marcus

I don't claim to have extensive knowledge of the restaurant situation in Italy, but I think that there are many other reasons that might account for Il Mulinazzo closing. The location is horrible. You might have the impression that it is near to Palermo, but from a practical point of view, it really isn't. I can't imagine that its rather drab area has the capability of providing the repeat clientele that most every restaurant needs to be successful over the long term. The dining room and service lack warmth and have that generic upscale ambience, that I at least do not find appealing. It is very possible that one could have a much better meal there than we did, but even in that case, and I do encourage you to try it for yourself, I would ask you whether you have any desire to go back, or whether you would say, been there -- done that. In general we did not observe that the restaurants in Sicily were lacking customers. When we had lunch at the Duomo in Ragusa, the restaurant was full and was turning away drop-ins. This restaurant is attractive and well located in a palazzo just alongside of the Duomo in Ragusa-Ibla. Lots of affluent local people and tourists. Ciccio Sultana, who is compulsively gregarious, was working the front of the house, talking, clearing and delivering dishes, strangely he spent almost no time in the kitchen. His partner was very knowledgeable and helpful with wine selection. The food was really excellent, creative yet satisfying. In particular, I remember a wonderful pasta dish with dried tuna roe and carrot juice in place of tomato sauce. I was very sceptical, but somehow it really worked. My point being, that well located restaurants with ambiance and excellent food can still succeed. Don Camillo, the traditional fish restaurant in Ortigia was also always full and required a reservation at least a day in advance. There were also restaurants in Palermo that we failed to get into for lack of calling sufficiently ahead. As an aside, any trip to Sicily should include a visit to the Cantina Siciliana in Trapani. This is a classic trattoria with a fierce commitment to traditional local dishes, excellent ingredients, and careful preparation. Very well priced and extensive winelist as well. I understand that a few anecdotal experiences will not characterize the entire Italian restaurant scene, but I do believe that one can't generalize an individual situation such as with Il Mulinazzo, and one also needs to look at local circumstances. I wonder how Torre del Saracino is doing, I haven't been, but this is a restaurant with a very well reputed up and coming chef in a promising location on the Amalfi peninsula. I don't have any specific knowledge as to what is happening in other countries today, but the impact of location has always been a decisive factor. The most well known example was Pierre Gagnaire's restaurant when it was located in St Etienne, a small conservative industrial city far from the autoroute. Despite his Michelin 3 stars, and despite many people regarding him as among the very best chefs in the world, the restaurant went bankrupt. He moved to Paris, and has been a big success. With regard to Divina's point, for some reason, I believe that there has been a serious disconnect between the Italian food and restaurant reviewing organizations, and the restaurant going public, both Italian and visitor. There has been a lot of championing of the nuova cucina, although some of it has been less than successful from a culinary perspective. I have never been to Vissani, so I can't speak with personal certainty, but this is a restaurant that has been lauded by all of the guide books, yet I have never spoken to anyone who's opinion I respect, who has liked this restaurant at all.

I found my lunch at Mulinazzo last June to be unimpressive at best. If fell far behind the Duomo in Ragussa in terms of quality and creativity. It is a restaurant to which I would never consider returning. I can well imagine that they will be able to make a greater impression in Moscow. The restaurant is located in an essentially non-descript roadhous located well outside Palermo, beyond the suburbs, along a busy road in a charmless area. After some difficulty in finding it, we walked in to its standard upscale dining room, where there was a palpable lack of energy. I can no longer remember many of my individual dishes, but I do recall my impressions. My overall impression is that there didn't seem to be any coherent approach, but a lot of experimenting in different directions, but not profound in any way and the results were good, but not impressive. The best dish was the tuna prepared 3 ways, which I recall was quite interesting, but the tuna quality was less than the best and seemed a bit old. We were quite up on tuna at the time, as it was prime season and we were having it at virtually every meal. In general, the ingredients used were not pristine. Perhaps the restaurant was having difficulties and trying to save money. The medium large dining room was about 40% full, but I didn't think that this was too bad for a weekday in an out of the way location. There was a certain didacticism and lack of real imagination throughout, and the dish I remember best, because it really illustrated what I found wrong, was the specialty desert, a deconstructed cassata. This is just what you would expect, a cassata separated into its component parts. Just that, no imagination. To my mind, all of the elements of a cassata are quite distinct, clearly apprehendable, and one doesn't learn anything new by tearing it apart. I remember thinking that this could be good if they put it back together.

