Sneakeater

Agree. The problem with Bruni is that by now, some of us are grateful when it's only a bit too much, as opposed to WAY over the top.

And your mother? How did she hold up?

Gawker now reports Jason Neroni as having been arrested and charged. But the charge is theft of less than $1,000 (which still carries a potential sentence of up to a year if proved, apparently). http://gawker.com/news/jason-neroni/jason-...rged-251602.php

I thought on Long Island "Palma" and "Parma" are pronounced the same. (I'm from Long Island, so I can say that.)

This particular place has actually gained fairly significant reknown for its various problems. To ignore them would seem ignorant.

Re: Monte's I went to Monte's in the late 80s/early 90s, and I thought it was great. I went back again a few months later, and I thought it was terrible. Don't know if it's inconsistency, or if I was just extremely lucky at the first or unlucky at the second visit.

So they were hiding?

To the extent a gloomy misanthropic depressive can recognize and identify "fun": Yes. Absolutely.

I tried to stop at E.U. last night for dinner, and it was closed. I don't believe it has regularly been closed on Mondays. Is this meaningful?

It would astonish me if this place somehow magically got a lot worse in the month and a half or so since I've last been there. I strongly recommend it.

"Quite good" is absolutely right.

Actually, for purely selfish reasons, I'm HAPPY that Death & Co. didn't get more publicity. You know, a girl I know was getting her hair cut a block or two away from there last night, and with great trepidation, I suggested we meet there at 8 PM, right after her appointment. I was astonished to see that we were able to walk right in, and it wasn't even crowded. I'm sorry for them, I guess, but happy to see that Death & Co. is becoming a place you can actually go.

NB: If you want to order by-the-glass in the dining room, be sure to ask to see the more extensive bar by-the-glass list, rather than the limited by-the-glass list included in the dining room menu.

It's not "exemplary". The wine program is still a bit too clever for its own good, with some strange holes in the central, mainstream stuff. It IS very interesting.

Oooooooooooh. Thanks.

I think the food is very eatable, if you know what I mean.

I guess what I always think of as the original five-for-a-dollar dumpling place, on Mosco Street,* is generally considered to be beneath serious discussion? _______________________________________________________ * I don't know their phone number.

What're their phone numbers?

I'd say more shredded than chopped. Otherwise, yeah. (At least seemed like panko.) (It's sort of funny that using panko to coat fried foods has become so common now that it hardly even registers anymore.)

By coincidence, I happened to have tickets to a dance performance near Varietal Friday night. The very night Wayne Nish's new menu was to debut. Based on this one meal, I consider the Varietal makeover a complete success. The food isn't the best in New York, but it's well worth the modest price they charge for it ($48 prix fixe for a three-course meal in the dining room) (a la carte at the bar is more expensive in toto -- although you can have fewer than three courses there). I walked in. When I was told the prix fixe wasn't available at the bar (only the same menu a la carte), I asked if I could be seated in the dining room. Owner Gregory Hockenberry made a great show of checking whether any tables were available, and then seated me with a flourish -- odd, since the dining room wasn't even a third full. Nevertheless, Hockenberry was friendly and communicative throughout my stay. I started with a delicioius if expensive item from the notorious Grower Champagne card. Then on to the food. Nish's food is much more conventional than Ed Witt's was. Witt, in his menu here, gave the appearance of a conventional cook straining for effect. Nish, on the other hand, appears completely within his comfort zone. And the eater's. Nothing here is particularly challenging or unfamiliar. But it's all delicious. I started with an appetizer of rabbit schnitzel with quail egg. I fell in love with a fried rabbit dish at Il Buco a few weeks ago. Imagine my delight in finding another one that's even better. This is the kind of dish I find myself craving days after eating it. Then, the slow-roasted salmon over faro with (among other things) duck cracklings. Nothing unique or wildly original about this dish. But again, it tasted very good. I frankly can't remember what dessert was (although I remember enjoying it). (Nish is apparently doing the desserts as well as the savories.) This food was all very wine-friendly. In fact, engaging with my waiter over wine choices for each course was one of the most fun aspects of the meal. This isn't great food. But at $48 for three courses, it needn't be. This is good, solid food, fairly priced, with a very interesting wine program. So this isn't a big, go-to, special occassion restaurant. But it's great for a fun night out.

Our servers could not have been sweeter.

We got there at 6 on Saturday. No wait. What a difference an hour makes. (When we left at around 8, the place was zoo-like.) MORAL OF THE STORY: Get there at 6! (Of course, if everybody starts doing that, 6 will become the new 7.)

I've always wondered about that. I think it produces a lot of comps as well.

The food he conceived at Varietal is pretty different from what's served at Il Buco, where he first received attention. Also, the attention paid to him at Varietal was a lot more intense than anyone's focus on Il Buco was.

That's pretty standard tab style, isn't it? I mean, the Post constantly puts little boxes in their news section showing how their headlines predicted things that subsequently happened, or that they broke a story.