Pan

This New Yorker had never heard of the idea of separately tipping the sommelier until he read this thread. I give the sommelier my sincere thanks if I enjoy the wine s/he recommended, but it never occurred to me to tip him/her separately. Then again, I don't think I've ever ordered a wine that cost more than $50 - and that one was split with 3 or 4 other people.

I'm glad you had fun at the game, Jon, but let's keep in mind that some of the very greatest players of all time were known to play drunk and with hangovers. Some dudes named Ruth and Mantle come to mind...

What do we know about the wine-drinking habits of members of the "inferior" baseball team in the Bronx?

Please explain/elaborate.

"Arirang" is a beloved traditional song in Korea.

Benno is the Chef de Cuisine at Per Se (I think I'm getting the term right), so in practice, that's essentially what's happening, isn't it? Keller is still responsible for the menu, and he splits his time between his two restaurants. The menu at Per Se is always changing, and it continues to reflect Keller's influence. If that stopped happening, at some point it would no longer be the place everyone is raving about. It would be a somewhat different restaurant, but who's to say it wouldn't be just as good and deserve 4 stars just as much as Per Se does (or doesn't)?

What are you talking about, then? What do you consider the "objective" criteria of 4-stardom? As it was stated in FatGuys first post, the 4 stars are appropriately awarded to the restaurants deserving them. I personally don’t care much about Daniel or Le Bernardin, Specifically their food. But that does not mean that they are not 4 star restaurants. They both operate as 4 star restaurants. Please explain further. You haven't really clarified to me what it means to "operate as a 4-star restaurant," and I can't imagine how you'd award 4 stars to a restaurant if you don't think much of the food it's serving. And to MonsieurSatran, no, nothing very profound shone through when my brother and I went to Bouley for lunch. It was no 4-star restaurant that day for us.

What are you talking about, then? What do you consider the "objective" criteria of 4-stardom?

We could make the analogy with jazz again, perhaps. At least in the case of jazz, it started off as African-American music, then became American music, and starting at least as early as the Quintet of the Hot Club of Paris in the 1930s, increasingly became a type of international music. All jazz musicians honor the black Southerners who started the music, but that doesn't prevent us from also appreciating jazz produced by non-black Americans, Quebecois, Cubans, Belgian Romanies (Gypsies), South Africans, and Japanese, among many others. There's even fascinating jazz-rock/traditional music fusion being produced in places like Bulgaria and Indonesia. The interesting thing is that jazz changed not only as time passed but also as it moved from New Orleans to the North and then was picked up by whites in Chicago and so forth. Has something comparable been happening to Barbecue?

This place grows on me more and more as the weeks go by and I have yet another sandwich with fragrant felafel or delicious chicken shawarma plus the fresh, flavorful sauces and sides. I had my digital camera with me tonight and decided to take some photos of the food and some of the ambiance in the place. Eti, a member of the management team, was happy to give me permission to take some pictures of the shawarma and the counter when I assured her I would write a complimentary story. I warned her that I am not a professional photographer and promised to link to the restaurant's website, which contains a bunch of pictures better than mine. Please have a look at the restaurant's website: http://www.chickpearestaurant.com/ That said, here are some of my photos: These are some of the beautiful bottles of fruit-and-vegetable-infused oils that help provide a pleasant ambiance at the dining counter in the front of the eatery. And this gives you a bit of a sense of what the small, relaxed back room with low tables is like. This is my best effort at a closeup photo of my chicken shawarma sandwich (probably taken too close in). Ingredients: Chicken shawarma, salad, sauerkraut, regular pickles, spicy mixed-vegetable pickles, tahini, and hot sauce, in a freshly-baked pita. MMMmmmmmmmm! Here you see the shawarma cooking. The chicken shawarma is on the left, the turkey shawarma on the right. Those are onions on top of both types of shawarma. As I tried my best to disturb the staff and people waiting on line as little as possible, I did not get any closeups of just-cooked felafel, but under this case, you see, clockwise from the upper left corner, felafel, pickled hot peppers, salad, a few regular pickles in the shadow, spicy mixed-vegetable pickles (which include the cauliflower in the center of the plate), and rice. I think that providing visual samples of their product for customers to look at when they approach the counter is a very smart move by Chickpea's management. My experience is that the staff is also happy to provide new customers with small samples to taste, to help you determine what you'd like to order. Here, you see various sides and condiments that can be part of your sandwich or platter. Dimly, you can see a corner of the salad compartment on the upper left corner. Proceeding from left to right on the further row, you see hummus, something I can't identify offhand, and baba ganouge, then a bit of the red onions that belong to the varied salad bar (which I have yet to partake of). From left to right on the closer row, you can see sauerkraut, regular pickles, and spicy mixed-vegetable pickles. Closest to the viewer, on the counter, you see a bottle of tahini and a fresh pita. If you want a beverage with your sandwich or platter, among your choices are lemonade and iced tea with lemon and mint leaves. I haven't tried the lemonade but certainly recommend the tea. I didn't take a picture of their lentil soup, but if you're in a mood for soup (I wasn't on a hot day like today), it's very soothing. Soothing is a good word for this establishment. It's a comfort to know that it's there when I want some food that will put a smile on my face every time.

