Steve Plotnicki

I hope next year you dine with someone you love. Or at least like . Is Masa's a romantic place to begin with?

I feel like they have lowered their standards and restaurants that used to get 2 stars now get 3.

Throwing something at the server usually gets their attention. I just think it's the way certain servers are wired. Like any other job, certain people look to do the best job, and certain people look to get by without getting into trouble. An ambitious server, who would like to make a name for themselves with the powers that be, will go to a manager or the chef and say, I can sell the following if you guys can do it. Of course, you have to work in the right type of place. Let's call it a progressive kitchen. But if you have ever worked in sales you know, the sky is the limit in the right type of environment. But I will say something controversial as well and say that any place that is so rigid that they can't accomodate that type of special request, is likely to have food that sort of tastes homogenized.

I think it's also a function of lazy servers. The basic problem I had at Babbo is that the waitress assumed I didn't know what I was doing. Same with the sommelier. And they didn't want to invest the time to figure out that I might be a knowledgable diner. They just wanted to plow through my service as if I was one of the dozens of anonymous diners that would pass through that night. Anything else they weren't really interested in because it meant having to do extra work. And even if they went to speak to a manager, they they would probably communicate that I was a troublemaker giving them a hard time. When I was at Morimoto over the holidays. I started inquiring of our waitress what they might have or be able to prepare that was soy sauce/wheat free. As I began asking her about individual dishes, I could see a look of panic come over her. It was semi-torturous as I would ask her about a dish, she would say no it has soy sauce and she would leave. I even saw her speak to a manager and indicate she was having a hard time with our table. I kept asking her about various dishes and she kept saying no. It was really excruciating and I was getting very unhappy because there wasn't much to eat. Finally she went to speak to the manager a second time. A few minutes later he came to the table and he told us he spoke to the chef and he spit out an entire list of dishes that were without soy sauce, or which they were willing to prepare especially for me. All of a sudden we were all in love when a few minutes earlier we were all grouchy. It is really that easy if someone actually cares about you as a diner.

Even Winesearcher.com isn't helpful. They have 7-8 entires but they are all in France or Switzerland. I need to ask importer friends of mine or people who are into drinking esoteric white wines if they know who imports Bellet into the U.S.

What I am really surprised about, is that you guys all went there at all. This is a restaurant that was so far below my radar that when I heard from Shonfeld that he was going, I didn't even know what he was talking about. Now that I see what it is, it was destined to be nothing more, or better, then an Italiante version of the upper middle. I had this experience at RM last Saturday night. I was sucked in by the good Times review but it turned out to be as mediocre as mediocre it gets. Not even 2 stars in my opinion. But to be honest it's my fault. Moonen's cooking at Oceana wasn't ever anything special, why is it going to be special now? His name is on the lease? And why isn't Conant is the same category?

Oh gee Bellet is a tough one. One of the producers who does work with me used to summer in St. Jean Cap Ferrat when he was younger and he has fond memories of drinking Bellet. About 4 years ago he asked me to find him some and I tried but I couldn't. But recently somebody mentioned to me that there was a source in this country. But I am not remembering who that was. Hmmm. I will put on my thinking cap. When I had lunch at The Fat Duck in September, the sommelier, who was someone who grew up not far from Bandol, was raving about a particular Bellet, the producer of which I do not remember either. But let me do a little research and post on it. Anyway, the odds of finding Bellet on a wine list in Paris are are better then they are in NYC, but still pretty slim.

I agree with Lesley C. If you are describing lunch, it would be fair for the picture to be a reasonable representation of the lunch hour.

Well it is possible you never heard of it but I doubt it can't be found stateside. Next time this happens to you send me a PM and I will hook you up. In my experience, the vast majority of French wines that are worth anything are imported into the U.S.

Well it's a non-issue because they don't have any bad wines on their list to begin with. This isn't always the case at other places.

The real issue comes down to being that if you don't know anything about wine, how would you know if what the sommelier/waiter chooses is good or bad? To most neophytes, most wines taste the same. But what people are really afraid of is being ripped off. Being sold a relatively expensive bottle of wine that is junk. That's why the best you can do is to stick to a realistic pricepoint and hope the establishment is honest.

I agree they can be delicious. Thats's because the marinade is delicious. But they would be even more so if they improved the cooking time/marinade balance. Actually, I was recently surprised to speak with various people who attended the Diwan dinner who did not like the food at all. They can disclose who they are if they want to.

I find the chops at Diwan, both lamb and boar, to be difficult to eat. Besides their irregular shape, which results from the odd way they seem to be cut (is it a zigzag saw?) the level of marinade on the chops before they go into the tandoor results in the marinade not being fully absorbed before the meat is cooked through. And while the chops taste good, I have found that the outside is fairly wet, and not seared if you order the chops medium rare. I much prefer it when the chops are single rib, and the chef wipes the excess marinade off the chop before they go into the tandoor. Then they are charred on the outside with the marinade infused and just a touch of moisture left from the marinade. In fact, I find that most tandoori restaurants have a problem with the cooking times of anything other then chicken. Lamb chops, shrimps, etc., are almost always dry. One of the few places I know of that gets it right is Tamarind in London with their Tandoori Monkfish which is perfectly moist everytime I have had it which has to be at least a half dozen times. But it is also something where the marinade has been almost completely absorbed or cooked off in the tandoor. I'm not sure if it is the level of marinade applied to begin with, the density of the marinade so it cooks off in the tandoor, or the chefs wipe the excess marinade off before cooking. Whatever, they get the best results I've seen for non-chicken tandoori.

