Tag Archive: Restaurants

World Eats – Sydney

Dan P.Monday, March 3, 20030

Passport Magazine
Issue 14 – March 2003

WORLD EATS – SYDNEY

Sydney is currently one of the exciting places for dining on the planet. Chefs and foodies alike are exploring brave new frontiers of cuisine using amazing seafood, pristine produce and unique native herbs and spices. With the wide range of cultures that call Sydney home, from Greek, Italian and Dutch to virtually every southeastern Asian ethnicity, the horizon seems limitless.
The Australian dollar currently runs close to two-to-one to the American dollar, so dining out may look initially like it’s just as expensive as dining out in New York, L.A. or San Francisco, but in reality is costing only about half.

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As long as you’re headed Sydney-side for luxury Modern Australian dining you may as well put yourself up in some great digs. The Contemporary Hotels group offers two great options right in the heart of Darlinghurst, on the edge of the main gay neighborhood. The Kirketon is all sleek, modern design with grey tones, chrome and splashes of bold color. Every detail has been thought out, right down to matching charcoal grey bars of soap! One of the hippest bars in the neighborhood, and one of the best new restaurants round out the package.

The Medusa is perfect for the business traveller who wants to unwind a bit. A converted, fashionable, eighteen room space that caters to every need. A private business lounge, courtyard fountain with chairs and tables to relax in, and rated one of the “coolest hotels of the 21st Century”, this is a don’t miss option. (www.contemporaryhotels.com.au) ]

Roughly ten years ago I had the opportunity to spend a month exploring the Sydney dining scene with some of the new, up-and-coming chefs on the food scene. A decade later, these chefs are at the forefront of the best restaurants down under. With maturity has come a level of attention to detail and a flowering of fine cuisine.

One note on dining out in Australia, even in a cosmopolitan city like Sydney. Many restaurants are open very short hours, often taking reservations only from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., with only one seating per table; and don’t count on much in the way of late night dining at most of the tonier restaurants.

ARIA
Dining at Aria is as much an experience in atmosphere as anything else. Located on the second level of the far point end of East Circular Quay, from one side you have a fantastic panorama of Sydney Harbour and from the other an amazing view of the famed Sydney Opera House. The food is beautifully presented and thoughtfully prepared. You won’t find anything outlandish or challenging, but you will have an exquisite meal.

Two of the starters, a Peking duck consomme with wontons, abalone, enokii and mustard sprouts, and a boudin of quail stuffed with lumps of Balmain bug meat were outstanding. The winelist is extensive, well considered, and overseen by a staff of three young, completely competent sommeliers who, if you take their advice, will only heighten your dining experience. 1 Macquarie Street, 612-9252-2555. www.ariarestaurant.com

LONGRAIN
Several times while dining out in Sydney, chefs and and restaurateurs had told me to check out the “scene” at Longrain. Situated on a back street near Hyde Park, this cavernous space is devoted to chef Martin Boetz’ unique interpretations of southeast Asian cuisine. The space seats probably close to 150 people, half of them at long communal tables or bars. On a Saturday night, with many restaurants barely half full, Longrain was packed to the rafters. Nonetheless, the speed with which people drink, dine and depart was quite astonishing, and seating opened up quickly.

A moderately priced menu of delights like grilled octopus with pineapple, mint and chilies, and roasted chicken in tangelo caramel, was perfect for late night dining (one of the exceptions to the rule here). Small starters like fresh scallops grilled right on the shell, or smoked ocean trout and roe on betel leaves make a great beginning. A nicely selected winelist with a short, but good range of wines by the glass complemented the meal. 85 Commonwealth Street, 612-9280-2888.

QUAY EAST CHINESE
Being so close to southeast Asia, Australia is home to many ex-pats from that continent. Some truly outstanding chefs have made their mark on Sydney’s food scene. Quay East Chinese has a trio of them putting out some of the best Cantonese food you can find in the city. That doesn’t begin to take into account the spectacular setting along East Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour, with unobstructed, unparalleled views of the Harbour Bridge.