Benno is the Chef de Cuisine at Per Se (I think I'm getting the term right), so in practice, that's essentially what's happening, isn't it?

Nope, 1st Av. between 6th and 7th. And in response to snausages2000: I usually sprinkle pepper on most of Teresa's food (except stuff like the tripe soup, which is pretty peppery already). I prefer a lighter hand with the salt. I can always add some if necessary, but I can't subtract it if it's already there. I rarely find it necessary to add salt to New York restaurant food of any type except absolutely saltless Korean soup that customers are expected to season at will.

The difference is that paying for a table that otherwise wouldn't be offered is arguably unethical (I think it is), while tipping the sommelier for good service he almost certainly would have given you anyway isn't. How could it be thought unethical or otherwise unseemly? I don't get it.

Robb, after the panel discussion ended, I remarked to a friend of mine who's a music lover that the appropriation of barbecue as something essentially white rather than essentially black that you and Lolis talked about reminded me of the history of jazz reception among white Americans, what with the "Original" Dixieland Band being first to cut a record and making the absurd claim that they (white folks all) invented "Dixieland" jazz. Everyone who had any previous knowledge about New Orleans jazz knew they were buffoons for telling such a transparent lie, but most whites, especially Northerners, didn't know. At least they soon started hearing the name of Louis Armstrong, though; by contrast, I expect that the early black exponents of barbecue are pretty unknown by name, as they were evidently mostly slaves or people of otherwise humble socioeconomic circumstances. I salute you and the others on the panel for doing valuable anthropology and ethno-history of food. Americans need to know about your "revisionist" history so that we understand that many of the protagonists in the history of the U.S. were members of the poor huddled masses. Undoubtedly, that is still true today, in every country, if we avoid focusing only on the elite and pay attention to what truly inspired but in a superficial sense "average" people are doing.

If that's a 3-star review, I'm a monkey's uncle. Bruni indisputably liked some of the food, but the overall impression he leaves us with in this mini-review is not only a bad one, but an overwhelmingly bad image of fakery and even quackery. Look at the end of the article again: Don't you get the sense that, with these arch comments, Bruni doesn't think an educated public should follow Vongerichten there? Or am I overinterpreting Bruni's words? Also, I don't believe Bruni is likely to fear the outcome of giving one of Vongerichten's places 2 stars, and my other thought is whether or when he might revisit Spice Market and what the result may be. Finally, is a trend emerging from the Megu review and this Diner's Journal to the effect that Bruni doesn't like theatrics he interprets as smoke and mirrors, and prefers a restrained ambiance that doesn't detract from or try to distract the diner from what should be great food?

Suzanne, I think they'll bring the bread if you ask for it. I'm guessing they may have found that a lot of people didn't eat the bread when it was brought automatically.

I have to disagree with proponents of Veselka. Their soups are too salty and I generally find their food distinctly inferior to Teresa's, with an added bonus of rude or/and dismissive service. If I have to go there and I'm hungry, I'd probably get the raspberry blintzes, which are cheese blintzes in a kind of rounded shape with raspberry sauce. I went to B&H once or twice and was underwhelmed; maybe it's time to go back. A number of years ago, when Teresa's was "Closed for Renovations," I used to go to Stage Deli, just north of the theater where Stomp plays (its name has slipped my mind), and I found them fine and very cheap but not as good as Teresa's.

