfect spot for a quick but delicious meal with a couple friends. Not sure of how to initially describe the style of cuisine to my dining partners I offered up the following description: An Asian cook, classically trained, making the food he'd want to eat. Our meal embodied my somewhat haphazard portrayal perfectly. The three of us shared the following dishes: Scallops, lemon puree, pickled cherries, seaweed - Very solid crudo-like dish, but it was the lemon puree that stole the show. It was creamy and perfectly balanced between sour, sweet, and bitter. Steamed buns - Great as always. One among us had never sampled these delectable wares and commented, "I could eat these forever." Fried baby artichokes, walnuts, anchovy, fish sauce - Another great blend of salty and slightly bitter. These were quite addictive. Banh mi - Great again with an unmistakable and satisfying baseline offal-taste wonderfully foiled by a nice amount of spice and cilantro. Old Bay pan-fried skate, roasted fingerlings, pickled ramps, spicy aioli - Perhaps the least Asian of all the items, this also seemed the most seasonal. Not because of the ingredients per se but because this dish had this whole bistro-meets-picnic flavor profile going on. Pork spare ribs, tomatillos, sunchokes, mustard seeds - A nicely sized pile of ribs, slow-cooked, grilled, then topped with an addictive sauce with minty herbs and red onion. It managed to taste like American barbeque, Chinese roast pork, and Korean bulgogi all at once. The creamy sunchoke salad was a funny play on potato salad and the pickled tomatillos a play on normal cucumber pickles. Everything was paced quite nicely and we got out of there in about an hour and twenty minutes and had spent $43 p/p; perfect considering our plans to follow. I will say the whole "no substitutions or special requests" can be a little bit obnoxious, but I suppose I don't necessarily hold it against the restaurant. I asked for the banh mi to be cut into thirds but was flat out denied. I can see why--the sandwich is engineered such that the center is fuller with ingredients than the extremities--but it seemed a bit excessive in not granting such a simple request. But other than that minor annoyance, a very solid meal and great way to start a beautiful summer evening.

While the majority of my summer has been spent working in Chicago, I managed to get away for a couple days over the Independence Day holiday and come back home. It had been a long while since I'd last been to wd~50 and had not sampled Chef Stupak's work since a meal at Alinea well over a year ago. wd~50 seemed an ideal way to start off a month that will later include meals at Moto, Alinea, and Schwa, three Chicago restaurants known for their innovative cuisine. It will be interesting to see how wd~50--effectively New York's only modern restaurant now that Chefs Liebrandt, Goldfarb, Kahn, and Mason are at present lying beneath the dining public's radar--compares to the latest offerings from these three Second City restaurants. Over the past couple of years it seems that wd~50 has continued to mature to a point where the cuisine, service, and operational facets all seem to work together. This is not to say my visits in the past lacked this harmony but tonight everything just seemed run almost uncannily smoothly. This is still a restaurant that continues to push boundaries and innovate fiercely but does so in way that rarely betrays the overarching casual-meets-creative concept of the restaurant. I was very pleased with how accommodating the restaurant was with my menu requests. As usual, I wanted to sample as many dishes as possible and was granted the option to do a side-by-side tasting menu with my dining partner for the evening. I also requested one dessert substitution--as much as I enjoyed the soft chocolate, lime ice cream, and licorice at Alinea, this meal was an opportunity to try as many of Chef Stupak's desserts as possible--that was granted easily. Without going into too much detail on the twenty or so dishes I sampled this evening, a couple standouts are worth noting. Shrimp and tarragon macaroons and "pizza pebbles" started the meal. I was reminded of the "snacks" that start meals at El Bulli; to me, this is a very positive association. Knot foie is literally a knot of foie. Very cool looking. In lieu of the beef tongue dish that remains on the menu, we were served two other dishes, perhaps because it was clear that we'd each had the original a couple times, or maybe they were just out. Anyway, the fried quail with banana tartar was totally delicious. French onion soup is one of the best usages of spherication that I've come across. Subtle, visually compelling, and delicious. Surf clam salad with watermelon and fermented black bean "seeds" was another great whimsical presentation. It was also a great way to really push the boundary between sweet and savory using unexpected ingredients. The coffee gnocchi, served with Wagyu flat iron steak, are pretty intense. They taste seriously of coffee, in a surprisingly good way. My comments on Chef Stupak's desserts perhaps expectedly are cast in direct comparison to Chef Kahn's former work at Varietal. As I've made quite clear on these boards before, I am, with the exception of the incomparable FoodPassion, Jordan Kahn's biggest fan. Chef Stupak's desserts are aesthetically and stylistically similar but, I feel, theoretically different. Where as Chef Kahn seemed to take an idea and explode it on the plate, Chef Stupak takes an idea and pares it down and hones it. While I may be a fan of the former approach, I still find the desserts at wd~50 to be among the most compelling and interesting in the city. The pre-desserts of strawberry/popcorn and argan oil horchata/canteloupe were really quite special for combining unexpected savory items within a subtly sweet backdrop. So all in all, a really great meal. I couldn't have asked for anything more and took a lot away from the meal for my own continuing culinary education. Out here on the interweb you hear occasional (and conflicting) reports that say, like, "Oh wd~50 isn't doing anything new anymore" or "wd~50 has been going downhill because they're trying too hard with challenging flavor combinations now". To put it bluntly, I can't possibly see where these opinions are coming from. wd~50 may not be the restaurant for everyone, but to say it's not innovating and/or not putting out tasty food is simply not true.

After watching this season for the past couple weeks, the highlight is definitely Bonnie. She's pretty hot, I'd do her. Naturally none of these cats can cook.

That is perhaps the scariest picture ever to have held a place on a Schwa discussion thread.

wd-50 might be a bit much for an 11-year old. I say that not to denigrate her young palate but it may not be the ideal dessert experience for a kid.

I stopped by Due yesterday afternoon to sample the wares of this well-known pizza shop. I managed to grab a table without a wait, as I'd timed my visit to fall in between lunch and dinner hours. It seems that Due (and probably Uno, as they share the same menu) are about a dollar or so more expensive than its competitors. The Due pizza seems to fall somewhere in between the Malnati's and Giordano's pies. The crust had more structural integrity and was crustier than Malnati's but lacked the consistent crunch of Girodano's. The sauce was not as fresh-tasting as Malnati's but not as concentrated and tomato-y as Giordano's I can accurately judge the fillings, as the pie I had a Due was filled with a wide variety of items.

A really cute film that also happens to be full of some pretty delicious-looking cuisine. The characters are charming--by the end of the film I had a pretty big crush on Colette--and the gentle mockery of the French, and kitchen culture in general, lends the film a more mature appeal. More than anything else, the film helps to convey the power of food as a means to know and express one's self. I'm not saying the film was without faults, but I was thoroughly impressed.

But the menus were nearly identical in the first place, weren't they? This seems to be a semi-branding thing and a way to convince casual diners that Maze FKA The London Bar is in fact a restaurant of its own and not only a bar and perhaps separate from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.