Jesikka

It's possible he was confused, but he said no photography whatsoever.My usual practice is to use the flash if there's no one sitting nearby, and to turn it off otherwise. As I mentioned, the restaurant was empty, so I used the flash. (Had I kept it off, it's probable he wouldn't have noticed.) The host said, "Sorry, no flash photography." "No flash photography?" I replied. He came back, "Sorry, please no photography." ← Interesting. Were you using a point and shoot camera (pocket digital) or an SLR (with removable lenses, like a Canon Rebel or similar)? Sometimes when I pull my SLR out I get asked if the photos are for "personal use." Or I have to pretend that I'm taking photos of my companion rather than the food. I mean Mr. Mason has worked at WD-50 and tons and tons of people take photos of their food at WD-50... ← We took pictures of everything and no one said a word. The host (GM) was explaining all of our dishes, so I don't think it was that no one noticed. Maybe they've reconsidered since we were in. The wine list is definitely going to expand considerably, but they do push the cocktails. I'm not sure how much they're planning to expand the menu, but I know that Sam is intending to change out the dishes quite often.

They're closed on Mondays.

Sadly, no food at the bar right now. That being said, the restaurant was almost entirely empty last night. Until they start serving food downstairs, a solo diner would be taking up one of the two top tables in the dining area.

Right, and the cocktails are fantastic as a result. I just don't want a giant bell pepper on the side of my foie gras- no matter how avant garde. I don't need a lot of wine choices to be happy, but I'd still rather have wine. Also, I don't think a sommelier needs to be "of stature" to do a great job. Mixology is a bit different, since Eben has actually invented (or at least tweaked) the cocktails.

Not all our dishes have been mentioned- there are six in each category. The menu is posted on eater and linked to this thread somewhere. Although a couple of the dishes have already changed a bit, they have the same elements. As I said before, I don't think anyone in our party was overly stuffed, and Dave H and I had lunch at Stone Barns earlier that day. Maybe we're just capable eaters...

Damn, I need to go back and retaste that. I'm posting the review I started to write because I don't know if I'll actually have time to go through every dish. Maybe the member of our group who took pictures will post them? My 1/6 of a review: Upon our late, as usual, arrival, our dinner companions were already well into their second (third?) cocktails. Having already sampled at least 12 cocktails on 4 different occasions at Tailor myself, I can’t say I blame them. The cocktails are just as good as anything being done at Death & Company or Pegu Club, but they’re pushing flavor boundaries even further. I’m loving the Lavendar Fizz, the Cascade and the Paprika Punch. Nathan or Sneakeater can talk about the cocktails, though, since they’re far more expert consumers. After our reservations snafus over the past two weeks, the service could not have been more welcoming or gracious. Throughout the evening we were served by our waiter, had the GM to explain each dish and the head bartender stopped by several times with cocktails and occasional special tastes of new beverages. I’m not personally a fan of drinking cocktails (even great ones) with dinner, so I’ll look forward a full wine list becoming available. That being said, I expect to find myself at the bar as often as in the restaurant. Because of the number of components in the dishes, sharing a Tailor dish among more than two people is somewhat untenable, so we ordered three of every dish for our table of six. The Salty I think our entire table unanimously agreed that the foie gras and peanut butter was a standout hit. Quotable quote of the night: “I’ll know I’ve found my future wife when she and I go together as well as foie gras and peanut butter.” When you taste this dish, the combo seems too obvious to be as novel as it is. The foie is 80% foie and 20% peanut butter, sprinkled in bitter chocolate with raw green peanuts and finely diced pear on the side. The raw peanuts enhance the peanut flavors while giving the dish a tiny bit of bite. I thought the dish was even better than the first time I had it, though Dave H pointed out that it was a smaller portion than the first time- not a good sign. The pork belly, miso butterscotch and artichoke was the other dish that I had eaten previously. I think this dish is absolutely fantastic. The butterscotch somehow avoids being clingly sweet, and the artichokes are the true star of the dish. The pork belly was less tenderly cooked than the last time (it’s sous vide), but it was still delicious. I hope they’ll quickly be able to improve the consistency of the dishes to turn out perfectly cooked versions of this stuff every time, because the food is too good for the cooking or ingredient quality not to stand up. There's also some sort of alcohol in the butterscotch. An aside: the bread at Tailor is fantastic. They have an olive bread and a raisin bread- top quality. The breads are served with a canelle of butter topped with thin chives. It is especially great if you steal ALL of the chives for your slice. Again, raisins and chives- why aren’t more people doing it? (And don’t tell me you’re putting chive cream cheese on your raisin bagel, because I don’t accept raisin bagels to begin with). It’s kind of hard to pick favorites from this menu, but the peeky toe crab, smoked pineapple and basil may have been my favorite of the new dishes I tasted. The menu fails to mention the delicious, preciously thin iberico ham “chip” that adds the necessary salt for this dish. Each of the three spoonfuls of peeky toe crab salad have a smear of pine nut butter beneath them, bringing a wonderful nutty woodsiness into the mix. Like many avant garde dishes, it’s best if you combine all of the elements in each bite. The crab, pine nut, microbasil, pineapple and ham all bring a necessary taste and texture element to the dish. If they sold ham chips like that in bags in our vending machine at work, I’d have a serious problem on my hands.