Beef stuffed with chicken, yummy.

rpdkpd - Well let me try and actually answer the question you asked. It is not typical for restaurants in France to offer wines by the glass that have been paired with individual courses. You will see it sometimes, specifically with tasting menus, but in my experience it is unusual to find it. Of course you can always order a glass of vin rouge or vin blanc, but that is probably cheap wine of poor quality. Some restaurants, most notable brasseries, sell wine by the "pot" or carafe which is anywhere from 2-4 glasses. But again, you are talking about the requisite quality and not anything really good. France is basically a "by the bottle" country. If you are inexperienced in wine, what I suggest you do is to establish a pricepoint and tell the sommelier in a restaurant, or waiter in a bistro, what food you are ordering and ask him what type of wine he would suggest at your pricepoint. If you know very little about wine, that will probably get you the best results, providing your pricepoint is realistic.

Because you deserve it for liking Italian food to the extent you do in the first place. Seriously, what do you expect? The chef's name is Conant for pastas sake. And the ingredients he has access to are not up to par with what they get in Italy. Even Batalli, who tries to access as many "real" ingredients as possible, can't do it to the extent that his cuisine is "real" Italian food. As he says himself, it's some variation on Italian food that they created. So unless you are in a place that has those peaches you like so much hand-delivered every day, I'm afraid you are stuck with this type of place as "the best" example of Italian cuisine in the city.

While this is an excellent sentiment, in reality it isn't true, Places with great food are usually crowded. Empty places typically don't have great food. So the inference drawn from the picture is that the food isn't so good, i.e., that's why nobody is there.

For a mass merchant, I think they set a pretty good standard.

I can't figure out if you are criticizing the coffee or the people who drink it. Or both?

Actually 7 of us had a cheese service at Bar Demi last night and we drank a 1985 Quintarelli Ca del Merlo and I thought it was terrific with the cheese. The wine was great by the way. But definately drink up if you have any. Then we had a 1997 Domaine L'Aiguliere (or however they spell it) Cote Doree and I thought that went less well because the wine had a sort of tangerine like acidity that I didn't prefer. But I think that old wine, especially mature Bordeauxs or Barolos go fine with cheese. But I have to say that I haven't spent an excessive amount of time pairing them. I'm usually just finishing what's in my glass.

This is an old fashioned bistro luxe that faces Invalides. They are known for serving a large basket of various sausages where you are welcome to eat as much as you want. There is also a cart with about a dozen bowls of various salads. The food is from the Southwest of France. Cassoulet, magret etc. For dessert it is more of the same as they wheel a cart around the room with various desserts like napoleons, chocolate mouse, creme caramel etc., of which you can order as much as you want. It's an okay place to eat. I have found it to be a little plain for my tastes. But it is fun with all those carts and baskets rolling around the room. If I recall (I don't think I've been there for about 5 years) it's rather expensive for a bistro.

Yes what he said.

Gee we need ChefG on this thread because we have backed into our favorite topic, regionalism. I believe that the Spanish restaurants are not as well known internationally because the cuisine isn't as heavily based in regionalism as French cuisine is. Even in restaurants that do not have a strong regional aspect to them like Lucas-Carton, they appear as some type of logical extension of a great cooking tradition practiced by both the Meres that Vserna spoke of and the Fernand Points of the world. The Spanish chefs, do not appear to be as strongly based in their regional cuisine. But to be honest, Basque and Catalan cuisine are not as pervasive as the cooking is from a number of regions in France. I'm not sure that this fact is fatal in any way. It just will take them a longer time to inform the rest of the world about it.

I'll add balance. Daniel is a terrific restaurant that many people who have many high end meals under their belt have outgrown. To those diners, I would say that the food can be somewhat homogenized. Let's call it about 65% of the dishes served. Of course this isn't the reality for someone who has never had that type of meal before, or who doesn't do it often. If that is your level of experience, you might consider Daniel the best restaurant in the country, and indeed it might very well be in spite of our nitpicking. I used to love going there and still find it exciting which mostly is because I now go infrequently. In the past I've had meals that were just terrific. But it's somewhat harder to find the great dishes each time I visit. Part of that is my being jaded, and part of it I think has to do with the restaurant becoming more systemized in how they prepare the food.

The better argument would be that if these pairings were so compelling on their own, Troisgros wouldn't need Latour to come in a do a promotional dinner, including bringing the wines from their cellar in Bordeaux, to offer them. In fact, I would be extremely surprised to see the sommeliers at Troisgros suggest these pairings on their own outside of the context of a promotional dinner. And in fact, I do not know a single sommelier anywhere who would indeed make those recommendations. So delicious as the dinner might have been, and as good as the pairings were, a promotional dinner is a promotional dinner and they can't get around it. Latour does it to enhance their reputation and in hopes of selling off-vintages to collectors who get to taste them in that setting and among some of the great Latours. And while you can spin it anyway you want, if you speak to anyone who works in the trade (at the producer level,) they will tell you this is exactly why they do it. But I am going to sign off this thread at this point because I made my point in detail. And I don't want it to become like the thread about whether that dinner at Blue Hill was worth it or not. The only objective evidence I can put forth is what usually happens when there isn't a special promotion going on. After that, everyone can have their own likes and dislikes. I'm quite happy to drink '61 Latour anytime and with anything. Whether it goes well with the food or not. And that is because, by itself, it is better and more important, and certainly rarer to come upon then the food is.