Vintage Insatiable Critic: 1992-1994
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QUILTED GIRAFFE: JAPAN NOSHING
February 17, 1992
The Quilted Giraffe may be the most exciting restaurant in town. And if you're Japanese it looks like a bargain… more
MEAT AND FRITES
May 4, 1992
It must have seemed like a brilliant idea at the time: in the age of specialization and simplicity to create a menu with just two options – Steak Frites and the fish of the day... Longtime customers of Rocco were aghast. For more than 50 years they'd come to count on this dwdy little storefront for all the southern Italian familiars… more
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ARIZONA 206: HOT AND SWEET
October 9, 1992
What delicious shock to wander, by whimsy, into Arizona 206, a once-favorite haunt, unprepared for the roller-coaster thrills of a gifted new chef in the kitchen… more
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A WOK IN PROGRESS
November 2, 1992
The worst flaw in David Keh’s new venture is that it’s too small for the stampeding gourmands who are going to fall in love with Simon Teng’s born-again cooking. There just hasn’t been enough glorious Chinese food to comfort us for much too long...more
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OUT OF THE POOL AND INTO THE GRILL
November 30, 1992
The Four Seasons’ Grill has always been sexy by day, in that perverse and tantalizing way in which power and money are the musk and the deal is consummation...Given a mandate to fill the Grill at night, Stefano Battistini and his sidekick, Albin Hitch, have come alive…more
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THE VONG SHOW
January 25, 1993
“I don’t want it to be too Thai,” says Vongerichten. “I just want people to leave with a mouth full of spices and pleasure.”...more
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PETIT PAN
March 29, 1993
The noisily ballyhooed search for a master to replace the decamping Daniel Boulud has run aground... more
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BLUE RIBBON PU PU/HIGH-LIFE LOUNGE
April 26, 1993
Can the childhood comfort foods of the fifties nurture us through the traumas of the nineties...more
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FLYING COLORS
May 17, 1993
After two decades roving and whisking, here and in France, gathering strength and certification in the wings while others danced, Erik Blauberg has created a spotlight for himself and already transformed a workaday canteen hidden inside a glass fortress… more
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THE BOOK ON DANIEL
June 14, 1993
June is a month for Lohengrin and linen. That school's-out feeling strikes even chronic workaholics, and Friday shrinks to a three-hour day as all of us long to escape. It's not the month... more
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STREET FOOD: DO WE DARE?
June 28, 1993
The exhaust fumes we devour like some exotic chutney on a sandwich au jambon in Paris feel somehow menacing on Manhattan avenues…more
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TRUE BRIT
August 2, 1993
Merry Old England may be gone with the Windsors, but the pound is down—and the eating in London is better than ever...more
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LUTECE: MY DINNERS WITH ANDRE
September 27, 1993
He is the John Wayne of beurre blanc, defending the fort long after the rebels have hoisted the flag of radicchio. The one pure chef, fearless in his conviction, with a certain naïveté. André Soltner, ruler of a tiny world on 50th Street…more
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GOTHAM: GRILL CRAZY
October 11, 1993
I can't quite believe they're Martians. I suspect they're simply geographically repressed. They want to know my favorite restaurant, and when I say, "the Gotham," they stare blankly. "The Gotham Bar and Grill," I say... more
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MAD 61: DRESSING ON THE SIDE
October 25, 1993
Imagine shaking down in the vortex of a tornado. Mad, indeed. And it’s not seasoned yet. But we’re all here anyway. All of us sharing classic pizzas at boutique prices as Pino Luongo fine-tunes the asylum…more
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MORTON'S OF CHICAGO/EASTERN SEAFOOD CO.
