Opinionated About Dining

Monday Morning Agitator

Let's All Pray For the End of Bourgeois Dining Experience

It was a time of celebration for the Plotnicki family as my twin sons turned 21 a week ago Sunday. To note the occasion, I booked a table at the Louis XV in Monte Carlo. I hadn't been at the restaurant since the late 1980's, and I have to say I wasn't that impressed by that meal. But since then, numerous people that I know have told me that they think it's the best restaurant in the world -- in fact in the OA survey, many people included that claim in their comments. So returning has been on my agenda for some time, and given that both of my sons spent their spring semester at university in London, we organized a family trip in Europe (family vacations are so hard to come by once your children get older) to celebrate this special occasion.

First of all I can say that we all enjoyed our meal. Sure we had various complaints that ranged from the style of the cuisine to the necessity of dining at that level of formality. But unlike other posts on this blog, I'm not really interested in talking about food in this post. I would like to concentrate on something I hardly ever discuss on these forums which is cost. In a word, the cost of a meal at the Louis XV can only be described one way. Outrageous. Sure, I know that I could have availed myself of the lunch menu which is a bargain compared to what they charge at dinner, but this was a birthday celebration that was to be followed by a trip to the casino (one of the privilages you gain when you turn 21) for the occasion so dinner was more appropriate.

Mrs P and I started our meal by splitting the Cocotte de Lugumes which were described as "fresh vegetables from the daily market in Nice." The dish, if I recall correctly, cost 104 Euros. What was served was a cast iron pot that contained a thin layer of vegetables in a reduced vegetable broth. Tasty yes but, could the actual ingredients in the pot cost more than a few dollars? In fact I believe I had the exact same ingredients at Mirazur for dinner on Thursday night where, and this is hard to believe, the cost of a nine course tasting menu was less than the cost of this single dish at Louis XV! And the outrageous cost at Louis XV didn't stop there as the gamberoni dish that Mrs P and I split (4 specimens and some clams, supions, vegetables in a lemon sauce) cost a whopping 121 Euros.

As I was eating my veggies, I was looking around the room and I tried to figure out the motivation for paying these types of prices for food. Sad to say I couldn't really find any. Sure the room was dripping with all of the indicia of luxury. And while I'm the first guy to enjoy a luxurious dining experience, it's more than a little ridiculous when the cost of luxury adds 80%-90%, or even more, to the cost of the food. No wonder that in order for this style of dining to continue to exist it needs to be subsidized by hotel chains, in this instance, by the Principality of Monaco who feel they need to have a Michelin 3 star restaurant within their borders, but restaurants like Le Cinq and Le Meurice in Paris, just to name two of them, are in the same boat. They simply wouldn't exist, nor would the chefs who man their kitchens cook in their current style, if they had to operate restaurants that were self sufficient and depended on a purely gastronomic audience.

At the heart of the development of any aesthetic is the notion of progress -- the concept that the techniques and materials that artisans use to craft their art are always progressing. But in France, because working capital has been disproportionately allocated into supporting restaurants that are intended to act as loss leaders for hotels or casinos, the evolution of culinary technique has been interrupted, and as a result. one can count the number of important French chefs that first appeared on the scene over the last 10 years on a single hand. 

In my perfect world, restaurants like the Louis XV would cease to exist (in fact I would consider asking Monsieur Ducasse to close all of his restaurants and take early retirement to Moustiers as his business strategy probably causes more problems for young chefs than any other chef in the world,) so that the delicious ingredients the restaurant sources could be redistributed amongst up and coming chefs, who run restaurants where the ratio of food to non-food costs is more reasonable, ultimately making them available to a broader group of diners. Then, because of the increased competition for diners among young chefs, young chefs would be motivated to create new ideas and French cuisine would become revitalized as a result. I know it's just a dream but ....

 

                          

The Monday Morning Agitator

People Who Insist That Cuisine Needs to Be Representative Should Get Over it Already 

Over the past few years, I have found myself in the midst of more than one argument about whether cuisine needs to be representative in order to have any value. Putting that it in simple terms, does food have to actually taste good in order to be considered good cuisine? It's a question that my friend Gary Allen Fine often asks. But then again, he's a sociologist so he is prone to asking those types of questions. But the truth is it's a valid question. Since the standard used by most food writers use is conclusory, meaning they base their review on the final taste of a dish, there is little room in their analysis for deconstructing a dish into its various parts in order to offer a more nuanced analysis. But this is not the case in other forms of criticism. How often do you see a review of a film where the writer lauds a single aspect of a film like the plot or the cinematography in the context of giving a film a mediocre, or even a bad review?

