Sneakeater

Big deal, but I happened to order the uni dish the first day it was on the menu. They were REAL proud of that one.

Yeah, THAT truffle dish.

Just as a point of fact, the uni dish has been on the menu every time I've been to Momofuku Ssam over the last couple of months. The truffle dish, most times.

This will no doubt start off another endless definitional discussion, but I'm not sure I see why WD-50 isn't just a normal restaurant (serving abnormal food, to be sure).

But, c'mon, we have to not call these places inexpensive (other than Ssam), if you're eating a full meal. ← What do you mean? Degustation is listed on New York Magazine's "Cheap Eats" list! [sarcastic smilely] Seriously, I think you have to be reasonable about what is meant by "inexpensive" in this context. in the context of cooking like this, mid-priced is "inexpensive". To me, for example, what is most powerful about Bouley Upstairs is that it has made me virtually incapable of eating mid-priced food in New York without thinking, at some point during the meal (or after I've paid the check), that I could have eaten better at Bouley Upstairs instead.

Mine too.

It's also sort of in-the-middle in terms of the "haute" rather than "bistro" orientation. It's like a step towards this "thing" you're talking about, but not quite.

Prune doesn't fit the description of serving "food that has its roots not in the bistro/brasserie tradition but in haute cuisine." THAT'S what's "new" about the places FG is talking about.

Now that I think of it, I'd also say Room 4 Dessert

To get the ball rolling, the two places that started this discussion obviously were Bouley Upstairs Momofuku Ssam I'd also add Degustation which I think fits in here, even though it isn't a walk-in.

That's remarkable. I certainly agree with you that that's the ordering strategy to adopt when faced with a $15 beef filet entree.

See, the thing is that people get this idea that celebrities want to go places where celebrities go, and so you've got to find out where the "celebrity" hangouts are if you want to be with celebrities. But here in New York, celebrities are New Yorkers, and they want to go where New Yorkers go. Because that's what they are, like everybody else. Of course, it helps that part of the NYC social contract is that celebrities don't get gawked at in local places. So they can go and hang out like normal people. On the other hand, in the places where they B&T crowd goes to look for celebrities (sorry, I can't help myself), that social contract doesn't apply. Which is why the B&T crowd mainly finds other B&Ters at those places, and not the celebrities they're looking for (except maybe some visiting celebrities -- you might even call them "B&T celebrities").

Exactly. Just what I meant.

The point is that he couldn't. NYC culture is just different from Miami. A place like that couldn't exist here (at least not in the same form).

OT, but as someone who has friends in Montclair and is conversant with the restaurants there, I would like to take exception to the idea that the food there is anywhere near as good as the best (and not necessarily the most expensive) food in NYC. It just isn't. This isn't meant as a slur on Montclair. You could say the same thing about most places in the metropolitan area. But I think someone may be sort of misstating the point of what's so good about eating in NYC.

You're saying that full-size pasta servings at Celeste are $6-$10? That's remarkable. (I refuse to believe that the clientele of this restaurant is sufficiently conversant with traditional Italian dining that most of them order 4-course meals instead of having a bowl of pasta for their main dish.)

FWIW, I found Mas (Farmhouse) annoying (and that is exactly the word for it) on my first visit for exactly the same reasons as LP Shanet. On subsequent visits (don't ask why: sometimes you just gotta for one reason or another), I simply found it boring rather than annoying. Maybe by then I was inured.

The reason some of us are having problems with this is that Buddakan and Perry Street are so completely different that it's hard to see how the same set of criteria could yield them as results. Either way, though, I for one can't wait to hear your report! (Sincerely.)

Agree completely. Pan nailed it.

Do you think i-bankers don't wait to get into movies?

Believe me, a lot of the younger of those i-banker types are waiting. (I don't think there's too much explicit buying your way to the front, BTW.)

Right right. Denis. That was the first one I knew him at.

1. Yes! 2. No (AFAIK).

Sure. If you insist on strictly "Mexican", you'll miss out on Tezka. I decided that Mexico City is a great cosmopolitan city, like the one I live in. I eat in French restaurants here, so if the taste strikes me I'm not going to avoid them in the DF.

He always leaves after a few months, so I don't know if he's ANYWHERE at present. The last one I knew he was at was Sip Sak, in the high 40s on (I think) Second Ave. Orhan Yegan was there as of last year. Before that was a place on 81st or so and (I think) Second (or maybe Third). It was called something like Begalyu. That place is still in operation, but without Orhan Yegen. There may have been another one in between. There were certainly a few before.