Comparing Mario Batali's Restaurants

[Felonius]

- I'm not all that adventurous when it comes to fish selections

- I had just met an incredibly beautiful blind date, and I was frankly so enamored with her that raw fish wasn't the first thing on my mind

Congratulations! You've been hired as the new New York Times restaurant reviewer!

I regret to inform you that I enjoy having fun. I think this disqualifies my application for the job.

Edited January 29, 2004 by Felonius (log)

[mjc]

Both Esca, Casa Mono, and Otto have 2 NY times stars. Babbo has 3 and Lupa gets none (since Eric Asimov wrote about it). Based on the recent trend in reviewing (and the quality of Lupa) it seems like Mario deserves 2 more stars.

[slkinsey]

Glad to see that so many people like Esca. It's probably my favorite seafood place too. And good points all around about "perfect preparation of the freshest ingredients." This is, in a nutshell, the Italian seafood aesthetic. In a certain sense, it can feel a little strange to spend big bucks in a seafood place like this when one is used to paying those prices for much more elaborate food with complicated and difficult preparation. But, as Steven points out, you're really paying for one of the most expensive and most perishable ingredients there is: pristene, fresh fish.

Among the things I have really enjoyed are: marinated fresh anchovies, sorrel ravioli, bucatini with baby octopus, bigoli with fresh sardines, maccheroni alla chittara with crabmeat and sea urchin, spaghetti with bottarga and bread crumbs, salt-baked branzino per due, rombo in cartoccio, and most any dish with scallops.

[tommy]

esca's linguini w/ clam dish ranks as one of my all-time favorite dishes. perfect.

[slkinsey]

All this talk of Esca is making me think I need to get back there soon -- something I've been meaning to do for some time.

[Fat Guy]

Maybe Felonius can lend you his date.

MJC: I think he deserves either one or zero more stars. Otto should have one, not two. Lupa could be two or one depending: by today's re-inflated-in-the-later-Grimes-years standard it's a two-star restaurant, but I'd probably give it one on a more rigorous old-school scale that properly values the luxury components of a restaurant.

[mkultra]

One thiing I forgot to mention about my Esca experience - the flawless service.

I've had less than exemplary service on several occasions at Babbo, and also encountered a bit of attitude from the host and bartenders. This was not the case at all at Esca. Everyone on the staff was friendly, attentive and very accomodating. The sommelier was especially knowledgeable and helpful.

Interesting that you would point this out. I've also had bad Batali service experiences, but for me it was both at Babbo and Esca. The bar service at Babbo has always been excellent, but the one time I had table service there (on our first anniversary, having met at the bar there, no less!), our service was so bad- our waiter was completely inattentive, and they neglected to serve us a bottle my friend had reserved for us- that I was compelled for the first time to write a letter to them. The one time I went to Esca, I had similarly unattentive service, and my plate was inedibly bad- again the first time I ever sent a dish back because it was fundamentally awful. Po, on the other hand, I found rather excellent for what it was- simple Italian food.

[jogoode]

Felonius, in my experience Esca tends to be more expensive than Babbo if you order similarly. But Esca is a seafood restaurant. You're talking about a restaurant serving the most expensive category of ingredients versus one where the food cost is no doubt rather low. Babbo's range -- some of the dishes are made from truly cheap shit -- not only keeps the price range compelling but also subsidizes the seafood prices (the spaghetti with a one-pound lobster is, I believe, available at both places but is actually a couple of bucks cheaper at Babbo). It's conceptually similar to the comparison between, say, Blue Hill and Sparks. You will invariably spend more money at Sparks for shrimp cocktail, a steak, a side of creamed spinach, and a piece of cheesecake than you will at Blue Hill for "warm tomato soup, lightly smoked," etc.

I agree 100% with your assessment that "Esca seems more about perfect preparation of the freshest ingredients, whereas Babbo pushes the culinary creativity/complexity boundaries a good bit further." And I think your ranking is in line with how the star-rating system would rank-order the Batali restaurants. My only disappointment in reading your report is that you weren't as enamored of the crudo selection as I've been.

FG,

Is Blue Hill's food cost really that much lower than Sparks? Sparks pays a lot for their beef, I'm sure. But doesn't Blue Hill's reliance on small farm veggies and meat help their food cost catch up to Sparks, with their probably frozen spinach and baked potatoes? Or is the beef cost and portion size that great at Sparks?

