Sneakeater

Not so humorous, perhaps, for Priscella.

I spent a summer in Hamburg fifteen years or so ago and (I'm so ignorant) I avoided ever ordering a Budweiser -- which was available, draft, just about everywhere -- because I didn't know what it was and thought, "Why go to Germany and drink Budweiser?" I am such a fucking moron.

You know, all Priscella had to do was marry me, and her problems would have been solved.

And NOW look what they've done to you. Where are you gonna move next?

What's interesting about Cafe Gray is that it really puts the lie to the commonplace that "all that ever matters to us is the food."

You know, this sounds like my favorite restaurant in the world, and I haven't even been there. I guess they won't be opening a branch in Chicago.

You're saying that, in Rochester, people don't want to pick up tranny hookers and get shot? I can see why you moved down here.

The garbage plates alone should do it.

Or, as Pan put it a few months ago:

I tend to disagree. I would say the good items on the menu trend too far toward spicy and it would be better to stay away. (Is the fresh-killed chicken menu really mostly non-spicy? I almost never have really non-spicy dishes from it -- although that just might be my preference.)

I always think that the fresh-killed Kung Pao chicken (if that's how they spell it) is spectacular.

For the very little it's worth, having eaten here a lot recently, I would like to take back every bad thing I've said about the food. The food here is excellent. The problems are the service and ambience. Sorry.

If that's the case, you should also consider BLT Steak -- which also (based on the reviews of Craftsteak in this thread) might be a bit better.

I disgust myself. (I don't, really.)

I don't know why these good people would have to choose between Jacques Torres and the Ice Cream Factory. (If I were on vacation, I know that I'd do both.)

I mean, Neal isn't even as much of a "name" as Rick Moonen -- and he's better than Rick Moonen.

I mean a star in the "celebrity" sense. If you asked most people -- not you and me, obviously -- to name the very top chefs in New York, I'll bet few would mention Neal Gallagher. But I think that's clearly the level he operates on. (I mean, you don't see threads here breathlessly talking about what "Neal" had for breakfast that day, or what color socks he was wearing, or deconstructing his website.)

Every time I eat here -- and it is not infrequently -- I walk out thinking, why isn't this a place that everyone is always talking about and sending people to? Why isn't Cornelius Gallagher a star? OTOH, I'm happy that I can always get a table.

Bronx Zoo http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...35888&hl=arthur

1. It sort of is an identifiable Chinatown. 2. Better.

(Is it just me, or is it really impossible to formulate a search that will pull up the Al Di La thread? I've tried "+brooklyn +italian", "+brooklyn +fifth", "+brooklyn +bruni", "brooklyn park slope", "klinger" -- all to no avail.) (It's pretty funny that Anna and Emiliano came up with a name consisting entirely of words unsearchably below three letters.)

I'm posting only to note that, a few weeks ago, a friend wanted to go out for a burger, and suggested Metro Cafe & Wine Bar (on 21st St. between Park and Broadway). When we got there, I realized it was a place that I had never heard of before that had made it into the benighted TONY Top 10 of a couples of years ago. Out of all the weird places in that Top 10, it had struck me as the most completely-out-of-left-field. But here I was. The burger was OK.

Al Di La is my personal favorite restaurant (admittedly, a local favorite, where I'm known to management). If you don't mind the stroll, GO.

I don't want to argue with you, H. (especially since I still go to Coney Island every year to ride the Cyclone), but I get uneasy telling out-of-town visitors things like that you "can walk" from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to 5th Ave. in Park Slope. Sure, New Yorkers like us who don't have cars are used to doing walks like that all the time. (Hell, I usually walk to Coney Island for the Cyclone.) But whenever I take visitors on walks like that, they act like I'm torturing them. Also, from the Garden to 5th Ave. in Park Slope would be at least a half hour, probably more. They might not want to insert that kind of travel time into the middle of a touring day. (Of course, on the other hand, if therese and her crew don't mind walking, forget I said any of this.)

If you go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you'll also need to go next door to see the new fountain outside the front of the Brooklyn Museum. The new entrance to the Museum is controversial, but everyone agrees that the fountain is now one of the best outdoor features in the City.