snutteplutten

Agree w/ all said in last few posts about SHO. It's a bargain, it's interesting, it's usually delicious, it's comfortably elegant (no shouting over ironic or not Guns-n-Roses or sitting in your neighbor's laps). I've eaten there twice in the past 10 months, once very recently, and wish I went there more often. It deserves patronage. (The location depresses me and isn't near home, work or where any of my friends live -- otherwise I would go there more often). I'm equally tired of comfort food as fetish item served in uncomfortable surroundings(think Meatball Shop or Mile End or 1 zillion pizza places) and of pious nose to tail/farm to table that is so caught up in letting the base (locally grown seasonally harvest) ingredients shine that they forget about seasoning and technique (think Northern Spy Company among many other offenders). SHO delightfully bucks both trends -- leading to charges that it is anachronistic or a "throw back". But being delicious and being an experience that grown ups can enjoy should not be a matter of era...

We have a long layover next Sunday (4/5) in Santiago on our way to Easter Island, and I was hoping that we could go somewhere good for lunch. It seems that most restaurants are closed, though. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks.

Ginger Chef, just wanted to offer you my condolences, and to note that I am not surprised at all by your story. Went to Per Se for the first time last September and was crazily disappointed, especially by the amateurish service and presentation. The food was mostly OK, some courses overly salty, most what I think of as boring rich people food -- deluxe ingredients (foie gras, caviar, kobe beef) used in un-creative ways. While we weren't rushed to the degree you were, we felt that the meal seemed utterly routine and reminded us of some of the less good dining experiences I've had Vegas in that there was no sense of being anything other than a perfunctory space for tourists with more money than love of food, totally lacking in any warmth or personality. Would never be inclined to go back at those prices -- I'll take Ko or Corton or Masa or Le Bernardin any day for far more enjoyment while emptying my wallet! The wines by contrast were delicious and decent value.

I find Veselka's e. European food only OK, but the sad fact is that there are many fewer places to get this kind of food in that neighborhood than there used to be. When I lived on 1st Avenue in the late 80s (more than 20 years ago, gulp), the consensus of my roommates and I (fledgling gourmands w/ huge appetites and less than no money) was that Veselka was the least good (and most yuppified, even then) of what at the time were at least 1/2 a dozen options in a few block radius for borscht, pierogis, blintzes, kielbasa etc. (The old original pre-any-makeover or menu expansion Christine's was the best -- I mourn it still). So we never went there... Until recently, I would go to Teresa's, when that pierogi and kielbasa craving hit me, but that's gone too. So now, when I want that kind of food, which I do find very comforting, I usually end up at Veselka -- I'm never blown away, but I'm not usually disgusted either. (I do have to get to Greenpoint and do some eating there). I did try the burger once and thought it was only pretty good despite the hype, and if I go to Veselka and want to eat something fattening and artery clogging, it's going to be pierogis with butter fried onions and sour cream! I'll take my burger cravings elsewhere.

I'd be very interested in hearing about places for pizza and/or hot and cold subs. I grew up in the Montclair area and still get back there for family stuff, and I am firmly convinced that your generic mom and pop NJ pizza is usually far better than the equivalent in NY -- i.e., what you are likely to get wandering into a random place and asking for a slice or a regular pie. I'm not talking about Di Fara's (although it takes at least as long to go to DiFara's and get served as it does to go to my parents' area), but your typical neighborhood slice joint. Anyway, there's a kind of honest American-Italian cuisine that I grew up on -- pizza most memorably exemplified by the great to be mourned forever Casa di Pizza on the Newark border, subs from many places but two I still go to - Nicolo's and Marzullo's in Montclair, places I don't remember the names of that served "scungill" and "calamar" (strictly nj pronunciation) in red sauce... I've never found handy NY equivalents to those places, places tend to get to fancied up or be equally inaccessible (Corona for a sub, anyone?) I'm interested in hearing others' NJ recommendations for this type of food. I'm not looking for authentic regional Italian, blah blah blah... (The amount of time I spend in Italy makes even most of the touted Manhattan venues taste like crap to me). I'm looking for an entirely different cuisine -- delicious wonderful New Jersey Italian (used to be Brooklyn Italian, too, I think, although the good places are getting rarer and rarer)...