August 2009 Archives

The New York Times reported yesterday that the Upper West Side's old stogy standby, Cafe des Artistes will close.  They had already been closed for summer vacation and were due to reopen Sept. 14, but have decided not to reopen due to a union lawsuit and the recession.

As of today, their website is still up if you want to take a peek and reminisce.

The restaurant opened in 1917. The nymph murals on the walls were painted in the '30s by restaurant patron and artist Howard Chandler Christy. He was also a resident of the building, the Hotel des Artistes, which was actually not a hotel but a residential building favored by artists.

The restaurant had been very popular over the years, but had been on a downward tilt over the last 20 years or so, since the city has had an amazing food renaissance with many excellent new restaurants and chefs.

Their menu was a bit tired.

Anyway, it is sad to see another New York classic go... 

Danny Meyer will be opening a new restaurant this fall in the Gramercy Park Hotel called Maialino (which means little pig in Italian).  The name comes from the nickname he was given while working in Rome as a tour guide during college (it evolved from Meyerino into Maialino thanks to his liking of suckling pig) .

The Gramercy Park Hotel is a super cool place itself, an Ian Schrager property with interiors by Julian Schnabel.  This restaurant will be the most recent from Danny Meyer since opening The Modern in 2005.  It will be a Roman style trattoria overlooking the park. Design will be by the Rockwell Group, the concept is a contemporary twist on the traditional warm, comfortable atmosphere of a trattoria.  It will feature warm colors, wood plank floors, etc. They will also be taking over all of the F&B for the hotel including room service and the roof bar. It will open in November and will surely be one of the hotest reservations of the Fall!

Above: lobby of the Gramercy Park Hotel

New York Magazine's website has a good feature up right now, a convseration between NY Magazine's restaurant reviewer, Adam Platt and the newly departed from the Times reviewer, Frank Bruni.

'Adam Platt Talks Shop With Frank Bruni', take a look here.

It's funny, they talk about rotundness, disguises, worst restaurants etc.

Frank's book, "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater" released today.

Parc at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia has been on my need-to-go list for months now, and I finally made it for brunch yesterday.

It has a great location on S. 18th facing the Park, in the restaurant row that also includes Rouge and Devon. The space is huge (think at least 3x as large as Balthazar) and is nicely done in that vintage bistro style: tile floors, pressed tin ceiling with aged patina, distressed mirrors on walls, trestle tables, mixed up chairs, white marble etc. etc. It looks great, but I think due to the huge size I felt that there was just a little something missing or off, design-wise. Overall though I was impressed with the attention to detail in the decor, our waiter mentioned that they even had faux European style electrical outlets!

Our table was a 4-top near the French doors that were opened up to the sidewalk tables. The service was fast, friendly and competent (same as I've experienced at all Stephen Starr restaurants). The brunch menu has the expected types of French bistro classics: salad nicoise with seared fresh tuna, moules frites, steak frites, croque madame and also some of the more traditonal breakfast-y types of things like pancakes, frech toast and omlettes. The bread basket is a SUBLIME experience with house baked breads: baguette, country wheat and a dark fruit nut bread.  I am a total baguette snob since I studied in Paris during college and I found theirs to be very authentic: crisp outside; tender, moist and chewy inside. We started with mimosas and shared the pissaladiere appetizer (onion tart with goat cheese, anchovies and black olives). It was served on a rustic wood cutting board with some nicely dressed mesclun greens piled up on one end.  I think this was the best pissaladiere I've ever had - perfect combination of flavors! The mimosas were heavy on the sparkling, not the OJ. I had the nicoise salad which included seared tuna and also the Italian style cooked tuna (that comes packed in olive oil), haricot verts, shaved fennel, fingerling potatoes, abundant black olives, hard boiled egg, tomatos and a combination of greens.  The portion was rather huge.  It was very good.  My boyfriend had the "steak and eggs" which includes not mere steak but a petit filet mignon. And he got his eggs scrambled with the fines herbs.  He mentioned that the filet was not as big as it had been on previous visits but it was still a nice quality piece of meat and the herbed eggs were quite good. The dessert list is cruelly compelling (as if anyone needs dessert after how good the bread and everything else are) with French bistro classics like tarte tatin, profiteroles, pot de creme, creme brulee....

On the way out, you can pick up a baguette to go for $3.  They plan to open a small take out bakery soon to sell all of their breads.

I also didn't mention that their bar is huge, which is nice for people who like to dine at the bar.  And the outdoor seating very plentiful.  I can't wait to go back for dinner.  Their dinner menu has two of my favorites: trout amandine and branzino.  (what is missing however is a classic endive salad with walnuts and roquefort, and provencal fish soup)

When I first got to know Philadelphia about two years ago I couldn't believe that they didn't have a great French bistro... I thought it was pretty obvious if anyone could duplicate a Balthazar-like experience in Philly, it couldn't lose.  Well, now it's done!  Yay! 

A couple more images from the Parc website:

My Rating: Very Good

We're into the last month of summer just about, so it's time to enjoy the summer classics before it's too late.

As one would guess by the name of this blog, I'm more of a wine person... but I do like an occasional cocktail.  My favorite summer cocktail is the mojito, probably because I love mint leaves.  This year I discovered the Bacardi pre-made Mojito in a bottle -- LOVE IT!  It sells for about $13 for a 750 ml bottle, it also comes in a big bottle though.

All you really have to do is pour it over ice, but I like to doctor mine up a bit.  I add fresh mint leaves and a little bit of lemon/lime sparkling water to lighten it up a little. 

I don't find that these go that well with food, so it's definitely a pre-dinner thing.

Congratulations to Eleven Madison Park who got elevated to 4 stars today by the New York Times food critic, Frank Bruni.

Four stars is "extraordinary".

Bruni recommends: Prawn roulade; farm egg with Parmesan foam; goat's milk ricotta gnocchi; halibut; lobster; duck for two; chicken for two; suckling pig; vacherin; peanut butter and chocolate palette; chocolate tart with caramel.

Bruni also wrote a Diner's Journal blog post with further thoughts about the elevation.

A while back we heard some rumbling about some investigations in Montalcino of the brunello producers. The accusation was that some were using grapes other than sangiovese which is the only DOC approved grape for Brunello di Montalcino.

5 producers have been found to have used unauthorized grapes:  Antinori, Argiano, Banfi, Casanova di Neri and Marchesi de' Frescobaldi.

What a scandal!  According to the NY Times, Banfi and Argiano are protesting the findings.

Here is a great perspective from a winemaker in Montalcino about the matter on the blog Do Bianchi.

This week the New York Times announced the replacement for restaurant critic Frank Bruni. The lucky person is Sam Sifton.  He has been with the Times since 2001.  Most recently he has been the Times' cultural news editor. Before that he was deputy dining editor, dining editor and deputy culture editor.  He is 43 and went to Harvard.

I could only find this tiny picture of him. 

The Times seems to have removed the pictures on their website that had been up previously. Of course, the critic is supposed to be sort of undercover when dining, but I don' think that always works out.  There is a discussion about critics and anonymity in the Diner's Journal blog.

Sam will take over in October. 

Unfortunately one of my favorite wines is now sold out at Sherry Lehman, the 2007 Bruno Giacosa Dolcetto d' Alba.  It had been available for $21.95.

The 2008 is now available at Canal's Pensauken and several other retailers for around $17.50.  I assume the '08 vintage wasn't as good, or else because of the recession they decided to price it lower.

I am looking forward to tasting the new vintage and will report back!