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Steve Plotnicki

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Everything posted by Steve Plotnicki

  1. Well I have defined "ever" by saying it is because it's the first 3 star chef of this magnitude from France to open. How are you defining ever? Because depending on how you define it, you could have hundreds of different answers.
  2. It's the most important restaurant ever to open (on paper at least) because it's the first three star chef from France to open in London. None of the chefs you mentioned are of the same stature as Gagnaire. Roux and Nico were/are not three star chefs, MPW had the distinction for a while but was never that respected. But Gagnaire is considered by many to be "the best chef in the world." A point not to be taken lightly.
  3. No I'm not. 57 Strat and an original Mesa Boogie amp. I used to be a good guitar player so people tell me. Could have done it for a living. Then I found out it would be more lucrative owning copyrights then playing on them. The rest is history.
  4. Well this is the crux of it all isn't it. I've been wondering how would I overcome the din from people who would like special attention at Babbo. And short of having a known chef make a phone call for me, I can't figure out how to do it. I guess I could eat there every week for months until somebody figures it out. But the food doesn't project itself to me as being worth the effort. This is all a function of how crowded they are. Clearly the maitre 'd has not given the server instructions on identifying better quality diners and doing things to develop those relationships. Because if they were having nights with empty tables they would want to nurture those relationships. So they just don't care. And that's fine with me because sometimes you're a big fish and sometimes you're a little one. Better then everybody being the same size fish in every situation.
  5. I have an old Strat and a Mesa Boogie amp. What time does the jam start?
  6. First, I don't think I have staked very much on the difference between favorite and best. You can replace either of those phrases with the following insert, like it more then they should. Just remember that in the future. As for lucky/unlucky, I thought there were a fair number of people on this thread that reported a high percentage of "unlucky" meals. Enough to make me not want to rush to go back. And as for comparing it to Blue Hill, I think most people would take a different view of Blue Hill if they took advice from those who eat well there. But in this long thread about Babbo, not a single person has come along and said, here is the key for eating better at Babbo.
  7. Oh I see where I went wrong. Matthew just posted the menu with a estimated price at the top. Since it had no prices I mistook it for a tasting menu. Hmm, so I wonder how much a tasting menu is going to cost.
  8. This is an easy one. God did not create all ingredients to be equal. He made some ingredients better then other ingredients. And to make things even more complicated, he didn't make people perfect either . So the imperfect ingredients are handled in an imperfect manner. And as a result of the above and probably some other things I am forgetting, some people get better slices of Foie Gras then other people get. Whether this is as a result of someone being French and the other person being American, or the result of someone being known to a restaurant and the other unknown, or some people getting VIP treatment, whatever it might be, to ask for equal treatment when it doesn't exist seems like a non-starter to me. The key is how to get the VIP treatment. Because as much as we[d like it to be, a restaurant isn't an exercise in egalitarianism. And it isn't as if this doesn't frustrate me as well. But boycotting it won't change it. And all you do is end up depriving yourself of some possibly good meals.
  9. Hey Joe, nice to see you here. For those of you who don't know him, SF Joe is the one and only Joe Dougherty, famous wine board poster and one of the participants at the meal described above. Joe, why don't you tell us about the venison since I was a little full by that point in the meal.
  10. What makes this point even more material is that I am certain that there isn't another place in London, let alone the rest of the U.K., where you could eat like this. I mean couldn't everyone see the review written the following way; Pierre Gagnaire brings his eclectic cuisine to London London has never seen anything like it before The owners are taking a big chance with this size investment Some of the aspects of the place seem pretentious including the pricing Once you get past the pretensions the food is; a) Every bit as good as his food in France b) Good but not up to par with his food in France c) Nothing like the food at his place in France d) Sheer dreck And the describe it in detail?
  11. Stellabella - I'm an oatmeal man. I could eat it every day. It's a trait I picked up from my father who ate all sorts of hot breakfasts. But if you like hot cereal for breakfast, when you are here next month, if you are able to get to the Chinese Noodle and Dumpling shop on Mott Street, I think it's called Mee Fong II, they have a tub of soft steamed tofu that they serve with a sweet mollasses based sauce that I love eating. It's $1.50 for a large container and they'll give you a spoon.
