Results tagged “stevecuozzo”

Following a string of mediocre reviews, particularly a one-two punch from Adam Platt, fancy uptown restaurants Fishtail and The Oak Room have both lost their top toques. At the Oak Room, acclaimed Atlanta-based Joël Antunes has left; today rumor has it that executive chef Eric Hara will leave David Burke’s “sustainable-friendly” seafood restaurant Fishtail. Now it seems Hara will replace Antunes. The recession has created a tighter-than-normal feedback loop between poor reviews and business as usual at high profile restaurants, in part because business as usual no longer exists (read: no more expense accounts). Meanwhile, Post critic Steve Cuozzo yesterday called out a “whining” Anita Lo, blaming absentee chefs for bad reviews and recent closings. “Stop treating customers like we're idiots,” he wrote. Bad food is bad food, sure, but perhaps Cuozzo would also encourage Lo to stop cooking at charity events around town that do things like feed homeless people, which seems more important than ever.

The Post's Steve Cuozzo devotes a column to Wikipedia's many mistakes about NYC. Though he admits he uses it "on such essential matters as which actress plays which bimbo in 'Gossip Girl'," he doesn't understand why its non-pop culture entries--like that of New York City--are so wrong. Besides issues with street information, out-of-date crime data, real estate/architecture details, and the NYPD's community policing initiative, Cuozzo clears up the entry about the NY Post, explaining the 1983 "Headless Body in a Topless Bar" headline was not written by "onetime employee named Paul Beeman. In fact, it's a matter of historical record that the headline was written by then- managing editor VA Musetto (who is today The Post's film editor and Cine File columnist)." [Via Gawker, which thinks Cuozzo's "going to be up 'til at least midnight trying to correct all these things."]

Today the Times’s Frank Bruni marvels at Manhattan’s new wave of high tone restaurant openings during a recession, and pins the trend not on entrepreneurial bravado but on the fact that it takes years to get a fancy eatery open, and most of these new places were envisioned in flusher economic times. It is true that in 2005, the top fifth of earners in Manhattan made 52 times what the lowest fifth make – $365,826 compared with $7,047 – comparable to the income disparity in Namibia. Yet thanks to tax cuts and stagflation, the income gap has only widened in the past three years. Dinner at Per Se is as unattainable as ever for New York’s lower orders, but even with Wall Street turbulence it’s unlikely the ranks of the well-heeled will thin to the point where a fashionable restaurant can’t manage. Of course, chefs like Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) are artists and don’t chain their muse to the vagaries of the economy: “I’m certainly not the kind who would look at the Dow. Does a writer write or not write a book based on the economic climate? Does a songwriter write songs that way?”

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Lebanese Ilili, saying “Ilili is probably the atmospherically grandest excursion into Middle Eastern cooking that New York has ever seen.” While much of the menu is inconsistent, he loves the kebabs and kaftas. Says the service is “occasionally confused.” And get the essmalieh for dessert.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Grayz, gives the restaurant one star. He says of the restaurant that refuses to call itself a restaurant (it’s a ‘cocktail lounge that serves small dishes’): “These dishes demand fuller attention than the setting allows, and the prices—$39 for the short ribs—only make total sense if eating is the point of a visit.” In Dining Briefs, Bruni goes to Belcourt, which he says is much better than...

In time for next week’s Columbus Day festivities, the Post’s Steve Cuozzo lets his Ital flag fly with two gushing columns on Italian cuisine. He points out that Italian restaurants outnumber all other kinds of restaurants in New York by a big margin (and that’s not because of the ever-metastasizing Olive Gardens.) He cites seven “marvelous” eateries – Del Posto, A Voce, Abbocatto, Insieme, Fiamma, L'Impero and Alto – that “establish Italian as the cuisine to beat.” Nobu can sleep with the fishes.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Insieme, awards the restaurant two stars. Says, “When Isieme is good, it’s outstanding, and any serious food lover should head here fast…” He hates the atmosphere, though, and the salmon. Insieme is the second restaurant in midtown this year where he’s been “frustrated by the way some dazzling cooking is undercut not only by unevenness across the menu or inconsistency in the kitchen but also by atmospherics that don’t pull their weight and live up to the rest of the production.”

