Babbo (First 6 Years)

[Ron Johnson]

Okay.

And thanks...at last I have a signature line!

LOL

"She reminded them of a cocktail waitress at a hotel in the midwest, sleek but sturdy, with the kind of sensibility that kept young men glancing nervously at their menus. A kind of sensibility that didn't play well in the big city. At least not in a trattoria in the Village serving irrelevant cuisine."

Edited December 6, 2002 by ron johnson (log)

[robert brown]

As the first man off the bench (the proverbial “sixth man” or the final piece of the Stefanyb puzzle) I have to side with those who were disappointed in the meal last night. I ordered the Pigs Foot Milanese that was pounded and breaded with tomato and arugula placed on top. It was dry and overcooked to just short of being burned.. I was part of the tepid-to-room temperature lamb chops group and my pistachio and chocolate semifreddo was luke warm and cloyingly sweet. In other words, each of my three dishes was seriously flawed. It was a bad week as two of the three restaurants (the other being Ouest) that were the first three I would recommend to a serious diner coming to New York as a gastronomic tourist fell apart on me. (Only Jewel Bako remains unscathed). Adding further to my loss of faith in Babbo was a belated reading of the New Yoker profile by Bill Buford about Batalli. Batalli’s greatest asset appears to be recognition of the richness and depth of the Italian “canon” of regional food and bringing it to Americans in the media and the restaurants he and his partners start up. Whether subtle or unintentional, I found the New Yorker article damning in varying respects which I won’t go into other than to mention Batalli's disdain of French cooking and the preoccupation he has with the celebrities who come to the restaurant. Like Toby, I would probably return to Lupa before Babbo. (My one dinner at Eska was pretty much a disaster). I should add, however, that in none of Batalli’s restaurants do you get a profound feeling of eating in a restaurant in Italy. Authentic eating in Italy, more often than not, is accompanied by the keen desire of the proprietor to impart the joy of gastronomy. Babbo, from the maitre d’hotel that eGulleteers love to hate to the overwhelming feeling one is supporting a mercenary enterprise, seems to have become complacent and resting on its laurels of notoriety and Batalli’s fame.

[Jinmyo]

Oooooh, Robert. Et tu.

This is the first major bout of criticism of Babbo I've heard on eGullet. Of course, mostly from one table on one night. But still...

Mario, Mario, wherefore art thou Mario?

Oh.

[jaybee]

After re-reading my tablemates' accurate descriptions, I feel somewhat odd that I enjoyed my food as much as I did. Strange. Everything Steve, Robert, Toby wrote is totally on target. Yet the people were fun and my four dishes tasted good, despite the tepid chops that had to be reheated.

So I had a very enjoyable experience. If I want to spend $125 for dinner, I will try another Italian place next time. Lupa is high in my list.

Edited December 7, 2002 by jaybee (log)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Thing is, I'd like to like the place. I'd like to have a modernish Italian in my back pocket for when I'm in the mood. And the food he cooks on TV looks really delicious and he explains it and what makes it delicious so well. And he was even cool playing blues guitar with that famous salumerist (now that's a word) in Bologna on TV. But it all adds up to a recurring disappointment.

[stefanyb]

Sorry for not posting before the actual meal at Babbo as to who had used the reservation, but I had my reasons.

Reading and responding to the posts in the original thread and then reading this thread turned out to be well worth the effort of obtaining the reservation in the first place; very entertaining

edit: perhaps more entertaining than having eaten the dinner certainly cheaper

Edited December 7, 2002 by stefanyb (log)

[jaybee]

"As it was, I'm sure word quickly spread into the kitchen about table x. Hence, Mario just had to come out and take a look. (Who knows why those chops were col

The chops were cold because I ordered a pasta course after the appetizers which I split with Toby. No one else had a pasta course. I think the kitchen or the waitstaff didn't bother to time the entrees to come out after we finished our pasta course, so they sat on the shelf for about 20 minutes. That's just plain careless and bad table management.

[robert brown]

Jaybee, you know the restaurant and what's good. No one can fault you for relying on past experience and "guaranteeing" a satisfying meal. Best of all, we all had fun and everyone was well-behaved. Thanks, Stefany. Wish you were there.

Edited December 7, 2002 by robert brown (log)

[pete ganz]

My wife and I went to Babbo last night (6:15 res). It was our first time there, and I was a little leery after reading this thread. We ordered all the classics, mainly going on what was recommended on this board, such as the lamb's tongue salad and beef cheek ravioli, short ribs, and lamb chops. Everything was excellent, especially the lamb chops. Easily the best I've ever eaten. The service from the waiter and sommelier was quite friendly and knowledgeable, although the maitre d' was a bit gruff, but I expected that from previous threads. We were there for 3 hours and never felt rushed. So in my experience, it seems they are not resting on their laurels. Maybe you just went on an off night. Just my 2 cents.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Well the more I think about our meal, the more I feel like our waitress should take the brunt of the blame. But as I said, I can project the food to the point of perfection but then I still don't get what the big fuss is about. So where do you think Babbo sits in relation to NYC's other top restaurants?