You can dine inexpensively if you order a simple dish or two and just relax, but if you want a truly outstanding experience order from some of the top banquet dishes. Amazing dishes from local fish can be prepared in your choice of classic Cantonese preparations. A two pound abalone showed up at our table sliced paper thin and stir-fried in just a touch of oil with snowpeas. This was unquestionably one of the most sublime shellfish dishes I’ve had in years, and unquestionably the best abalone I’ve ever had. Shop 8, 1 Macquarie Street, 612-9252-6868.

ROCKPOOL
Okay, a decade ago Neil Perry was already a star. He was also a bit of an enfant terrible, and many of his dishes showed more boldness than refinement. Over the years he has opened and closed other restaurants, written books, hosted a fantastic cooking show, produced his own CD’s to cook by, planning Qantas airlines menus, and generally just been all over the food scene. Rockpool has survived, thrived, and quite recently, been completely renovated.

Opened in 1989, Rockpool is sleek, chic and sexy and the perfect showcase for someone with Chef Perry’s enthusiasm and skill. His signature “flavours from the sea”, small samplings of amazing sashimi each with their own accompaniment, is legend. Squid ink pappardelle with grilled squid, a Middle-Eastern style Yllarra lamb, and his signature date tart are must haves. A daily tasting menu, with optional paired wines, and one of Sydney’s more interesting winelists are all part of the game plan. 107 George Street, The Rocks, 612-9252-1888. www.rockpool.com

SALT
When I was last here, Luke Mangan was a budding new chef who had just joined the Sydney dining scene after taking time out to work in Europe. He worked under three Michelin star chef Michael Roux for nearly two years after having served his apprenticeship under one of South Australia’s finest chefs. In early 1999 he opened Salt in The Kirketon hotel to critical acclaim.

At Salt, Chef Mangan puts out intricate, off-beat combinations that are unexpected and completely tantalizing. Soft-poached quail eggs rolled in celery salt and brown sugar launch a meal that includes amazing dishes like roasted barramundi (a native fish) with basil and preserved lemon risotto, seared scallops in spicy coconut broth, cornmeal and chili crusted marrons (large freshwater crayfish) with cauliflower puree and star-anise broth, nori-wrapped tempura of quail topped with a sesame-wasabi sauce and a stunning finish of licorice parfait in fresh lime syrup. Salt also boasts a fantastic winelist and a great tasting menu with an option for paired wines. 229 Darlinghurst Road, 612-9332-2566. www.saltrestaurant.com.au

TETSUYA’S
There are certain chefs on the planet who the powers that be have blessed with talents above and beyond ordinary mortals. Sydney is blessed with one of these, Tetsuya Wakuda. A decade ago, in a forty-seat hole-in-the-wall in suburban Sydney, Tetsuya’s was the most impossible restaurant to get into. There he drew chefs, foodies, and press from the world over, all competing for the limited seating that was available. Two years ago he purchased a two story building with multiple dining rooms in downtown Sydney. Possibly the handsomest restaurant I’ve ever set foot in, the two main dining areas and the bar-lounge flank a stunning Japanese garden and pool. It’s still probably the hardest reservation you’ll ever try to make.

The wine program is not only one of the best I’ve seen in Australia, it is extraordinarily thought out in relation to the food. Tetsuya’s cuisine is a fusion of Japanese and French. The only option is for a degustation menu, which is alterable to fit dietary considerations. The food is sublime and elegant, featuring simple yet amazingly creative flavors. We managed twenty courses that included plump pink Tasmanian oysters in mirin-ginger sauce, chestnut, mushroom and truffle consomme, kingfish sushi with orange jelly, confit of ocean trout with fennel salad, and grilled filet of veal with sea urchin-wasabi butter. 529 Kent Street, 612-9267-2900.