I would have rated Amma 3 stars. A little cramped, but fantastic food! The food, certainly, was solidly 3-star, and as good as any food I've ever eaten in New York (and certainly far better than my meals at then 4-stars Lutece, Chanterelle, and Bouley). If you want to take off a star for the size and configuration of the room, that's your choice, but not mine. I don't think that a whole star deserves to be chopped off the place's rating for that reason, because I don't think Amma's food was borderline 3-star in any way, and I thought the ambiance was pleasant enough, within the limitations of the space. 4-star, no way, but yes to 3 stars.

I interpret this as CB does better bistro than Daniel does haute cuisine on a given night. Perhaps, but that's not what Andrew wrote. I'll look forward to his clarification. I can't see paying more at a restaurant for relatively inferior food, just for non-food reasons, and that's basically what I'm asking him about.

Teresa's is my neighborhood diner, a very good diner that also serves Polish food, or a solid Polish restaurant that also serves American diner food, depending on how you think about it. Teresa's often comes up in discussions of good values in brunch, for good reason. They serve a few varieties of pancakes, and real maple syrup is available for people like me who abhor that corn syrup stuff. For a decadent treat, babka french toast is available. They also make decent omelettes (though I don't particularly like the Garden Omelette, mainly because I don't find that broccoli is a good ingredient for it or cooked well in it). Several of their soups are soothing and do not suffer from repeated ordering. I like their garlicky cold borscht in the summertime, their chicken soup made with large pieces of chicken, and their tripe soup, for example. Every weekday, they have lunch specials (soup or salad with bread/toast, main dish + 1 side, coffee/tea/soda). My preference is for their chicken stew, which comes in a red sauce made with sliced carrots and onions (no tomatoes). I usually get it with a side of either beets, cucumber salad (made with sour cream), or kasha. Also worthwhile are their pierogis, all types. Good sandwiches, too: Roast beef, meatloaf, etc. And they will make fresh-squeezed orange juice for you at any time. I sometimes have trouble having an order of toast _without_ butter fulfilled (I want to put some of the toast in my soup and use much of the rest to sop up the sauce in the stew, and don't really like butter on bread, anyway), and service can be slow when things get really busy. But overall, I'm really glad I have Teresa's around my corner. And one bonus is that sections of the newspaper are piled up on a ledge in the back of the eating room, so that you can read while having breakfast, lunch, or dinner by yourself. Do you like Teresa's? If so, what do you like best about the place?

Thanks for that interesting post, Andrew. There are a couple of points I'd like to respond to: Since you find the food better at Cafe Boulud, do you ever choose to go to Daniel, anyway? I'd think that if I had drawn such a conclusion, I'd go to Cafe Boulud and never Daniel (but I've as yet been to neither). Do you really mean the bad days would have to be over 50% of the time? That seems like a very low standard to me. Supposing they're 30% of the time?

Thanks for the link, Mark! I had been to Sweet-n-Tart a couple of times before, but not for a few years. I get the vague feeling that it might be generally a good idea to get the less usual-sounding dishes at this place (the more "unusual," the better?). Like, for example, looking at their takeout menu, I'd probably sooner order Black Chicken & Mushroom Double Boiled Rice in Yunnan Pot or Shredded Chicken with Mushroom & Chives than Sliced Beef with American Broccoli, whereas my experience at Congee Village is that their Beef Chow Mein, despite the red flags I'd normally attach to such a name, is a terrific dish and well worth ordering. Am I right?

Thanks for your detailed review. Just out of curiosity, what's your home town?

"Curry powder" every day in Madras? Are you sure?

We are talking about 4 star restaurants in NYC, the cream of the crop. Not 4 star Restaurants in Boise Idaho. A 4 star restaurant is about an overall dining experience. Food, wine, service, ambiance all have to be in the top tier. Since NYC is considered the second best restaurant city in the world, therefore we are talking about some on the best restaurants in the world. With the exception of Danube none of the restaurants that any of you have mentioned are remotely close to being 4 stars Including or excluding the ones the New York Times rated as 4-stars?