A dish that has the potential to inspire this debate in cuisine is Wylie Dufresne's foie gras knots. It's a simple enough concept. You take foie gras and add an enzyme that allows it to become flexible so you can cut it into long strands and tie it into knots. Those who insist on viewing cuisine though a lens of tradition would quickly dismiss the dish because the focus isn't on the quality of the ingredients, but on the effect caused by what has been added to the ingredient. And while I understand why people lodge that particular complaint (In fact I've offered it myself,) it's also wrongheaded to dismiss on that basis alone as the does make an aesthetic statement. In fact, my friend Gary and the other sociologists who are reading this post would say that the fact that Dufresne's dish has in part caused this discussion, is proof in and of itself of its aesthetic value. 

Monday Morning Agitator - When Restaurant Reservation Systems Are Unfair to Their Customers

If I read one more thing about the online reservation system at Momofuku Ko I think my eyes are going to bug out of my head. But despite the consternation surrounding the issue, it does give me the opportunity to discuss reservation systems in general, and how systems that impose some sort of limitation in terms of when you can reserve a table are inherently unfair to a customer. Yes I know, restaurateurs claim that systems that have an outside cutoff date are the fairest way to dole out reservations to those who want them. But as you will learn when we examine how these systems work and what they are really intended to accomplish, they have an intended purpose which has nothing to do with fairness.

There is a clear correlation between a restaurant taking reservations and the level of food that they serve. For example, people who go to Chinatown on a Saturday evening are perfectly willing to wait an hour and a half for a table because the delicious food comes at a delicious price (typically $30 a person or less.) But if the same people were going to spend $75 on dinner rather than $30, waiting in line for a table would be unheard of. That's because subsumed within the $75 price of a meal is the cost of a reservationist who answers the phone, and who inputs your reservation into the system. Like anything else in life, the more you pay, the more you usually get. If one were to amortize the cost of that reservationist and reservation system on a per meal basis, how much could it cost the restaurant? A few cents? Could it be $.50 or $1.00? I can't imagine that it would cost anywhere that much. So if the cost of offering your customers the ease that comes with a reservation system is so cheap, and the reality is, they end up paying for the cost because you pass it onto them anyway, why not make their lives easy and offer them the ability to make a reservation?

Monday Morning Agitator

Taking a Rest From Resto

Not that long ago, a new restaurant opening in New York City meant that investors had funded a seven figure installation as well as huge overhead for staffing the kitchen and the front of the house. But over the last few years, many young chefs and entrepreneurs have shunned large capital investments and instead have been opening smaller restaurants featuring cuisines that are based on top quality market ingredients combined with highly competent cooking. Restaurants like Prune, Tia Pol, Spotted Pig and Degustation are a few that come to mind, where the chef is talented enough to be running a kitchen that turns out 200 or more dinners a night, but who have chosen to work in a setting that is not much more than a bar or pub serving between 50-100 covers a night.

One of the best restaurants to open in the genre was Resto, which is sort of half bar/half restaurant, and which resides in the middle of E. 29th St, equi-distant from Park Avenue South and Curry Hill. Resto's chef is Ryan Skeen, who for some reason that has never been properly explained, decided to showcase his talent through the prism of Belgian cuisine. But for many of us who are familiar with the restaurant, the Belgian theme is almost an affect and the real draw at Resto is the superb ingredients that Skeen sources from various producers in the Northeast. For example, I have no hesitation to say that his 28-day aged Cote de Boeuf from Four Story Hill Farms is among the five best steaks one can get in New York City. That he serves it with a nice, bitter greeens, and some very good double cooked fries with mayonaisse (otherwise known as Belgian style,) only adds to the gustatory pleasure.

Top 100 in London

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!

GET A FREE COPY BY PARTICIPATING IN OUR 2009 SURVEY OR YOU CAN PURCHASE COPIES BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

The results of our 2008 Fine Dining Survey have now been published. Over 900 people participated in the survey, with 25% of them being located outside  of the U.S. The ratings are broken down into categories which correlate to how important a restaurant is.