Passport magazine is a relatively new, ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay travel magazine. My friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who have owned and run QSF magazine for many years, launched this publication recently. It has received industry accolades. They asked me to come along and write the occasional article for this venture as well.

Magazine articles, Passport Magazine

Australia, Restaurants, Travel

Read Any Good Wine Lists Lately?

Dan P.Tuesday, November 5, 20020

Santé
The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals
November 2002
Page 22

Read Any Good Wine Lists Lately?

Dan Perlman is the beverage director for the three-star restaurant AZ and the new Pazo in New York City. He is also the food and wine editor and a regular contributor to Q San Francisco and Passport magazines.

I like nothing better than to sit down to dinner and having a wine list put in front of me. I’m even more delighted when I see that its author thought about making it an interesting read. I enjoy reading quotes and quips and seeing artwork and classy design. I like interesting categories that aren’t just a formal listing of appellations.

The J. Peterman Principle
The purpose of a wine list is to present a catalog of offerings for sale to your guests. When was the last time you paid attention to a catalog that didn’t spark your interest? A boring catalog or wine list is fine for looking up information when you already know what you want, but not when you don’t. Try imagining the Land’s End catalog with no pictures or descriptions: just a listing of product code, product name, fabric type, country of origin, and price. Sound familiar?

In most restaurants there is no sommelier. When there is, he or she doesn’t visit every table. And, to put it bluntly, not everyone dining wants to talk to the sommelier. Surprise – some diners actually want to pick their own wine! So how do you go about dispensing your brilliant advice without actually being at the table?

Wine Words
Think about how you describe wine when you are at a table. Do you start by enquiring if your customer wants “a wine from a small commune just south of Beaune?” Probably not. More likely, their food choices are your starting point. Or maybe you like to being by finding out if they want something lighter or fuller, younger or older, richer or poorer … or by playing on their mood that evening.

Plan your list around categories that harmonize with how you would approach your customers when standing at the table. In other words, put wines together that you would naturally group together in your mind when you’re talking. It allows your customers to see how you, representing your restaurant, think about wine. And, if you do approach their table, you’re set-up for an easy entry into the conversation.

Two wine lists I’ve seen recently do this job well: one at a fairly new Chinese restaurant has categories that contrast – Tart Fruit versus Red Fruit, or Black Fruit; the other puts wines into easy-to-understand categories such as “bright, sunny, citrusy” and “rich, dark, earthy.”

Consider adding some descriptions to the categories, or, if you have a relatively short list, to individual wines. Avoid long “geeky” narratives with arcane references to such things as “day-old tiger lily pollen” or “melanges of wortleberries and cloudberries with a hint of wet reindeer fur.” Long-winded explications will keep the host reading for extended periods of time and make the experience boring for the other people at the table (unless they don’t want to talk to the host!). Try simple, two- to four-word quips that mirror how you would initially respond if someone asked you about the wine.

The list I mentioned above with tart, red, and black fruit, further described each with a sub-heading. For example, the tart fruit section listed “apple, green grape, citrus” as the dominant flavors.

List Layout
Give thought to the layout of your list. Is the font type and size you’re using easy to read? How about the paper color? Given the lighting in your dining room, is the wine list still easy to read? Does its cover design match the restaurant’s style and focus? Call on your colleagues for their input.

Above all, remember that your primary goal is to sell wine. If you can make the difference between printed page and your sparkling conversation as seamless as possible, you’ll start selling wine even when you’re not there.

Santé is a glossy format trade magazine for restaurant wine buyers and educators. I wrote as a freelancer for them on and off from the first issue in November 1996 until November 2002 when they decided to stop using freelance writers.

