Bruni and Beyond: NYC Reviewing (2006)

[Pan]

I think it's a big mistake to bring in New York Times music reviews as a contrast with food reviews. The space allotted to music coverage -- and the music listings -- has been drastically reduced over the years, especially recently. There was a time when debut recitals at Weill Recital Hall were regularly reviewed in the Times. Nowadays, it seems that only those series which advertize in the Times (Young Concert Artists, Concert Artists Guild, et al.) get reviewed. Ever. There have been lots of newsworthy debut recitals by Artists International winners in the past decade or so (including yours truly, in 1996), with significant world or New York premieres, but I feel safe in saying that none were reviewed in the Times. And I don't mean by the main reviewer; I mean by anyone. (Note that Artists International never advertizes in the Times, but also that there are more performers in their season than in YCA's or CAG's.) Furthermore, whereas I used to be able to get any concert I was playing listed in the Times, since they didn't list me the last time I sent them a press release, I've given up on them (perhaps a mistake, but I doubt it). So yes, at least in terms of classical music performances, the Times is covering big names and series that advertize in their music pages almost exclusively. That is, unless things have suddenly changed while I've been mostly ignoring their music reviews.

Now, in terms of the point about the Hell's Kitchen Grand Sichuan meriting a star, I agree, though I'd sooner give a star or two to Spicy & Tasty in Flushing. I don't think Spicy & Tasty has a wine list, but they do have excellent, classy decor for those who think that's necessary for "dining." I don't, but I do like looking at their copies of ancient Chinese stone figures and such.

cru, I think that we should accept that different people have different views as to what "dining" consists of. Your description of dining causes me to think of 3-to-4-star restaurants, not 1-to-2-star restaurants (though some would fit into your criteria). Although I have to wonder whether your criterion of "flatware" would exclude any Chinese or Japanese restaurant from ever being able to attain a star rating from you. Would you be willing to swap that for beautiful formal dishes and porcelain spoons?

Edited January 19, 2006 by Pan (log)

[BryanZ]

The Spotted Pig

The line for the small unisex bathroom downstairs can be long. But it can also be interesting. Two young, pretty women entered the bathroom together. And stayed for a bit.

Classy, Frank, classy.

[Nathan]

The Spotted Pig

The line for the small unisex bathroom downstairs can be long. But it can also be interesting. Two young, pretty women entered the bathroom together. And stayed for a bit.

Classy, Frank, classy.

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I think he's just implying that some coke use was taking place...which is probably true and worth mentioning in the context of a restaurant's vibe. I take it you read it differently than I....

[robert40]

The Spotted Pig

The line for the small unisex bathroom downstairs can be long. But it can also be interesting. Two young, pretty women entered the bathroom together. And stayed for a bit.

Classy, Frank, classy.

←

I think he's just implying that some coke use was taking place...which is probably true and worth mentioning in the context of a restaurant's vibe. I take it you read it differently than I....

←

I also wondered if it may be another case of NFL cheerleaders.But of coarse I'm guilty of having a dirty mind at least once a year.

Edited January 25, 2006 by robert40 (log)

[Nathan]

The Spotted Pig

The line for the small unisex bathroom downstairs can be long. But it can also be interesting. Two young, pretty women entered the bathroom together. And stayed for a bit.

Classy, Frank, classy.

←

I think he's just implying that some coke use was taking place...which is probably true and worth mentioning in the context of a restaurant's vibe. I take it you read it differently than I....

←

I also wondered if it may be another case of NFL cheerleaders.But of coarse I'm guilty of having a dirty mind at least once a year.

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well, I think that's what Bryanz was reading Bruni as implying...thus his "classless" remark. I just read it as implying cocaine use (the standard reason for two people to go into the bathroom together in a Manhattan restaurant or bar).

[tommy]

oddly, it doesn't take much time at all to do a blast in a restroom. women go to the restroom together all the time, regardless of their taste for coke (though i suppose not as much when it's small and they're actually relieving themselves). and they often spend a lot of time fluffing and reapplying. those things considered, i'm not sure what his point was.

edit: i guess he meant that he had to wait for a while to use the restroom and that it can get interesting if you have to wait.