">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.”

This week Bruni visits Katz's Delicatessen, awards the LES institution one star. Calls its pastrami sandwich "one of the best in the land" and Katz’s itself "the king of New York delis." He doesn't like the potato knish, the latkes or the desserts, but overall loves the institution—don’t we all? —that is Katz’s.

">Bruni goes to Max Brenner, the fictional chocolatier (chain is owned by two businessmen, Max Fichtman and Odel Brenner). Awards no stars, calls it "a mass market endeavor as gimmicky as Planet Hollywood. It’s Planet Valrhona, a vaux artisanal juggernaut." He tries the non-dessert offerings; finds them weak. Then it’s on to the desserts, which "lack the richness or sharpness that great chocolate has."

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Esca, calls chef Dave Pasternack a "fish whisperer" (um, OK Frank) and awards the restaurant three stars. "In an era when too many restaurants try to be everything to everyone," he says, "Esca has a specific agenda: show what the sea can yield." The restaurant was previously awarded two stars by William Grimes in 2000.

Bruni goes to Varietal, calls it "an epicurean Advanced Placement exam" and awards the restaurant one star. He says, "Varietal can become so entraced with the unusual ingredients it's deploying, the unconventional ideas it's hatching and the uncommon pose it's striking that it seems not to ponder the off-kilter or underwhelming results." He does love the wine selection, and, when combined with the best dishes, says eating there can be an exciting experience. Just order carefully, and skip dessert.

Bruni two-stars Gordon Ramsay at the London. Echoing the words of others we've heard from around town, he finds conventional French food, well executed. "But the restaurant fails to deliver the most important thing of all," he says. "Excitement."

Bruni one-stars Cafe Cluny: it's "a beguiling neighborhood place," he says, and not much else. Cluny is partly-owned by Lynn Wagenkneckt, ex-wife of Keith McNally (the man who bought us Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, Balthazar & Pastis), and Bruni sees something of their successful formulas here. Doesn’t make up for the "unimaginative" menu or "erratic" service, though.

Tim, Nina and the gang are at it again. This year's NYC Zagat Restaurant Guide is now available, compiling surveys from 31,604 participants and covering 2,014 restaurants. First off, although we generally do most of our restaurant research online, we definitely appreciate two additional features that are part of the new physical guide: a foldout map listing the 50 "New Yorkers' Favorite Restaurants," and sticky arrow tabs designed for users to place throughout the book, with labels like "Must Try," "Never Again," and "Love it!"

As news of what could be the biggest real estate deal in history spread, residents of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village - and the rest of New York City - wondered what this could mean for the real estate market. Though selling the 110 building complex and changing over ownership of all the units would probably take years, questions about what Mayor Bloomberg will do about the city's housing policy arose, as well as what this will mean for the middle class residents who live there as a large swath of housing is taken away. The Tenants Political Action Committee tells the NY Sun, "This sale is the perfect illustration of the hole in the bottom of the bucket of the Bloomberg housing plan. The plan deals only with production. They will never build as much as we're losing."

Bruni hits Jean Georges' "fringe players," Mercer Kitchen and Vong. Between the two, Vong emerges victorious with one star: "you keep wondering if the food they deliver is really as it should be and all that it could be, if the restaurant is receiving Mr. Vongerichten’s most considered judgments . . ." while Mercer Kitchen rates a mere "satisfactory": Bruni calls their menu an "ethnically indistinct assortment of dishes with enough pro forma salads and...

Bruni reviews Blue Hill (in Greenwich Village, not at Stone Barns) bumps the restaurant up to three stars from the two it received from William Grimes in 2000. He cites "quality and immediacy" of ingredients and says eating there is a subtle experience, "like a hushed foreign film with subtitles."

">Bruni two-stars Little Owl, says “It has an irresistible earnestness and exuberance that explain its instant, well-deserved popularity.” Also, he really likes the pork chop. Chef Joey Campanero, formerly executive chef at The Harrison and Pace, gets kudos for “disciplined cooking,” as does manager and co-owner Gabriel Stulman, for “real hospitality.”