[Fat Guy]

There are service problems at all the Batali/Bastianich restaurants. Fundamentally, they just don't seem to grasp the full extent of what's required to provide good hospitality on a consistent basis. I would say, however, that Esca has the best service of all the Batali places. As observed above, it's really a breed apart from the others: it's a Midtown seafood restaurant with a chef who operates with a great deal of independence.

My one major objection to Esca is that lunch is totally inadequate. The only crudo offering is a tray of three pre-chosen items, and the fish entree choices are mostly unappealing and limited. I've also experienced really bad service and one out-of-bounds cooking error at lunchtime. At dinner, I've always done very well. Not that my sample size is particularly large at either meal.

[Fat Guy]

Is Blue Hill's food cost really that much lower than Sparks? Sparks pays a lot for their beef, I'm sure. But doesn't Blue Hill's reliance on small farm veggies and meat help their food cost catch up to Sparks, with their probably frozen spinach and baked potatoes? Or is the beef cost and portion size that great at Sparks?

I don't have access to the balance sheets, but I bet Sparks has a higher food cost. But even if the food cost percentage is the same at both places, the large portions of steak and seafood are going to mean that Sparks will be the more expensive restaurant, which it is.

[jbraynolds]

Nothing in the restaurant food cost world can top highest-quality beef except some of the really crazy, seasonal, exotic, flown-in fish. Throw the large portion factor into it and places like Sparks have to have some of the higher food costs in the city. Luckily for them they sell a lot of beer, booze and wine. The steak places were sure a lot happier when they were able to sell cigars at 400% markups, which usually led to expanded booze tabs as well. Also, dessert costs are usually lower at the steak places than at the Blue Hill-types so they make up some ground there.

[Fat Guy]

Yeah, but dessert costs are very low everywhere -- usually less than 10% even at fancy places, right? The thing that's nice about Sparks is that the wine markups are quite reasonable, though I'd gladly pay a little more for better wine service and stemware.

[Amuse Bouche]

Adding my $.02, I like Babbo best because I think the food is the most interesting and the experience the best. I like Otto second best, but I've only ever gone for brunch or afternoon drinks, when it's not particularly crowded and there's no wait for a table. I also like eating that way -- with small dishes and snacky foods to share. I've had a bad experience at Lupa -- even with reservations, I've had to wait over an hour for a table (when I've been to Babbo with reservations, I've been seated promptly), and I find the crowds draining rather than energetic. The food was very good, though not fantastically interesting, and since I no longer live in the neighborhood I'm less likely to pop in.

Haven't been to Esca or Casa Mono, but I'm eager to try Casa Mono.

[bourdain]

MKULTRA! Nice screen name (obscure/sinister historical reference)!

And I'll say it again: LUPA.

Anecdote:

Star-struck foodie approaches Mario. " I'm only in town for a few days.. Which one of your restaurants should I eat at? Which is the best one?"

" Lupa."

Count for anything?

And if you're lucky enough to go "off the menu" with chef Mark Ladner at Lupa; it's one of NYC's singular delights.

Edited January 29, 2004 by bourdain (log)

[ned]

Forgive me in advance for this.

None are the best. If a guy has time to be on tv, he's given up the business of being a chef.

I've eaten at three of the restaurants and in all cases have found the food to be fine, like it should be in a CONCEPT RESTAURANT, but not sharp or bright or clear or enlightening.

[jbraynolds]

Lupa has never really been a Mario restaurant. It's always been much more about Mark Ladner and Jason Denton, and they're both there most of the time, even with Jason's 'ino and 'inoteca stuff and Mark's limited involvemnet up at Otto.

[jbraynolds]

Re: desserts and costs. Remember that most high-end places have at least part-time and usually full-time pastry people while the steak places buy a lot of things (in some cases, everything) pre-made and just slice it or scoop it. And much of the exotica that will ratchet up food costs (fancy chocolate, great fruit, alcoholic stuff) that the Blue Hillish places do will never be found at a steak place. That chocolate syrup at Luger's? Fox's U-Bet or such, I'd bet.

[jogoode]

Nothing in the restaurant food cost world can top highest-quality beef except some of the really crazy, seasonal, exotic, flown-in fish. Throw the large portion factor into it and places like Sparks have to have some of the higher food costs in the city. Luckily for them they sell a lot of beer, booze and wine. The steak places were sure a lot happier when they were able to sell cigars at 400% markups, which usually led to expanded booze tabs as well. Also, dessert costs are usually lower at the steak places than at the Blue Hill-types so they make up some ground there.

