Sneakeater

No and no. But I do have to say that every time I eat at Ma Peche (which isn't often), it's always a little better than I'd remembered it.

If you're talking about dry-aged trad cuts, it seems silly to me to eliminate Minetta.

Did indeed.

You can always sit at the bar, can't you? Or do they not let you if there's more than one person in your party?

Never hurts to try. Most of the women I, um, know, I've met eating alone at restaurant bars.

(I'm thinking in particular of a dinner you and I had at DBGB in New York.)

Only if we sit where nobody can see us.

Holy fuck! They say "New Paradigm"! On TV! And define it just the way it was defined here! FG should get royalties. Link

I eat in those places all the time, and I never wear a tie -- or a pocket square. Jacket is fine.

I don't like it. I don't think it lives up to its pretentions.

We DEFINITELY agree on Franny's v. Frankies'. And in case anyone thinks Weinoo was ambiguous, Franny's is on a different and HIGHER level.

Just to be clear on the cab issue, it's usually pretty easy to get a cab back to Manhattan from BAM. But it can be hard to convince cab drivers there to take you deeper into Brooklyn. It's illegal for them to refuse -- but that doesn't stop them.

Also, walking distance is key. DO NOT assume you'll be able to get a cab at BAM that will take you somewhere else in Brooklyn.

Peter Luger's isn't anywhere near BAM. BY FAR the best food within walking distance of BAM is at Franny's.

I went to a special dinner there once, and they were more than happy to make accomodations for my celiac-suffering date.

Those wood ear mushrooms are some of the best things I've ever eaten.

That was certainly the case at Bar Henry (although the food was so bad that it kept one away).

That's the point. Those places aren't even in the same universe as Lutece. Lutece had a kitchen as good as the hautest haute restaurant. It applied techniques appropriate to the hautest haute cuisine to the food it served. Dishes had little labor-intensive touches that you would NEVER find at a place like Benoit or Lyon. It wasn't "just" a bistro the way those places were. (I didn't say Lutece was like a brasserie. I said it was like a "Super-Brasserie". Even those, like me, who like Benoit and Lyon would never claim there's anything "super" about them.) ETA -- I don't think Cafe Boulud belongs in that list. At least as it's evolved (and despite the claims made for it when it opened), it serves much more conventionally "fancy" food than Lutece did. It's hard to compare it to Lutece.

Yeah, you're right. The main point I was trying to make -- which I think we agree on (and your characterization is better than mine) -- is that the food at Lutece tended toward rustic rather than "fancy". People who didn't eat there, and know it only by its reputation, tend to assume otherwise. (God I miss that place.)

The thing about Lutece is that it WASN'T a Grande French Place. It didn't serve all those heavily-sauced dishes like La Carevelle and the others. It was more a Super-Brasserie, serving hearty traditional (mainly Alsatian) food cooked to the very highest possible standards. Lutece was my favorite restaurant in New York when it was open, and it would probably be my favorite now. But no way could I see its now getting four NYT stars.

Yes. I knew it was one of THOSE places. So, now that I remember the blurb weinoo was referring to, I can tell everybody who's wondering that the antecedent was something like, "The pretty, skinny, fashion-conscious crowd at this smart new lounge/restaurant seems to drink much more than eat, and that's a shame, because . . . ."

Well, maybe the Kenmare is a good example of THAT, then.

Fat Radish?

I say it all the time (which is not to deny that I'm inane and pretentious).

Well, I guess my point is that if you're located between an abandoned warehouse and a junkyard, it's not enough to say that your food is "better than it needs to be," because your food would ordinarily "need" to be very good indeed to attract customers. This usage only makes sense when it seems like the restaurant is designed to have something other than the food attract customers, so that the food wouldn't "need" to be any good at all.