  12. Gordon - That sounds like what the Daniel experience is like. It used to have more of an edge to it which I miss. You will always get a good meal there but you used to be able to get a great meal there with consistancy. Along with J-G it's still the best special occassion restaurant in town. Too bad about the Meo. It sounds like they sold the original allocation and they are now selling newer inventory. But in the future as a point of reference, some of my wino friends have told me that 1995 Pontet Canet is drinking really well these days. It's about $45 at retail so it should be in the low $100s at a restaurant.
  13. I just think it's a reaction to the extremely hard question of what makes it so special? Because what I am intrigued with is how people find it "the best" when they serve what they served us. It don't add up if you know what I mean. Fat Guy answered it best when he said that you have to superimpose that the people who say that generally prefer Italian food to begin with. In my personal estimation I found it to be more American then Italian when we visited. Do you? Aside from the extensive pasta section, which almost lives in its own reality, I thought that you could have found anything on their menu at any number of places. Who was the one who said that what was so Italian about our lambchops, any middle eastern restaurant could have served them? I wish it was more about serving cutting edge Italian dishes (which seems to go on with more frequency at Lupa) then just another "upper middle" restaurant with a cuisine derived from an ethnic cuisine. I would probably like it more.
  14. I ate at Po a number of times when Batali was still there. In fact it was before they even opened Babbo. And I didn't say I don't like Babbo. I said two things about it. The food seems a little homogenized. And I don't understand what the big to do is all about? Some people have it as their favorite restaurant in NYC and I just don't get that. And even if they executed perfectly the cuisine there probably wouldn't shake my world. As I explained, the lamb chops scottaditta are marginally better then the ones at USC strictly on a conceptual level. Putting Italian food aside and looking at lamb chop dishes across the spectrum of U.S. restaurants, these wouldn't be anywhere near the best ones I ever had. Even if they were done perfectly. (the best ones by the way for anyone who is interested were at Darryl & Oliver's in Pompano Beach about 10 years ago where a goat cheese and pecan crust won the prize.) As for the Panna Cotta, I don't mean inedible as in you couldn't eat it, I mean inedble as in we tasted it and left it over.
  15. Kikujiro - But the aspect of quality and the aspect of price versus quality are two different issues. And while I acknowledge their connection at a restaurant, the issue really comes down to, do you think it is worth spending that amount of money or don't you. And the only way to tell is with a detailed review of the food which this restaurant falls short of if you ask me. Paul - Well that is the crux of my complaint. As long as publications balance their reporting by putting emphasis on the spectacle of eating top quality food, the food industry will continue to shovel crap at the masses. I've never been to Borough Market in London but I've read many of the great reports about the place. Can you imagine a newpaper writing an article about the pretentious and excessive people who pay X GBP per kilo for their food? I can. Those articles have nothing to do with food and have everything to do with class warfare which you have described as "entertainment." I have nothing against entertainment. In fact I'm in the entertainment business. But the Telegraph shouldn't be providing entertainment to the detriment of those who could benefit from the proper information.
  16. Correct. They pay to be amused by the eccentricities of life while eating their tinned vegetables. That's my entire point. Instead of publications using their column space to teach people something, they would rather make people feel good about their place in life by making fun of something unusual, even if it is the greatest manifestation of dining in the world. It is tantamount to an art critic going to a show of Picassos and spending most of the review on how much they cost. Anyone who is more interested in the price of a Picasso then an explanation of why it's a great work of doesn't really like art.