Magazine articles, Santé

Management, Marketing, Restaurants, Wine

After Theater Dining

Dan P.Thursday, October 3, 20020

Passport Magazine
Issue 11 – October 2002

After Theater Dining

Want to go to dinner and a show? I find that a difficult proposition. When I’ve worked all day, I want to go home, shower, relax for a little while, put on clean clothes, and then go out. Since I’m fond of having dinner be a leisurely affair, there’s just not enough time for dinner before theater. So, for me, it’s a show and then dinner. A little snack before curtain and then after the standing ovation, a chance to relax and discuss, toast, and nibble.

When considering what to recommend, I set out with some simple criteria. First, the restaurant has to be open late enough that I don’t feel like I have to rush to get there, nor do I feel like the staff are just hovering around waiting for me to leave. Second, the kitchen must be offering a regular dinner menu, not some sort of leftover “late night” dining selection. Third, I didn’t want to review places that are institutions in the late night dining scene.

That left out some old favorites like Raoul’s, the Odeon and Café Luxembourg. It also left out the theater district haunts like Sardi’s and Joe Allen’s. I sat down with a few friends in the business and we came up with our short list of favorites for late-night dining.

THEATER DISTRICT

Cinnabar is the hottest thing to happen this year to the Asian restaurant scene in New York. It has everything you could want in a restaurant of the genre: a gorgeous room with fantastic designer touches; a well-appointed, comfortable bar and lounge area; and an outdoor dining section that is set-up like a small secluded park.

Despite being decked out in sexy black shirts, the staff are knowledgeable and friendly, with no attitude. They know the food, they know the drinks, and they’re happy to offer advice. Consultant Geri Banks has put together a delicious selection of specialty cocktails, any of which provide the perfect way to begin relaxing post-show. She has also done a great job with an eclectic wine list, offering them by flavor categories that zero in on the qualities each brings to the glass.

The food is Chinese, but not limited to any particular region. Szechuan and Hunan square off opposite Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The food is beautifully presented and even better as you dig into it. Prepare to eat too much, it’s just that good. Don’t miss the Roasted Cashew Nut Chicken and the Spicy XO Lobster.

Cinnabar, 235 West 56th Street (8th Avenue), 212-399-1100. Open noon until midnight, Monday through Saturday, noon until 11 p.m. on Sundays.

Seppi’s is the theater district sibling of the classic late night bistro, Raoul’s. Unlike the latter, which serves classic, hearty, French bistro fare, Seppi’s puts a modern twist on a variety of French dishes. Chef Claude Alain Solliard has an affinity for Alsatian cuisine, but is no slouch when covering the rest of the countryside.

The room is classic old-style pub, and despite having only been open for four years, has the look of a venue that has graced the block for decades. Located in the Parker Meridien Hotel, this may be the neighborhood’s best bistro. The front area is a polished wooden bar with tables and booths, the rear area is a slightly more lavish dining room with an attractive stained glass ceiling.

The winelist is limited, but has some interesting and unusual country wines from lesser known regions of France. The food is simply presented and delightful. You cannot pass up the broiled escargot served on crispy rosemary flat bread. Dump them out of the shell onto the bread and just munch happily away. The Alsatian pizzas on the same flat bread are well worth sampling. Go with the classic dishes and enjoy the updated twists, they are where the chef shines.

Seppi’s, 118 West 56th Street (6th Avenue), 212-708-7444, www.seppis.com. Open 11:30 a.m. until 2 a.m. Monday through Friday, 5:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

As I write this, it is early August and I’ve already decided on my “meal of the year”. Esca is the acclaimed fish restaurant owned by the partnership (bordering on empire) of the Bastianich and Batali families (Felidia, Becco, Babbo, Lupa, Lidia’s, the Italian Wine Merchant, and the Bastianich Winery). This venue is impeccably managed by the Bastianich’s longtime friend and manager, Simon Dean.

The room is simple and homey. Previously home to the family’s never quite successful Frico Bar, they’ve finally hit their stride. Sit yourself down at the classic bar that includes a well-priced, great selection of Italian wines and spirits, and an excellent raw bar. When your table is ready, prepare for the real treat.

