IN THIS ISSUE WHY PENT-UP
DEMAND AND DESPERATE LANDLORDS
WILL BRING BACK THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS
By John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER
LOVE AND PIZZA
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
By John Mariani
NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
WINES OF DISTINCTION
By John Mariani
❖❖❖
WHY PENT-UP DEMAND
AND DESPERATE LANDLORDS
WILL BRING BACK THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS By John Mariani
Outdoor Dining at Beatrice Inn, NYC
As
we enter 2021, the state of America’s restaurant
industry has rarely seemed more dire, thanks to
state and city demands that restaurants all but
shut down until the pandemic is defeated. As
with all small businesses, the
on-again-off-again closures that are difficult
enough for a gym or a nail salon for restaurants
require enormous effort, not least dealing with
the amount of wasted food in storage. In
good times municipal governments make the running
of a restaurant far more restrictive than for
other businesses, from health department
inspections to prohibitions against or expensive
permits for outdoor dining. Restaurants pay high
taxes, justified by local governments as somehow
being imposed on cash rich and consistently
profitable businesses. Liquor licenses cost a
small fortune, and blue laws can prevent
restaurants from fully utilizing their potential. Now, with some landlords threatening to
shutter restaurants—often because they believe
they’ll get a far higher rent from a CVS than on a
15-year restaurant lease—old and new restaurants
are struggling to stay in place. Many will not
survive, even at the top of the ladder. It was announced last week that New York’s
famous ‘21’ Club (left), owned by the
Belmond hotel company (which was bought for $3.2
billion by LVMH in 2018), would close, hoping it
might be re-purposed sometime in the future.
Celebrity restaurateurs like Danny Meyer, David
Chang and Jean-Georges Vongerichten announced
closings last autumn, and Las Vegas’s high-end,
high-roller restaurants have been decimated. Still, I believe that the resiliency of
restaurant owners and history will show that
restaurants will rebound when the pandemic ebbs.
For, despite the greed of many landlords, they are
well aware that spaces must be filled; realtors
abhor a vacuum, and in many cases spaces built
specifically to be restaurants cannot easily be
converted into another kind of business. Ironically, the vast three-level space at
the bottom of New York’s Seagram Building might
have become a Cadillac showroom back in 1959 but
instead became The Four Seasons restaurant (right),
which later applied for and received New York City
Landmark status, so that its interior cannot be
altered in any way, if the
current owner of the building ever reopens it.One can
hardly imagine restaurants like the Signature Room
on the 95th floor of Chicago’s John Hancock
skyscraper, Picasso in Las Vegas or Per Se in New
York’s Time Warner Center being converted into a
car dealership or a Lululemon. And in Paris, the Jules Verne restaurant (below) on the
second floor of the Eiffel Tower is not going to
be replaced with a Verizon store, nor will the
grand dining room Man Wah overlooking Hong Kong
Harbor with a Ferragamo shoe salon. Also, savvy realtors know not
only that good restaurants in their buildings
attract renters and visitors, but that an
award-winning restaurant brings prestige to the
property. Indeed, many realtors build out space
specifically to install a restaurant with a name
chef or restaurant company behind it, like
Wolfgang Puck or the Ducasse Group. For a while in 2021, there will be tectonic
shifts in the number and kind of restaurants
remaining open or new restaurants taking a chance.
Yet, the fact is every Wednesday in TheNew YorkTimes Food
Section, there is a listing of at least six new
restaurant openings around the city—more than 300
in a year. It is obvious that many mom-and-pop
restaurants will sadly close, but others,
especially ethnic eateries, have adapted and found
a new market in take-out and home delivery. Many
have built outdoor
dining spaces, some enclosed for winter, that
bring in a valuable number of diners, even if
indoors regulations only allow for occupancy of
25% to 50%. And therein lies the real hope for
America’s restaurants: Pass any number of
restaurants where outdoor dining has been
arranged, and you will undoubtedly find them
packed with guests, not to mention those picking
up food to take home. True, far too many guests
ignore health regulations about wearing masks and
a few unscrupulous restaurateurs flout those
rules, which has resulted in spreading Covid-19,
but, as vaccinations kick in, that problem should
be quickly decreased. The fact is that people love going out to
eat and are dying to do so right now. There is a
pent-up demand that will explode onto the
restaurant scene by spring and summer at every
level. Smaller restaurants, which
have gained attention during the pandemic, will be
the immediate winners, with old customers flocking
to them and new ones delighted to try something
new. At the higher levels, where expense
accounts drive business both for the restaurant
and the hosts of a business lunch or dinner, it
will take a while longer to come back, because
companies will initially be sheepish about seeming
too extravagant. But again, as history shows, even
when the allowance of expense deductions for
business meals was cut from 100% to 50%, it had
almost no effect on entertaining, simply because
the cost was such a small part of doing business.