Edited January 25, 2006 by tommy (log)

[robert40]

Maybe Bruni had a flash back of NY in the 70's when tables were used for cocaine use and the bathrooms were used for whatever.

[SobaAddict70]

What do people think of Mr. Bruni's week in the life as a waiter?

[oakapple]

What do people think of Mr. Bruni's week in the life as a waiter?

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There were no great insights, but it was fun to read. Bruni apparently learned that waiting tables is a lot more difficult than he thought. At least he didn't hesitate to admit that he was not very good at it.

My favorite part was the slang:

I'm training, brings me up to speed on the crazy things diners do.... They decline to read what's in front of them and want to hear all their options. Servers disparagingly call this a "menu tour."

I acquire a new vocabulary. To "verbalize the funny" is to tell the kitchen about a special request. "Campers" are people who linger forever at tables. "Verbal tippers" are people who offer extravagant praise in lieu of 20 percent.

[BryanZ]

I found this waiter's life thing to be quite entertaining. Nothing groudbreaking here but one of my favorite Bruni pieces.

[BryanZ]

The Spotted Pig

The line for the small unisex bathroom downstairs can be long. But it can also be interesting. Two young, pretty women entered the bathroom together. And stayed for a bit.

Classy, Frank, classy.

←

I think he's just implying that some coke use was taking place...which is probably true and worth mentioning in the context of a restaurant's vibe. I take it you read it differently than I....

←

I also wondered if it may be another case of NFL cheerleaders.But of coarse I'm guilty of having a dirty mind at least once a year.

←

well, I think that's what Bryanz was reading Bruni as implying...thus his "classless" remark. I just read it as implying cocaine use (the standard reason for two people to go into the bathroom together in a Manhattan restaurant or bar).

←

Cocaine use or whatever else, a comment like that really has no place in a restaurant review. Sure he wants to comment on the scene, but by that point in the review it was just overkill.

[Sneakeater]

FWIW, I strongly disagree. It's a colorful detail he observed that he believes is telling in the context of this particular restaurant. We now think reviews can't be colorful?

[oakapple]

I rather liked this wisecrack in the summary box at the bottom of Bruni's Spotted Pig review:

SOUND LEVEL Take a guess.

[Eatmywords]

It was mildly enjoyable reading of his humbling experience and it's fun to relate (esp if you've waited tables). But agreed, the accounts are nothing we haven't experienced, read or watched in many movies.

Does anyone think this will effect his review style?

(Maybe he'll amend the Al Di La rating to 3 stars since he can attest (through a weeks experience) that servers can be "harried and distracted" and how easy it is to forget an order or utilize a chipped plate).

[oakapple]

Does anyone think this will affect his review style?

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No, and I don't think it should. Sure, waiting tables is hard. But then, most of the restaurants he's reviewing are fairly expensive, and the service should reflect that. Their competence and expertise is part of what we're paying for.

Bruni seemed to be acknowledging that at the end of his review:

It's a lot, and I should remember that. But I'd still like frequent water refills.

Edited January 26, 2006 by oakapple (log)

[akwa]

humorous bruni link

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h021800_1.shtml

predecessor of brunidigest?

[oakapple]

Frank Bruni is now doing a 1-minute podcast every weekday. It's available as a link from this page, and requires Times Select.

Most of them are re-hashes of his columns in the newspaper, although the wording isn't identical. At one minute per day, it's an exercise in speed-talking. The last five Bruni podcasts have been:

1/26: Dani

1/27: The Spotted Pig

1/30: Trader Joe's (even though it doesn't open here for another 3 months)

1/31: My Week as a Waiter, part 1

2/1: My week as a Waiter, part 2

The 1/30 podcast is the only one not based on a recent column.

Sometimes the transition from print to audio results in a very different tone. In particular, the two "My Week as a Waiter" podcasts come across as a lot of whining about the behavior of the diners he served. That wasn't the tone of the print piece.

Edited February 1, 2006 by oakapple (log)

[rich]

Today's review was interesting because of the Bugs Bunny reference. I hoping to see Bambi, Donald, Mickey, Goofey, Woody, Casper, Trigger (or Silver), Leo, Lassie and Felix make appearances in future reviews.

Maybe the NY Times restaurant critic can go from a week as a waiter to a week as an animal rights acitivist. He should do well in that disguise - probably get better tips too.