Chef David Pasternak puts out simple, clean preparations of some of the freshest fish you will have in Manhattan. Start with a sampling of the “crudo”, the Italian version of sushi. Pristine slices of fish, each paired with a drizzling of selected olive oils, vinaigrettes, and an astonishing collection of sea salts (Red clay salt? Lava salt? Who knew?) grace your plate. Move on to a well-prepared pasta, and finish off with perfectly roasted fish with oil and herbs or a simple tapenade.

Esca, 402 West 43rd Street (9th Avenue), 212-564-7272. Lunch Monday through Friday from noon until 2:30 p.m., Dinner Sundays and Mondays until 10:30 and Tuesday through Saturday until 11:30 p.m.

OFF-BROADWAY

My first experience of Jane was shortly after they opened a year or two ago. It was for lunch, in spring, and we were the only customers there. We had a delicious lunch, and I hoped for their sake that the place would catch on. It has, and now Jane can justify staying open until the wee hours.

The room is done in “oversize”. There are large mirrors and paintings on the walls, the ceilings are high, the banquettes low, the tables high. You have a feeling that you’re sitting somewhere impressive, especially when the room is full and the noise volume high. When it quiets down you can feel a tad small, but the food and drink will take your attention away from any misgivings.

The food is, for lack of a better term, experimental American. The regular menu items, tried and true, show the mettle of the chef. Start with one of the flatbread selections, move on to the fantastic ahi tuna and pineapple roll, and finish off with any one of the well prepared entrees. The daily specials are hit and miss, but that’s what experimentation is all about, and even the misses are fun to try. A short but really well selected winelist and some quite good specialty cocktails round out the experience.

Jane, 100 West Houston Street (between Thompson Street & LaGuardia Place), 212-254-7000. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

There has been a recent trend in New York to offer “wood-burning oven” food. Several really good restaurants, like Beacon and Five Points have earned excellent reputations for their offerings. Peasant is an unlikely candidate to join their ranks, being located about as out of the way as one can be in Manhattan on the Lower East Side. Nonetheless, don’t let the location scare you away, as this trendy little dive is putting out some of the best food in its class.

The room is definitely not what you’re there for. Sparsely and not particularly comfortably furnished, with a look like a not-quite-finished loft space. As one of my best friends would put it, “I see they’ve spared every expense on the decor”. Still, the room is somehow warm and inviting, and the smattering of well-known chefs having dinner on their nights off is an immediate, positive draw. The waitstaff is as disheveled as the room, but thoroughly charming and completely at ease with the menu.

Chef Frank DeCarlo’s food is simple and amazing. Working from an open kitchen, his team puts out well flavored, hearty fare, that will keep you coming back. Don’t miss faves are the roast sardines, a pizza that will transport you to southern Italy, and the chicken stuffed with sausage. The winelist is appropriately selected and well laid out, you won’t have any trouble picking a winner to pair with your feast.

Peasant, 194 Elizabeth Street (between Spring and Prince Streets), 212-965-9511. Dinner only, Monday through Saturday from 6 p.m. until midnight, Sundays until 10 p.m.

I was not prepared to like Industry (food). The name seemed pretentious, the location, in the now trendy East Village seemed selected just for effect, and the look as you step inside is one of a carefully choreographed treehouse for a magazine layout. You’re not sure if you should touch anything. The staff at the entrance have that Sex and the City new restaurant attitude down cold. The place is as slick as their website, and both turn out to be worth the visit.

The bar is sleek, polished wood, and peopled by a mix of East Village locals and hip, uptown folk “slumming”, but being careful not slum somewhere that is, well, a slum. The hostesses will guide you downstairs to a table, where, miraculously, the whole world changes. The waitstaff, if slightly spacey, is warm and welcoming. They don’t know much about the food, but they know it’s good, and they’re right.

