kathryn

I think their ma paul tofu (aka mapo tofu) is the best example of where spice is integrated into the taste of the dish but only as a component. For me, the spiciness doesn't hit until the very end of my first taste.

$225? That's as much as the tour (26 course tasting) costs at Alinea. I know the man is in demand, but jeez. And I'm guessing most of the people who would be interested in attending already have the book on pre-order (which comes signed if you pre-ordered it from their site).

I was mistaken. There are still some 3- and 4-tops in front. Three, to be precise. Two 4-tops and one 3-top. They did push two together to seat a large party who were getting a Bo Ssam.

One of the Death & Co bartenders says he's seen champagne coupes for sale at a tea shop on the Lower East Side on Rivington Street. I haven't checked it out for myself but I think he speaks of The Tea Gallery, which is on 131 Allen St., just off Rivington St., on the west side of the street. It's a Chinese tea shop.

I might not be explaining it using the right terms, but from what I have observed, the kitchen is now more of a big square donut, opposed to long counters and aisles. What used to be the ssam assembly area turned into the pickle plating and steamed buns area after dinner took off. So now the kitchen now has more of an open feel, and the pickle/bun assembly area is now the raw bar and desserts station. The raw bar and desserts station behind the long counter has become a wine storage area and also where servers go to put in orders, etc. The peninsula seating at the front of the restaurant is now gone, as one side has been replaced by a sink. The L shaped waiting table is now in front. They've gotten rid of almost all of the 4-top tables in front. The end of the bar nearest to the kitchen now has the peninsular, two-across counter seats. There's also a 4th 8-top table back against the wall where the orders computer and rice cooker used to be.

What do you mean? ← The list isn't that long. Maybe 15+ cocktails, and I'm guessing that 4-5 drinks have mint in them. I happen to like mint a whole lot but I recognize that not everyone does. Compare the menu now with back in 2005: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1001104 A lot of those drinks are still on the menu, whereas the newer places (Tailor, PDT, etc.) revamp their menus on a more regular basis. The last PDT changeover jettisoned all but one or two drinks, IIRC, which is more interesting to me. Anyway, I agree with Sneakeater. As usual. On most things.

Even since they switched over the new menu, my estimation of Death & Co. has only gone up. The menu is rich and varied. I love Pegu a lot but the menu seems a bit stale and not as balanced (use of ginger beer and mint), and cocktails going to those seated at tables might not receive as much care and attention.

Also, what growth has there been on the UWS? It all seems concentrated in the same area, give or take. There's Bar Bouloud right by Lincoln Center. But everything else seems to be between 72nd street and 90th street or so: Grandaisy, Salumeria Rosi, Jacques Torres, Grom, Fatty Crab, West Branch, Shake Shack, 81, Dovetail, the revamped Aix, the revamped Rain, Valenti's new place, new Kefi location...

Note that Ssam Bar is closed for renovations until Sept 2. And Picholine is no longer offering their gift card.

Why leave Flushing, at all? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/dining/30flushing.html

For Flatiron Lounge, you can also reserve the downstairs room. I've been to a few birthdays there before.

For the dinner crowd, I've noticed a lot of groups of Asian people with shopping bags. For me, it's a convenient after-work meeting location since friends who work all over the city can find at least one train that drops them off in that part of Midtown.

I've been there, lingering post-dinner, when it's late enough that they start switching out the regular dinner menu with the late night food and drink menu (the one with the popcorn on it), is that enough confirmation? It was a Sunday night, a few months ago. The wreckfish preparation is pretty similar to the old Brook Trout prep (corn, Benton's bacon, nori and chanterelle mushrooms). The shrimp and watermelon salad is nice and I'm please to see that they are using both red and yellow watermelons.

FG, as I wrote earlier Bar Milano only has a bar menu past midnight says the NYT but their web site is not very helpful in determining whether or not that includes some food. I meant to caveat my post and label the wine/tapas bars as such. Basically I was going off my personal list, which structured to answer the question "where do I go when it's midnight on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, I'm in Manhattan, and I want to sit down and eat?" but then I took off some of the restaurants like izakayas because of LPShanet's original inquiry for upscale/ambitious spots, no delis, no pizza, no Chinatown, no diners. In my twisted logic, though, wine bars were OK. Maybe if izakayas count, then the pizza/deli/Korean/diner/etc. joints still should count if the food is good, so at least the list is more complete.

Fair enough. If I'm in doubt, I usually call, but of course, this doesn't help if the restaurant doesn't answer their phone or it goes straight to the machine.