London Update

Read Jay Rayner's  review of the survey in The Guardian

I just hung up the phone with DHL at Heathrow and the books are being delivered in the morning and they should be in various London shops by Monday or Tuesday. Also, it's not too late to get a free copy. Just click on the link for the homepage and register. As soon as you begin rating restaurants, our London office will put a copy of the guide in the mail to you.

Happy reading and eating!

Monday Morning Agitator

The Case Against Anonymity When Reviewing Restaurants

An issue came up last week in a review of the OA Fine Dining survey. A writer named Julia Thiel reviewed the guide for the Chicago Reader. In her review, Thiel, criticized my practice of not dining anonymously saying;

"According to the New York Sun, Plotnicki makes no attempt to dine anonymously--his goal, he says, is to "elicit the best possible meal that a restaurant has to offer and in that context anonymity actually hurts instead of helps." Of course it does. That's the point--if you're reviewing a restaurant, you should try to have the experience most diners are likely to have. Even if the quality of food and service are likely to vary from customer to customer, seeking preferential treatment is pretty sure to skew a review. Or a restaurant guide."

Later that day, a second review from a Chicago writer appeared, this time by Michael Nagrant who was writing for Hungrymag.com. Nagrant amplified that same theme, going as far as calling me a shill, and he even went as far as saying that you couldn't trust the way I tabulate the results of my survey because of my relationships with various chefs. Fortunately Josh Ozersky took them both to task in a short piece he wrote in response to Thiel's and Nagrant's posts on New York Magazine's Grub Street. Go Josh! Not only does New York City have better restaurants than Chicago (as determined by the OAD survey,) it appears it has better journalists!

But seriously, I'm sure both Thiel and Nagrant are nice enough people and meant no harm to anyone. And Nagrant was nice enough to post my response to him as a comment on his blog. But they both failed to grasp what is a significant distinction between the situation they are describing, where a journalist receives an atypical meal that is not generally available to the public, and what I do which is to search for the atypical meal that is generally available to the public, providing one knows how to ask for it. 

Back in the old days, when people knew a lot less about food and when a big night out meant eating a rack of veal with a fancy sauce at Chez Ordinaire which was run by some guy named Claude or Marcello, there was a concern that if a restaurant owner knew that a reviewer was in the house, he would run out replace his $4 a pound veal with $5 a pound veal in order to get a better write up. I always found that claim amusing as where on earth would you find $5 a pound veal at 9:30 at night? But in these times, when the competition between restaurants is so fierce, and where the purveyor of the ingredients is often printed right on the menu, and when critics are able to taste the difference between beef that is sourced from Niman Ranch as opposed to Brandt Ranch (at least they are supposed to be able to tell the difference,) why are we still concerned about a chef playing a shell game with their ingredients? I once discussed the topic with Tom Colicchio who told me, "What can I do if I know a reviewer is in the house, serve him a center cut veal chop rather than one of the ends?"

The truth is, the chefs and restaurant owners all know what the reviewers look like anyway. But even if they didn't, do we really think that chefs are dishonest? I know a lot of chefs and I can't think of a single one who would pull that type of stunt even if they could. I mean if there are culprits here, it certainly isn't food writers who are merely trying to convey information to diners. But I guess maybe Thiel and Nagrant really believe that chef's will cheat given the chance. Or maybe they already know some dishonest chefs. If that is the case, it's time to name names. Or maybe Thiel and Nagrant, and other food journalists, are blindly following a rule that is antiquated and doesn't make sense in a contemporary context. Isn't it time that the food press re-examined this silly practice?

The Monday Morning Agitator

Why Can't Frank Bruni Tell the Difference Between Dovetail and Eleven Madison Park (or Bouley For That Matter?)

I guess I will never learn my lesson. A few weeks back, Frank Bruni, gave Dovetail a 3-star review in the New York Times. Of course, though I am consistently disappointed when Bruni hands out a 3-star rating, especially when he is reviewing Italian restaurants, a rating of that magnitude left me no choice but to visit the restaurant. In fact I managed to miss eating at Compass, John Fraser's prior restaurant, as friends told me I wasn't missing anything . But this time there was a substantial buzz about the restaurant, and I succumbed, despite my better judgment. So after going to see the riveting film, The Counterfeiters, at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on Saturday night, we strolled up Columbus Avenue and got a table for 2 as a walk-in at around 10:00.