(The current battle over a new stimulus package
included discussion of new tax breaks for what was
characterized by the antiquated term “three
martini lunch.”) And during economic slumps companies that
slashed entertainment budgets, and compiled lists
of expensive restaurants to be avoided, always
relented as soon as the economy rebounded.
Predictions of the “death of fine dining” have
always proven wrong. Neighborhood storefronts and
spaces the size of a skyscraper’s floor plan
cannot go empty for long, and, when the pandemic
is over and life returns to something that feels
like normal, people will do what they have always
done with the greatest of pleasure. They will go
out to eat, sit at their favorite table, order a
good bottle of wine and be very happy again.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani
LOVE
AND PIZZA
Since, for
the time being, I am unable to write about or
review New York City restaurants, I have decided instead to
print a serialized version of my (unpublished)
novel Love
and Pizza,
which takes place in New York and Italy
and involves a young, beautiful Bronx
woman named Nicola Santini from an Italian
family impassioned about food. As the
story goes on, Nicola, who is a student at
Columbia University, struggles to maintain her
roots while seeing a future that could lead her
far from them—a future that involves a career
and a love affair
that would change her life forever. So, while
New York’s restaurants remain closed, I will run
a chapter of the Love and Pizza each
week until the crisis is over. Afterwards I
shall be offering the entire book
digitally. I hope you like the
idea and even more that you will love Nicola,
her family and her friends. I’d love to know
what you think. Contact me at loveandpizza123@gmail.com
—John Mariani
To read previous
chapters go to archive
(beginning with March 29, 2020, issue.
LOVE
AND PIZZA
By
John Mariani
Cover
Art By Galina Dargery
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
Columbia University in Winter
When Nicola
arrived home in New York, with just two months
to go before the semester ended, she plunged
back into her studies, occasionally bringing
what she’d learned about the artists of the
Neapolitan School into classroom discussions.The
only modeling she did for the month before
Christmas was for the next two issues of Willi,
whose reputation for being a truly new kind of
fashion magazine was growing. She and Catherine were closer than ever,
but Catherine began to feel that Nicola ending
school a semester earlier than her might put
some distance between them, believing Nicola’s
head start on the rest of her life might put
their friendship out of kilter.Nicola
insisted it would not. “I can't imagine why you’d say that,
Catherine. It’s not like I’m moving anywhere.” “I know,” her friend said, “But let’s
just not let
it happen, Nick.” Nicola also enjoyed seeing Mercédes,
Jenny and Suzanne on campus, and during the
Thanksgiving holiday, they were all invited up
to Alla Teresa for dinner, which pleased Tony
immensely. “Nick,” he said, “This is what I mean.You
bring your high-class friends to the restaurant
and more will follow.” “Well, I’m not sure they’re all high
class, Tony. I’m not.” “Hey, you all look high class.That’s
what we need more of.” Business had been very good at Alla
Teresa and all the local reviews had been
positive, though The New York Times, whose food
critic rarely set foot in the “outer” boroughs,
had not reviewed the place.Also,
while Tony could not be happier with the sales
of pizza, he wanted people to come for the rest
of the menu and to sell more expensive wines. “I could stock nothing but Chianti,
Valpolicella and Soave and no one would care,”
Tony moaned to his sister.“I
have to educate these people just to get them to
try something like a Dolcetto or Nebbiolo.” “It’ll happen,” said Nicola. “It’s just
going to take a little time. You’ll see.” “And, hey, Nicky, I know you’re like
super busy, but any time you can spend at the
front, I’ll really be grateful.A lot
of people who come in know you and heard that
you're my sister. It could help a lot.” Nicola gave her brother a kiss and said,
“Tony, listen, I’m in the home stretch here with
school.Three
weeks and I’m finished. I’ll be here throughout
the whole holiday season, okay?” Tony thanked his sister and said, “And
bring those high-class people you know!” Actually, the spread in the first issue
of Willi
had brought a lot of what Tony thought of as
high-class people, but, typical of that crowd,
they visited once, in order to say they had been
there, done that, then didn’t return.Many
thought they were going uptown and slumming, the
way the white swells used to take the A train to
Harlem back in the 1930s. Thanksgiving came and Christmas was
coming on quickly.Nicola took her exams in stride and was
busy sending out applications for graduate
school.Her
professors told her to apply for the best,
because at least two or three of them would
accept her and probably give her student aid.In
fact, the head of the Art Department at
Columbia, who had had Nicola in class, told her
he would do everything possible to get her to
stay at the school, arguing that the resources
of New York City’s art scene and the options for
getting a job teaching, curating or in
restoration were highly dependent on
connections, which Columbia had. “I’m not saying that if you went to Yale
or Harvard or Princeton you wouldn’t get a
superb education,” said the department head,
adding New York University, the University of
Michigan, Penn and the University of Virginia to
the mix. “But I think we’re the best at what we
do, and”—to sweeten the pot—“I think that after
you get your M.A. here, you’d probably get to
teach at the college while you get your PhD,
which will really cut down your expenses.” Nicola took it all in, knowing the truth
of what the professor preached about Columbia.Her
choice, however, would probably be decided on
whether she wanted to get out of New York again,
see something completely new, not New Haven, a
dreary city only 90 minutes away, but perhaps
Boston or Charlottesville or Durham, where Duke
was located. It would all be confusing in the extreme
if she didn't know she had Columbia to fall back
on. Still, as of New Year’s Day, 1986, there was
no rush to make a decision. Nicola had settled back into the routines
of living in Belmont, enjoying her family and
Roseanne’s baby and doing hostess duties at Alla
Teresa.The
burdens of academia were lifted from her
shoulders, the Christmas holidays filled every
waking minute with preparations for the family
dinners, and she was happy to be able to cook
alongside her mother again, recalling all the
lessons her grandmother had taught her years
before. Nicola Santini was more or
less happy.