[Jinmyo]

pete, thank you thank you. My faith in St. Mario is all I have.

[tommy]

plotz, as you've said, you only have yourself to blame when you're not eating well.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Gee that's not what I said.

[tommy]

Gee that's not what I said.

what plotz *did* say is the following:

So when the customers decide to order what they want, instead of what is the best thing in the house, in fact often rejecting what the restaurant recommends as the best thing in the house, why is it that you want to blame your bad decision on the restaurant?

I asked her what would happen if we asked them to do that? We weren't really interested in having them do that

I just said that if you ask them to choose your meal you are guaranteed that what they will give you are what they consider their best ingredients. And you will eat much better then if you order off the menu. But if you don't ask, you certainly can't blame anyone but yourself [my emphasis added].

i'm going out to pick up some bottled water. anyone want anything?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Listen asshole, you cut and pasted posts from the Blue Hill thread where I am talking about what hapens in that restaurant with what happened at Babbo where I have made no representation as to how to, or if you even could, get a chef's menu. The whole thing is disingenuous on your part and it shows how dishonest you are. Please stop trying to bring me down to your level of incompetancy and self loathing. That you do not feel good about yourself to the extent that you are were uncomfortable asking Blue Hill about the Chef's menu isn't my fault.

[tommy]

Listen asshole, you cut and pasted posts from the Blue Hill thread where I am talking about what hapens in that restaurant with what happened at Babbo where I have made no representation as to how to, or if you even could, get a chef's menu. The whole thing is disingenuous on your part and it shows how dishonest you are. Please stop trying to bring me down to your level of incompetancy and self loathing. That you do not feel good about yourself to the extent that you are were uncomfortable asking Blue Hill about the Chef's menu isn't my fault.

it seemed that you were talking about universals on the blue hill thread. i was. and i'm pretty sure others thought so as well. if there was a misunderstanding on that basic level during that discussion and this one then i see no reason for you to resort to name-calling.

additionally, i have no vested interest in bringing you down to my level of incompetancy and self-loathing, so get that out of your head.

[Ron Johnson]

I guess one of the problems with a forum is that you can't really say that you never said something, when all anyone has to do is go to the thread where you said it and cut & paste it.

Of course, the defense to that is to then call that someone an asshole. Makes sense.

[Steve Plotnicki]

if there was a misunderstanding on that basic level during that discussion and this one then i see no reason for you to resort to name-calling.

This is from the guy who said it was "arrogant" to ask a restaurant to do this for you. Now he is complaining about name calling when an explanation is being offered as to what motivated him to describe people that way in the first place.

I like the wisecracks better.

[tommy]

This is from the guy who said it was "arrogant" to ask a restaurant to do this for you. Now he is complaining about name calling when an explanation is being offered as to what motivated him to describe people that way in the first place.

while i fail to see what one has to do with the other, i'll inform you, and all of those playing along at home, that i never used the word "arrogant" to describe this practice. if i did, i'd appreciate you showing me where that was, and you'll no doubt accept my most hubble apologies. perhaps you weren't listening?

Edited December 8, 2002 by tommy (log)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Actually I apologize because you didn't say arrogant, you said this;

i'm pretty sure that i'm not the only one who thinks that asking a restaurant to prepare a special meal is presumptuous and borders obnoxious

[CathyL]

Boys, take it outside. Please.

[La Niña]

Steve, I don't understand how you can, on one thread, scream and yell about LML insulting people, and on here you can call someone an asshole. Don't you see the duplicity in that? Not that I haven't been guilty of this myself - but if you are holding other people up to standards you've defined, then how about adhering to them yourself? It makes it hard to take seriously your comments about other people when you do the very things you so vehemently complain about.

And yes, please do stop fighting on this thread. Thanks.

Edit: I don't mean to indicate that Steve is alone here in terms of "blame." Tommy baited and badgered and finally elicited an inappropriate response, but that's really no better.

Edited December 8, 2002 by La Niña (log)

[Jinmyo]

Can I interest anyone in some nice pie?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Nina - I have permission from Fat Guy to use the word asshole. Dick was another word he didn't mind the use of. I can't remember the rest of the list but you can imagine the words on it.

The problem here isn't with the use of any specific words, I could have made the same point without using that specific word. Asshole just happened to be a good way of describing his duplicity when he cut and pasted those two threads together to make it seem like I had said something I didn't say. I'm sorry if my poetic license didn't meet with your approval. Next time I will have you vet my responses before posting them.

The original post about Blue Hill offered advice from a number of different people on how to get a better meal there. Since then, those who offered the advice have been tormented by those they gave it to as if we were doing something bad by showing them how to improve their meal. It's the craziest thing in the world that advice about how to get the best meal in a restaurant is derided. 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. If that is his purpose of posting on this thread, no doubt the result will be that those who he has targeted will lash out at him.

[La Niña]

And you take the bait like a Pavlovian dog.