Sneakeater

Yeah, I didn't notice that. I wouldn't have replied if I did. I hope you cancel on adequate notice.

Note that Buddakan's not on the list.

IMO, at least as far as food is concerned, Kittichai is so much better than the others as to be almost incomparable. (Great, sexy room, too.)

It's sort of ironic. People complain when the Times reviews places too early. Or they complain that the Times is reviewing someplace too late.

As far as I'm concerned, Esca could be like the poster boy for this thread.

Also, I want Pan to understand that I never meant to imply that Hearth was mid-priced. As Mayur said, the problem is that it's NOT cheap.

To be fair, it looks to me like Perry Street's dinner menu is a tiny bit more expensive than Hearth's (higher ratio of over-$30 to under-$30 entrees, and a couple of really expensive ones). Not a lot more expensive, but a bit.

Babbo? db Bistro Moderne? A Voce? Telepan? Wallse? (A little more expensive, but not by more than a couple of dollars.) Perry Street? (There's no on-line menu, so I can't check the prices. If it's significantly more expensive than Hearth, I apologize.) Bouley Upstairs (not to beat a dead horse)? (OK, service isn't as good.) Savoy is as good?

YES AND THEY'RE GREAT!!!!!!!

1. Kim chee seasoning. 2. Three kinds of pork. 3. THREE KINDS OF PORK! Also, the kim chee seasoning.

(Courtesy of tupac17616) Naples 45

With the provisos: 1. Sit at the counter. 2. Do NOT order anything other than raw shellfish or a pan roast or stew.

This query is somewhat disillusioning -- but makes me less rabidly jealous of your husband. (They have great king cakes at Payard in NYC, BTW -- but they're only available on Epiphany, AFAIK, so too late this year!)

For a good fairly quick lunch around there, I would very strongly recommend Katsuhama on 47th between Madison and Fifth. Fried pork: what's not to love?

You know how it is. You start to wait, and then, to get out of the cold, you go down the block to Cherry Tavern and you see the blackboard listing the $5 tequila-and-Tecate deal, and before you know it you can't even remember that you're waiting anymore.

With all this rumormongering and denial going on, it's hard to know what's true. But most of this part of Brooklyn would agree: anyone who'd leave Catherine is seriously misguided.

I'd like to amplify how good the unaged steak was.

A friend of mine managed to simply walk in and snag a table at about 10 p.m. a week ago last Friday. Which is weird, cuz I was there the night before and it was, like, packed -- with a 45-minute wait to even sit at the bar.

I go here pretty frequently for late suppers after working late, so I hardly feel it's worth noting my every meal. But for some reason I so enjoyed last night's supper that I thought it was worth a post. 1. After putting it off for months, I finally tried the sparkling Shiraz. I think it's like a perfect winter aperitif. Who thought of this? 2. My favorite thing about this place is that every time you go, there are new things on the menu. And usually they're really good. Last night, a stew of braised beef and ox tongue, with liberal shakes of cinnamon. When I was a boy, just about my very favorite food (other than pizza -- which is STILL my very favorite food) was this stew that my Russian Jewish grandmother used to make of braised beef cooked with ginger snaps (Zu-Zu Crackers, to name the particular brand used). This was the closest thing I've ever had to that. 3. My other favorite thing about this place is that it's finally living up to its initial billing of someplace where a bunch of talented cooks get together and jam. They're into it, and they're into keeping it new -- and you can tell. Not just from how good and inventive the food is, either. I ordered the great apple salad to start, and a glass of riesling to go with it. (They didn't used to have wines by the glass, did they?) It's not surprising that the riesling was perfect with the apple/bacon salad. But then, one of the guys manning the bar came up to me and exclaimed excitedly, "You know what? You won't believe it, but that riesling is going to be GREAT with the stew! The stew is [i think he said the name was Tim]'s new dish, and we had a staff tasting of it and all the wines last Saturday, and the riesling won out! No one expected it! Wait till you try it!" Damned if he wasn't right (it was the cinnamon). But what a kick that they're all so excited about this great food they're all coming up with, and so open to playing with it (figuratively, I mean [in case RichyRich is reading this]). 4. It was after 11 last night, and the place was near capacity. No more than a couple of empty seats at the bar, and maybe one empty table. So I guess we won't get to hear David Chang complain about how badly he's doing to the media any more.

I have to note for the record that the only way you can now get to the Judson Grill is by time machine. (You can go to Telepan on the Upper West Side for the same chef, though.)

Are you saying that EVERY time you go to a restaurant, you don't ask the waiter, "what do have that isn't vomit-inducing?"

For Porter House, it IS a diss. But Carter's pretty clearly aiming for something else. I think all they needed at Waverly is one star to show everyone that the food isn't vomit-inducing.

I would like the record to reflect that I made the "serving the cat" joke first.

Also, most cheap "neighborhood" places -- the kind you go to when you just don't feel like cooking, but which don't charge the kind of prices we're talking about -- aren't worth talking about. They're just white noise. Maybe Pan lives in a neighborhood where a lot of the cheap places are interesting ethnic places, but many people don't. They're stuck with the kind of bar food JohnL referred to. And even those who do might not be adventurous enough to eat "interesting" ethnic food every time they don't feel like cooking.

Maybe these "mainstream" people aren't eating out a lot. But when they do, they're not going to obscure ethnic places, much less obscure ethnic places that they have to take long subway rides to get to. It takes curiosity and dedication far beyond what most "mainstream" people have to seek out and appreciate places like that. When there was the big bust-up here over Sripraphai getting two stars from the Times (a rating I agree with), robyn said something about how she didn't think places like that should even get reviewed by the Times, since her Manhattan-professional children (whom she viewed as exemplifying the Times's readership) would never take the subway out to Queens to eat in a cheap Asian restaurant. I disagreed with that pretty strongly: I don't think the Times's arts and restaurant coverage should be limited to what "mainstream" people go to. But robyn does have a point about what "mainstream" people are interested in. I commented above that it historically has been hard for the same community to cover both "chowhound" type places and "mainstream" (or maybe in this context I should say "haute") type places. I think the reason for this is that the people passionate about each type of place tend to get too ideological. I know "chowhound" types whom I simply cannot get to go to Devi, because they "know" they could do so much better at someplace like Mina's. They appear to view a place like Devi as an affront, someplace that only fools would patronize. OTOH, you sometimes get the feeling in communities like this one that people undervalue -- or, more accurately but more academically, underprivilege -- the excellent cheap ethnic places. Hence the controversy whenever one of them gets two NYT stars. As I said, it's hard for one community to cover both.