Restaurants Since 9/11/01

[Fat Guy]

What are your favorites that have opened since 9/11, and which of the ones that have closed do you miss the most?

[mogsob]

I'm not sure what its actual opening date was, but Bid is by far my favorite new restaurant in NYC.  A great restaurant in a neighborhood that sorely needed one.

The restaurant I will miss most is Quilty's.  It was my favorite brunch restaurant.  Their coffee was great and their French Toast, layered with mangos and marscapone was genius.  (Frontiere, which apparantly closed for reasons happily unrelated to 9/11, would have been my first choice).

All in all, my regular rotation has been mercifully unaffected.  Perhaps we are seeing the wheat separated from the chaff?

[Fat Guy]

Bid opened on September 10, 2001, but we'll let you include it here. :)

Peacock Alley was closed in August for its normal vacation and never reopened in September. I'm not sure how to date that either, but I sorely miss the place.

Paul Liebrandt's departure from Atlas was a shame, but he's at Papillon now. I haven't been yet. And Atlas isn't out of business. So neither really qualifies.

Still I like the idea of this list.

Quilty's, I never really had a good meal there. And rarely have I been to a restaurant at that level with such horrible desserts. To get me to object to desserts, they have to be so bad as to raise questions about the sanity of the chef.

I'm not sure on all these dates, but I miss Meigas, Clementine, Quince, Destinee and Spartina. I don't miss Sono, Virot, or Belgo (all ending in the same sound, curiously). Never made it to Palladin.

[Wilfrid]

I regret never having got to Meigas, which was definitely on my to-do list.  I would certainly have gone back to Virot - I had one pretty good meal there before it closed, but wasn't entirely sure about the decor and setting.  I had got to the point with Peacock Alley that I would go there if I was on my own and wanted an expensive but interesting gastronomic experience.  The atmosphere was so utterly flat that I hesitated to take anyone who was looking for more out of a restaurant experience than analysing what was on the plate.

Personally, I miss Wild Blue.  It had romantic memories which will now always be tinged with sadness; and I first went there shortly after it opened specifically to eat the Tuesday suckling pig, which was excellent, and which followed some splendid beef cheeks which my partner stole.  (No, I'm not a vegetarian).

[Fat Guy]

Shame on me for not mentioning Wild Blue, the second-most-obvious loss from the tragedy. Unlike Windows, which objectively I can't say I'll miss for any reason other than that it was a landmark (though of course the loss of all those people was unthinkable), the food at Wild Blue was quite good, especially the steaks, which were as good as those served at most any steakhouse.

[Steve Klc]

Steven--I think I read recently where Laurent Gras landed post Peacock--California possibly?  are you aware?

[Fat Guy]

Yes, he's at the Fifth Floor.