Sneakeater

Decibel was the greatest back in the day when it was the only place like that. Still a great sake selection, though. And I'll bet the music is still great. I haven't been there in a few years, so I really can't say. Food was never more than passable. Oh, raji's already said all that.

The review I wrote of the new Bouley (on another board) pretty much had as its focus how little there was to say.

Are you sure they're being totally straight with you (or that you asked the exact right question)? They do serve some form of "lunch" at the bar. Just not the Jean Georges lunch.

Do they serve the full menu at the bar now? They didn't upon opening -- only a separate bar menu.

How poignant that sentence now seems.

YES. That's exactly what's so maddening.

I was there once right after it switched to Convivio, and once within the last month. One the basis of that small sample, it appeared to me that the food had declined pretty noticeably. Given the Current Economic Climate, it was amazing how crowded it was a few weeks ago. I guess the value of that prix fixe tells.

Can't argue with that turtle soup.

Except NOW Crown Heights is considered to start at Washington (except that some people think Classon). I could go on about this kind of thing forever. ON-TOPIC PS TO ORIGINAL POSTER: Franny's serves great pizza not near but not terribly far from Brooklyn Heights. No slices, but individual size pies. But really you ought to just get in touch with Steve R., who knows everything. (Just be aware that he overrates Chestnut and Henry's End.)

It's much more conservative than that. No headphones. Promise. Tell your husband it's a steakhouse. He won't know till he gets there.

I stopped into P.J. Clarke's a few months ago because everything else was closed and still regret it to this day. Admittedly, I didn't have the burger, but it was just horrible disgusting shit.

That's fine. Josh's writing style, presentation, reputation, etc., made me think his site was something more than it is. Now that I know that it's just like a lot of other junk I don't pay any attention to, I'll have more time each day. Who says foodboards don't give you real value?

One needn't make a reservation. Even when I'm two people, I have never failed to get one of the unreserved seats at one of the two dining counters as a post-show walk-in.

Because the point is, he himself said, he's not in the criticism business. He's in the celebration business. But he needs a steady stream of new things to celebrate. Which the PR machine is happy to feed him. They need each other. And we're like Dr. No at the end of the novel (different from the movie), being crushed by a column of slowly extruded guano.

Which is why I also adverted to schmoozing, etc. Explain his At Vermilion fixation. And don't say, "oh, it's just a matter of taste."

You are very far from the first person who's made that complaint about the lobster.

I struggle with that. I consider them in the neighborhood, but I also acknowledge Eastern Parkway to be the boundary. That would put them in whatever neighborhood is on the other side of Eastern Parkway. Some people used to call the several-block stretch in which they're located its own neighborhood, called Institution Park, but that seems lame. In any event, I'm happy to claim them.

Two words: Bar Boulud.

It's pretty universal to people now living in Brooklyn. And it certainly has historical legs: Aaron Copland was saying he was born in Prospect Heights as far back as I think the 1930s. (Really, I'm not being picky. It's just that anyone who now lives in Brooklyn would tell you that Franny's is one or two miles away from Bed-Stuy, so it's confusing. If a Manhattan tourist told a cabbie he was going to Bed-Stuy, the cabbie wouldn't take him anywhere near where Franny's is.) (I also resent it when people keep trying to take my neighborhood's one solid asset and put it in other neighborhoods.)

I don't remember: have you been to WD-50, robyn?

Now I can have the pleasure of saying I agree with LPShanet.

My big problem with Picholine is that I eat after Lincoln Center performances, not before, and they no longer stay open late enough to serve me then. It's too bad. I miss going there.

PROSPECT HEIGHTS. Geez.

As usual, I agree with everything Daisy says. Except for the stuff I don't know about, like breakfast. And, there is a wrong time of day for a pint at the Pig. E.g., any time between say 8 PM and 1 AM, when you can't get to the bar without fighting.

I also have to make the point that I initially became a regular at Ssam Bar out of choice, with my own money, before the special treatment started. It isn't like I only went there because they knew me as foodboard poster and called me up one night and said, "come on in and let us comp you." I'd also note that while Nathan is clearly right that the Momofuku places intentionally play the foodboards, I get treated the same way at Franny's, where all they know about me is that I come in at least once a week (and order A LOT).