Bux

db Bistro Moderne in the forties between Fifth and Sixth Avenues has a communal table with bar stools if the bar/communal table idea appeals to you. All of the other suggestions so far have been good as well. Your options are many. It all depends on what you want in terms of food and atmosphere.

It would appear that if he was taking Prozac, not exactly an over the counter drug, he had sought medical attention and was being treated. I don't think it's easy to get people to seek treatment for bipolar disorder and I suspect this was more than the author's hypothesis. I haven't read Chelminski's book, but I suspect Echikson's Burgundy Stars would be an interesting book to those who found The Perfectionist compelling. It's about the year leading up to the third star. One might say that Echikson chose his subject wisely, or at least had the good luck of seeing his subject get a third star at a fortunate moment in terms of publication.

Pork belly and potato salad sound like a good combination. I haven't been in Eleven Madison Park in quite a while, but used to like lunch there. If nothing else, I like the space by day even more than I do by night. I've always found the service gracious. At dinner, I've generally preferred the appetizers to the main courses. The appetizers have tended to be less ambitious and more successful for that. Main courses often have too much going on to the point where elements started to cancel each other out. Sometimes one less ingredient would have resulted in a better dish. Then again, it's been a while and I don't know that things haven't changed. Bargains on the wine list have also gone a long way to leave me a happy diner. On the other hand, bringing my wine after my food, makes me very cranky.

I have mixed feelings about the web site. Much of what I have to say about restaurant web sites I've said in threads devoted to the subject. I want information and I want to get to what I want to see as directly as possible. I'm not much of a fan of flash driven sites that exploit the technology to the point where communication suffers. Liebrandt, however, doesn't have a restaurant up and running at the moment. Thus perhaps he can be excused for having more noise than signal on the site. Still, I spent too much time wondering where to click next. That the photographs are excellent and well worth seeing, doesn't change things for me, but they were the best part of the site and quite rewarding. What I didn't like was the page with the moving targets. Sorry, it I'm to click or read, I shouldn't have to chase text or images.

Interesting comment. Although I've only been there about three times, it's been the flavor of the dishes that's been he convincing note for me. There's no accounting for taste and some people don't like liver, others don't like caviar or olives, but people who like those foods, like them for their flavor. I often wonder if those are acquired tastes, or if they're natural tastes that leave us simply because few parents serve those things to their kids. These past few days I've watched my two year old grandson eat truffles and chittlins (in the form of French andouille--not to be confused with Cajun sausage). He's pretty good with a fork and spoon, but when salad was served, he grabbed fistfuls of mache covered in vinaigrette and stuffed his face as if he was a kid in a candy shop. Excuse the digression on taste. I agree with greenbeans. We're all entitled to our opinions. For each of us, our own opinion is the most valid opinion. Nevertheless, Wylie's food is very much about the way it tastes. I've never eaten WD-40, but I've smelled it on numerous occasions. I'm surprised to hear anyone make such a connection to the food at WD-50, but I would compliment you on giving it a second chance and urge anyone with an open mind about what dinner should be like, to try WD-50 and pay attention to the flavor.

I love innovation and am a fan of creativity in the kitchen, (when done well) but I can get excited by a perfect roast chicken if it's a superb bird.

There is no reason for anyone who does a little home work to reserve at a NY restaurant where they are likely to be ripped off. Be that as it may, as Washburn has noted, some of us who think highly of our own taste in food, have read negative reports about other people's dinners at our favorite places. I have also read rave reviews of restaurants I regard as tourist traps. One of the many shortcomings of messages boards is that the participants in any given thread are often coming from very different places and seeing the thread with different perspectives. I remember the first time I read a highly positive review of OIBL,TIBS. I wondered how such a gem passed my notice until then. There's not even a murmur of disagreement in the thread that follows. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on one's perspective, I have heard of Carmines.

"Fancy," as perhaps "big" and "overstuffed" as well, suggests Jean Georges more than Nougatine. Of course the window under discussion is now closed, but the subject is still of academic interest. It would be interesting to learn where Luckylies eventually dined.

You say "probably." I wonder if that's more than supposition on your part. I supsect the times has it's own reasons and probably didn't offer the job to either one, but that's pure speculation on my part. Actually I'd have been curious to see what kind of job Asimov could have done. If nothing else, Burros' review of Casa Mono suggested to me that restaurant reviewing wasn't her strong suit.

