Babbo (First 6 Years)

[Jinmyo]

Mmmmm. Very very nice pie. Anyone?

[La Niña]

Jin, not that you care necessarily, but I find that so annoying. Why derail the thread? Why trivialize it? Why do people think that this silly pie business will change anything except just to make people wade through silliness to read the substance of the thread? If the thread offends you, don't read it, or don't comment. Or perhaps this: if you have nothing to add ON THE TOPIC AT HAND, then how about just saying nothing?

Edited December 8, 2002 by La Niña (log)

[Blondie]

Mmmmm. Very very nice pie. Anyone?

I'd love some pie, Jinny. Do they serve pie at Babbo? (Just to be on topic )

[Jason Perlow]

Can I interest anyone in some nice pie?

Pecan.

[Jaymes]

At the risk of being chastised for adding my comments here on this very public forum, I'd like to say that this thread is an excellent example of why eliminating "Off Topic Chat" will do nothing to eliminate acrimony, unpleasantness and name calling on eGullet.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Nina - I just don't agree with you about the shunning or ignoring tactic. I think that behavior that is directed at interfering with the purpose of the discourse here should be struck from the board. There are many others who feel the same way. So you should leave me alone about it because we are just not going to agree.

Banana Cream Pie for me though.

[Jinmyo]

Nina, so sorry to annoy you. And I do care about that. And for you. And for Steve P. And tommy. I think it not off-topic to express a wish that acrimony between any of you come to rest in the metaphor of pie.

Blondie, surely the mint loveletters are a form of pie.

edit: Steve, I was thinking more of a chicken thigh and oyster mushroom galette but banana cream is fine too.

Edited December 8, 2002 by Jinmyo (log)

[Sandra Levine]

Don't you see the duplicity in that? ... It makes it hard to take seriously your comments about other people when you do the very things you so vehemently complain about.

"Duplicity" implies lying. I think "hypocrisy" describes these actions better.

[ranitidine]

Super Administrators take notice: Jaymes has the most perceptive comment on this thread. Personalities will come to the fore no matter what the topic.

[tommy]

Tommy brought that part of the discussion into this thread not for the purpose of helping anyone get a better meal at Babbo, but to show people up.  

no, i didn't. i, and probably a lot of others, are still trying to reconcile your views on ordering from the menu vs. asking for the chef's input. it was not my intent to deceive you or anyone else by pasting together two different conversions. i was merely referencing the words that you wrote, which, as i've said, i assumed were universal, or at least not Blue Hill-specific. i apologize if i've misrepresented or misinterpreted your views.

additionally, i'm not sure why you'd think i harbor so much anger or resentment towards you, as i generally like you and find you interesting and amusing. in person at least.

regards,

dick

Edited December 8, 2002 by tommy (log)

[ranitidine]

There is a difference between describing someone's behavior, which is what Tommy did, and calling someone a name, which is what Plotnicki did. Name calling has the effect of ending any productive or intelligent conversation on a particular topic. Describing behavior continues the discourse. Name calling either ends it or unproductively diverts it.

[Dave the Cook]

tommy's comment was posted at the same time as I was having trouble reconciling Steve P's comments on the Blue Hill thread with what was being posted here. It may have been an infelicitious introduction, but I think the ideas need to be considered.

Steve, I also interpreted what you were saying on the BH thread as being generally applicable. If it's not, how is one to know when it will be a useful strategy? It seems from your early posts in this thread that you were only exploring the possibility at Babbo, and not serious. That leaves me wondering why you did it at all. Just to see what the reaction would be? Under what circumstances would you have let the kitchen at Babbo choose your meal?

Edited December 8, 2002 by Dave the Cook (log)

[Liza]

I do wish Fat Guy would quote from his excellent and award-winning piece, "A Week in the Gramercy Tavern Kitchen". Seeing as how I have it here in the "Best Food Writing of 2002" collection, if I may:

"...I always wonder how much a restaurant can do to improve the cuisine for a VIP table. In the case of Gramercy Tavern, at least, the answer is: Not much...Perhaps the kitchen will send out half-portions of urchin between the appetizer or entree, or perhaps an extra dessert course. The actual preparation of the food, however, is unchanged".

Apologies for off-topically mentioning GT, but the point feels germaine here.

