BryanZ

There is no bar in JG proper. Nougatine has a bar space and usually will not serve the dining room offerings there. I've seen people ask to do so and they have been refused. I've also heard of exceptions being made for, like, celebrities. The general consensus on threads like this (and Bruni noted this in a BruniBlog entry) is that dining alone at a table, especially if you're a guy, isn't really a big deal. Any good restaurant will do their absolute best to make you feel comfortable. Just pick places you think you'll enjoy and go from there. To me, fine dining alone is not (and should not be) fundamentally different than dining with others.

It's not clear if she has $40/day on lunch or $40/day to cover all meals. If the former, no problem. If the latter, she'll be blowing her entire day's food budget on one meal, probably with no wine or maybe one inexpensive glass. Nevertheless, it will be worth it.

I think what we're saying, however, is that savvy, youngish people are turning to places like Ssam. This is a good thing and the food there is certainly worth two stars.

First, it's useless to compare Bruni's reviews between fine-dining and non-fine-dining restaurants. As we've established on these boards many times, Bruni does review a restaurant in a given category, even though he probably shouldn't. That's just the way it is. That's why Ssam and Little Owl can have two stars with Gilt and The Modern. Furthermore, no one has really suggested this as the new fine-dining. Rather, it represents the way youngish people like to eat. The backless chairs and the two stars don't bother me in the slightest, and I'm more of a "fine-dining" kind of guy. And I'm young. And soooooo damn savvy.

Most people on the eve of a job interview in a new city that will play a significant role in their future "real world" lives likely check-in to their hotels, try to relax some, and maybe read over some interview preparation materials in their rooms or at the hotel bar. I am not most people. For some context, on Wednesday evening I was informed that I was to be in Chicago on Thursday night for an early set of interviews on Friday morning. Naturally, it became clear that I would have to eat at Alinea. Come Thursday, just minutes before I was to set off for the airport , I call up Alinea begging for a table for one. Literally, beg. It turns out they have an opening at 9 PM. Perfect, since my flight lands at Midway at 7:40, giving me just enough time to drop off my bags, change, and grab a cab. My faith and a $75 deposit were riding on the punctuality of Southwest Airlines. Thankfully, I walk into 1723 N. Halstead at 9:01 PM. Life is good. The motivation for this meal was quite rational. If a meal at Alinea for me also includes purchasing a plane ticket and hotel, the food portion of the meal is actually relatively small. Since my air transportation and lodging needs were accounted for, I couldn't resist. Due to my time constraints, I had to order the shorter "Tasting" menu but received a couple extra courses. I had never had the truffle explosion--my previous visit to Alinea in late '05 was before the explosion was (re-)instated on the menu--so I asked to sample it even though it was not on the menu. They graciously accomodated this request. Naturally, this dish was a highlight. One of those "breathing-truffles-for-the-next-couple-courses" courses. The Chestnut was also an added extra and was much greater than its individual parts lead on. The Blis is truly a seductive productive. The pictures Percy provided from his recent meal are really great, so there's not much for me to add on the visual side of things. I will say, however, that the Apple and Monkfish dishes were particular highlights for me. I loved the textural variety in the fish dish and found the banana/lime combination to be very fitting. I've been cooking a lot with shellfish/banana/lemongrass and this was kind of like that, just better. The Apple was also more compelling than the Pear from my previous meal, which I loved anyway. The horseradish gives the dish some soul. To further use Percy's comments as a springboard: The Octopus dish also works really well, especially the broth. There's a great interplay between mint, salt, and toastiness. The shortrib dish was extremely rich--supposedly its Kobe but I'm not sure if that's American Wagyu or true Japanese beef--but I also felt the pink peppercorn was overwhelming at times. I didn't note an excess of mustard at all. The lamb dish was also quite nice, and I particularly enjoyed the cabbage-braised-in-red-wine topping. I found I enjoyed the dish much more, however, if I put the "topping side" down in my mouth, as opposed to taking the seared side and placing it on my tongue. In addition to limiting risks of burning my mouth, I was better able to enjoy the distinct flavors that way. The only dish I didn't much care for was the yuzu. Percy is right on the viscosity note once it has melted in your mouth. It was the only dish that felt artificial to me, as if the gelling/thickening agent was present in flavor. The texture was cool when frozen but just not that appealing when melted. The soy in the chocolate dessert was strong, but by no means ruined the dessert for me. It's just a more assertive version of the salt/miso-chocolate combination that just happens to really shade away from the sweet. I enjoyed the dessert a lot, more so than the Orange. Because of my interview, I had brought some documents to review. The staff was friendly but cognizant of my situation. I seem to recall that runners used to wear ties; now, however they wear these black smock things. I'm not sure if I like that. Nevertheless, it's purely aesthetic. Service was friendly but unobtrusive, and I was out of there in less than two hours. The pacing was pretty much perfect. I attribute my strong performance in my interviews earlier today to the Alinea karma from the night before. One of my interviewers was highly amused that I'd been there the night before. ------ As a totally random aside, since I don't know where else to put this, but the Sofitel on 20 E. Chestnut (haha, see the parallel) is nice and very French. It has a surprisingly strong bread program at its restaurant that I really enjoyed--I stole two extra rolls and put them in my laptop bag.