Bruni two-stars Le Cirque, experiences it’s "famously split personality, half dismissive and half pampering, depending on who you are,” first brought to light by Ruth Reichl at the start of her reign as Times critic. Finds the restaurant itself full of old people, not so exciting. And Eater calls the BruniBetting right this week.

Today in the Times, Frank Bruni gives Greek-Italian Dona two stars, says it reaches high and far--too high at times. As predicted by the oddsmakers at Eater.

Ooh, the Department of Consumer Affairs is going to allow "unenclosed cafes" to place nonpropane heaters - think sidewalk cafes! The Post gets confirmation from the DCA that they're looking to make the heaters legal, and this is good news, especially after reading the Steve Cuozzo's suggestions for sidewalk dining the other week and how restaurants jump at installing them, because they are the "cheapest real estate in Manhattan." Gothamist loves sidewalk dining - great people watching, the din of the street is sometimes preferable to too-loud restaurants, and sometimes dogs will eat our scraps! One of our favorite stretches of sidewalk dining is West Broadway in Tribeca, where you can try your luck at getting seats at Odeon, Petite Abeille (we live for their rich macaroni and cheese with ham as it's the ultimate in comfort food), and Edwards. What about you?

The total insanity of the breakdown in talks between World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of NY and NJ gets the workup today. Basically, NY State is saying Silverstein better build or they'll take him out. Not just remarks from Governor Pataki saying that Silverstein "betrayed" New Yorkers, just also this one from Port Authority vice chairman Charles Gargano:

"We fully expect Larry to begin construction on the Freedom Tower in April. This is a commitment he made to the public and to the Port Authority and we expect him to fulfill that commitment. And if he does not, then we want him to move out of the way."

But not together (no need to start any wild rumors here). We heard yesterday that Mr. Bruni's review would be hitting today's Dining section. But what would he think? Would he lean towards Steve Cuozzo's take? Adam Platt's? Both of them seemed to think that although some of the food was predictably good, if not overpriced, the decor and sheer vastness of the place combined with some misses on the menu threw the whole experience out of whack. And we'd have to agree for the most part.

It's all about the latest addition to the Batali/Bastianich empire in this morning's food news. The big one (and we mean really big -- 24,000 square feet between the dining area and the kitchen): Del Posto. Frank Bruni at the Times gives us fair warning of what to expect:

The NY Post goes after the Michelin Guide for its glaring mistakes, sort of the way Manhattan User's Guide nailed the 2006 Zagat guide a few weeks ago. The Post's restaurant critic, Steve Cuozzo, goes after Michelin, wondering if their highly trained inspectors even went to some restaurants and calls some of the advice "inane." Plus: The guide tells readers to take the "Metro," not the subway, to restaurants, mentions Le Bernadin's a la carte menu when it's only prix fixe, and seems to rely on a 1960s review of the Four Seasons for decor information. Sacre bleu! Gothamist can only believe that Michelin's star for Etats-Unis, which Cuozzo calls an "overreaching dud" is because its name is in French, which means future restaurants will attempt to Frenchify their atmosphere for a coveted star.It's been an interesting week since the Michelin star/non-star filter has descended upon the city, as guide actually seems to make men cry.

Abe Hirschfeld, the millionaire developer turned jack-of-whatever-he-wanted died yesterday from complications of cancer. While Hirschfeld made his money in real estate (cinderblock, "semi-enclosed" parking garages), he became a public fixture after running for lieutenant governor, buying the NY Post for two weeks and causing the Post's staff to revolt, having a public feud with Jackie Mason, offering Paula Jones $1 million to settle her suit against then President Clinton, running for a variety of public offices - including Manhattan Beep, state comptroller, and Senate - and plotting to kill a business partner. All in all, he was a true New York character.

Call 311 if there are problems, and here's more information about what to do with your building's heat from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The Red Cross suggests that if your home loses heat, seal the doors and windows and keep everyone in the same room; plus, they recommend to dress in layers and wear boots, gloves and a hat. Gothamist heartily agrees and says your fears of looking like a shapeless blob with later hat-head are small next to the possibility of frostbite.

The Daily News gave Crumbs the lowest ratings in taste tests at various NYC cupcakeries.