Bux

Pan, don't forget you will also have to pay for the rent and decor as well as the rest of the overhead, so all of the tab will not be going just for the food. There are many people in the world, and especially in NY, who are more than willing to pay more for mediocre food in chic surroundings than slightly better food in a drab restaurant and plenty at the other end who won't pay twice as much if the food isn't twice as good with an "I can't eat the decor" attitude. Most of us tend to put ourselves smack dab in the middle, although it's obviously not necessarily the next guy's idea of the middle.

When you say "menu" do you mean menu or carte? The former being a set number of courses comprising a meal. The latter is the "menu" from which you may order à la carte and compose your own menu. Most restaurant have wine by the glass. In some it will be a choice of red or white, while at others there will be a broader choice. Selections of wine by glass to match each course, of a tasting menu, are not uncommon, but also not the rule. The only one of your four choices in which I've eaten is Chez Michel. The Belgian couple with wnom we were dining declared they didn't drink much and only drank red wine. So we ordered a bottle of red for the table and a half bottle of white wine for my wife and myself to accompany our first courses. I don't remember asking if they had wines by the glass, but I'd bet they do. One thing I've noticed is that the French, unless they are in the wine trade or fanatic about wines, are usually quite content to drink the same wine thoughout dinner and more often than not, it's red. Some restaurants will have an excellent selection of half bottles, some will not. Some half bottles seem well priced in comparison with full bottles and some do not. If you are fluent in French you may find that as often as not, if you can allow yourself to see the humor in being dubbed as the "fou American" they will smile along with you when you politiely poke fun back at them. It may take a while before you feel comfortable enough with the humor to allow yourself that luxury. The French are a people of inflexible social politeness whose rules govern their public behavior.

The form that caloric consumption takes also has something to do with obesity. The body does not handle 100 calories of kale in the same way it handles 100 calories of bacon. For much the same reason that a pound of feathers is a bigger burden than a pound of lead, I assume.

And you can always get one in Spanish if you don't speak Catalan. I still remember the time years ago before we realized how great a comeback Catalan had made since Franco had departed, when the waitress asked in Spanish if we wanted a tourist menu. My wife replied in Spanish that I should get the tourist menu. I got one in Spanish and she got one in Catalan. We switched and my wife ordered for both of us, but that's when I began my study of Catalan menu items. I'm still rather illiterate. In support of Wilfrid's ever rational line of thought, I offer up further evidence of something or another by noting that trucha means trout in Spanish and omelet or something like that in Catalan, although I think it may also mean trout sometimes. One should always enter a restaurant in a foreign country with an open mind about what you are going to eat.

Please! That's like saying English is a cross between German and French. In my own belated defense, I didn't miss it the first time around. Here's what I said and the link I included last fall:

I have indeed had brunch invitations responded to with the mention of missing a chance to have a bloody mary at Great Jones Cafe. Said invitee reluctantly accepted the invitation on the condition that we supply the juice, vodka, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, lemons, etc. and that he be allowed to bring his own fresh horseradish. I've had a few beers there, but have yet to have the definitive bloody mary. The food has always been an acceptable accompaniment to the beer.

If anyone should come to understand that we value quantity over quality when we eat out, they should also understand that we've come a long way from the time we didn't understand there was a difference.

You ain't never seen a doggie bag until you've seen a Texas size doggie bag.

It's good to remember that new users don't always have as much familarity with the membership in general as those of us who have been around a while.

I believe Cabby is correct about the water. As I recall we weren't asked if we wanted bottled water and were brought a pitcher of water. The presentation was almost as if it was decanted bottled water rather than tap water, but I don't recall a charge for water.

I don't know when they were at Daniel together, but David Carmichael worked there when Payard was pastry chef. Carmichael was at Lutece sometime between Daniel and Oceana. I believe he was pastry chef when it reopened. I haven't been to Oceana in a long time, but I though he was really hitting his stride when we were there.

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to percentages, but I'd bet that most of the time Grimes enters a restaurant of this sophistication--in terms of management, front and kitchen staff--they know he's in the house.

There are lots of wine shops in NY and several that are really good either overall or for one thing or another. Let me add one more voice to the Chambers Street Wines recommendation for Loire wines. If you're serious about the Loire, David Lillie may be the prime guy to talk to in NYC. Chambers Street Wines contacts

For what it's worth, l'Esperance has had only two stars for a couple of years or so, although it may have had three stars when Gallagher was there. All of that is far less significant the the food he's serving. Care to add to what was in Grimes' review. I was impressed with Carmichael, the pastry chef, and he's remained with Oceana.

Let's not confuse "fancy" with "fine." I woudn't be surprised if some wouldn't describe a fancy restaurant as one where they wrap your leftovers in foil package resembling a swan and a fine restaurant as one where the clientele doesn't take home leftovers.

You've not traveled and eaten in Spain, I gather. On a more serious note, why do you say that?

It might be more appropriate to talk of macarons than M&Ms, might it not and they taste better too. I don't actually see the relevance between the number of multistarred places in either country and an ability to find the rustic in the haute cuisine of each. If anything in France you'll get more opportunites to prove me wrong. The better argument is that the whole world is moving towards homgenization. My arguments are meant to be seen with that knowledge in mind. These differences are decreasing and the sameness becomes more pervasive. France had a lot to lose in this regard and it happened rather quickly. What I see less of in Berasategui and Adria and more of in France, is the borrowing of international cliches. Balsamic vinegar and soy sauce have become cliches in America and yet still being discovered by French chefs. At least this is a perception of mine. Where the Basques and the Catalans depart from tradition they seem to follow no model at all and become wildly creative. I've not always thought of the Spanish as creative. When I visited in the sixties, I found an oppressed country with an oppressive atmosphere under Franco. You make a good point that France has lost part of it's identity as a place for a special kind of food precisely because French food has become the international standard for at least much of the western world. I don't know what factor the dependance of haute cuisine on foreign tourists has played in all this. As one progresses through the stars one sees more and more foreigners dining. This is true at El Bulli and Berasategui as well however. It's also a fact that a Spanish pioneer such as Arzak owes much to the haute cuisine of France, so there's a debt I think new cooking in Spain owes to the French. There's little that's black and while, but a lot that's very good to taste.

