MARIANI’S

  October 14,  2007                                                       NEWSLETTER

Autumn Pumpkins, 2006 by Galina Stepanoff-Dargery

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IMPORTANT MESSAGE: There will be no edition of Mariani's Virtual Gourmet Newsletter next week, October 21, because Mariani will be on vacation.  The next edition will be October 28.

"Two for the Road"  (1967)

In This Issue

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD!  ESQUIRE'S
BEST NEW RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA 2007
by John Mariani

     Twenty-three years ago when I first compiled Esquire’s Best New Restaurants list, if there was an engaging, tasty little trattoria in a city that never before had one, it had a good chance of making the cut.  In 2007 that trattoria better be as good as any in Rome,  serve distinctive food no one else in America does, and be worth either a cab ride way across town or a drive two hours outside of a major city.
     My criteria haven’t really changed, but the experience and dedication of a generation of chefs and restaurateurs have turned American cities once considered gastronomic backwaters into serious dining towns, and there is no question that the U.S. now has most of the best and certainly the most diverse restaurants in the world.
     What are Esquire’s criteria? First, the restaurant must have opened since last fall. Second, it has to be as good as any other restaurant on the list. Next, it cannot be another link in a chain, even if it’s a chain run by a world-renowned chef like Joël Robuchon or Nobu Matsuhisa.  And it cannot be a restaurant whose celebrity chef (all those TV guys) merely attaches his name to the awning then visits only once every three months.
     Quality of the food comes above every other consideration, then décor,  winelist, and service. Beyond that points are added or taken away depending on the quality of the tablesettings (a lack of tablecloths in an upscale restaurant is disconcerting), stemware (there is no excuse for cheap wineglasses), bar service (doesn’t any bartender in America know how to make a daiquiri?), noise level (which includes ear-shattering techno music), and harmonious lighting (“Waiter, I’ll have the steak and a flashlight”).
     If there is one distinguishing factor that ties all these best new restaurants together it’s the palpable feeling that the restaurateur and the chef are really giving their all to please you.   So when you make a rez at any of the following, be prepared to dine well, carry on a conversation, drink good wine, and feel that everyone’s real happy you’ve chosen to dine there.

(in alphabetical order)
 

Anthos—NYC

Addison—San Diego









All’Angelo—Los Angeles

                   Brasserie Beck--Washington, DC

Café Majestic—San Francisco











                                                                                                                                Catalan—Houston

Dennis Foy—NYC

Fearing’s—Dallas

     LarkCreekSteak—San Francisco

 



Meadowood—Napa










Michael’s Genuine Food—Miami

                                                

