Sneakeater

He was sitting at the bar after dinner the night I went to Tom:Tuesday Dinner. We had a nice long chat. (Not about his TV show, which I've never seen.) Totally approachable. The guy radiates authority, BTW. He just seems like he should be running a top kitchen.

I'm sure you're right, Oakapple.

They've got to serve later than 10 PM during the week, though.

I've been thinking over your and my disparate responses to Halfsteak, Bryan, and I think I've figured it out. If you're coming into New York for a meal, Halfsteak clearly isn't worth it (whereas Frugal Friday seems like it would be). But if you're already here, and you need dinner but don't feel like cooking and yet don't want to spend a ton, Halfsteak is sort of great. This isn't "cheapened" food dumped on the market for its low price. Someone obviously is thinking very hard about how to make things interesting while keeping costs down. The fried tripe epitomizes this to me. What a great idea for a delicious, inexpensive, but interesting dish -- something that you don't see on every low-cost menu. And the whole Halfsteak menu is really like that. I think I'm gonna be using this place a lot.

Also, you can get in to Halfsteak. Frugal Fridays are only for those who don't mind a long wait, or who can be somewhere at 6 on a workday.

EMW, THAT AVATAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

I'm not positive Spanky's is still open. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't.

If you had ordered this along with the Coenobium he'd have never shut up.

I think the food at the new Bouley is better than the food at least in the latter days of the old Bouley.

They were OK. Not great. Didn't show any great commitment to wine. OTOH, when I try cocktail pairings, I literally have to be carried out of the room from dinner.

I have to agree. Service at the old Bouley was spotty (to say the least). But at least now (during the review period) they've really got service down at the new place. It's almost as good as at European three-star.

That's funny. I was seated in the front room, and kind of wished I was in the back room instead.

It's been used by Craft as a private dining space since sometime after Craftbar moved, and is still used as a private dining space on the nights when they're not holding Tuesday Dinner or Frugal Friday (or Thursday).

Actually, one of your dining companions had the pork shoulder off the regular menu, which he prefers to the pork loin off the "daily specials" menu.

Supreme Court Justice (Potter Stewart), not Senator.

How do they do it? VOLUME!

Thanks. I guess I could have looked it up myself. But that's what Young People are for.

Is that also what tri-tip is? If not, what is tri-tip?

Of course, I came around to see that my friends were right, too. Moreover, by feeling compelled to order something in that situation, you're giving the restaurant an incentive to continue this practice by giving it precisely what it hoped to get by instituting it. Clearly, the restaurant is at fault here, not the customer. (I have no problem when restaurants that don't take reservations refuse to seat you until your party is complete. I do have a problem when restaurants that take reservations impose that requirement on people that in fact have reservations.)

Part of the problem -- as I think you pointed out in your blog review of Babbo -- is that restaurant bars are in a transitional period. They're moving out of their old standard usage as holding pens for people waiting for tables and moving into a new standard usage of dining spots for walk-ins. So it seems wrong for the Babbo staff to have refused to seat you until your party was complete when they must know as well as everybody else that their bar is usually completely filled by people having dinner there.

But you know, now that I think of it, this cuts all kinds of ways. Recently, at Scarpetta (I'll name that place), I was pissed off at a guy who was told to wait at the bar rather than being permitted to go to his table, when he sat at the bar waiting for his date without ordering anything to drink. I snagged the very last available bar seat for my dinner; but for that one seat's being open, I'd have been unable to eat there that night as a walk-in. I thought it was nervy of that guy to fill up a scarce and valuable seat without ordering anything. When I told some friends about this, though, they said I was wrong to be upset with the guy. He was told to wait at the bar. Why should he have to stand up just because he didn't want to drink anything, when they wouldn't seat him at his table until his party was complete?

I agree with you. As for the private party, though, I'd say that restaurant group's whole style is based on creating the atmosphere of a private party (which is why I tend to avoid their places).

Nope. It was Raymond Sokolov.

That happened back in the Seventies, when the very first urban NYC McDonald's opened. I think it was Craig Claiborne who gave them their star.

Interestingly, every time I've been to what is obviously that Mystery Restaurant, that table has been occupied by high-level staff or friends thereof. I guess they think it's their table. (To be fair to them, I can see how they might wrongly think it would be unattractive to customers, given its placement.) (Since they've gone out of their way to be nice to me -- although in a way that often turned out to be bumbling -- I'm not gonna name that place, either.)