BITE will keep you in touch with what I’m eating and what I love and what I left on my plate. I’ll share dialogues I have with heroes and divas, princes and barracudas and what I overhear from the next table. Not every day will I have a meal worth writing about, I suspect, not good enough, not bad enough. Dear friends have asked me if I could try to be meaner so I fit in better on the net. I intend to try. As any man who has lived with me will tell you, I was born to be a critic. Of course, isn’t it the critic who has the thinnest skin of all? I must admit to a certain anxiety. It’s been a long time since I wrote without an editor, a fact checker and a copy-reader to catch my errors, misspellings and typos. I apologize in advance. I’m left handed and that can sometimes be confusing. I might have stopped reviewing restaurants twenty five years ago when my first novel, Blue Skies, No Candy lingered on the best seller list. But I am addicted to instant gratification. So I’m still here. On my death bed, I am sure my last words will echo those of the sister of Brillat Savarin:
“Bring on dessert.”
October 6, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Uncorking Corton/Cutting Back
It’s the first night Corton is open to walk-ins and the room is not yet finished, but the friendly open square has an easy club-house feel, very see-and-be-seen…
September 29, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Double Crown/Pearl Oyster Bar
It’s scary enough watching the world of strut-and-brag Manhattan shrink. Now it’s the quail too. Half a quail…half a very small quail…
September 22, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Proud Libertine/Solace
Not that I necessarily expected to see debauchery at the low lit bar, or find Wall Streeters on the next banquette declaiming Byron, dressed like the Marquis de Sade, chanting Rimbaud….
September 15, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Bloomingdale Road/Daniel Makeover
This is not just another lineup of comfort food. It’s playpen time. It’s the homey and weirdo hour. We have chicken lollipops-Buffalo with blue cheese fondue…
September 8, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Apiary Buzz
Like a privileged first child in an ambitious family with excellent connections, Apiary has a top of the line nursery – slick modern design by partner Ligne Rosset starring…
September 2, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Cup o’Ippudo
We’re forced to cut through a gaggle of young Japanese possessively pacing the sidewalk, the vestibule crowded with defiant dawdlers, and the entire student population of Japan...
August 25, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Encores: Morandi, Harrison
Anxious clotlettes of people are waiting outside as taxis drop off titled, untitled and entitled women chirping Italian, kiss-kissing the animated god at the maitre d’ stand…
August 18, 2008 | BITE: My Journal
Allegretti Tempo
Alain Allegretti may have opened his doors Monday short a chef or three in the kitchen, but he's a pro after all… ready Thursday for Hillary and Bill with Chelsea and her boyfriend…