Sneakeater

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go to El Candelero and tell us all about it.

FWIW, having eaten there a couple of times -- but never having ordered the "signature" tomahawk chop & turf -- based on your and Bruni's descriptions, I have a feeling it's not near their best dish. (If anyone cares, I'd be willing to bet, based on what I've had so far, that it's the monkfish in pozole -- which is kind of ironic considering how meat-centric this place is.)

I think they only do if you punch them out. Your kind of place, rich.

(Sorry. Couldn't help myself.)

Fishnets and bright red lipstick.

You mean that, when we went, the animal skin welcome mat hadn't yet gotten ratty?

Just to be clear, I linked that thread to show that WE DON'T THINK SO EITHER.

In New York, Alan Yau's new restaurant in the Gramercy Park Hotel will show what can be done in this field.

Yea I know, that's one that definitely challenges the paradigm. I've been following that somewhat when I have time. It'll be interesting how that works out. Are they busy enough to turn a profit regularly? ← Speaking for myself as one individual consumer, I don't think they DO successfully change the paradigm. I think the dim sum are amazingly good -- but I used to eat the same chef's dim sum at his last gig in Brooklyn, and while they were nowhere near as immaculately prepared, they were still great, there was a much greater variety, and they were, like, half the price. As for the main dishes, I think they're refined without tasting materially better than similar dishes at "normal" (and much cheaper) Chinese restaurants. So I now go to Chinatown Brasserie for the dim sum on occassion, but never, anymore, for the main menu. As for how it's doing -- i.e., whether it changed the paradigm in reality, as opposed to my own personal response -- it was really crowded when it first opened. It seems to me, anecdotally, to be less crowded now. But, frankly, I honestly have no idea how it's doing these days. (I should finally add that I linked that thread, not to demonstrate that the points you made above in this thread had been rebutted by this New York restaurant, but rather to show that the same points had been raised in that thread in the context of this other restaurant.)

Not that anyone in or around Philadelphia ever wants to hear anything about anything in New York, but . . . http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...atown+brasserie

You could see from his blog entry about LD that he was having trouble deciding which way to go.

I had this for Thanksgiving a few years ago (at the original Almendros location, out in the sticks). It's not only unlike anything I ever had in Mexico; it's unlike anything I've ever had ANYWHERE. Boy was it good. PS -- Ummmm, Caarina, is there a polite way to ask you to, ummmmm, include yourself in more of your pictures?

Why Josh Cohn Makes Such A Big Deal About Not Being Jewish http://nymag.com/daily/food/2006/11/barbec...osher_food.html

I'm not the person you asked, but I recently had a very good meal there. It was the first time I've been there in a few years, though, and I was disappointed to see that some favorite dishes -- particularly those lamb chops they used to do (which were different from the ones they do now) -- were no longer on the menu. I certainly think it has. What's wrong with that? You could say the same about most of the best Italian or French restaurants in NYC.

What I found weird about that review is that, from the text, you (or at least I) couldn't tell why it would be no-star instead of one-star.

Hey, I wouldn't have known to name-check cardamom.

She has other appealing qualities.

Uh oh, that's not a good sign. It is usually pretty hard to get iffy service when eating at a bar, given the close proximity of the staff. ← Here were the two problems (neither of which might be a problem for you): 1. Sitting next to me at the bar was this obvious high roller (and his girlfriend). He'd apparently been in the night before and ordered the truffle menu (which doesn't even have a price on the menu card). So at least at first, he was absorbing all of everybody's attention there, and I found it hard to even get my order taken. 2. The kitchen was a little slow. You wouldn't even notice that if, say, you're sitting at a table with your famously Incredibly Lovely Wife. But eating alone at the bar, you do notice that.

On Sunday, I ate at a new place on Smith St. in Brooklyn called Porchetta. It somewhat reminded me of A Voce, so last night I stopped into that Madison Square establishment to have dinner at the bar, to do a comparison. This helped clarify my thoughts a bit about this muddy topic, concerning "neighborhood" v. "destination" restaurants. Because it has a chef people have heard of, Porchetta has gotten a lot of publicity. People outside the neighborhood definitely know about it. I could see its getting reviewed by the Times. I could see its getting a star. (If this were several months ago and Frank Bruni were still going crazy, I could almost imagine its getting two stars -- although there's no way in the world it deserves them.) Despite all of that, however, Porchetta is a neighborhood place. It's a neighborhood place because of its limited ambitions, and because of the limitations its reasonable prices put on the food and services. If people come to Porchetta from all over New York and it becomes impossible to get a table anymore, Porchetta will be a very crowded neighborhood place that people from outside the neighborhood go to. But it'll still be a neighborhood place. You have only to visit A Voce to see the difference. The ingredients at A Voce are much better. The sheer technical cooking at A Voce is incomprable to what is done at Porchetta. Not because Jason Neroni lacks ability, but because A Voce has much more staff and presumably much better equipment. So A Voce is a destination. Even if people travel to Porchetta because of its very good food at very reasonable prices, it will be the prices more than the food they're travelling for (if you understand what I mean). A Times review won't change that. This is by no means any kind of slam on Porchetta. For what it is, Porchetta is amazingly good. (Maybe not as amazing as Little Owl, but miracles like that don't come often.) I'm happy to have Porchetta within walking distance of my apartment, and I consider it a very very welcome addition to the area. There's no question I'll go back. Indeed, I don't think I can even be thought to be criticizing the place, when all I'm saying is that it succeeds about as fully as possible at being what it's clearly intended to be. But that's what it is.

I dropped into A Voce last night, having eaten the night before in a Brooklyn neighborhood place that I found somewhat comparable, Jason Neroni's Porchetta. I liked Porchetta lot (for what it is). But eating at the two places in succession showed just how "high-functioning" A Voce is. You pay twice as much at A Voce. But in return you get a level of cooking and ingredients that are beyond what you can expect from even one of the best neighborhood kitchens. A Voce deserves its place on the list of the better New York restaurants.

Coincidentally, I ate at the bar there last night. Food was excellent. But even there service was sketchy. (But they comped me a grappa, so I don't care.)

The way I see it, the beauty part is that you're left with plenty of time to spend with whoever you go with after the meal. (Docsconz probably can't remember what it was like to be single.)

I'm no expert on omakase meals at sushi bars, but how long could it ever take? The way it is, at least in my fairly limited experience, is that the food keeps coming at you. And you eat till you can't (or don't want to) anymore. I'm not sure what you'd "linger" over. It's just not that kind of meal.

Funny story. Friday night, having dinner at Porter House. I order the three-pudding combo for dessert. I'm very obviously enjoying the Indian Pudding very much. DATE: What's that? ME: Indian Pudding. DATE: Does it have cardamom in it? ME: No. DATE: I don't get it. What makes it Indian?

As you can probably tell from my name, I'm Jewish, not Indian. But I think exactly the same thing about Devi as raji does (even if only he out of the two of us knows what he's talking about).