mogsob

Moondog -- London is only a short train ride away!

How exciting! My favourite bartender in London . . . and a drink named for us. I will certainly try to attend (with my better half). Perhaps it will bring back memories of the Blackbird, which was during its short life simply the best cocktail lounge in NYC. Dale's drink seems to be a variation of a Combustible Edison -- can anyone confirm?

For bistros, the Lebey guide is by far the best and most reliable. TimeOut's Eating and Drinking Guide to Paris is a notch below. Michelin is not a good source for bistros, as it is not that extensive. Patricia Wells' Food Lover's Guide to Paris is also very good, but somewhat out of date. Generally, a good write up in 3 of the 4 merits a visit. I'll also give a plug to John Whiting, whose bistro reviews are second to none.

The "o"s in otto are pronounced as very short "oh"s. Sort of like the sound you make if kicked in the nuts. I also believe that Babbo is pronounced: "Overrated restaurant run by extremely smug people." But then again, I could be wrong.

BLH -- can you shed some light on the admission issue at BM? It is my understanding that BM is prohibited from charging even a volunatary admission (like the Met's) due to a trust issue.

While it is true that the BM's collection of stolen antiquities significantly eclipses that of the various purchased collections residing in NY, it is also true that the BM is so severly underfunded that only an insignificant portion of its collection is displayed. Indeed, in recent years, the BM has had to send its best pieces out of the country to show in other museums to raise operating funds (save for, notably, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin marbles). By contrast, the Met and other NY museums display virtually their entire collection.

Paris far ahead of NYC in its offering of half bottles. Most restaurants offer a pretty good selection there.

The answer, I think, has to do with culture more than anything else. I see this question as being inextricably tied to Steve's last question about the relevance of Italian cuisine. Just as Italians have developed a culture antithetical to haute cuisine, the French restaurant was fully evolved at the time when restaurants such as GT and USC came about in NY (which, after all, was not all that long ago). In fact, NY used to be a lot like Paris, where a place as formal as La Cote Basque was an offshoot of Le Pavillion. Just as Paris may indeed lack restaurants like Craft or GT (why do the Danny Meyer restaurants so frequently come up here -- is he a category unto himself?), NY lacks much of a bistro culture. Indeed, NY's casual neighborhood spots are invariably mediocre-at-best Italian pasta joints, while even a good neighborhood bistro can command top dollar (see, Etats Unis, Tocqueville, Red Cat etc., which I think are really American bistros). But perhaps Paris will evolve. I think Leyoden's casual restaurant is an indicator of things to come.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. London has some of the best Italian restaurants outside of Italy. Italian restaurants in the States are good, but not really the real thing. See Pumpkino, Peter "Real Italian Restaurants" 2001 to date.

My #1 complaint about London is that there seems to be a complete lack of good dining options in and around Covent Garden/Strand area for either pre or post theatre dining options. Combine this with the fact that most restaurants don't start serving until 6, stop at 10, and shows begin at 7:30, you have a problem big enough that you can't sink your teeth into. Any suggestions from more seasoned Londoners? I grow weary of the post curtain Rules run.

Pizza Metro is great for Italian food in general, not just pizza. Pumpkino could probably deliver a 1,000 words essay on the subject.

Browns for tea. Sea Shell for fish and chips. Rules for the ye old England thing. Royal China for dim sum. The Dorchester for Sunday Roast. Pizza Metro for Italian/pizza.

Forgive me, but I nearly split my sides laughing. These are not really parks, but rather open space within the confines of a square block. London has hundreds, if not thousands of what NYers would deem "pocket parks." That said, Central Park is the best of any urban park. It is central, huge, and of varying topography. Most people don't realize just how big Central Park is, but you could just about fit the entire Upper East and Upper West Sides within its borders. I would love to see the stats, but I would suspect that Central Park is larger than Hyde Park + St. James' Park + Green Park. Of course, while Central Park has gangs of wilding youths after dark, London's parks are filled with royals eating game from Simon's butcher.

Where to begin? Culture: With six full-time orchestras (and two vastly superior to NYP, namely LSO and BBC), a superior opera house, better theatre (including the RSC, despite its faults), Odeon Leicaster Square, Chelsea Cinema, and the various art/rep houses around, London is vastly better than NYC for the performing arts. The only area where NY may have a lead is in dance, as I am not aware of a company like the Joyce in London. Nothing in London touches Carnegie Hall (you can blame Germany for that), but there are more performance spaces here (if you include the unspeakably awful RFH). Art: NY still has the edge in fine art, in my opinion, although London does have more by way of museums. Transportation: Taxis are better, but far too expensive for every day use. The tube runs more often and (at least for me, Lexington Ave line/District line) more reliable; but, the tube is much more expensive and shuts down far too early. London's airports are more accessable and better than NY counterparts. Food shopping: London by a country mile. Borough Market is vastly better than Union Sq. Harrods/Selfridges food halls are better than any gourmet market in NY, and are less expensive by a large measure. The butcher shops are better in London (lamb, veal, game, chicken much better in London), but nothing beats Lobel's aged beef. Ditto fishmongers. Ditto wine shops. London, at least here, is better and cheaper than NY. Pubs: There are no good pubs in NY, so even if those in London close early, there is nothing in NY to compare them to. Bars: NY by a mile. Bars in London are bad and overpriced. You can drink in style at Bemelman's Bar in the Carlyle for a fraction of the cost of an ordinary London bar. Restaurants: I really can't decide on this one. I like my regular rotation of restaurants in London better, but the cost of London dining is outrageous when compared with NY or Paris. Simon answered this one better than I ever could. Housing: Prime housing in London and NY costs about the same to rent, but London has far more available. London is also much cheaper to buy (a five story townhouse on my block in Chelsea just sold for 2 million -- it would have been over 10 million in NY). Safety: Statistics say that London is far safer for violent crime. London crime is going up, NY is coming down. Best advice -- avoid wearing Man U colors to Highbury.