Let me tell you, I have been to a lot of restaurants in my life (likely many more than Mr. Bruni) and I could sense that the restaurant didn't warrant the 3-star review as soon as I walked in. Of course sometimes looks are deceiving,  but in my experience, 3 star reviews (or 4 star) are the product of a substantial amount of capital invested into a restaurant, both in the kitchen as well as the front of the house And while there was certainly nothing wrong with the look and feel of the restaurant, it certainly wasn't up to the standards that you usually see at other restaurants that attract that rating. Case in point, all one has to do is walk a few blocks up Columbus Avenue and take a look at the installation at Ed Brown's new restaurant, Eighty One, to see a place that has all of the indicia to go along with a 3-star rating (unfortunately the food there is another story but we will leave that for another day.)

The 100 Best Restaurants in North America & Europe

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!

GET A FREE COPY BY PARTICIPATING IN OUR 2009 SURVEY OR YOU CAN PURCHASE COPIES BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

Opinionated About Dining Survey

The results of our 2008 Fine Dining Survey have now been published. Over 900 people participated in the survey, with 25% of them being located outside  of the U.S. The ratings are broken down into categories which correlate to how important a restaurant is. Though this guide only covers restaurants in the first three categories because of its limited scope. Here are the results:

Opinionated About Dining Top 50 Restaurants in North America with Rankings

Worth Planning a Trip Around

Urasawa, Beverly Hills, California 113
The French Laundry, Yountville, California 111
Jean Georges, New York, New York 109
Manresa, Los Gatos, California 109
Per Se, New York, New York 107
Alinea, Chicago, Illinois 106
McCrady’s, Charleston, South Carolina 106
Minibar, Washington, DC 105
Splendido, Toronto, Ontario 105

Worth Going Out of Your Way For

Le Bernardin, New York, New York 104
Providence, Los Angeles, California 104
Sushi Yasuda, New York, New York 104
Bouley, New York, New York 103
Hatfield’s, Los Angeles, California 103
Kuruma Zushi, New York, New York 103
Masa, New York, New York 103
Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, New York 102
Eleven Madison Park, New York, New York 102
Marinus, Carmel, California 102
Craft, New York, New York 101
Spago, Beverly Hills, California 101
Sugiyama, New York, New York 101
Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California 100
Il Grano, West Los Angeles, California 100
Uni, Boston, Massachusetts 100

Top Local Choices

Alex, Las Vegas, Nevada 99
Avenues, Chicago, Illinois 99
Blue Hill, New York, New York 99
Coi, San Francisco, California 99
Daniel, New York, New York 99
The Dining Room at the Langham, Pasadena, California 99
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, New York, New York 99
Michel Richard Citronelle, Washington, DC 99
Picasso, Las Vegas, Nevada 99
Sushi Seki, New York, New York 99
WD-50, New York, New York 99
Alan Wong’s, Honolulu, Hawaii 98
Fore Street, Portland, Maine 98
Lampreia, Seattle,Washington 98
Matsuhisa, Beverly Hills, California 98
Mistral, Seattle,Washington 98
Sona, Los Angeles, California 98
Susur, Toronto, Ontario 98
Joe’s Stone Crab, Miami Beach, Florida 97
Komi, Washington, DC 97
Masa’s, San Francisco, California 97
Morimoto, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 97
Troquet, Boston, Massachusetts 97
Boulevard, San Francisco, California 96
Cyrus, Healdsburg, California 96

Opinionated About Dining Top 50 Restaurants in Europe with Rankings

Worth Planning a Trip Around

Troisgros, Roanne, France 116
Bras, Laguiole, France 115
The Fat Duck, Bray-on-Thames, UK 114
L’Arpège, Paris, France 114
Pierre Gagnaire, Paris, France 114
El Bulli, Roses, Spain 112
L’Astrance, Paris, France 112
L’Arnsbourg, Baerenthal, France 111
El Poblet, Denia, Spain 110
Le Calandre, Sarmeola di Rubano, Italy 109
Les Ambassadeurs, Paris, France 109
Oud Sluis, Sluis, The Netherlands 109
Etxebarri, Axpe-Marzana, Spain 108
La Broche, Madrid, Spain 108
Le Louis XV–Alain Ducasse Monte Carlo, Monaco 108
Mugaritz, Errenteria, Spain 108
L’Ambroisie, Paris, France 107
El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain 106
Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark 106
Arzak, Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain 105
La Pergola, Rome, Italy 105