Thanks FG and jb.

So, of Batali's restaurants, which has the lowest food cost? Or would it be simply Esca, Babbo, Lupa, Otto/Casa Mono?

[jbraynolds]

I think that it's also worth adding that, aside from the cachet-of-the-day (as opposed to the catch of the day) that Mario brings, Esca is and always has been very, very much Pasternak's place. Considering that the space was a full on Bastianich outlet (Frico) prior to Esca, and I'm assuming that the Bastianich family still holds the lease, the Mario quotient is even further diminished.

As for costs, as primitive as much of what happens at Lupa might be, most of it is pretty damned labor-intensive, from making pastas to the whole meat-curing thing. Same, I'm assuming, goes for the new Spanish places.

[jogoode]

Forgive me in advance for this.

None are the best. If a guy has time to be on tv, he's given up the business of being a chef.

I've eaten at three of the restaurants and in all cases have found the food to be fine, like it should be in a CONCEPT RESTAURANT, but not sharp or bright or clear or enlightening.

Between Ladner, Nusser and Pasternak -- and with his and Bastianich's overseeing -- it seems like his restaurants are in good hands.

[slkinsey]

This is definitely worth mentioning in re to Esca. It's really David Pasternack's place as much, if not more than it is Batali's. Certainly Pasternack seems to have more of a free hand at Esca than the head guys do at, say, Lupa and Babbo. This is probably inevitable given the fact that Esca's menu necessarily changes with some frequency depending on what is coming out of the water. In fact, I went to Esca not long after it opened, and when one of my friends remarked to our waiter (who had been pulled over from Babbo to get the place going) that she always loved Mario's places, he made quite a point of the fact that, although Batali was the guiding influence, Pasternack was the guy in the kitchen.

[Amuse Bouche]

I suppose with the note of the different chefs, it really comes down to how different they all are. Eating at Babbo is a totally different experience foodwise from eating at Lupa. Lupa is the best value, and the food is excellent, but my time is money and I'm just not willing to fight the crowds very often. Babbo is more of a high end dining experience, with more "luxury" ingredients (oh, that goose liver ravioli) and refined presentations, while Otto is more of a between the meals kind of place. I actually wish Lupa were open between lunchtime and dinner, because I'd love to go in at about 4:00 for a glass or two of wine (or their fabulous housemade walnut liqueur) and some cured meats or cheeses.

[jogoode]

Babbo is more of a high end dining experience, with more "luxury" ingredients (oh, that goose liver ravioli) and refined presentations,

I'd agree that Babbo features more "luxury ingedients" than Lupa -- like truffles in season and the goose liver rav -- but really the genius of Babbo is that it can charge so much for pig's feet, tripe, and calf brains, because it is one of the only restaurants serving these dishes. In the New Yorker article about Batali several years ago, he was described creating a nightly special, a soup of leftovers that he essentially made up on the spot, for which he charged $30. A good part of the menu is labor-intensive, as someone said before, like pasta and salumi, but the cost of the ingredients used in those two is quite low. I'd imagine the restaurant makes a killing. Most of the dishes, in fact, use mostly non-luxury ingredients and feature the addition of fennel pollen or "budding chives". What you're eating seems luxurious, not because of its price but because of its relative rarity in NYC. Absolutely nothing wrong with this, of course.

Also of note is the Batali price mantra, which seems to be: "Keep prices of items in like categories as close to one another as possible." Bond Girl pointed this out to me once before. And the online menu has the lobster spaghetti selling fore two bucks more than the Bucatini all'Amatriciana! A one-pound lobster versus an ounce of two of guanciale that he makes himself. I know it's not that simple but it's worth taking a look at.

[jogoode]

All this talk of Esca is making me think I need to get back there soon -- something I've been meaning to do for some time.

I was with you as soon as you mentioned that pasta with crab and urchin!

[tjaehnigen]

Only ever been to Babbo, so that gets my vote.... D'oh!

Could someone do a one-liner on each of his current restaurants? Which one is the pizza/wine place? I'd be most grateful. Esca (sp?) being a fish place ranks it up high for me since Mrs. TJ is a fish-hound.

Grazie!