Gee, did I really give her e-mail address in public? I better hope it's also on their web site. I may become the first guy who makes it a point of eating there when the chef isn't in town. Okay, I'm going to save this post if I need to clear my name.

Cabby just said it was not the best in her subjective taste. The advice to sample other restaurants in this range is sound advice to my ears. Daniel is clearly among the best in my subjective taste and I'd offer the same advice. Variety is the spice of life.

I don't know that I have a position on this nor am I party to what sort of thinking goes on in heads of Chefs in France. We are seeing more and more imported products in French restaurant kitchens and on French tables. San Pelligrino now seems to be one of the more popular sparkling waters in French restaurants. From reports I've read here, the French are currently infatuated with Asia, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, not to mention Italian olive oil. I am seeing more and more Spanish hams and cured meats and they seem to appear further north in France these days. There are any number of reasons why more products don't cross the Pyrenees. I can only make wild guess and stabs in the dark. As I mentioned, many Spanish products seem to have limited distribution in Spain. I don't know if that's due to limited quantities or the insularity of the Spanish tastes. In fact, I don't know why that is at all. At the grass roots level, France is succumbing to international trends such as pizza and fast food hamburger chains. At the level of haute cuisine, French chefs are propably not at all interested in looking at a neighbor's rustic regional food supply and especially not interested in one that isn't supported by the Escoffier dominated traditional practices. It's also one thing to build on a native food esthetic or gestalt and quite another to incorporate the rustic base that the Spanish build upon into a haute cuisine that's been looking towards Japan for ideas on how to make the food lighter and more delicate. As I've said, I have few answers and many questions myself, but if the French are importing exactly the foods they used to grow or raise domestically, it doesn't follow at all that they are looking for superior products. They are looking for what they used to have at home.

I have one question and a suggestion. Did they get a reservation for a better time? My guess would be that they might have if the restaurant was saving a table for a last minute vip. Many restaurants do that. My suggestion is for anyone holding a late reservation is similar to the one I'd give someone without a reservation--call that afternoon and ask if they've had cancellations and if a better slot is open.

lxt, I assumed the Bordeaux with the chocolate was an absent minded cut and paste and I was hoping the Rivesaltes was the one actually served to you. I believe I had that in December and it's an interesting and, I think, unusual wine. Most of the Rivesaltes I've seen have been muscats--sweet white wines--and inferior to the Bise Côteaux du Layon-Beaulieu ?l?Anclaie.? This one is more like the Banyuls and Maury's of the area and, I believe, the result of a solera like aging resulting in a sherry like wine. Someone with greater wine sophisitication may have more to say about it, but for me it was a new taste and one I really enjoyed. Obviously I enjoyed reading your post or I never would have gotten as far as the dessert wine. We've been fans of Boulud's cooking since shortly after someone took us to his old place not long after it had opened. We've also become friends, or at least close acquaintances of a sort, so I'm pleased the meal pleased you. What I find even more pleasing is your reaction when you noted that this was "the first place that touched me in the most profound way, ..." This sort of dining experience is one we don't have all that often, but nevertheless plays a large part in our life. It's an obsession, if not an addiction, and I regard such meals as cultural in much the same way as attending concerts, theaters or museums. I believe it's utterly unimportant if your next dinner at this level lives up to the food at Daniel or surpasses it in your estimation. It's the appreciation of the unique experience each time that we love. Many people, even those who may love food, regard dining at this level a sheer waste of money. I clearly don't and feel they are missing something, except perhaps when I am paying my credit card bills from time to time. Welcome to the club.

Are the ingredients available to the Spanish chefs and French chefs the same? In theory they are, but it's the same theory that holds these ingredients are available by air frieght all over the world. I don't have Mort Rosenblum's A Goose in Toulouse at hand, but I believe it was he, in that book, that cited the indredible shift of France from an agricultural country to an urban society where now a relatively small percentage of people work the land or are in any way involved in raising crops or livestock. France now imports snails and frog's legs. When you bypass the Spanish three star restaurants, you begin to get a sense of how rustic the food can be in Spain and how much if varies from region to region and how dependant it often is on local ingredients or traditions. Then return to the multistarred places and I think you will see the influences of tradition. Visit the multistarred places in France and it's harder not only to tell what part of France you are in, but if you are in France at all. Oddly enough the strong rustic traditions of Spanish cuisine don't seem to be as hampering to creativity as perhaps the legacy of the tradition of haute cuisine is in France.

Well I wasn't there then. My one question is whether there's a typo in the wine listed as served with the chocolate dessert. I suspect you pasted in the Sociando-Mallet '95 again by mistake. Which, I guess, is my way of saying I was paying attention to every word you wrote.

You could well be right. I gave it a couple of years before the buzz would be off the place and they'd be begging to have locals drop in for dinner without reservations. It just doesn't look as if that's ever going to happen. They seem to have a strong popularity with a broad number of groups.