Worth Going Out of Your Way For

El Racó de Can Fabes, Sant Celoni, Spain 104
Hof van Cleve, Kruishoutem, Belgium 104
L’Auberge de l’Ill, Illhaeusern, France 104
Les Maisons de Bricourt—Olivier Roellinger, Cancale, France 104
Pavillon Ledoyen, Paris, France 104
Taillevent, Paris, France 104
Comme Chez Soi, Brussels, Belgium 103
Elkano, Getaria, Spain 103
Lameloise, Chagny-en-Bourgogne, France 103
Guy Savoy, Paris, France 102
La Maison de Marc Veyrat, Veyrier du Lac, France 102
Le Bristol, Paris, France 102
Hibiscus, London, UK 100
The River Café, London, UK 100
Sant Pau, Sant Pol de Mar, Spain 100
The Square, London, UK 100

Top Local Choice

Apicius, Paris, France 99
Arnolfo, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Italy 99
Gordon Ramsay, London, UK 99
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Paris, France 99
The Capital, London, UK 98
Enoteca Pinchiorri, Florence, Italy 98
Hispania, Arenys de Mar–Caldetes, Spain 98
L’Ami Louis, Paris, France 98
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham, UK 98
Tetou, Golfe-Juan, France 98
Cibrèo, Florence, Italy 97
Da Fiore, Venice, Italy 97
Tom Aikens, London, UK 97

If you participated in the survey, a copy will be mailed to you shortly. If you would like a free copy, you can get one by filling out our survey. Just click on the link to our homepage to register for the 2009 survey. If you would like to purchase copies, you can do so on the home page by using a PayPal account.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. This is just the beginning. I am planning to expand the scope of the survey for 2009 to include moderate and inexpensive dining with the goal of publishing comprehensive guides to dining for bothe continents in the coming 12 months.

OPINIONATED ABOUT DINING SURVEY

David Chang's Challenge at Momofuku Ko

For a long time I have been trying to write about the expectations that diners have when they enter a restaurant. But each time I started a post on the subject, I ended up with a paragraph or two of intellectual gobbledy gook and I ultimately scrapped the piece. But David Chang's new restaurant, Momofuku Ko, has given me the unique opportunity to broach the subject in the context of a review of a restaurant. Well okay, it's not exactly a review, as the restaurant isn't officially open and I was invited to attend a friends and family meal. But though Chang is still fine tuning the restaurant's cuisine, there was enough meat on the plate to launch this discussion.

Chang hardly needs an introduction. First of all the guy's picture is everywhere. Even my non-foodie friends know who he is. For example, last year I took Chang to a Met game (after which we hit a few taco carts on Roosevelt Avenue checking to see which one serves the best carnitas) and a few games later the guy who has the seats in front of me at Shea turns around and says, "hey, was that your chef pal in New York Magazine this week?" And this year when he asked me if I had any extra seats for opening day, I told him "I'm bringing the chef" and he didn't even ask me who I was talking about.

At Home with Ideas in Food

I always found New Years to be a funny occasion to celebrate. Unlike other holidays, it isn't associated with a singular person like George Washington or Martin Luther King's birthday where it makes sense to close our schools and offices in order to recognize their profound contribution to society. Nor does it celebrate the result of a historical or social event like Independence or Labor Day. It simply celebrates the turning of a page of a calender that was artificially constructed by a bunch of Romans a few thousand years ago. And updated, arbitrarily, we might add, over the centuries. In fact to show you how lacking in reason the whole thing is, it doesn't even take place on what would be the logical date for the beginning of the new year which would be the first day after the Winter solstice.

Making matters worse, is that it costs more to celebrate this non-holiday/holiday than celebrations on other dates which can stake a better claim to adding value to a night out. For some reason that escapes me it costs more to go out to dinner or a concert on New Years Eve than it costs on other more important nights, like my birthday. For example, if I wanted to hire the private dining room at Per Se for New Years Eve, it would cost more than it would on my birthday, a clear example of how society has gotten their priorities all mixed up.