The food is probably best described as eclectic. It’s the kind of food that chefs cook for themselves and friends when they sit down late night after service. They want something simple and clean, but intelligently thought out. Not unexpected when you find out that Chef Alex Freij worked for both Jean-Louis Palladin and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and co-owner Chris Eddy likewise worked for Jean-Georges at Mercer Kitchen.. The lobster bruschetta is a winner, as is the lamb with tomato marmalade.

Industry (food), 509 East 6th Street (between Avenues A and B), 212-777-5920, www.industryfood.com. Open for dinner only, until 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. Listed hours on Friday and Saturday are until 3 a.m., but the dining room sort of gets turned into a lounge after midnight.

Passport magazine is a relatively new, ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay travel magazine. My friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who have owned and run QSF magazine for many years, launched this publication recently. It has received industry accolades. They asked me to come along and write the occasional article for this venture as well.

Magazine articles, Passport Magazine

NYC, Restaurants

Postcards from the edge…

Dan P.Tuesday, July 16, 20020

I don’t really recall how, as the beverage director for restaurants AZ and pazo, I ended up with the job of creating marketing postcards. I think maybe we just had a lot of time on our hands during construction phases and the owner asked us to come up with things to keep ourselves busy. Regardless, these ended up being the marketing cards for both restaurants (the AZ ones are from much earlier, I’m dating this with the later ones from pazo).

Flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict

Marketing, Restaurants

Building a Relationship with the Kitchen

Dan P.Tuesday, March 5, 20020

Santé
The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals
March/April 2002
Page 28

FROM THE CELLAR
Building a Relationship with the Kitchen

The “front-of-house” and “back-of-house” staff are in the restaurant business for different reasons. In general, cooks put in longer hours for less pay than waitstaff and managers. Their rewards are enjoying the pleasures of the creative process and knowing that they put out a quality product. Waiters and managers get paid for delivering it to and interacting with the public.

While most chefs I have worked with have an interest in wine, they have neither the time nor inclination to invest in wine education for themselves or their staff. They argue that there is more than enough to learn within their own sphere of ingredients, techniques, and frequently changing menus.

AN OPEN INVITATION

So how does a beverage director gain the needed support of the kitchen in putting together a winning program? In a word, inclusion. “I just wanted to be asked” is a phrase I have heard over and over again in my restaurant career. When I was a chef, I used to say it, too!

To begin the interaction, start with the basics. Every day quality restaurants have a lineup with the front-of-house staff. For me, part of that time is spent discussing a topic related to the beverage program – a review of the house spirits, or a comparison tasting or a sampling of new wines. The kitchen staff are always welcome to attend. Do they? Rarely. But they know they can; they’ve been asked.

We have a monthly wine class that is mandatory for front-of-house employees. On occasion we stay late at night to taste sample bottles. I try to arrange those events at a time when the back-of-house staff can attend as well. Some of them do. All of them can. They’ve been asked.

When I open wine, or when my staff opens wine, I expect us all to taste it. My view is that the customer should never get a taste of a bad wine; it is our job, not theirs, to weed out inferior products. And if I come across something interesting, or if the customer offers to share a little with me, I always take the glass back to the kitchen and share it with whomever is expediting – the chef, a sous chef, or sometimes a line cook. They love it. Who doesn’t love to be included?

POSITIVE INTERACTION

How does this time and effort with the kitchen evolve into something worthwhile for me? For the restaurant? For our customers? A restaurant’s success comes down to taking care of its customers. Sometimes the people who don’t get to spend the shift with those customers forget that central mission. Rather than haranguing them, try enrolling them. Use enticement, use creativity. Open your mouth and ask for their active participation.

Here’s an example: Our chef puts together a daily tasting menu. I match wines with each course. At least once a week, I ask her if there’s a wine she’d like to see with one of her courses. I used to get no response. Now I get requests! As I wrote this, she just came to me and asked if I’d be willing to put together a wine tasting menu for Valentine’s Day.