Open past midnight on "off" days of the week: Ditch Plains Daily: 9am-2am Landmarc (Tribeca and Time Warner Center locations) Dinner daily: 4pm-2am Momofuku Ssam Bar dinner 5 pm - 2 am* *sun - wed from 12am - 2am we offer special wine, beer and sake selections with an abbreviated food menu Pastis Supper Sun-Thu: 12am-2am Fri-Sat: 12am-2:30am Schiller's Late Supper Mon-Wed: 12am-1am Thu: 12am-2am Fri-Sat: 12am-3am Sun: 12am-1am Balthazar Dinner & Supper Mon-Thu: 6pm-12:30am Fri-Sat: 6pm-1:30am Sun: 5:30pm-12am Spotted Pig Mon-Fri, noon-4am; Sat-Sun, 11am-4am Blue Ribbon Brasserie Manhattan Daily 5pm to 4am Blue Ribbon Sushi Manhattan Daily noon to 2am Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill (Columbus Circle) Daily: 5pm to 2am Blue Ribbon Downing St Bar (Wine bar, small plates) 7 days a week 4 pm - 2 am 'ino Daily, 9am-2am 'inoteca Daily, 12pm-3am Sushi Seki Mon-Sat: 5:30pm-3am, Closed Sundays Stanton Social Mon-Wed, 5pm-2am; Thu-Fri, 5pm-3am; Sat, 11:30am-3am; Sun, 11:30am-2am Lan Mon-Sat: 5:30pm-2:30am Sun: 5:30pm-11pm Employees Only Mon-Fri: 6pm-4am Sat-Sun: 11am-4am Centro Vinoteca Mon-Fri, 9am-2am Sat-Sun, 11am-2am Gottino Mon-Fri, 8am-2am Sat-Sun, 11am-2am Terroir (kitchen closes at 1am) Mon-Sat, 5pm-2am Sun, closed dell’anima Mon-Fri, 5:30pm-2am Sat-Sun, 11am-3pm and 4pm-2am Jimmy's No. 43 Sun-Thu: 3pm-2am Fri-Sat: 3pm-4am Spitzer's Corner Daily, 11am-4am Bar Jamon Mon-Fri, 5pm-2am Sat-Sun, noon-2am Bar Veloce (Soho, Chelsea EV) Open Daily 5pm-3am Resto closes at 11:30pm Mon-Wed. Florent is done and gone. Mas Farmhouse scaled back their hours. Bar Milano only has a bar menu past midnight says the NYT and their web site is not very helpful in determining whether or not that includes some food. The Odeon closes at midnight on Sundays, does that still count? Sushi Seki is closed on Sundays, too, BTW.

On non-weekend nights, they serve an abbreviated menu of food but still offer drinks and also focus on the 50 under $50 wine list. From their site: ssam bar hours of operation lunch 12 pm - 4 pm dinner 5 pm - 2 am* *sun - wed from 12am - 2am we offer special wine, beer and sake selections with an abbreviated food menu and periodic special events (details here). Older photo of the late night menu: http://www.flickr.com/photos/donbert/2328771421/ The lunch and dinner menus are on the web site.

They slow cook it overnight, then put it into the oven to finish. The crispy skin is the best part of the Bo Ssam IMHO. Mmmmm, skin.

PDT http://nymag.com/listings/bar/pdt/ 113 St. Marks Pl, New York, NY - (212) 614-0386 Reservations highly recommended, reservations only taken day of, call precisely at 3pm, bar is first come, first served. No standing. Extremely popular. [edit] SUNDAY-Thurs 6 pm-2 am, Fri-Sat 6 pm-4 am. Death & Co http://www.deathandcompany.com/ 433 E. 6th St, New York, NY - (212) 388-0882 No reservations taken, doorman will take your number if they are full, no standing allowed either. Very popular. Open 6pm to midnight. Last call around 11:20ish. Hopstop.com will tell you door to door subway instructions if you require. They have a WAP site, SMS instructions, and instructions via Interactive voice response too if you are away from your computer. Google SMS will also tell you addresses of places. Text 466453 (GOOGLE) with name of bar/restaurant.

Darren72, that makes sense. I guess that part that struck me as odd was the person who ordered the wine wasn't completely confident in his assessment, and just wanted confirmation from the server. And our server kept telling us that he could replace the bottle, rather than agree or disagree. I've never had a bad bottle of wine happen to me before, and I was a guest at the dinner, so I just sat there and watched the exchange. It was a little humorous, after the fact.

It was definitely duck, a "candy bar" of duck confit, topped by duck tenderloin and duck gizzard, paired with three sauces: onion, hazelnut, and onion top. Some freeze-dried blueberries, as well as pickled blueberries, micro chives, cereal bits, and duck skin. Our menu: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/264858...83a7a6e12_b.jpg I wasn't too clear on the East-West thing either but he was referring the use of the gizzard, etc. maybe?

Regarding the duck concoction with chocolate and blueberry, our server remarked to us that it was a hit or miss dish, and people with less Westernized palates seemed more receptive to it. (I'm Asian-American, my fiance is Caucasian, we both enjoyed the dish.) If you are afraid of having too much to drink, friends of mine have reported that you can ask for them to choose 2-3 glasses of wine for you. And they'll choose ones that go with a few courses in succession. Have fun, kai-m! We liked it so much, we are already planning our next trip to Chicago.

FWIW, Mei Lah Wah has been closed for a few months now.

Ditto. And some restaurants will take put on the waiting list if you feel you really need to have a reservation. For a solo diner, the only trouble I foresee having is pizza (many notable pizza spots don't do slices) or doing a tasting menu (Babbo for example will not do it for a solo diner). See also: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=99646

"Jackets recommended for gentleman, jeans not allowed." Documentation of our meal (The Tour) can be found on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryn/sets/...7684591/detail/