                                                                                                          

WD-50 Makes a Comeback

Wylie Dufresne, the chef-owner of the highly acclaimed restaurant WD-50, and I, have sort of a love/hate relationship. How our relationship came to be that way is rather complicated. You see I have a love/hate relationship with his food, and as a result he is happy to return the favor. Hence the name of this article. Because the truth is the restaurant hasn't gone anywhere and the comeback I am referring to in the title of this article is only in the context of the way I feel about Wylie food

How things got this way needs to be explained. You see Wylie is a member of the OA Food Discussion forum (under an assumed name that is) and he gets to read everything I, and the other members of the forum, write about the restaurant. If one were to read the thread on WD-50 on the site, what you would find is a treachorous roller coaster of highs and lows that have been broken up into three basic categories. Those who love the food all of the time, those who dislike it it most of the time, and those who go back and forth depending on where Wylie's cuisine happens to be at the moment. Your's truly happens to fall into category three and that's the source of our contention.

                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                          

Opinionated About Dining Survey in USA Today

The Opinionated About Dining Survey is featured in article on restaurant dining guides on page 9D of the November 30th edition of USA Today. Despite the fact that we have to share the article with those other two guides, this is a step in the right direction for the survey and just the beginning of our quest to create the best restaurant dining guide on the market.

Click Here to Read the Article

Click Here to Register For the Survey

Three in Philadelphia - Le Bec Fin, Striped Bass, Vetri

If W.C. Fields was a food critic, the epitaph on his tombstone might read; "I'd rather be here than eating in Philadelphia." Unfortunately, except for a meal at the Striped Bass, the evidence of my three day trip to the city of brotherly love would have proven him right. And that even goes for the cheese steaks we ate for lunch on Friday at Dallesandro's, purportedly the city's best spot for this uniquely local specialty.

My journey began at Vetri on a Thursday evening. I know you're saying to yourself, he's going to eat Italian food? What is he out of his mind, he is going to hate it. But I had heard so many good things about the restaurant that I was determined to give it a try. But a handful of positive comments could not offset the lack of sophistication shown by the restaurant's kitchen where only one dish in an 8 course tasting menu rose to the level of truly delicious.

                                                                                           

My Culinary CV - A Life Worth of Eating

Now that I have launched a publicity campaign which is intended to promote the Opinionated About Dining Survey, I have run into the inevitable Catch-22 one finds in the world of media. It goes like this. In order to get publicity you already need to be well known or even famous for doing the thing you are trying to publicize. But that begs the question, how can you be well known or famous without having already gotten publicity in the media? Well obviously you can't. So what happens is a slow and tedious process whereby you go about trying to convince the press that your idea is newsworthy. The thing is, one editor's newsworthy is another's ordinary, and invariably, you end up plugging away until you find someone who puts the pieces of the puzzle together and anoints you (or your idea,) as something that is fit to print.

A key aspect in this process is establishing your credentials. In this particular instance, the media wants to know, "why this guy?" What is it that sets this Plotnicki guy apart from the rest of the pack of self-appointed food critics who think they have something valuable to say? If I had a dollar for every time our publicist, Melanie Young, or I, was asked that question, I could probably take you to lunch at Katz's Deli. The importance of this issue hit home for me earlier this week, when during an interview with a major daily paper, the writer asked me for my dining credentials. I have to admit the question caught me a bit off guard. Not because I don't believe in the concept - you often hear me complain that there are restaurant reviewers for major daily papers who haven't visited the important restaurants - but I wasn't fully prepared to answer the question either. I hung up the phone and thought about it for a bit and I had the bright idea of creating a dining resume. A Curriculum Vitae. Only this would be about food. Hence, the creation of the Culinarium Vitae.

This Review is Not About Fiamma Osteria. It's about Al Di La, Resto and La Boqueria Instead.

I had originally planned to write about Fiamma Osteria. Okay it wasn't much of a plan. I was looking for a last minute dinner reservation and I clicked onto Grub Street to see if I could find someplace interesting to eat in their Openings & Buzz section. It was there that I noticed an announcement that Fabio Trabocchi had begun his rein at Fiammia. I knew Fabio from his work at his prior restaurant, Maestro, which was located in the Northern Virginia suburbs of D.C. The guy is a serious chef, and snagging a reseravtion to the restaurant on short notice that would have been perfect.