[oakapple]

Bruni sometimes goes to very long lengths to say something trivial. Take today's example:

THE new restaurant Barbounia is very easy on the eyes, relatively easy on the ears and not so bad on the stomach, either. But it's kindest of all to another part of the body, which is less delicately evoked and most often consigned to euphemism.

The barstools actually have some give, descending a few inches when you put your full weight on them. Chairs in the dining room are broad, soft and upholstered. Banquettes are pillow-paloozas, as suitable for napping as for noshing.

In a city where diners' physical comfort often gets too little consideration, Barbounia is practically a massage of a restaurant, and its magic fingers reflect a broader eagerness to please.

That's three paragraphs to say: the chairs and banquetts are uncommonly comfortable. That's useful to know, but it merited a sentence or two. When he writes more, it usually signals that the food bored him, and he needed something else to fill up the space.

[Sneakeater]

I actually was so pissed off by that overly-cute time-wasting gambit that I was unable -- well, refused -- to read the rest of the review. (Of course, it helped that it was of a restaurant I had no interest in.)

Everybody always says that, whatever his limitations as a food critic, Bruni is at least a good writer. I think that stuff is TERRIBLE writing.

[oakapple]

I actually was so pissed off by that Everybody always says that, whatever his limitations as a food critic, Bruni is at least a good writer.  I think that stuff is TERRIBLE writing.

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I, for one, do not think that he is a particularly good writer. He has the bare minimum competence for someone in his field; that is all. I find his work cliché-ridden and seldom insightful. Certain favorite words and phrases tend to be repeated a lot. He doesn't get to the point. Edited February 1, 2006 by oakapple (log)

[rich]

I actually was so pissed off by that Everybody always says that, whatever his limitations as a food critic, Bruni is at least a good writer.  I think that stuff is TERRIBLE writing.

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I, for one, do not think that he is a particularly good writer. He has the bare minimum competence for someone in his field; that is all. I find his work cliché-ridden and seldom insightful. Certain favorite words and phrases tend to be repeated a lot. He doesn't get to the point.

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And that's why I said in another post, that your reviews posted on eGullet are much better written than any of his - you disagreed at the time. After today, I hope you have changed your mind.

[oakapple]

I, for one, do not think that he is a particularly good writer. He has the bare minimum competence for someone in his field; that is all. I find his work cliché-ridden and seldom insightful. Certain favorite words and phrases tend to be repeated a lot. He doesn't get to the point.

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And that's why I said in another post, that your reviews posted on eGullet are much better written than any of his - you disagreed at the time. After today, I hope you have changed your mind.

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On a straight-up comparison, Bruni's reviews are better than my eGullet posts. If the identical reviews appeared anonymously on eGullet as member posts, we would say they were pretty darned good (although GAF’s are better). However, Bruni is paid to eat and write about it; I am not. His reviews are sold as part of a commercial product; mine are written for free, as a hobby. I also presume he has far more time to polish his prose, since it's his principal occupation. I therefore hold him to a higher standard. Edited February 1, 2006 by oakapple (log)

[rich]

I, for one, do not think that he is a particularly good writer. He has the bare minimum competence for someone in his field; that is all. I find his work cliché-ridden and seldom insightful. Certain favorite words and phrases tend to be repeated a lot. He doesn't get to the point.

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And that's why I said in another post, that your reviews posted on eGullet are much better written than any of his - you disagreed at the time. After today, I hope you have changed your mind.

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On a straight-up comparison, Bruni's reviews are better than my eGullet posts. If the identical reviews appeared anonymously on eGullet as member posts, we would say they were pretty darned good (although GAF’s are better). However, Bruni is paid to eat and write about it; I am not. His reviews are sold as part of a commercial product; mine are written for free, as a hobby. I also presume he has far more time to polish his prose, since it's his principal occupation. I therefore hold him to a higher standard.

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We're going to agree to disagree. But one more point - the writing on your website is also better than his.

You don't like to accept compliments?

Edited February 1, 2006 by rich (log)

[BryanZ]

I've heard Bruni's voice before on other NYT multimedia pieces but this podcast thing is quite entertaining. He really does sound like he's whining on the "Life as a Waiter" one.