Well, that goes without saying. What I'd like to know is if anyone has ever had the '67 and can comment on whether, if preserved correctly, is worth the price. While Bordeaux seems to turn out pretty good wine year in and year out these days (albeit in differing quantities depending upon vintages), I am aware that this was not always the case.

An opportunity to buy a 67 Margaux at $45 a bottle. Any thoughts?

Well, I used to like Nice and especially Golden Unicorn quite a bit, but recent experiences (mostly 1999-2000) have not been good.

The best restaurant I have been to in Vienna is Drei Husaren, right around the corner from Stephensplatz. Very expensive for Vienna, very reasonable for the rest of Europe. They have what might be the best Austrian wine list in the world, full of wonderful GVs and Kracher sweet wines.

I don't think there are any London Chinese restaurants more expensive then Shun Lee or Chin Chin. I regularly go to Hunan and Royal China, and every so often to Hakassan (sp?). Each is superior to any Chinese restaurant I've been to in NYC, including those mentioned earlier and Canton, Joe's, the various incarnations of Evergreen etc.

Wait a sec -- London has sushi restaurants? Where? [edit: joke] Wilfrid, I agree. Chinese is vastly superior in London to NY. Ditto Indian. Ditto Middle Eastern. Peter, titlting at windmills as usual. No need to go there as we both like Pizza Metro. Kikujiro -- I've been to Vama, but like Zaika and its sibling, Zaika Bazaar much better. New Year's Resolution: Go east. But not to Butler's or Pont de la Tour.

Very true. But that's not to say that I haven't ventured out of the SW. I have, and with a few exceptions, the results have not been great. Also, many of the places I go in the city are open only for lunch.

Here are a few suggestions from a transplanted NYer: Haute Cuisine Gordon Ramsay (SW3) The Capital (SW1) Le Gavroche (W1) English Monkey's (SW3) Ransome’s Dock (SW11) St. John (EC1) French Roussillon (SW1) Chez Bruce (SW17) Middle Eastern Ishbilya (SW1) Fish Back to Basics (W1) Restaurant One-o-One (SW1) Chinese Royal China (W2) Hunan (SW1) Indian Zaika (W8) Fish n' Chips Sea Shell (NW1) Pizza/Italian Made in Italy (SW3) Pizza Metro (SW11) Pubs Crawl Red Lion (W1) Anglesea Arms (SW7) The Grenadier (SW1) The Nag's Head (SW1)

I also have tasted no difference between US and UK Guinness, although I understand that the Coach & Horses in Wellington St. serves the real Irish thing.

Shaw makes a great call with the Iron Horse Brut LD. I tasted it up in Sonoma last year and the recent vintage is very good indeed, although pushing the $50 limit as noted. I think the best $50 bottle of Champagne is Lanson's Gold Label. Lanson's cheaper Black Label (about $25) is my regular bubbly. I also like Charles Ellner's vintage bottlings, which hover around the $50 mark.

We dined at L'Impero Saturday night. It was a fabulous meal that exceeded even the high expectations set by the Times' 3-star salute last month. We all ordered the $49 4 course tasting menu (you select from the full a la carte menu). Here is what I had: 1. Fricasse of wild mushrooms with creamy polenta. 2. Farfalle with crispy sweetbreads. 3. Roast venison (can't recall the full description, but it had chestnust, juniper and cassis). 4. Pumpkin pannacotta. I also tried my wife's short ribs and the goat. Of the wines we drank, I recall only a blend by the Ceretto brothers which was very good. A recommendation from the owner of a wine from Naples followed, but was not memorable at all. The fricasse was the star of the evening, followed closely by the farfalle. The venison was also very good, but a notch below GT's. I really liked the room, which is elegant and quite, despite being completely full. The service, which has been the subject of some criticism here, was flawless. The restaurant feels very much like an upscale NY restaurant -- it could be anything, French, Italian, American etc. The food is also not quite Italian, but more Italian-influeneced than anything else. All in all a very memorable meal, and the best new restaurant I have tried in NY since Bid. We will be back.