docsconz

Bummer! Could you do a version of it for those of us here hindered by our limited language abilities after it is published in Portuguese - at least the most salient points? Please. I, for one would love to read it.

This should be an interesting journey. How did you develop your interest in Italian Renaissance cooking?

Prices were in the traditional steakhouse range. For instance, the ribeye was $36, I think the New York Strip was $39, and the porterhouse $78 for two. Those prices are perfectly in-line for a NY steakhouse.Just a comparison: At BLT Steak, which is obviously in the haute steakhouse genre, the NY Strip is $42, the ribeye $45, and the porterhouse $79. But BLT's side dishes are a dollar or two lower. ← Thanks, Mark. hopefully, we will get some more reports in a month or two after they have settled in. That should be a better indicator of their ultimate level of quality. At this point it seems that the only reason to choose this steakhouse over others is if one happens to be in the neighborhood or with a family type situation. Hopefully, that will change and it will become more of a standout restaurant. Lomanico is capable of it.

Thanks for the report, Mark. At least some of the service issues can hopefully be ascribed to the restaurant's newness as they work out their kinks. You compared this restaurant qualitatively to other steakhouses of the creative or traditional modes. How does this one compare price or value wise forgetting about the service issues for the time being?

Well, I just interviewed the man himself, and can tell you that his menu will be about 70% desserts - so sure, he might want to flex his savoury muscles, but.... the restaurant will clearly be dessert-centric. Savoury dishes - composing the remaining 30% of the menu - will be small in size, which is why some have referred to them as tapas. They will not, of course, resemble Spanish tapas at all, except maybe in size. Sweet Kate, I thought you brought up an excellent point: as boundaries between and savoury get blurred, we are indeed seeing several techniques often used in pastry being "transferred" over to the savoury dept.. In '94 Ferran did his first parmesan ice cream, and that's a good example of that. As are foie gras panacottas, cheese tuilles topping meats, the use of sorbets in appetizers, etc. ← Very interesting, Alex. I look forward to reading the rest of your interview. Still, I wonder how the restaurant will evolve after it is open. I could see it going either way, that is developing a greater focus on the savory side or ultimately leaving savory altogether. The third possibility, of course, is that Sam and his crew are right on the money and the concept and actualization stay just as you have described. No matter which way it goes, I am looking forward to experiencing it and wish he and his restaurant the best. As for blurring the lines by technique - absolutely. The Pacojet has certainly made that easier and more economical to do as savory ice creams have seemingly become ubiquitous. Certainly other techniques of the hypermodern repertoire have infiltrated both sides of the kitchen too with one technique recently increaing in visibility that of the croquant.

Percy, a thing of beauty.

I suppose you mean Joe Ng's at Chinatown Brasserie? Those are the best I have had yet. No small praise.

Certainly.

Thank you. That helps clarify things for me.

Please do not take this as an attack or criticism of your post in any way. I appreciate your willingness and frankness of your replies and enjoy reading your posts. I am simply trying to understand your critique and correlate it to my own sensibilities and preferences. Since you considered those oysters as "boring" and "bland" despite their "freshness", are there oysters that you find otherwise and ifso, what makes them more interesting to you? I ask this because, raw oysters with lemon happen to be one of my favorite foods and I am trying to determine if you simply aren't a huge fan of oysters or whether this is just not a good place to order them for whatever reaon. I apologize for harping on this.

My sister and I ate at Room 4 Dessert this spring, and it is the perfect solution for those who interested in flavors in general but tend to the sweet/experimental rather than the savory. What we did was eat an inexpensive and not too filling dinner (ramen at Momofoku), then walk about 20 minutes to R4D. By then we were not too full and not too hungry; we each had one dessert and split another. Both places have a counter setup but Momofoku was much busier and louder. R4D was more comfortable, with better lighting, and we had a great time talking to both Mr. Goldfarb and the chef making the desserts. ← That is precisely the kind of situation to which I am refering. It is not an uncommon one, especially in that locale.

Do most people dress up to go there? If a restaurant is enough of a special occasion place for people to dress up for the purpose of going there, I don't think it's a neighborhood restaurant. ← Some people dress up. Others do not. My point on this restaurant is that it is very comfortable and quite casual for a Michelin 3 star and based on criteria mentioned above, may be considered by some to be "a neighborhood restaurant". It most certainly is not that. Therefore, in my mind the fat that a restaurant is casual and comfortable is not sufficient (or even necessary) to fit into that category. Perhaps another way of considering what defines a destination restaurant is a feeling one gets of being lucky to be there. There is an extra electricity and anticipation that may or may not ultimately be borne out by the meal itself.

If asked and I care about the restaurant, I will reply honestly, but not with the intention of seeking a new or replacement dish, unless the dish was not what I ordered (e.g. well done meat when I ordered medium-rare) or totally different from what was described. If it is simply a matter of it not meeting my palate, I tell them only for feedback. If the restaurant is a chain or totally alienating to me, I won't bother complaining. I simply don't return.