                        Oyamel—Washington DC

Porter House New York—NYC










                                                                                                                 Rae—Philadelphia





Rialto--Cambridge, Massachusetts









                                                                                                                                                            Rocca—Boston                                                                                                    



Shaun’s--Atlanta

Table 45—Cleveland

Trois--Atlanta

23 Hoyt--Portland, Oregon







NEW YORK CORNER


THE NEW MICHELIN GUIDE TO NYC 2008 SETS A SOLID TEMPLATE FOR OTHER GUIDES

by John Mariani

    The third, 2008, edition of the Michelin red guide to NYC is not only the company's most improved production but sets a solid template for all other attempts at charting and explaining the quixotic world of dining out in New York.  No matter what objective and subjective criticisms one might make about choices and ratings in the new guide (and the outcry has already begun among the NY media), no other guide gives as much information in so appealing and colorful a form as the new volume, and that includes Michelin's own guides to the rest of the world, of which there are 19 volumes covering 22 countries.  Indeed, when the first NYC Michelin came out in 2006, director  Jean-Luc Naret said it would be the format for all subsequent volumes, after decades of running only the barest of text, stars, and symbols on the restaurants covered.
     All restaurants now get a thorough write-up (though often only a slight update from last year's), with restaurant websites noted and the entries tagged with all those cryptic symbols Michelin so loves--including a clock for late dinners, a wad of bills for cash only, and an odd knife and spoon icon that somehow indicates brunch. Star restaurants get fuller treatment, with color photo, and three suggestions each for appetizers, entrees, and desserts from recent menus. I also like that they used a darker easier-on-the-eyes ink for the text font this year.
      Beyond the gossip the star system generates (for a discussion of how Michelin goes about their investigations, see my article from 2005: Michelin), the real value of the guide is in showing that one need not pay $100 per person to dine well in NYC:  The "Bib Gourmand" listings--52 of them--are for restaurants where, for $40 or less, you can enjoy "two courses and a glass of wine or a dessert," while "Where to Eat for Less Than $25" points readers to delightful, neighborhood New Yawk places like Katz's on the Lower East Side, Sripraphai in Queens, Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village, and Utsav in midtown.
       Having taken criticism in the past for never saying a single negative word about any restaurant, Michelin now tosses in a few quibbles, though they are extremely mild:  "Waiting for a table [at Spark's] is de rigeur but speedy bartenders will shake a frosty martini for you in the meantime" does not begin to suggest the blatant rudeness of that midtown steakhouse where your contention that you have a reservation at seven o'clock gets a retort of, "Everybody has a reservation at seven o'clock."  And the quibbles seem doled out with softer gloves to some than to others.  Thus, Estiatorios Milos is called "cacophonous" (not really) while no mention whatever is made of the heavy metal rock decibel levels at Babbo (which gets one star) and the ear-splitting Morandi.  The inches between tables at Spotted Pig (a too-generous one star) go unmentioned while Toqueville is said to have a main dining room where "tables snuggle close together," which, as the photo of the room to the right shows, is simply not true.
      Now, to the stars:  I don't argue at all with the choice (unchanged since last year) of Per Se, Le Bernardin, and Jean  Georges--Mon Dieu! all French!--as three star restaurants, and the two-star category ("Excellent cuisine, worth a detour") is generally sound--Bouley, Daniel, Del Posto, Masa, and Picholine--although I would certainly not place Gordon Ramsay at the London in that category, whose first chef was summarily fired for not garnering high marks from local media. To suggest that Gordon Ramsay (whose TV-fevered owner is far too busy with shows like "The F-Word" to cook in his own restaurants) is a better restaurant than so many that Michelin awards only a single star to ("A very good restaurant in its category"), like Café Gray, Cru, Gotham Bar & Grill, Oceana, TriBeCa Grill, and The Modern is worrisome.  (Factotum: When presented with the news he'd won two stars, Ramsay was nowhere near New York; he was in L.A.)
      Michelin has always insisted that it only awards ratings by what's on the plate, as if blind to decor, service, winelist, price, etc. Few reasonable people believe this when all the three star and most two star restaurants are lavish, multi-million dollar productions, here, in London, in France, and throughout the rest of Europe (and they are almost invariably French). Michelin's defense is to point out that it does award stars to ugly, poorly serviced restaurants like Peter Luger, noting only "Don't be fooled  by the beer hall ambiance." If the ambiance at Luger was anything like a true rathskeller in Munich or even Milwaukee, one might actually applaud it. But Luger, despite having great porterhouse steaks, is a restaurant that plays fast and loose with reservations, has a geriatric staff that always dissuades you from ordering anything but steak, a bunch of side dishes not worth mentioning, and a crummy winelist.  To give Peter Luger and a completely inane French bistro like États-Unis one star and to deny the same to superb restaurants with great food, like Eleven Madison Park, Felidia, Lever House, Le Cirque, Brasserie, Chanterelle, and many others is simply bewildering. The removal of a star from Craft goes unexplained in the write-up, though it basically verbatim, if slightly trimmed, from last year's.
       One can't, of course, expect a major production like this to be as up-to-date as a newspaper or weekly magazine, so there's no sense in questioning a rating given to a restaurant whose chef just left last month or whose new one just came aboard.  To Michelin's credit, there is evidence some details had to be yanked at the last moment, noting that a kitchen is "in flux."  But there are other head-scratchers here:
      -TV omnivore man Anthony Bourdain is said to "preside over the kitchen [at Les Halles], turning out classic bistro fare," even though Bourdain said long ago he really doesn't cook much anywhere any longer.
      -Oceana gets a well-deserved star but there is no mention of the superb new chef here,  Ben Pollinger. Nor is there any notice of a great chef like Odette Fada as chef at San Domenico.
      -The text no longer sounds as if it had been translated from French, but some of the details suggest a rather dated sense of au courant New York, as when the hamburger at `21' Club is described as "favored by Ari Onassis." Who cares? Another burger, at August, is said to be "jazzed up with housemade mayonnaise."
       -There are several first-rate restaurants that are not included in the guide, while others are so meretricious as to boggle the mind as to their inclusion.  Why no inclusion of Wall Street's best steakhouse, Flames? Or the terrific gastro-pub E.U. on the Lower East Side?  Or the delightfully authentic Italian restaurant Centovini on Houston Street? Or the best all-around restaurant in the Meat Market District, Valbella? And why would they waste paper on awful antiques like Sardi's and Isle of Capri but ignore the Russian Tea Room?  Why bother with a place like Cipriani Downtown where the food is dull, the prices insane, and the service a disgrace to all but the Eurotrash who thrive on it? Or the thoroughly boring, insipid, intensely loud Café Cluny? How can the guide claim to include only "the best of the best" with honkers like that in it?
      -Michelin seems to accept every steakhouse's claim that they use "dry-aged USDA Prime beef" when such claims are so often completely specious. I would have hoped the Michelin inspectors could tell the difference.
      Still, the Michelin Man has done his homework, improved his New York dialect, and gotten more in touch with the city's diversity and spirit.  He is still being a tad too kind to everyone (how un-French!), but, especially by comparison to the ho-hummeries of the Zagat guide, the new Michelin is the best thing out there.
      Michelin's second annual guide  to San Francisco will be published on Oct. 24, and two new guides, Los Angeles on Nov. 14, and Las Vegas on Nov. 16.


NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

Old Vines Grenache Shows a New Face of a Sometimes Funky Grape
by John Mariani
    
     Even though it’s the world’s most widely planted grape to make red wine and rosés, grenache is certainly not on the tip of most winelover’s tongue the way chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, and other varietals are. Probably native to Spain, where it’s called garnacha, its single distinction has been as a blending grape in Chateauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas.
     The popularity of grenache among winemakers is due to its very high yield, particularly with young vines. Although long been associated in California with cheap jug wines, grenache has taken on a bit of luster in recent years from the so-called Rhône Ranger wines in the state and from Spain’s Rioja wines.
      So a tasting and lunch by the Wine Media Guild at Felidia restaurant in New York of 25 “old vine grenaches” gave me a chance to assess how well the varietal matures in vineyards whose vines are 30 to 50 years old. “In Europe grenache takes about five years to mature,” said Jean-Francois Ey, owner of grenache vineyards in Roussilon who spoke at the tasting. “After that, up to 20 years, you continue to get higher yields, which then begin to decline at about 35 years. Grenache growers say, `If you want to make money with grenache, look for 35 year-old-vines; if you want to make quality, wait till they’re 50.’ At that age, you only get about one bottle per vine from the grapes.”
    My first surprise was the price of some of the samples, ranging from a low of $14 to a high of $264, this last, Clos des Fees Petite Siberie 2004, made from 100 percent grenache, using 80 year-old vines. It was amazingly dense, very dark, big bodied with 15 percent alcohol, almost chewy, but I’m not convinced it’s worth that kind of money.
      I was not entirely surprised to find how much range in flavors there was in the wines.  The Sardinian volcanic soil of Sella & Mosca’s Cannonau 2004 ($11) added measurably to the minerality and distinctly peppery flourish of the wine on the palate, though it faded fast.  Others had flavors that were, as a colleague at the tasting put it, “funky,” with one example, Saint Jean du Barroux l’Oligocène 2004 from the Ventoux region of France ($28), with 75 percent grenache and the rest syrah, carignan, and cinsault, smelling like newly cut plywood, and another, Mas de la Dame Coin Caché 2003 ($30) from Les Beaux de Provence, smelled awful, not so much oxidized as just plain malodorous.Ey’s own Ey Vineyards Vigne Las Collas 2004 ($14) from 60-year-old vines in Roussillon had a distinct barnyard mustiness on the nose, but by the time we sat down to a lunch of pasta with duck ragù, it had dissipated and the wine showed solid acidity that cut through the rich sauce. It was true to form, spicy, peppery, and delicious. A very good buy at this price.
      I found that the higher the alcohol levels went in the samples—from 13.5 up to an astounding 15.9 percent—the more fruit was prominent, as in a Villa Creek Cellars 2005 ($40) from Paso Robles, California, though after a sip or two its lushness gave way to the jammy flavors of overextraction.  Kaesler Grenache “The Fave” 2005 ($42) from Australia’s Barossa Valley was 15.5 percent and tasted like burnt caramel.
      The wines in the middle, around 15 percent, seemed to fare best in the tasting. My favorites included a medium-bodied Gilles Troullier l'Ésprit du Temps 2005 ($65), made from 80 year old Roussillon vines. It had a lovely, fresh nose, moderate color, and seemed to epitomize the essential flavor of grenache—a little raisin-like and delightfully peppery, with a soft tannic finish.
     A Spanish example from Montsant, the Capçanes Cabrida 2004 ($65) was a 100 percent grenache from vines dating back a century, and the complexity of the wine seemed to bear out Ey’s statement that intensity and quality come from vines that have developed character by absorbing the minerality of the terroir.
     Two Chateauneuf-du-Papes showed very well: Domaine La Roquete 2003, with 75 percent grenache—I’m guessing was syrah and cinsault—was light in color but quite voluptuous on the palate, revealing layers of bright red fruit, a very good buy at $25. Janasse Vieilles Vignes 2004 with 85 percent grenache, 3 percent syrah, 7 percent mourvèdre, and 5 percent other varietals of the 13 allowed by appellation laws, seemed a very sophisticated wine, with a blast of fruit and tannin, then a mellowing on the mid-palate, but it faded regrettably fast. At $110, I expected more bang for the buck.
      The grenache I liked most as a lighter style, good for quaffing with salmon or any red meats was a $25 Pirramimma Old Bush Grenache 2003 from South Australia’s McLaren Vale. It was a pretty wine, fruited in the bouquet, followed by nice tangy acid notes.
     If the tasting didn’t convince me that grenache on its own or as a blender has yet leapt to greatness—especially when it costs over $50 a bottle—I came away impressed by the various ways the grape exhibits itself from terroir to terroir and winery to winery.  In its adaptability and prodigality, grenache is something of a workhorse grape, not yet in the league of a thoroughbred.