[Bux]

Nina - I have permission from Fat Guy to use the word asshole.

As I recall, that was in the thread where he offered to lend you enough rope.

[stefanyb]

I do wish Fat Guy would quote from his excellent and award-winning piece, "A Week in the Gramercy Tavern Kitchen". Seeing as how I have it here in the "Best Food Writing of 2002" collection, if I may:

"...I always wonder how much a restaurant can do to improve the cuisine for a VIP table. In the case of Gramercy Tavern, at least, the answer is: Not much...Perhaps the kitchen will send out half-portions of urchin between the appetizer or entree, or perhaps an extra dessert course. The actual preparation of the food, however, is unchanged".

Apologies for off-topically mentioning GT, but the point feels germaine here.

Germaine to the nines, I would say.

[Fat Guy]

Last night I ate at a place where the kitchen is pretty easy to walk into and they're pretty accommodating when customers want to take a look. The executive chef was away; the chef de cuisine was in house but not in the actual kitchen at the time we wandered in. So nobody in the kitchen knew who we were. My friend (a more serious reviewer than I) and I stood and watched the pastry assistant plate two identical desserts, one of which turned out to be for our table. When the assistant called for a pick-up of the two dessert trays (each of which also included other items), she said to the food runner, "This one is for table X, and this one is for table Y." She then hesitated, looked both of them over, and swapped the two identical desserts. "Okay, this one is VIP," she said -- that was the one going to our table. Now to me the desserts in question looked the same. They probably would have seemed the same to anybody but the pastry assistant making them or perhaps another pastry professional (maybe). So it was a symbolic gesture only, albeit as noticeable as the tree that falls in the woods that nobody hears. But I was pleased to be the recipient of preferential treatment.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Okay so it is understood by all, what I recommended that people do at Blue Hill is a general recommendation providing a restaurant is willing to do it. If they don't offer it, or normally do it, I can't see how that advice is going to help you. Secondly, if anyone read this thread from the top, the waitress didn't seem to know what we were talking about. Finally, even if they did have a practice of doing it, that wouldn't have corrected the flaws in our meal which were a matter of the kitchen not executing properly.

Bux - One more foolish comment in a long line of them. Do I have to send you a copy of FG's email to me about it? In fact the discussion of using profanity was thrashed through in a thread last winter and there was no objection to it. In fact there's a thread which discusses the approriate times to use f**k and a**hole. This was one of them if you ask me. Profanities are not name calling

Tommy - Well sorry if I took your comments the wrong way. It's hard to tell when you are busting chops, being a wiseass or trying to get actual information.

Dave the Cook - The reason we explored it is because there has been so much talk about it. I can't speak for the others except Mrs. P who was dead set against it but, I wasn't really interested in it either. However, if my question brought a glimmer to the waitresses eye I might have felt differently about it.

[Fat Guy]

I thought it was "dickhead" that I said you could use. Please, in the future, should you feel the need to resort to profanity and/or name calling, refer to tommy as "dickhead" rather than "asshole." Thank you.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Fat Guy - You might be right. Sorry if I broke the rules by using the wrong profanity. Next time I'll use dickhead.

[tommy]

*finally* i get some respect around here.

[Jaymes]

Listen asshole, you.....

Not name-calling???

Oh.

[Steve Plotnicki]

It's a guy thing.

[Jaymes]

I'll totally buy that.

[Lreda]

I have been reading this post from beginning to end with great interest because:

a: We have reservations on the 19th

b: I tried to get the reservation this past Thursday but found it was being used by egulleteers before I had the sense to PM Stefanyb.

We are actually thinking of giving up the reservation and going to Vong because it's closer to the theatre that evening.

I was really looking foward to going to Babbo but between the tenseness of posters and staff problems noted we are undecided.

On a side note to Steve, i don't know you and don't wish to cause a problem but a simple aside would have been to call Babbo in advance and ask if you could have a tasting menu besides the one offered. Your waitress whether from the mid-West or from The Bronx probably looked like a deer in the headlights when asked if the kitchen could whip up something special. The host everyone seems to dislike surely would have been a help if approached at the desk instead of the table.

Oh well, I guess I have something to think about over the next few days when deciding where we'll dine for my birthday.

Lou

[Jaymes]

Lreda -

LOVE your avatar.

Who is that, exactly??