Wait, this is eGullet. We are supposed to decide where and what we want to eat, then plan our trips around that!!

Yeah - they gave out a number of Bib Gourmands. ← Anything particularly notable there?

That's the part that they don't mention. Does a decent home freezer qualify?

Thanks for the follow-up. You are right that a fresh oyster is not necessarily a good oyster, although freshness usually goes a long way in assuring that it is good. You didn't say they were bad, though. You called them "boring". Did they say what kind of oysters they were and where they were from. For $16/half dozen they should be premium oysters of a pedigree. Still, the price isn't that bad, as decent oysters go for about $1 each unshucked and a little more shucked at retail depending on where one buys them. Given usual steakhouse markups, that really isn't a terrible price for good oysters. I assume the prices mentioned are before the discount?

Except NOT if you use the term "neighborhood place" in the "polarity" sense of somewhere worth dropping into if you're in the neighborhood, but not worth a trip for the sole purpose of dining there. ← IIf one accepts this, I would then bring this discussion back full circle and state that Perry Street is a destination restaurant and not a neighborhood restaurant though people from the neighborhood may frequent it.

Is there a top steakhouse that would repeatedly draw you back? It sounds like the only real disappointment was the dessert. If the oysters are fresh it is difficult to ask for more than that - at least for people who love fresh oysters. Steakhouses are not generally known for their creativity. What they should be doing is providing excellent meat, reliably well prepared along with fine accompaniments. They need to do this in a consistant fashion to satisfy those with a craving for that product. I will go to a steakhouse occassionally and I enjoy them when I do, but I will rarely do so in NYC or similar locales because I do like creative cuisine that much more and I get to these places too infrequently to use up one of my visits on a steakhouse unless it happens to be one that is particularly great and a great value. Rays the Steaks in DC is an example of that. Wjhat is the value like here aside from the dessert?

To broaden this discussion a little bit, El Bulli is actually very casual and comfortable. Is it a "neighborhood" restaurant? Hardly. Another thought, doesn't it really depend on the neighborhood? One of he reasons this is even a question nowadays is because of the surging interest in food throughout the U.S. and beyond and the increasingly casual nature of dining. While palaces of formality still exist they are a bit of an anachronism, especially in parts of the U.S. This is just one thhing blurring the lines of something that used to be much more clearly delineated. I daresay that the distinction is becoming irrelevent.

Exactly, Docsconz, that's what I've noticed, too - hence that Ferran quote I included in my first post. However, when you say Sam's place will be much more than a dessert place, don't you think that, indirectly, you're saying that a dessert-centric restaurant is less of a restaurant because it doesn't have a comprehensive list of savoury dishes? I think we are talking about 2 different kinds of restaurants: those, like El Bulli or Alinea, where the boundaries between savoury and sweet are purposely being blurred and dissolved, and those restaurants like Room 4 Dessert and Espai Sucre where the same holds true, but ALSO, there is a clear spotlight on the pastry department, with savoury dishes playing second fiddle. I'm trying to figure out where Sam's place would fit into all this... ← It is my impression that Sam's place will fit more into the former than the latter, which I would think is the main reason he left WD-50. It appears to me that Sam and Wylie remain close. There does not appear to be any difficulty or animosity between them - at least not from what I have witnessed. It makes sense to me that Sam wants to flex his savory muscles a bit more and that the best way to do that would be to open his own place. Of course, he is too good at dessert to give that up even if he wanted to which I do not think he does. BTW, I think that there is plenty of room in NYC for top-notch dessert only restaurants/bars like Room 4 Dessert and others. Not everyone who goes out goes dining at retaurants with great or even good dessert programs. Plenty of people may have a less ambitious dinner and still want to go someplace for great and impressive desserts. It is a big city with a great variety of people.

All of this goes back to my assertion that a neighborhood restaurant can be a destination restaurant while a destination restaurant is not necessarily a neighborhood restaurant.

That's interesting. Usually it would be the other way around in terms of "original place" and "outpost". Robyn ← I was surprised. I had high expectations for S.F. after my wonderful meal in L.V. especially for the reason you mention. Frankly, based on my one experience there in S.F., I'm surprised it got a star. But then, maybe my experience was an aberration. It wasn't bad, just nothing special.

I've never been to Aqua in SF - but I dined there once in Las Vegas when Michael Mina was in charge. And the meal was exquisite. Might have been up to 2 star Michelin standards. Is Aqua in San Francisco a lot different from the one in Las Vegas - and has it changed a lot since Mina left? BTW - I agree with your statements about Michelin and global standards. Robyn ← I loved Aqua in Las Vegas. I found it ho-hum in S.F.

Bryan, you dine often enough in NYC - do both! Go first to whichever one your gut tells you to.