If the Times is Wrong

[Liza]

Also keep in mind that there are many supplemental costs (optional, yes) on the Daniel menu.

[g.johnson]

And 620% wine markups at Ducasse. Though Fat Guy speculates that this may be the case at other four stars.

[tommy]

had enough wilfy old boy?

[Ron Johnson]

Three nights in New York.

Night One: Atelier

Night Two: JG or Daniel

Night Three: ????

[Wilfrid]

No, I've just taken my Plotnicki Intellectual Dietary Supplement, and feel confident of defending my absurd postion for at least ten pages.

Or, okay already. I just like ADNY better than Daniel and J-G.

[Ron Johnson]

Plotnicki Intellectual Dietary Supplement

Possible side-effects may include making Italian food taste bad.

[tommy]

Three nights in New York.

Night One:  Atelier

Night Two:  JG or Daniel

Night Three:  ????

something uniquely NY?

[tommy]

Three nights in New York.

Night One:  Atelier

Night Two:  JG or Daniel

Night Three:  ????

something uniquely NY?

[Ron Johnson]

something uniquely NY?

such as?? aside from Wilfrid's excellent suggestion that is.

Edited March 18, 2003 by Ron Johnson (log)

[g.johnson]

Union Pacific. I'm not a big fan but others are and it's significantly different from the others.

Edit: Or Craft. I am a fan and ditto.

Edit2: Or Babbo. Edited in so it looks as if tommy's copying.

Edited March 18, 2003 by g.johnson (log)

[tommy]

something uniquely NY?

such as??

lugers? sparks? the palm?

if you're anything like me, 2 or 3 nights of haute excess in a row gets boring.

i'd suggest Nobu as well, although it's not uniquely NY.

otto? i hope you're going to otto for fuck's sake.

babbo, while italian, can actually be tasty and pleasant.

[Liza]

Pakistani Tea House on Church Street?

[Ron Johnson]

I have considered the haute excess overload theory.

Otto is a must, if for no other reason than to proclaim it the best pizza in manhattan.

I have been to Babbo twice, but Lugers is a possibility.

If this trip goes anything like I think it might, perhaps a nice quiet AA meeting.

edit: How is UP now that Rocco is a big rock star making TV shows all the time?

Edited March 18, 2003 by Ron Johnson (log)

[hollywood]

NYC being a city of the world, you can fly to LA (try Jet Blue to Long Beach) and eat at Bastide, Sona and Josie.

[Wilfrid]

Certain experts have been considering a bar crawl of lower Ninth Avenue. Sorry, it was the AA reference which set me off. Could get a hot dog in Rudy's.

[tommy]

edit:  How is UP now that Rocco is a big rock star making TV shows all the time?

last week i had one of the most impressive lunches of my life there. and for 20.03 ta boot.

ron johnson needs to start a new thread. something like "where should ron johnson go".

[Ron Johnson]

Certain experts have been considering a bar crawl of lower Ninth Avenue.

My years of training make me well-suited to lend a hand in such endeavors. And, it would fit into Tommy's theory of being uniquely NY and not haute excess.

[Wilfrid]

You would also be saving money over my last suggestion.

So, Tommy, get back from Tuscan yet or are you posting from your table?

[Ron Johnson]

ron johnson needs to start a new thread.  something like "where should ron johnson go".

I tried that on the Di Faras thread and everyone got pissed and decided to stay in Manhattan and eat a sack lunch instead.

[Scott]

just browsing, i thought i'd weigh in with a little bit of view.

a few weeks ago i was recommended a few places for a special weekend, and I did my best to get about!

my thoughts were:

Le Bernadin:

really disappointed. The room is cavernous and overly corporate, and it didn't help that ours wasn't the best table - but on short notice can't complain.

Service was poor all night - amuse came out before we could even order wine, and then it was 40 minutes before we saw anyone again.

Food:

Amuse of yellow tuna tartare - fine, perhaps a little underseasoned.

Fluke Cerviche - series of 4 marinated fluke dishes. quite successful, though the kitchen describes them as becoming 'more complex' but delving heavily into green and red curry thai styled combo's was not awe inspiring. Nice dish though.

Argentinean Scallop ravioli, in foie & truffle sauce. pointless dish, the type I hate - lemme explain. The shrimp was fine, cooked well - still a little crisp. The pasta was toothy, so they worked well, albeit fractionally dull on their own. The sauce, this type of cooking i find pointless. It's just rich & indulgent, rather than well matched - the ingredients are the wow factor, not the end product. 'look honey, bits of black truffle, and ooh isn't that sauce a pretty colour' - didn't work, and as it was recommended by our vanishing waiter, I wasn't pleased. (the dish is prob better than I described, but I still think a pointless combo)

Steamed Striped Bass - paying less attention now. This I enjoyed, nice fragrant broth permeating the almost translucent flesh. Tasty, well cooked, but fractionally dull. It was too wet - needed a crunch or something. was good though.

desert - some unremarkable passionfruit, sorbeting thing.

This was not inexpensive, and the food was mostly fine, 1 piece of my cerviche was exceptional. My GF's food was no better. I found the place good overall, just not good enough. Too corporate a dining room, and poor service - they were only at 80% cover most of the time also. $9 for a bottle pellegrino - the worst deal since I got charged £7 for an espresso at MPW's Oak Room.

the worst part is now I won't give proper time to those places that were great.

Bouley: V.Day - stunning.

complaints first off: had made pre-dining arrangements, these were forgotten. Was not informed of a special Valentine menu, alacarte not available. The V menu was exceptional though.

Was overcharged for dodgy house champagne.

These are relatively minor compared to the historic food served.

The red room, each with its own deco lamp, roses petals strewn over the table - very romantic.

Service good, although it was hard to know who our waiter was for the evening. GF runs a large city restaurant, and she gets very peeved over that sort of thing.

Food:

7 courses - although don't recall all of them.

Gravadlax in a yogurt/herby emulsion - delicious, real melt in your mouth stuff. With a mini taco that was a tasty as anything I have ever put in my mouth - seriously.

Black Bass in a scallop crust, with sauce Bouillabaisse and vanilla rice. the rice was unnecessary, the sauce was nice, but was just a heavily reduced fish stock/sauce. Now the fish was everything the bass at Le-B wasn't. The scallop crust was inventive and technically precise, the bass was moist, flavoursome and just a devasting combination.

Potato cloud with Ny state Foie & Truffle - this was textural perfection. Complex flavours, very well balanced. It is a veloute with an electric beater rammed through it - very gordon ramsay.

great.

Geez my memory is going, I had a very good red venison dish the details escape me.

Lobster dish - very good.

Deserts not the strongest but very good. Lots of sorbets & chocolate in 2 different dishes.

Anyway you get the point.

11 madison park avenue - much simpler food, more comforting but accomplished. The room, jesus the room is beautiful.

A short note, had some of the best Mexican food ever at Mexicana Mama, in the village. The sort of stuff you can't get in London. Our guests were impressed, just not as surprised as the non New-Yorkers were.

so there you have it, I don't have the benefit of trying over time as I have certainly found that to be all important. Bouley was truly great, though i hear they can be variable - no point in being 1 out 3 of similar. Bernadin - groan...

i would say this, doesn't everyone rank pirvately in their heads anyway?