Two years ago at a management meeting, I suggested that we put together a series of wine dinners. The kitchen responded that it was “too much work”. Having been a chef, I knew that wasn’t true; rather, the kitchen just wasn’t interested. At a management meeting a few weeks ago, our group owner asked why we hadn’t had any wine dinners. Hesitantly I turned to our chef. She asked if I’d like her to collaborate on planning menus with me and how I would like to approach them!

At lineup, I ask the floor staff to talk about their dining experiences at other restaurants. In addition to service and food, they talk about favorite wines. Sometimes one of them finds a wine that they’re excited about and wish we hadon our list. I’ll get a sample and we’ll try it. While the cooks may not come to our meetings, they now poke their heads into the office to suggest wines that they’ve tried at other restaurants too.

Let’s face it, if you spend a large amount of your time battling over territory, resources and procedures with your chef, you’re both wasting time. If you can forge a great working relationship where you can both contribute to each other’s creativity, think of what you might accomplish. And all it takes to start is to ask.

Santé is a glossy format trade magazine for restaurant wine buyers and educators. I wrote as a freelancer for them on and off from the first issue in November 1996 until November 2002 when they decided to stop using freelance writers.

Magazine articles, Santé

Management, Restaurants, Wine

World Eats – Paris!

Dan P.Wednesday, October 3, 20010

Passport Magazine
Issue 5 – October 2001WORLD EATS – Paris!The world of bistros and small neighborhood eateries has become the province of some of this city’s most exciting new chefs. Many have trained classically, some in Paris’ top flight kitchens, and they have taken what they’ve learned and gone out to create a world of casual, yet completely satisfying dining. Experimenting here and there, yes. Keeping a grounding in tradition, usually. Surprising and delighting, often.

While many of the best new restaurants in Paris are found in the outer arrondissment, it is well worth the effort to get there and have the added pleasure of experiencing a wonderful new neighborhood while enjoying some of the world’s finest cuisine.

Restaurant L’Alivi

The island of Corsica is not the first place I thought of when I started planning my dining itinerary in Paris. Two of my friends, temporary ex-pats (read that as “student visas”) suggested a visit to Alivi as a great way to begin our jaunt through the neighborhood bistros. Only a block or two off the main drag through the Marais, this turned out to be a charming, postcard scene of a restaurant. The food was damned good too.

The menu is in French and Corsican, a dialect based much closer to Italian. This helped immensely, since my French is almost non-existent, but my Italian is completely passable. Eric Gauthier’s food is a mix of classic and experimental Corsican fare-hearty and rich. The wine list is also Corsican, and outside of that island, where else are you going to find a couple of dozen selections from Patrimoniu, Aiacciu and Porti Vechju?

The menu changes somewhat regularly. A few dishes like the leek mousse and the chicken breast in Corsican honey seem to stay. We had some truly outstanding fare: cured sardine and fennel salad; goat rillettes; baby crabs stuffed with sausage; roast lamb stuffed with beet greens; and a citron tart with fresh figs, stewed figs with ice cream. Be sure to sample the Corsican cheeses. The menu and wine list are posted on the restaurant’s website (www.restaurant-alivi.com).

Restaurant Alivi, 27, rue du Roi de Sicile, 01-48-87-90-20. A three-course dinner with wine will be $35-$40.

Les Amognes

This restaurant takes a special effort to get to, being on the far eastern edge of Paris. The young lady who took us there miscalculated metro stops, so we hiked a good mile along the rue du Faubourg Sainte-Antoine, a fascinating part of Paris populated by salsa clubs, street markets, aspiring fashion designer shops and furniture stores. We had been warned that we were in for a treat food-wise, but that the atmosphere was somewhat “off-beat.” In the Paris version of Zagat the food got a “21” and the decor got an “8.” Okay, it’s a semi-basement, whitewashed with plain wooden tables. The paintings on the wall tend to be abstract female nudes. The clientele is a trifle rough and tumble, but clearly “into” the food.