I have not been to ADNY, so my comments are speculative, but I have experienced Delourier at his two previous NY restaurants. I do want to say that I have little regard for Bruni's palate and foodwriting skills. I also believe that ADNY probably does deserve 4 stars versus its NY competition, considering the glaring weaknesses, and endemic inconsistancies of NY fine dining establishments. After all, 4 stars in the NYT only implies one of the best restaurants in NY, not in the world. However, I do have some reservations, as I do view Delouvrier as a particularly inconsistent chef, and the interesting discussion of the bland veal with the excellent vegetables could exemplify at least a temporary problems in melding the styles of Delouvrier and Ducasse. I have quoted below from a couple of my posts on the ADNY thread, in a dialogue with Fat Guy, in anticipation of Delouvrier taking charge.

No difference, restauarant or retail. If they were hunted, they need to be imported, not shot in the US.

It is not legal to sell domestic wild hunted game, as opposed to imported hunted game or game shot on a game farm. It is also not legal to sell wild caught freshwater fish (Great Lakes may be an exception). It is legal to consume it for personal use. I don't know what the inspection requirements are, but I have always assumed that this prohibition was due to the fact that wild fish and game is managed at government expense, and selling wild fish and game commercially would represent an illegal subsidy of commercial interests by the government.

Yes, there is a lot of hot air, but for certain restaurants and groups, there is enough convergence to provide real information. I know that I've now crossed off a few restaurants, but not many. There are also interesting questions raised re JGV's restaurants, although not enough info yet to reach any real conclusions. What I find most interesting, and am convinced is true, is that many restaurants are abusing the tip pool, by using it as a way to partially compensate their managers. The waitstaff is essentially paying the salaries of people that should be fully compensated by the owners. This is illegal, and could become the subject of a grand jury investigation, if it were viewed as being of high enough priority. With the importance of the restaurant industry in this city, it probably should be.

My interpretation of the question is that you are asking whether the future of cuisine should be to converge, perhaps towards some homogenized or "fused" global ideal, or remain divergent as it is now, largely based on geography and cultural history. We are already seeing a breakdown in the traditional cuisines, with international procurement of foodstuffs and chefs employing fusion techniques. I personally don't see this as a positive trend, but it is an inevitable consequence of globalization. How far this will go remains to be seen. If a single best gastronomy were to exist, it would necessarily have to be reproducible anywhere, which implies commercial foodstuffs and possibly industrial techniques. As someone who appreciates diversity, I would not find this desireable, even if it could be shown to be best by some obective measure. So for me, the "ideal gastronomy" does not and cannot exist.

BigboyDan, perhaps you've just awakened from a long sleep. Whatever one may think of Adria, Spain is no longer a culinary backwater, it's the place where the most exciting things are happening. On the other hand, there is a real question as to whether France is in the process of, if not becoming quite a backwater, at least losing its longstanding culinary leadership. I don't actually believe this to be the case, but if Senderen were the model for France, then its obsolescence would already be upon us.

Agreed. In fact it is so not good that in my mind it essentially invalidates the entire list.

Are these the ratings for food or for popularity? I assume popularity. If food, it would be a true travesty.

Just thinking back, my recollection is that at its inception, the NYT stars applied to food only. I don't know when it was that service, decor and price entered into the equation, but my guess is that it was in the last 10-15 years. Early on, the selection of 4 star restaurants was much more eclectic than today. Ahead of Uncle Tai's, I remember that the original Hunam restaurant on the west side of 2d avenue just north of 45 street got 4 stars (I hope that I'm remembering this correctly). It was excellent and a revelation in New York, although the dishes were classic Hunnan, but nothing else about the restaurant was special, it was less upscale than David K, which foodwise represented the "americanized" opposite end of the spectrum. With regard to Bern's, I believe that in NYC it would get one or two stars. The steak isn't close to top NY quality, I personally tend to order the whole pompano. The desert balcony is a clever idea, but its really ultimately a gimmick for turning tables. The wine list is certainly outstanding, but only a small percentage of the selections are available in the restaurant on any given day, and within the past few years it has been repriced to market and is really now quite expensive. For many years they used to price it based only on their cost.

The key point is that each restaurant is evaluated by a unique self selected sample and that there is no equivalence between the samples that evaluate any 2 restaurants. Therefore the scores for any 2 restaurants have no statistically valid relationship one to another. When Zagat indicates that a rating is statistically significant, it only means that it is significant for the unique sample that rated a particular restaurant, not that there is any significance for comparing ratings among different restaurants.

All among the most expensive restaurants in Paris.