Wow, the entire menu? How many were you? What was the total bill? And I noticed you didn't single out any cocktails for mentioning... What would you recommend off of the "sweets" menu for a group coming after dinner? ← I think this food is every bit as good as Alinea, which is my favorite meal of my life. There is no question that Sam is turning out the best avant garde food in NY right now and that he's completely capable of doing savories. In fact, I think the savory courses are significantly better than the desserts right now. Since I know Sam can make some kick ass dessert, I have very high expectations for the future of Tailor. Every savory course except the duck was a serious hit for me. We actually ate 3 of every course on the entire menu, and we were six people, so each course was shared between two people. The amount of food was not too much. With tip, I think the total bill was $800- about $133/person. We were all having significant trouble with math at that point in the evening. I believe pretip was $687. We gave some amount between $687 and $1000. That part of the evening is fuzzy. I think Nathan's failure to single out any cocktails is due to the fact that they are great and quite varied. I've forgotten several of the names, but I like the Lavendar Fizz, the Paprika Punch (I'd imagine bell pepper tastes like this to the host of iron chef) and the Cascade, which is super dry and truly delicious. I think the soft chocolate and caramel panna cotta dishes are fantastic. I wish I could remember the olive cake better, but I remember thinking the yogurt ice cream was insanely good.

A group of 6 of us are going Sunday night. At least one of us will report afterwards.

Monday.

I'm not sure that they're actually taking reservations, other than as a courtesy to the people that they failed to serve who had reservations. They definitely do not pick up the phone or return messages (although you do get to listen to Sam's sexy voice saying "Tailor"). Since my first two reservations have been failed to various degrees (Saturday they were open and everything was free with a set menu of one savory, one sweet and one cocktail and yesterday was as described by Nathan previously), I'm waiting to see what happens with our reservation for Sunday. They're clearly having liquor license issues, but the GM seems to be a pathological liar, so it's not entirely clear when that will be cleared up. Report to follow, but the previews on Saturday were really great and the cocktails are definitely among the best and most interesting available in New York right now. That being said, they should make room for a Kold-Draft machine. The way they're making ice right now works (provided that they use it, which they didn't on Saturday) but seems arduous. The cocktails were remarkably better downstairs at the bar with proper ice and Alex the bartender making them.

Completely agreed.

I think Striphouse is only loud in the bar area in front. The back restaurant hasn't ever struck me as particularly loud.

I believe the price tag is now up to $250 for the tasting, sans wine?? I got in last year when it was at the $210 mark. ← And not just with the price tag. Between per se and ad hoc, TK has opened up the opportunity for a myriad of bad latin restaurant names. Perhaps ab irato for Jeffrey Chodorow? Or the next branch of spotted pig, "ad astra per alia porci?" Res ipsa loquitor for a confident restauranteur? Not to get off topic though. The price increases at per se have been enormous, but I think it's proof of what the market can bear. They're booked all the time. I feel pretty certain they could increase the price tag another $50 and not see a signifcant drop in demand.

Nathan, have you eaten at P*ong? Because I thought it was pretty terrible. I've been an enormous fan of Sam since my first time at WD-50 and I feel certain that he can bring it in a big way. When we have some reviews we'll have a basis for comparison, but my instinct is that Tailor will overshadow P*ong in a major way. ← oh, I hope so! except for one or two dishes, I wasn't impressed with P*Ong. but I was eating the semi-savories...since I don't really do dessert. and the cocktails are awful. so, yeah, I'm hopeful about Tailor...just saying that in terms of genre-busting, P*Ong has already done (albeit not with great results) what Tailor was supposed to do last year. (Will talked about doing this at Room4Dessert but hadn't gotten around to it.) ← See, I didn't find that to be the case at P*ong, regardless of what it claims to do. The sweet dishes were much sweeter than anything I've ever had from Sam and the "Sweet and Savory" dishes weren't really sweet and savory at once, but sweet in some aspects (ice cream) and savory in others (cheese). All of Sam's desserts tend to be at once sweet and savory, and his sweet is never hugely sweet. There's an obvious analogue in cocktails. Cocktails can be savory or sweet, but a truly well made cocktail is never too sweet. I think it's the primary thing setting Death & Co, Pegu, etc apart from places like EO or Angelshare. To me, the sweet dishes at P*ong and the sweet elements of the sweet and savory dishes were sickningly sweet. Maybe I just went on an off night, but nothing I had at P*ong was well executed. Can someone get there and give us a report already?!