For what it's worth, the new NYC Michelin guide gave a star to Craft, but not to Blue Hill.

Roses is a beach resort. August is high season for tourists and restaurants in Roses.

I can't remember when we were last in the Galleries Lafayette food area, but it might have been about three years ago. My recollection is that it's bigger than the one in Bon Marché.

"White chocolate" is a misnomer. It's not really chocolate, but a component of chocolate, not that everyone seems to agree on what can be called chocolate by law. Cocoa butter, being the fat of the chocolate liquor, is very rich, while the intense chocolate flavor is in the cocoa powder. One is more about the taste while the other is more about mouth feel, though of course there is family resemblance and there is some interchangeability. Analogies usually suck, but I might say the two are as different as duck fat and duck stock. I don't know that dark chocolate couldn't successfully be used with fish or seafood, but it would probably be used quite differently from white chocolate or cocoa butter. That I didn't find the brittle dark chocolate a compliment to the scallops is not a general condemnation of the use of even dark chocolate with seafood. Even where I've loved chocolate in meat dishes, it's been blended into the sauce or in some other way integrated into the dish. I can think of some rillettes de lièvre I had in Paris that had chocolate in the recipe, but I don't recall bits of hard chocolate. Then again, I thought some bonbons Steven Klc made with foie gras and aspic of dessert wine all coated in a thin chocolate shell were absolutely successful. Foie gras, of course, isn't seafood.

It turns out that Florence Fabricant had an article on Gilt in the NY Times on October 5. I was in Venice. I also suspect it's also more than just the economics of doing business in New York. I wonder if mind set and establishment have anything to do with it. New Yorkers know good food when they see it, and I don't mean that as a compliment. I mean it in the sense that New Yorkers may be cocky about knowing good food and seeing it as the food they already know here, as well as in Paris. A number of situations may be in play that allow gastronomes in DC and Chicago to be more receptive to new ideas in food. I can think of parallels in art movements where those with the greatest stock in the current schools seem to be the most sophisticated connoisseurs of art, but are unable to embrace or recognize the new. There would be no new art (or cooking, or fashion) were it not for the creators, but in order for them to flourish they need a receptive audience. Then again, even in Chicago there are but a few who are in this avant garde and perhaps fewer still in D.C. New York is hardly out of the running yet.

Paul's new place? Has Liebrandt become a one name chef? My first thought was Prudhomme. Actually "who was Paul?" was my first thought. I never made it to Atlas, but I caught a brief apperance at a little restaurant in the West Village some year's back. I have to say, I was unconvinced by my meal. I recall a dish with chocolate and scallops that left me puzzled in a way even the occassional unconvincing dish at elBulli did not. Nor was it so shockingly unpalatable as a series of acrid desserts at Gagnaire once. It was just that no combination of the the tastes in any order gave me a clue as to how the whole might be as good as the sum of the parts. For what it's worth, the scallops were exquisitely cooked and I was a little sorry I doggedly tried to find some reward in the combination. I will, nevertheless, look forward to another chance.

The best strawberries I ever ate, were purchased at one of the smaller open markets in Aix. By all means, the advice to learn where the markets in the area are and to learn what's local and in season is good advice.

If I'm not mistaken, Aligote, and maybe with an accent on the "e" is a white wine grape and the potato dish is aligot. I'd like to say, you've never had aligot until you've had it at Michel Bras, but in fact it's a simple peasant dish and Bras, who wisely has it on the menu to pay homage to his Aveyron region, just as wisely doesn't muck it or treat it as haute cusine. In addition to milk, cream and usually a little garlic, recipes call for very young Cantal or Laguiole cheese or, as some recommend, a local fromage blanc. The latter may be harder to get out of the region, but I suspect it can be found in Paris and certain an entrprising cheesemonger or chef ought to know where. Recipes abound on the net if you do a search on "aligot."

If I recall correctly, it was after 9/11. In fact I'm sure that was the time.