Seconding what Bux said, there is no generic Michelin one star experience. Although people are sceptical, Michelin states that stars are awarded solely based on the quality of the food, and I personally believe that this is true except possibly at the 3 star level. Thus a bistro such as Benoit can receive a star, although it is miles different in style from Violin. In the early 80s, Allard had one spoon and fork and 2 stars, and served true bistro food in a very simple bistro setting, very expensive however. If one is looking to approximate a fancy dining experience along with good food, Violin is not a bad choice. However, it is one of those restaurants that for some reason seems to appeal primarily to Americans and other English speaking visitors, other examples are Atelier Robuchon and Al Covo in Venice, there are many more, but you'll find very few locals, and the food is eclectic and somewhat generic. Christian Constant is a good chef, but overrated by visitors, he did once have 2 stars and probably came close to setting the record for holding them for the shortest time. Among the restaurants mentioned, I would vote for Au Trou Gascon, a true regional restaurant which serves what I would describe as real food. It is quite a way out of the center so perhaps may offer more value. This restaurant also had 2 stars many years ago, but when Dutournier opened Carre des Feuillants, he left his wife to run the original restaurant, and it lost one of its stars. Astrance, as far as I know, remains the most difficult reservation in Paris, so going there will require planning and effort, at least a month in advance.

I'm not saying that wine stores will not take back bad bottles, but it is a lot easier to reject a bottle on the spot in a restaurant, than go to the effort of bringing a bottle back to the store. Also what do you do when you've held the bottle for a few months before opening it, you might not even remember where you got it. Also, in a high end restaurant, the sommelier will probably inspect the wine, and may reject a bottle that the customer might not have. So I'm sure that the reject rate in a restaurant in practice turns out to be very much higher. How much impact that has on the overall expense of othe wine program, I don't know. I also don't believe that US restaurants pay retail for their wines, I'm confident that they buy primarily from wholesalers or at public auction.

I would guess that there are some other variable costs. Most significantly, there is the cost of money which will be related to turnover. I would guess that overall turnover in a restaurant is slower than a retailer. Restaurants may also stock many more high end expensive choices, that may move more slowly. Also a restaurant will experience many more rejected bottles, for which it must absorb the cost. However, I don't dispute the fundamental point, that restaurants generally do charge too much for wines, primarily because there is a restaurant culture that lets them get away with it. In a country like Spain in particular, you have a culture that just won't spend big bucks for wine, and even in the most expensive restaurants, the wines there are generally well priced.

And yet there is massive variation in what similar type restaurants charge for the same wine, even in the same cities. Zagat once did a comparision in NYC and posted it on its website, I don't know if its still there. Restaurants do apply different pricing strategies for successfully selling and profiting from wine, and its not clear that pricing at the max yields the best results. I know that I actually am willing to spend more when I believe that the wine list is well priced. I believe that as diners become more knowledgeable about wine, restaurants will need to price their wines to provide value, in order to sell them.

Annie Feolde, the chef co-owner of Enoteca Pinchiorri is French, but at least once upon a time they did try to serve real Italian food, and even had a menu of historic Florentine dishes. I've eaten there quite a number of times over the years, my last meal was unsatisfactory, and I haven't been back in about 3 years. The wine list, one of the best in the world, used to also be inexpensive, but the prices had risen about 350% between my last 2 meals, although the wine prices remain substantially below NY restaurant prices. At least, I don't remember that they served small plates, a deplorable international trend. No matter how good the cooking, the restaurant appears to have sacrficed its soul in order to regain its third star. To reiterate Robert Brown, "It's not eating in Italy as I know it", or as I love it either.

My old memories of Allard are so wonderful that I haven't seriously considered returning and risking further disappointments under the new regime. Thanks to your review, I absolutely will not return.

What exactly does Niman Ranch do that makes their beef superior to other sources? Niman ranch is actually a brand name, it's not any one place. It's an association that adheres to certain best practices.

In the early 80s, Allard was a 2 star Michelin restaurant, the only true bistro that I know of that ever received this rating. In the Lyonnais mere tradition, the reverse of what one normally sees in France, Fernande was in the kitchen and Andre managed the front of the house. Andre died relatively young and Fernande soldiered on in the kitchen, there was some decline and the restaurant lost a star. The restaurant lost another star and was eventually sold, and although it has always kept its same menu, the quality declined significantly. There have been recent reports that the restaurant has improved and is now quite good, but I haven't been in many years.

Truly incredible, totally unacceptable, and something that I've never seen at a high end restaurant. It should never have been poured, and I don't understand why you didn't send it back. Oxidation is a defect caused by poor handling or storage of the wine, for a young wine it was probably subject to very high temperature, and the restaurant should take responsibility as a matter of course.

Actually Luger's, and probably Wolfgang's as well, uses a broiler that is far far hotter than any found in a home kitchen, and the result is very different.

This just doesn't follow. Providing best service to one's customer is not pandering and does not lead to pandering when done properly. I would be interested as to what a NYT critic would say regarding this question.

Bouley offers a number of menu options, the $75 tasting menu, for example, is not really a tasting menu, but a four course option with slightly reduced portion sizes. The top of the line menu, which is chef's choice, is composed of 6 savory dishes in half portion size chosen from the chef's finest offerings and is composed of dishes selected from the menu and off-menu as well. This is followed by 3 deserts. It costs $135 and is probably most comparable to the Per Se 9 course tasting menu for $150.