AS
WINES TASTE MORE THE SAME,
THERE ARE STILL SOME OF DISTINCTION
By John Mariani
There is an increasing danger in the
global wine market that too many wines are
being made to taste according to a template,
rather than to the individuality of their
terroir. I’ll be writing about the high
alcohol phenomenon soon and about how wines
can be manipulated in order to increase
intensity. For now, here are some good wines
that express individuality, rather than taste
just like their competitors’ in their
respective regions.
MacRostie Brut Rosé
2017
($25)—This is what I drank for a first wine on
New Year’s Eve. I like well-made rosés (not all
are by a long shot) and this three-year-old has
developed depth while retaining the fruitiness I
look for in a sparkling wine made in the méthode
champenoise. It’s a Pinot Noir and
Chardonnay blend, disgorged in 2019, adjusted
for sweetness, with 7 grams residual sugar. It
went beautifully with an appetizer of foie gras
terrine.
Charles Heidsieck
Blanc de Blanc
($85)—This is what I drank at midnight to toast
the incoming year, as celebratory a Champagne as I
know and well appreciated by connoisseurs.
Heidesieck has been making Blanc de Blanc since
1949, and, since 2017, as a blend, with 25%
reserve wines and prolonged cellaring. It is very
silky, highly refined and should be the focus of
attention, so drink it with mild-flavored foods
like filet of sole.
Cecchi Chianti
Classico “Storia di Famiglia” 2017 ($27)—A modern
take on a classic Chianti style, not too big,
not too high in alcohol, made with 90%
Sangiovese, it is very easy to drink and to
match with just about anything but a delicate
fish dish, and is wonderful with pasta sauces of
every kind. Cecchi also makes a $48 Riserva and
a $65 “Valore,” but I think the $27 bottle is
nearly as good.
Alois Lageder
Chardonnay 2018
($16)—A great price for a very good, very crisp
Alto Adige white wine from the southern Tyrol in
the lightweight Chardonnay style. Not a lot of
oak or sweetness, not manipulated, and with
12.5% alcohol very easy to drink, especially
with cheeses, chestnuts and shrimp.
Gødesy Eola Springs
Vineyard Chardonnay 2018 ($75)—If, on the
other hand, you enjoy a little oak and a fuller
body in your Chardonnays, this is a supple if
restrained example, at a slightly high alcohol
level of 14.1%. It is not cheap, however. It
matches best with seafood in butter sauces.
Cellier des
Dauphins Côtes du Rhônes Vacqueyras 2017 ($35)—A relative
bargain for a southern Côtes du Rhône, a mix of
Grenache and Syrah that avoids the murkiness of
some bigger styles and prices. Buy a case, drink
it freely with just about all meats, especially
pork, and you’re good to go.
Essenz Barolo di
Serralunga d’Alba 2015 ($50)—Not easy to
find in the market, but ferret it out and you’ll
be rewarded with a distinctive Barolo from a high
altitude in Piedmont, whose soil has alternating
layers of sandstone and marl. Too often Barolos
from this region are getting higher in alcohol
than they should be, but this, at 14%, allows all
the elements of fruit, acid and tannin to shine
forth. First-rate choice for beef or lamb
❖❖❖
HE’S NEXT SUING
THOMAS’ ENGLISH MUFFINS FOR OBVIOUS
REASONS
A
NY State man named Robert Galinsky filed
a class action lawsuit against the maker of
King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls, contending
that he was misled into believing the rolls were
made in Hawaii when in fact
they are baked in California.
THINGS
TO DO IN IDAHO
An Idaho man named David Rush, who has broken
more than 150 Guinness records triumphed again
by throwing 52 nuts in the air
and catching them in a can attached to his
head.
Sponsored by
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair.
“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw
“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.
“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.
“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.
“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
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." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las
Vegas JOHN CURTAS has been covering
the Las Vegas food and restaurant scene
since 1995. He is the co-author of EATING LAS
VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants (as
well as the author of the Eating Las
Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani,Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish,
and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical
Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.