Wemedge

thatss called "Bad service." if this is really what happened. even if it wasn't, that was your impression, and it sounds like they've got some attitude. for a restaurant of marea's caliber, he should have went to the kitchen and got you a whole branzino head and presented it to your table with flourish. you did ask for it. it comes to the danny meyer idea that you can't teach people to care, you can only teach technical service.

1. the name of the farm of the vegetable/meat on the menu. 2. Mille-Feuille, palette, coulis, soubise. 'nuff said. thats all i can think of right now, more to come.

oh god. shrimp scampi? au jus? garden fresh? almondine? amandine? where are you all eating!!! i will return with some of my real menu pet peaves in a flash........

um, no its not. pan roasting is finishing by throwing the "pan" in the oven to "roast" putting a piece of fish in a pan with a little hot oil is called "saute"...a lot more oil its called "pan fry" pan roast is finishing in the oven. period.

no but you can use opentable to access other guest information in a restaurants group, if the group wants it configured that way, but a jean georges restaurant can't look at gramercy tavern's opentable guest history and notes

For some reason, the Times is only listing those places Frank Bruni has reviewed, which is a bit odd. I am quite sure that Tom Colicchio still believes he is a three-star chef, even though the stars came from Biff Grimes.These, to my knowledge, are the three-star restaurants named by Reichl or Grimes that Bruni has not either re-confirmed or demoted: Aquavit Chanterelle Craft Gotham Bar & Grill JoJo Kurumazushi La Grenouille Nobu & Next Door Nobu (but Bruni did review Nobu 57) Sushi Yasuda (visited by Bruni in Dining Briefs) Tabla Union Square Café Veritas ← that is a very interesting list! veritas should definitely get a rereview, craft too, and chanterelle, and maybe aquavit.

double secret recognition. very interesting. i think the only two people in new york who would get "Double secret" attention are frank bruni and adam platt. when cuozzo or gael green or alan richman or the unfortunate john mariani come to dinner, no one pretends, its no secret. and its not only line cooks and chefs.....front of house in 3/4 star restaurants get treated like super PX when we dine out because we have the opportunity to talk about other restaurants to hundreds of our guests on a daily basis while line cooks only talk to other cooks.

speaking as an industry professional...... pretty much in a 3/4 star restaurant that is paying attention if you spend over 600 dollars on a bottle of wine, you should immediately go into the restaurants opentable guest notes as "wine px/xp/vip, attn: wine director" and any time you come to dinner.... in the pre meal service meeting, it will be announced that you are coming and you will probably get free mid course/dessert/dessert wine/champagne and the best captain and the best table.

let me tell you honestly, danny meyer restaurants are the worst. i have been to EMP and gramercy tavern each over 15 times, emp probably 30 times. less free stuff than most, for sure. at places like jean georges, picholine, bouley, etc...... you get much more stuff for being a regular, like comp mid courses, comp champagne, comp desserts, comp dessert wine. hell even per se. but per se is in its own category.

here's the deal happening with corton: what happens with 3 star restaurants in nyc is that all walks of life attend 3 star restaurants. upper east side grey haired ladies, nj housewives, bridge and tunnel trash, tribecca foodies...... people get high expectations. everyone wants that 8 pm reservation saturday night. most people attend between 7 and 9 on friday and saturday. corton may be an exception because they are more booked than mosxt 3 stars in nyc. guests just bitch. expectations are so high that people create mountains out of molehills. corton is great. once in a while there is a miss, but most courses are a hit. his food is pretty much brilliant but once in a while there is a flop. which is why places like jean georges and per se are better..... there are less flops. but who cares? $78 for 3 courses? damn good.

it took me like 3 times to really have a good time at momofuku ssam. i've found that you can really order the wrong things and have a bad experience...... its best to not have wine (and DEFINITELY not buy the glass, as you get wine in some skimpy little 2 ounce glass), order a bunch of beers, go as a group of 4-6 and order the entire menu and just let it arrive as it comes out of the kitchen.

bouley downstairs for sure!

i have gotten the 18 course for $275, quite a treat but i was dining along and I ordered nice wine and I had some friends who work there.

also on the topic of regulars and VIPS. OF COURSE a restaurant should take care of its repeat guests or industry professionals. However, if a restaurant staff isn't able to discern that you are the kind of guest that is a "foodie" or you pay attention to the food and the service, they don't really deserve your repeat business. I can't tell you how much free stuff I've received (extra uni, mid courses, comp dessert wine, whatever)....just by being polite and paying attention and being really passionate/interested in what the restaurant has to offer. But I can guarantee if you start off with a bellini and have a green salad and the chicken, you might not get any perks. Unless of course you are a polite repeat guest. But this is another topic altogether, which I think has been rehashed on egullet several times.