November 8, 1993
"New York is our kind of town,” trumpets Morton’s of Chicago, “the steakhouse every city wants.” But is Morton’s New York’s kind of cattle station? Are we too snooty, too myopic, too chauvinistic?...more
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PICHOLINE: OLIVE AND KICKING
November 15, 1993
We are a gaggle of tickled tastebuds gathered around a table at Picholine, not quite daring to be bearish about life on the Upper West Side now that Terrance Brennan has settled here. We are your cliché citizens of Zabar’s country…more
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CELEBRATING FATBOY AT HARLEY DAVIDSON
November 15, 1993
In these not exactly carefree times, what could be sexier than a legendary hawg- our very own all-American Harley Davidson? Is it just me, or can you see the heat in a sleek Sportster or a hulking Fatboy?...more
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MATTHEW'S GOSPEL-DEMI IN CARNEGIE HILL
November 22, 1993
Blink your eyes and it’s Ricks in Casablanca: billowing white veils overhead, ceiling fans revolving lazily, the ghosts of Bogey and Ingrid…That’s the brand new Matthew’s, with its potted palms struggling… Folks who live up in Carnegie Hill couldn't wait until Demi opened. Paul Newman stopped by to check on its progress…more
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MARKET DINNER AT CHANTERELLE
November 30, 1992
Tonight’s dinner will have to be sublime to win us over and cool the choler from waiting 45 minutes for our nine o’clock table, with only a very belated flute of champagne to blur the trauma....more
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PENNE FROM HEAVEN
December 13, 1993
At Fresco, pals and curious neighbors are dropping in-- and loving the food. A killer gratin, macaroni baked for a king… more
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SIZZLING STEAK WARS
January 3, 1994
Why? Why now? Why, after a decade of fussing over our arteries, red meat cast as the enemy, are steakhouses jumping?... more
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LES CÉLÈBRITÉS: THE SWEET SMELL OF EXCESS
January 31, 1994
Not everyone was humbled in the nineties. Don't you feel the frisson? Déjà moola. Grown men throwing billions at each other for Paramount and a building where the windows pop out. Wall Street still cashing in on our primal optimism. So forget about feeling indigent. Come join us at Les Célèbrités... more
February 14, 1994
Folks who live below the Maginot Line (for some, it’s 14th Street, for others 23rd) like to think they have everything just a speed-walk away. Now there’s a new treat to nurture the delusion. Baluchis, the pungent taste of India with its voluptuous heat and exotic perfumes, smack dab on Spring Street’s restaurant row... more
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RIVER CAFE: OF THYME AND WATER
April 25, 1994
New Yorkers may take it for granted. Our sentimental nook under the crooning Brooklyn Bridge, reserved for ritual celebrations, an ardent hideaway for romance and seduction. But for the casually reckless traveler, it’s a must…and not the usual Eurotwits we find flipping their ashes into the palms at Le Colonial...more
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SHANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
April 11, 1994
At Cascabel, the amazing lamb marches out of the kitchen in triumph. At Alison on Dominick, it’s good and juicy...” more
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MARTINI'S/MUSTANG GRILL
April 18, 1994
There he is, Richard Krause, tall, with a long flip of braid flying as he conducts the kitchen chorus, his crew in blowsy white hats, halfway between an artist’s beret and a toque. Original and slightly eccentric, like asking you to sign your wine cork for the permanent collection… more
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VIRGIL'S: AMAZING GREASE
May 2, 1994
’Pig Out,’ says the menu. No arm-twisting needed. All of us are snatching from the Brobdingnagian smorgasbord at Virgil’s... more
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MATCH ADO
May 30, 1994
The instant overnight lunacy never ceases to amaze. As if a skittish flock of flutter-bys were poised in midair just waiting to swoop in. Suddenly the word is Match. The place isn’t open, not officially, or so the voice at the other end of the phone warns…more
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CAMPAGNA: CIAO DOWN
July 11, 1994
In no time at all, Coco Pazzo’s coddled darlings have dropped by, along with the usual nighthawks and avant-garde fashion freaks, not to mention the Flatiron business folk Strausman’s counting on to keep Campagna humming at lunch…more
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CAFE CENTRO
October 4, 1994
Summer's restaurant seedlings may still need weeding. But very quickly, Cafe Centro has become exactly what it promised to be -- a luxurious brasserie, somewhat French with Moroccan flourishes and a New York mentality…more
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CUB ROOM: STYLISH BEDLAM
October 5, 1994
Immersed In the ritual of Andre Soltner's monastic cellar kitchen Henry Meer had waited for the perfect deal and dreamed of restaurant greatness. This isn't what he had in mind at al…more
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NOBU: TORO! TORO! TORO!
October 31, 1994
The chef's taste and bravado, honed on a path from Japan to Alaska to Peru and Argentina, had lured the crème de la crème as well as the skim milk of Hollywood… more
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