It will be interesting to see how Chang will deal with the influx of diners, particularly those large groups that want to do bo ssam. The restaurant is not big, and reserving a party of 10 is something that a restaurant that size likely won't like to do with parties of four waiting for the limited table space. Perhaps it will start taking deposits for bo ssam, but that would somewhat undermine the restaurant's laid back image.

That fennel cocktail sounds good, though. I'll try it one day. Anyway, I sent some friends to Bin 54 this weekend for a post-V Day meal. They enjoyed it, especially that chocolate dessert nibbs mentioned.

Truth. And truth. I would say, however, that the majority of small-scale caterers operate illegally. At least that's what I've come across. Same for the whole underground restaurant/dining club thing. Just be careful and let the free market reign (if you're into that kind of thing).

In this way, it seems that the timing of our trips is slightly unfortunate. We're kind of missing out on black truffle season, yet it's probably still too early for spring produce.

Yes, they serve like Korean rice beer. I think it's called like OB or something. It's like water.

But in this case, only person? One woudl think they would make an exception or offer a site at the tables by the bar or suggest a meal at Tabla or GT.

Well...according to Bruni..... Yeah, that doesn't hold much water. The Modern is probably a more unique experience if you take dining in front of, like, art into account. It's more chic, too. EMP feels more updated-old New York, but like others I admit that the room isn't suited to the food any longer. My mother has been to both in the past couple months and prefer the food at EMP.

Cool, thanks so much for that information. Just for my own education, you can get all three textures (cuts) from the one individual ham, but for the regions degustation they are only serving hams from two of the three popular regions? So maybe I'll get one textures degustation, a slice or two from the ham of the other region, and a small order of the roasted ham? Does that sound feasible for two people?

Daniel, I would braise first, slice, then crisp on a grill or plancha. I would also suggest some sort of pickled veg-chickpea condiment or something. I'm really into pork belly and pickled stuff right now; the razor clams can only help matters.

Oh, I made that too using dried cherry brioche from Eleven Madison Park that I got after a meal there. It was awesome.

The tasting menus at EMP are longer than those I've had at other restaurants in its class. I was, indeed, referring to the $120ish gourmand menu, but still think it's a great value. In addition to the restaurants mentioned, all of which I've visited save for the Modern Dining Room, restaurants like Urena and what many would consider the "third-tier" of NYC dining still have tasting menus over $100. I consider EMP to be better than the restaurants in its class for food. Where EMP shines is because its food is as good as the very best, Per Se, JG, LeB, Daniel, but its tasting menus are somewhat cheaper. JG is a good value, too, but comparably creative tasting menus of not even as many courses at LeB and Daniel are much more expensive. ETA: This is where the value of the service experience comes into play. EMP does not have the refined level of service as the best restaurants in the city. If you're into food primarily, however, I think you should go. The service experience--especially if you're under 21--can suffer from time to time. Pacing of the meals can also be somewhat off, too.

Pandora's Box, indeed, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Anissa is a good restaurant, but nowhere near the level of NYC's higher-end locations. What makes EMP so good is that it's relatively moderately priced but truly competes among the very best in the city. You also get more courses than most other restaurants, making it an even better value. No one cares about Gilt anymore. I was at Cru a while ago, but I also feel that it's not operating at the level of the very best. If you've only got three meals, it's clear that you want meals that are quintessentially NY or awesome, preferably both. Although Babbo perhaps lags slightly in the latter criteria, it is very NY. Although I haven't been, there's supposedly nothing like Masa in NY but the quality of food is totally awesome. The last time I checked (late Dec./early Jan.) the starting price was $400 plus wine, tax, tip, making it too expensive for me.

tupac, I really need your bank and your friends. Back onto topic, I've had a couple "gourmand" tasting menus at EMP and found each of them exceptional, so don't worry about changes between weeks or seasons. If you're like me and are into mini-meals between your big ones, places like Degustation, Room 4 Dessert, pastry at Varietal, and perhaps Sam Mason's soon-to-open Tailor will be well suited toward early or late evening stops. All those locations will be evocative of what's interesting and new in New York. And, they're not terribly expensive.

EMP should go back on your list.

Wow, that is expensive, not that I have any barometer to base that statement off of. Nothing so far in Spain has struck me as particularly expensive (420 Euro meals at Arpege in Paris on the other hand...), but I must say that is more than I was expecting.

Can you reflect a little bit further on your meal at Violon d'Ingres? What'd you have, what was on the menu, and how was the atmosphere? Thanks.

I'm aiming for Parisian fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-meals in the course of each day. I'm now the proud holder of lunch resos at Pierre Gagnaire and l'Astrance. I'm seriously best friends with a host of Amex conceirges, I've been calling them so much over the course of the week. I'm mo' pumped.

Yeah, I used up all my agar on stupid experiments and messing around. I was planning on roasting to create a deeper flavor and hopefully extracting some chlorophyll out of spinach will help the color. The tic-tacs idea is an interesting one. I'm also playing with the idea of a rosemary infused honey to serve with the dish instead. We shall see what plays out.

As Louisa Chu said, the acid will make things tricky.

oakapple, don't you feel you were being somewhat severe on the savory food?