So I pick up the phone and dial the restaurant. A reservationist answers the phone. She is female and from the way she sounded, she couldn't have been more than 23 years old. I introduce myself (a neat trick as it seems to help in getting a reservation) and I ask for a table for two at around 8:00ish. She responds by saying, "can you give me your phone number please?" Phone number I say to myself, what the hell does she want that for? So I I ask, "why do you need my phone number? That usually happens after you give me the reservation." She goes on to explain that she can't check to see if they have a table available at that time I requested until after she puts my phone number in the computer. Hearing this makes me a bit ticked off but that choice do I have?

                                                                                          

McCrady's is the Best Restaurant Nobody Knows About

   

If I told you that in the unsuspecting city of Charleston, South Carolina, you could find a chef with talent that is on par with the Grant Achatz's and Wylie Dufresne's of the world, you would probably tell me I am making that up. But I assure you that it's true. Sean Brock, all of 29 years old, is not only one of America's great chefs, but surely the least well known considering the size of his talent. Working out of a historic tavern that has been located on this site since 1788, Brock and a kitchen staff of 5 turn out 17 course extravaganzas involving every contemporary and cutting edge culinary technique known to mankind.

The tavern that houses McCrady's is the most unlikely setting for contemporary cuisine Mrs. P and I have come across yet. Based on the look and feel of the place, it would be more in keeping for the kitchen to send out dishes like turtle soup and roasted racks of lamb with stuffed potatoes rather than a soup of local corn that is laced with vaudovan and lamb served with sous vide broccoli stems. But much to our astonishment, Chef Brock kept pounding our table with one unique creation after another until we were ready to bust.   

                                                                                           

The Launch of the Fall Dining Season - Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Per Se, Tailor, Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Ssam Bar

For some reason I stop eating fancy meals in the summertime. Not that I stop eating completely mind you, but the idea of putting a jacket on and consuming a multitude of courses doesn't have much appeal to me when it's hot out. I'm much happier in shorts and a T-shirt, grilling up large slabs of prime beef sourced from places like Lobel's, Citarella, or Bryan Flannery on my barbecue, or throwing on chinos and a linen shirt (never tucked in) and going to places like Ssam Bar, Resto or Hill Country.  It's funny but I'm not even conscious of the switch. But when July comes, the urge to consume a dozen courses at a time dissipates. But then September rolls around and all of a sudden the desire to eat as a pastime returns. And so it goes that in the first three weeks of this dining season, I managed to eat at Blue Hill Stone Barns, Per Se, Tailor and Atelier de Robuchon as well as sneaking in one course plus dessert at someone else's meal at Jean George.

The Stone Barns dining room was alive with scenes of the end of the summer when we visited on the first Saturday of the month with Captains parading though the dining room with baskets holding multiple varieties of heirloom tomatoes, long trays with four different types of wild mushrooms, and a tea cart holding large glass jars that were filled with herbs for tea. It was a great bit of dining theater and the show alone made one hungry. As you can imagine, those ingredients end up in the dishes we were served, which in our case included various tomato dishes, a slow-poached Stone Barns egg served atop bitter greens, some of tastiest boneless chicken wings I have ever come upon which were paired with wild mushrooms and greens, and a rack of pork and its bacon served with a sauce that had quinoa as its base. A truly delicious meal and I am eager to return for the next tranche of the harvest which is when fall vegetables are in season.

                                                                                                                                                  

50 Most Recommended Restaurants in North America & Europe

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If you are tired of seeing restaurants in cities like Cleveland getting higher ratings than restaurants in New York & Paris, request a free, downloadable copy of the Opinionated About Dining, "50 Most Recommended Restaurants in North America and Europe." By using a global panel of reviewers, and by weighing the opinions of the people on the panel based on their level of experience, OA has put restaurants in cities like Cleveland into their proper place. And all you have to do to get a copy is to click on the link below and leave us your name (full names only please) and email address and we will send you a FREE DOWNLOAD of the 50 Most Recommended Restaurants in North America and Europe. And for those of you who are opinionated on the topic of fine dining, there is a space on the download request page where you can notify us that you would like to particicpate in our next survey.. Thanks for supporting Opinionated About Dining and I hope you enjoy reading the "50 Most Recommended."