Nathan, have you eaten at P*ong? Because I thought it was pretty terrible. I've been an enormous fan of Sam since my first time at WD-50 and I feel certain that he can bring it in a big way. When we have some reviews we'll have a basis for comparison, but my instinct is that Tailor will overshadow P*ong in a major way.

He wrote about it for Men's Vogue: http://www.mensvogue.com/health/regimen/ar...n?currentPage=2

Really? I've always fancied myself more of an Ann Landers of food, but I guess I'm quirky like that.

Yes, they are, but Paule gave a long explanation about them being a type of scallop which I have now forgotten but Dave H probably remembers.

My understanding is that coquilles Saint Jacques are actually a specific type of scallop. When I did a cooking class with Paule Caillat (www.promenadesgourmandes.com) in Paris, we picked some of these up from the open market near her home. They were really succulent and sweet and had a weird orange "foot" in them. Here's a picture from a quick search online: http://cucinatestarossa.blogs.com/weblog/2...de_ma_fe_1.html.

Kom Tang Soot Bull House on the south side of 32nd St still does coals. The food is quite good. They have some sort of delicious raw crab dish that they bring to the table that is heavenly.

You're dismissing Tavern Room as too casual and then suggesting Peasant? I like Peasant too, but it's hardly a destination restaurant.

Peter Luger isn't even financeable (no credit cards). I think Blue Hill and Hearth are significantly better restaurants than Peasant and Spotted Pig. Those are both significantly cheaper, but I'm not a huge fan of either and I wouldn't consider them celebratory.

I'm of two minds on this one. On one hand, I'm happy to join Nathan in vocalizing my longstanding hatred of RestaurantGirl, her reviews and everything she stands for as a blogger and "food critic." The idea that her biased, poorly written and largely uninteresting reviews are being even slightly legitimized makes me feel ill. There are so many amazing food bloggers out there (Clotilde, for example), it seems sad that a very notable move from blogging to mainstream media is being made by a woman with so little culinary knowledge and even less journalistic ethic. I realize that you don't have the same ethical obligations to your readers as a blogger that you have as a mainstream but critic, but she's going to have a lot to prove to me before I begin to believe that her opinions a) matter and b) reflect her actual taste. Frankly, I'm a little convinced that Andrea Strong ACTUALLY loves every restaurant she goes to, whereas I'm merely convinced that Danyelle Freeman loves herself (and long walks on the beach, making jewelry, and the SundayStyles section featuring her unsupportable opinions). "Read me, read me" obviously works in this town (when coupled with strategically angled photos). On the other hand, she is now the food critic for the DAILY NEWS. Should we really all be taking it so seriously? I for one couldn't have told you the food critic for the Daily News was prior to this if my life depended on it. Maybe that makes me ignorant, but I doubt it. I'd be more concerned if she were freelancing for the Times. Then again, Sietsema turned a newsletter into a lifelong career with the Voice. Only time will tell where RestaurantGirl ends up (Is she cute enough to be Jeffrey Steingarten's assistant? Will Top Chef need another judge?) but I sincerely doubt it will be as a serious food writer.

The prices at Blue Hill and Hearth are almost exactly the same. Entrees are about $30. Appetizers are about $12-15. Desserts are $10. That's $55 before tax and tip, which should come out right around the high end of the given range. If you share an appetizer and a dessert, you can easily eat within the low range. And Blue Hill throws in a number of amuses, etc., especially if you let them know it's a special occasion. Tavern Room is actually one of my favorite restaurant spaces in the city. It was the spot that my great aunt used to take me for special dinners as a kid/teenager/too poor to afford it myself young adult, so maybe I have a skewed view of it (it felt very sophisticated at the time). But I do think the atmosphere is a lot nicer than Upstairs or Ssam Bar, though both are favorite restaurants of mine. That being said, my recent meal at Tavern Room was quite disappointing, so I can't really recommend it wholeheartedly.

I think Nathan is being a little extreme with his definition of great. Hearth or Blue Hill would both be great options in that price range- and they're a lot more birthdayish than the other suggestions. WD-50 is in that price range (I find it hit or miss, but always interesting and adventurous). Tavern Room at Gramercy Tavern is easily in that price range (although I'm not convinced about the new chef). Ushiwakamaru is in that price range.