  17. Now who spent 25 hours cooking a pork shoulder?
  18. I thought it was 150GBP for the tasting menu. How much is that priced at if I'm wrong? As for names involved at opening, you can't get a bigger name then Pierre Gagnaire. So I don't see what the issue is there. Thing is, the food is the food no matter how much it costs. How good the the Chicken in Meursault is has no relation to how much it costs. All I am saying is that I wish the writer divorced those two concepts and gave more weight to the quality of food instead of sensationalizing the price and custom of the restaurant. It's really a matter of style because she could have had a single paragraph that described how snooty it's going to be and how outrageously priced it is. And she could have allocated the additional space to reporting on how the food she sampled actually tasted.
  19. We walked as well and one of us was recovering from knee surgery and had one crutch to walk on but we still made it. I liked the movie but not as much as my wife who loved it. The people we went with are good friends with Susan Orlean so we heard about things from the inside perspective. And my wife and I know one of the actors in the film so we had lots to talk about. I liked it up until the resolution which I thought was too crazy. But in general I have an aversion to movies about making a movie or songs being about writing a song etc.. I always find them too industry specific. Too many inside jokes. But anyone who liked that movie should run out and rent the DVD of Day for Night which does a much better job with the genre.
  20. We went to the 7:30 showing and got to the restaurant at about 10:00. You?
  21. Macro - Tha tasting menu at Sketch is 150GBP. The tasting menu at Arpege is 300 Euros. I'm not sure how much it is these days at Gagnaire or Ducasse but they are probably in that zone. ADNY would probably cost the same if they had that type of tasting menu. That's the market that Sketch is after, at least in the Library. As for my review, my point was that it's a shame that the Michelin market can't take the review very seriously. But at the same time, if they can't, who is going to? Whick makes Andy right about the review being written for people who aren't going to go.
  22. Pumpkino - You are describing preference which you are entitled to. I am describing quality and the ability to discern it. If you prefer the steaks at the Aberdeen Steakhouse in London to the best place in Firenze, you would be entitled to that opinion. But you would also be a moron who knew nothing about steak. You can't have it both ways. Either knowing about good food is an expertise that is practiced, or it is totally about liking what you like. And I don't believe you really believe it's about the later. I just think you resort to that argument when you reach the end of your expertise. The steak in the hills of Firenze wasn't great because you liked it, you liked it because it may have been a great steak. The thing is, you seem to have eaten in all the right places. But, and I'm not saying this in a bad way, you don't seem to have experience talking about food from the perspective I am describing. And for example, when someone here (most likely me,) says something like, pasta is the bane of Italian cuisine because it has held it back from advancing all these years, don't take it personally. It has nothing to do with a bowl of pasta at your favorite Milanese tratorria being delicious. We all know it's delicious. But in our world it can be delicious and a bane at the same time.
  23. I am having a hard time imagining that the hard core Michelin 3 star restaurant crowd (who are about the only people who would be willing to pay those prices) cares about anything other then the food. Of course they want to know the price, but not really much more. They just want to know about the food in detail. Everything else in the review, is as Andy said, for people who won't go. You can't eat pomposity and those who like to eat at those places do not care about that detail. As for the prices, they are in line with what the three stars in France charge for a tasting menu these days. It's just that the price point is new for London. That's the interesting part and it's a shame that the reviewer couldn't write of the pricepoint in the context of haute cuisine pricing elsewhere instead of just sensationalizing it. Finally, if anyone believes they know how the Chicken in Meursault is going to taste I suggest they try the "Vin Jaune" sauce at Arpege which has very little to do with the taste of yellow wine but which adds a lushness and color to the sauce. In fact with Gagnaire doing the cooking, it's possible the chicken won't even taste like chicken.
  24. That's right. As I was trying to convey earlier, neither the sommelier nor the waitress were particularly responsive. Oh they were fine if you want to call going by the book as being fine. But they could have used our questions and comments as a way to turn the interaction into a more personalized one. But it appeared, at least to me and I bet Jaybee would agree, that what we were asking about was atypical, at least for this waitress.
  25. Jaybee you confusing turd. How can you treat the waitress like that? And how could you be so incompetant as to not get the message across so they would serve you the Italian meal of a lifetime? Do yourself a favor, next time you go to a restaurant, tell them you're a freind of Tommy's.
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