Agreed - but what does that have to do with the restaurant industry? Your example exactly proves my point - if it's true in other industries, then it can be (and I think it is) true in the restaurant industry. Service is service... period. You link it with an "incentive," you'll generally get better service across the board. . . . . ← My first response would be to ask which is more important, the food, or the service, when you dine out. Why don't we tip the cooks? Why do diners slip a banknote in the hands of the captain? Why don't they tip the chef? Do you want a better table or a better cut of meat or the freshest piece of fish in the kitchen? If you believe an incentive is necessary to get professional treatment, those are genuine questions. If you believe the kitchen is capable of giving top professional treatment to the guests without the incentive of a tip, why should the front of the house offer the same top quality service in return for the incentive of a professional salary and professional respect. I know it's not going to happen yet in the real world, but putting the wait staff on a professional level with a real salary should not result in snotty service. Snotty waiters are rarely hired by good restaurants and when they are, they don't usually last long.

And that's why you generally get CRAP service in France... IMHO. ... I don't know how you tip. Generally, I agree, but, I do think it adds an incentive for the server to 'go the extra mile.' Also, if I'm really dissatisfied with the service, I am at liberty express this. I think it's only fair. Have you ever worked as a server? The psychology is there... Maybe so, but it's still the diner's choice whether or not to order... In my opinion, Keller's decision is the beginning of snotty service in the United States... U.E. ← My experience in France is that restaurant service is generally better than in the US, but that like in the US, it varies from place to place. As for tipping as an incentive to provide good service, there are any number of service areas where the service is excellent or lousy where there is no opporutnity to tip and the sales clerks are dependant on their salaries. There have been any number of times I've made a purchase in a shop and could have felt entitled to deduct whatever part of the price went to pay for the clerks salary. Tipping should be abolished in restaurants, or put in place in department stores perhaps.

Not something we're likely to see anytime soon in the U.S., but I suppose it would be called suckling lamb. A pig who's still nursing is a suckling pig. Then again, veal isn't called suckling beef. Anyway, I think I've used the term sucking lamb.

It's not exactly something I would recommend. ← I'm confused. Would you recommend using a flash or not? The photos I took are flash less as I did not wish to disturb other diners. ← I believe using a flash in restaurants is disturbing to other diners and it doesn't matter if you're taking souvenir photos of the group, or shooting the plates. Discrete use of a camera to record your meal without flash is fine with me, and I do it from time to time, but more often when I'm traveling. I assume percyn finds non-flash pictures acceptable and that's why he phrased the question as he did.

Taste is very subjective, as is what's expensive and what's cheap. I've always thought I got my best value at some of the most expensive restaurants. Of course when an really expensive meal is disappointing, it can hurt and even at the best restaurant, one can be disappointed from time to time. I also think the best values are had the high end and low end of dining. I'm not alone in that. Nevertheless, we've been finding ourselves eating at a lot of mid priced restaurants lately for social reasons and convenience. The tavern room at Gramercy Tavern is very different from the main dining room. If anything I think it offers a better food buy. The food is as tasty as that on the regular menu, but the ingredients are less expensive, or they're the less fine cuts of the same ingredients, but used with the same care. There are no tablecloths in the tavern and in some ways, the service in the tavern doesn't stand up to the service in the main dining room. It's more casual, but you shouldn't find it any less gracious. Both spaces are Danny Meyer spaces.

I seem to recall that the assistant to the sommelier was also a woman, but maybe she was just a waiter who also attended to pouring the wines. I think the whole idea of making dinner a more interactive experience is part of the avant garde movement. I question however, if one can really make eating any more interactive than it naturally is. One of the reasons we go to a restaurant is to have someone else interact with the food for a while to our advantage. The introduction of additional ways to interact with the food should increase our pleasure, understanding or interest in the food. I didn't mind eating the raw beef with my hands, but, if anything, just having dirty hands lessened the appeal of the food in my mouth. Context is everything. In an very nice setting such as this with fine glass ware, I'd get greater enjoyment bringing the food to my lips on the tips of some silver tines, bamboo chopsticks or a pearl spoon, but I am willing to consider that touching my food, or playing with my food in my hands maybe a tabu I need to overcome. Having made that consideration, I'm tending to reject it. The bark tray added nothing either. I think the dish would have been more successful on a white plate with elegant implements of some sort, but the flavor carried it off for me. Thus I wouldn't say the anise was overwhelming, even if you found it the dominant flavor.

Undoubtedly peculiar to me as well. My guess runs towards the idea that perhaps several orders had just come in and they thought they didn't have enough cooking to supply any more diners. That, or course, is simply pure speculation on my part.