Sneakeater

(Also, if you have to listen to rock music at a restaurant, I think David Chang has much better taste than Mario Batali.)

The music at Babbo raises a point that I think is sometimes missed on boards like this (not just food boards). Batali has every right to play the music he wants at his restaurant in order to "personalize" it. And I have every right not to like it, and to say I think it's inappropriate in a restaurant like that. People sometimes seem to think that "self-expression" is good in itself, and that to say someone is doing something on purpose to express his vision answers all criticism. But it doesn't. That's where serious criticism starts. You then get to critique what the person does. ******************************************** OK, this post should have ended with the last paragraph, but let me say one more thing to respond to matthewj. I agree that places that are personal reflections of someone's vision can be preferable to corporate places. But only if I agree with the vision and find it competently expressed. As I said above, if someone is in earnest, that's only the first step. You still have to judge the work. Moreover, a competent "corporate" place can be better than an incompetent "personal expression" place. Again, it's all in the work.

New York has a law like that. I take advantage of it more than occassionally.

It may be that the restaurant is doing something that some of us don't think makes sense on purpose. That doesn't make it make sense.

I don't want to get into a fight because I basically agree with much of your post. But I do want to say that it's one thing to call a chef, to his face, as a matter of address, "Chef." It's another thing to refer to the chef, in the third person, to someone else, as "Chef" rather than "the chef" or "Chef [his name]." You have no idea how grating and pretentious that sounds. I mean, you'd call a doctor "Doctor" to his face when talking to him. But you'd think it was highly pretentious if the receptionist were to say, "'Doctor' wants to see you again in two weeks."

How do they know if you live in the neighborhood? Do they card you? Require presentation of a utilities bill?

And the "o" "l" "d" "e".

OTOH, his general critique of the cult of personality surrounding chefs is not completely misplaced. And I, for one, find it annoying beyond measure when chefs are referred to as "Chef".

Today's Waverly Inne review is the type of Bruni review I can't even read. I honestly didn't get past the first paragraph.

Not exactly. One problem restaurants have is that demand isn't constant. Many places go through initial "hot" periods and then normalize. If they raised their prices to accord with demand in the "hot" period, they'd then be faced with the prospect of being overpriced when they start to cool down. And it would be embarrassing for them to lower their prices then. The PTT model allows someone to be more opportunistic. Unfortunately, it's someone whom many of us feel isn't providing any valid service, but is simply taking advantage of a market inefficiency. (Or, to quote: "Gotta arbitrage that excess away.")

I understand that they couldn't do what they're doing if they didn't maintain a pool. After all, they can't get short-term Per Se reservations any more easily than I can. (Just an example: I understand they don't offer Per Se reservations.) GROUNDLESS INTERNET RUMOR-MONGERING: http://gawker.com/news/food/more-on-those-...bout-231167.php

And maybe one of you economics guys can explain to me why I'm particularly bothered by the fact that they're maintaining a pool. If this were a pure concierge-type service, where you told them what reservation you wanted and then they went to the trouble of getting it for you on a case-by-case basis, I wouldn't be bothered at all.

Don't you think this might be a root reason why some of us are bothered by the fact that this fee is charged by a third party who has no connection with the restaurant and provides no service beyond maintaining a pool of reservations?

I want to amplify something Simon said. I'm not sure I see the inextricable connection between the "stood up" reservations/overbooking problem and this service. As FG says, that problem could be solved by requiring credit card guarantees of reservations. You don't need reservations brokers to solve that problem.

This isn't a "New York chauvinism" thing, either. Nobody's saying, "Oh, in New York we're so advanced that Ramsay isn't going to impress our critics." People are just trying to explain -- in answer to a specific question from someone from London -- why, as a matter of local culture, the New York critics haven't been falling all over themselves in praise of Ramsay at the London. Nobody's saying New York's critics are better than any other area's. I mean, what poster on this board would argue that Frank Bruni isn't pedestrian? Also, as oakapple says, not all of us even share the local critical bias we're describing. We're just trying to explain the critical response to someone who asked about it.

[oops. wrong thread.]

I should just note that Simon pretty much says what I've been trying to say, except he says it a lot more clearly.

But just to be clear (because we still seem to be talking at cross-purposes), the "culinary forefront" doesn't necessarily mean the self-conscious avant-garde a la Wylie DuFresne. It could encompass Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Jean Georges, or Eric Ripert's unique take on seafood at Le Bernardin.

Not having eaten there, it's a little hard for me to frame a cogent response.

Again, though, we're talking (sort of) about two different things. Let me put it this way. I really love the Brasserie LCB Richou. Absolutely traditional food, usually superlatively prepared. Love it. BUT if I were a professional reviewer charged with giving it stars under the NYT "star system", I couldn't say it was a four-star restaurant. I may love traditional French cuisine, and they may do it superbly, but for four NYT stars you've got to be at the culinary forefront. If you think that's stupid, that just means you think the "star system" is stupid. I don't disagree with you. But again, the impetus of this discussion was a question why the critics aren't falling behind Ramsay at the London.

I'm not sure this is pertinent to anything, and I hate to get involved in a dispute I don't even understand, but I've eaten at both BLC Coconut Grove and LB, and I don't see any resemblance between them.

Insufficient expertise.

No, the Turkish restaurant Pasha is on the UWS.

I think Ametller just closed.

But foodblogs don't all function the way you're saying, John. Look at oakapple's blog. It clearly reads like a set of reviews meant to be taken seriously, not a diary. It's not that different from Seymour Britchky's newsletter in the 80s, which was taken very seriously despite its not having been "traditonal media." http://nyjournal.squarespace.com/journal/ I'm certainly not saying this to criticize oakapple in any way (I admire his blog). (And, for that matter, agree with his policy toward comps.)