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The Launch of the Opinionated About Dining Surveys

                                                                                                                         

Click Here to Get Your Free Download of the 50 Most Recommended Restaurants in North America and Europe

Ever since I was old enough to take the subway into Manhattan from my parents’ home in Queens, N.Y., and I began to discover the culinary wonders the world has to offer, I’ve been passionate about dining. What started out as a search for, say, the best hamburger or the most succulent Chinese dumplings evolved over time into a full-blown love affair that now takes me all over the United States and Europe to eat at some of the world’s greatest restaurants. In the course of my culinary odyssey, I’ve developed many friendships with people who share my passion. Invariably, our discussions would turn to the subject of dining guides—the qualities that make them useful and the flaws that render them less so. The Opinionated About Surveys are the result of those discussions, and an attempt to correct the flaws we identified. One of the targets of our criticisms was the failure of many guides to calibrate ratings between different geographic locations, with the result that restaurants in cities not known for fine dining often receive higher ratings than important restaurants in New York or Paris. Another is a reluctance to demote once great restaurants even after years of poor performance. But what we objected to the most was the general lack of transparency regarding the identity and qualifications of reviewers. It seemed clear to us that in many cases reviewers in one location were less qualified than reviewers elsewhere. I made it my goal to create a guide that would avoid these pitfalls and that my fellow passionate diners would find more useful than anything available in bookstores today.

The key to producing this new, improved dining guide lay in my ability to gather information from those whom my friends and I affectionately describe as “Destination Diners.” These are people who, like us, travel for the purpose of eating in the world’s best restaurants. I began working on a methodology that would allow me to capture and compile this information, while giving more or less weight to the opinions of diners based on the number and geographical diversity of the restaurants they had visited. This past January, I started collecting data from these diners in an online survey. The "Top 50 Most Recommended Restaurants" is the result of those efforts. Please click on the link to get your free downloadable copy of the survey.

While participation in this version of the survey was limited to friends of the Opinionated About Dining blog and discussion forums, those who are interested in participating in the next version of the survey, which will be launched around August 1 with the results intended for publication this fall, can inform us of their interest when requesting their copy of the download by checking the box about future surveys. And coming this fall, OA will launch surveys featuring moderate and inexpensive dining destinations in both North America and Europe.

To get your copy of the survey, please click on the link at the top or bottom of the page and fill out the short information form. I hope you enjoy the Opinionated About Dining Top 50 Most Recommended and good eating!

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Steve Plotnicki

                                    

Two in the Hamptons / North Fork Table & Inn and Muse Restaurant

                                                                                                                                 

After twenty-years of eating in Hamptons eateries, I am happy to report that I have finally found a restaurant that offers the same quality of food that you can get in the city. Okay so Southold, where the North Fork Table & Inn is located, is on Long Island's North Fork which technically isn't the Hamptons. And though the restaurant is only around 15 miles away from where I live as the crow flies, going there entails two short ferry rides and the trip takes somewhere between 45 and 75 minutes depending on how long you have to wait in line for the ferries. Driving around the bay is an option, but it's a 40 mile drive that is likely to include some heavy traffic at one point or another. But if you are a discriminating diner and you happen to be in the Hamptons, I recommend visiting the restaurant as the food is good enough to make the schlep to the North Fork worth it.

It's a simple enough concept. You take the Executive Chef of Aureole, and the Executive Pastry Chef of Gramercy Tavern, who fortunately happens to be his wife, and team up with Mike and Mary Mraz, formerly the General Manager of Hearth and the Service Manager of Gramercy Tavern respectively, and then you take a house that Hayden and Fleming already own in Southold and turn it into a restaurant. You then make deals with various local farmers to provide you with biodynamically raised vegetables, locally produced goat cheese, and buy sacks of Peconic Bay scallops, local steamers and whatever else might be swimming in Gardiner's Bay or the Long Island Sound, from local fisherman who wander into the restaurant with their catch. Then you top it off with the best bottlings of the local wineries which are located just down the road from the restaurant. One would think from this description I am talking about Napa but I'm not. This small slice of paradise is located around 90 miles from New York City and one can easily get there by railroad from Penn Station in 3 hours.