John Mariani's weekly wine column appears in Bloomberg Muse News, from which this story was adapted. Bloomberg News covers Culture from art, books, and theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily basis, and some of its articles play of the Saturday Bloomberg Radio and TV.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Quentin Tarantino Has Already
 Bought the Screen Rights


In Tapei City, Taiwan, A waitress named Xu sued a co-worker for giving her the nickname “Looking for Death” and was compensated for her distress by a local judge.





Department of Anal Retentives

“Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face. Some of the brightly colored paper napkins are coated with a glossy look, which makes them less absorbent and therefore useless for a slob like me.  I also have an aesthetics issue with really bold napkins in primary colors because they tend to intensify the stains of greasy foods.”—Steve McDonaugh, Talk with Your Mouth Full (2007).

I consider this the best and savviest blog of its kind on the  web. Potter is a columnist for USA Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury  Spa Finder, a contributing editor for Ski and  a frequent contributor to National  Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com  and Elle Decor. "I’ve designed this site is for people who take their  travel seriously," says Potter. "For travelers who want to learn about special  places but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for the privilege of  staying there. Because at the end of the day, it’s not so much about five-star  places as five-star experiences."  To go to his blog click on the logo below:

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,  Naomi  Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Bloomberg News and Radio, and Diversion.  He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).

 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com by clicking on the cover image.

My newest book, written with my brother Robert Mariani, is a memoir of our years growing up in the North Bronx. It's called Almost Golden because it re-visits an idyllic place and time in our lives when so many wonderful things seemed possible.     For those of you who don't think of the Bronx as “idyllic,” this book will be a revelation. It’s about a place called the Country Club area, on the shores of Pelham Bay. It was a beautiful neighborhood filled with great friends and wonderful adventures that helped shape our lives. It's about a culture, still vibrant, and a place that is still almost the same as when we grew up there.     Robert and I think you'll enjoy this very personal look at our Bronx childhood. It is not yet available in bookstores, so to purchase a copy, go to amazon.com or click on  Almost Golden.                                                                                                                     --John Mariani

copyright John Mariani 2007