Sneakeater

When you identify yourself as having learned the New Criticism in college, you date yourself. (Believe me: I know this from experience.)

Boy THAT'S for sure.

I mean, when I went there, I saw the "Grower Champagne" card and thought, "Grower Champagne by the glass. That's pretty exciting! Can't wait to try some." His response, as written, seemed to be, "'Grower Champagne.' What a funny term. What's it mean? Oh, here it is at the bottom of the card . . . ."

None of us knows the truth, but Eater presented it more as Kahn's decision to leave than Varietal's. Either way, I can't believe the review wasn't a contributing factor.

Obviously I can't prove this. But the way he wrote it, I got the feeling that he was saying, "Look, as if they already weren't pretentious enough at Varietal, they've come up with this wacky 'Grower Champagne' thing. What won't these guys do here?" As if "Grower Champagne" weren't a widely accepted and respected term/movement.

No, because as he explained, the "Grower Champagne" card at Varietal tells you the correct definition.

Didn't they lose their (minor league) celebrity chef, though? Is it still good?

I really read it as, he wasn't familiar with the term "Grower Champagne".

How long has it been since you've been to Hell's Kitchen?

Since they're both Oren places, how does Marseilles differ from Pigale? (I'll note that I've been to Marseilles but not Pigale.)

db Bistro would be PERFECT. It's just too far. In fact, to be clear, that's kind of exactly the level of fanciness/foodiness I'm looking for.

Also: Roberto (9th & 50th) v. Bar Americain. Discuss.

What's that Argentine place? On 8th Ave. at 50th St. or so? The uptown branch of a place that started dowtown? Sosso something? Anybody know about that?

I should add that this is a date with a non-foodie. So I wouldn't have chosen Grand Sichuan (say) even if it were open.

admin: merged threads OK, I'm gonna try one of these "ISO" threads. Pre-theater dinner. Theater is on 49th between Bway & 8th. Want something within five blocks. No more than that. (So, no Modern or Bar Room at -- and no Esca, either.) Any recommendations? (I'm eliminating Tintol for now, just cuz I've been there a lot lately.) (I'm thinking of Bar Americain, just cuz I've never been there. But we all know it won't be that good.)

Yeah, shit. And I'm excited to be told about Le Miu.

At least I got the "u" right.

This is such a disaster that words can hardly encompass it. Sethro -- 9th Ave. & 24th St.

Actually, isn't Raymond Sokolov one of the Good Old NYT Restaurant Reviewers (mid-70s?) that people like me use as a stick to beat Frank Bruni? (I love Sokolov's stuff in the WSJ myself.)

This is too bad. Not only is reverse osmosis filtration entirely un-needed for New York City tap water (it's something you'd generally only need to use if you have reason to be afraid of things like mercury in the water, which is not a concern in NYC) but it's also very wasteful considering that each gallon of treated water produces between 2 and 8 gallons of waste water. ← In the case, it's entirely unsurprising that one of them is The Waverley Inn.

Right. When he said "in Midtown" he didn't really mean "in Midtown" (a huge area). He meant "near the W Hotel."

Lunch at Katsuhana. 47th St. between Fifth and Madison (north side of the street). To call it superb fried pork is to understate how good it is.

Thing is, though, that Steve Cuozzo has continued to write things that look an awful lot, to the untrained eye, like restaurant reviews.

I know of at least two places that serve tap water that is filtered by reverse osmosis (whatever that means). But it's still, not sparkling. FWIW, I have a strong, but completely unsupported, suspicion that New Yorkers order (plain old unfiltered) tap water over bottled far more than people in other major cities. I wonder if anyone knows if that's right.

A Clue: Do you remember in one of his early reviews where Bruni talked about food that was slow-cooked in hot water while wrapped in plastic (or whatever they use), without using the term "sous vide"?