Being “into” food is a truly smart idea here. Chef Thierry Coué believes in experimentation. He has ventured into the world of vegetable, fruit and spice purees and enhancements, with fresh, clean flavors that are mostly on target. There are more hits than misses on the menu, and that’s what I want from an experimenting chef. The menu changes daily and is market driven, which, given the range of amazing produce in the local street markets, is a great thing.

Steamed asparagus with a fresh herb beurre blanc and a terrine of warm sausages with an onion and currant marmalade are amazing. A skate-wing with red cabbage and onion fries, and a truly outstanding seared calves’ liver with a carrot and ginger sauce were the winners of the evening. Desserts received mixed reviews, with raves going to a grapefruit gratin with grapefruit ice on top and gasps of “how odd” going to the warm crepe filled with a cardamom and eggplant compote topped with an intense orange sauce. A well-selected and fairly priced wine list features bottles from throughout France, but shows a special affinity for smaller producers, especially from the Rhône valley.

Les Amognes, 243, rue de Faubourg Saint-Antoine, 01-43-72-73-05. Three course dinner with wine will run $35-40. [Closed, the chef now has a restaurant called Wadja.]

Chez Michel

Just as I think it’s a must in the United States to go to any place named Billy’s, regardless of what small town you find yourself in, in France, the ubiquitous venue is named Chez Michel. A bit off the beaten track, on a side street near the Gare du Nord, this place came with high recommendations for chef Thierry Breton’s inventive twists on the cuisine of Brittany. Unfortunately a week or two before we arrived, the restaurant had been “discovered” by a writer from Gourmet magazine. The room and sidewalk were jam-packed with American tourists, all with copies of the review in hand. We almost turned around and left. Fortunately, by the time your arrive in Paris, most of the tourists will have move on to the next spot that gets a rave-luckily, this Chez Michel will remain for you to enjoy.

What can be said about broiled lobster folded with a soft-roasted ostrich egg and served in the eggshell, except, get yourself on a plane to Paris and eat it! Also try the chilled Breton lobster soup with cucumbers and black olives, or maybe the baby clams roasted with herb butter and hazelnuts. Then move on to haddock brandade with roasted filets of rouget or the foie gras on spice bread with a beet vinaigrette and asparagus. Finish with traditional Paris Brest or Kouing Amman (a sort of stack of ultra-thin pastry leaves filled with butter and sugar). The wine list is decent, with a scattering of wines from throughout France. The selection of wines by the glass, apertifs and digestifs is better here and than most other venues I’ve seen.

Chez Michel, 10, rue de Belzunce, 01-44-53-06-20. Three-course dinner with wine will run $40-45.

Le Cottage Marcadet

Up in Montmarte, on the north side of the Sacre Coeur, is a little gem of a restaurant, Le Cottage Marcadet. Along a busy thoroughfare, this refined, elegant favorite is a bastion of customer service. The proprietor himself takes care of each table, functioning as waiter, busboy and bartender. Chef Robin tends to each and every plate, ensuring that his food meets his personal high standards.

This is not a restaurant for inventive, outré dishes. The cuisine is classic Parisian-simple pan roasted fish and meats, with classic sauces, beautifully presented. The produce is absolutely fresh, the flavors impeccably pristine. The wine list is short with a simple selection of inexpensive Bordeaux and Burgundy. Both a prix fixe (with wine included) and an a la carte option are offered. The short menu changes regularly to reflect market availability. The chef has a deft hand with fish – we had a simple filet of sole that was outstanding. Try the creme brulee for dessert.

Le Cottage Marcadet, 151 bis, rue Marcadet, 01-42-57-71-22. Three course dinner with wine will run $30-35. [Closed, I understand that Chef Jean-Marie Robin moved (retired?) to Crete]

Passport magazine is a relatively new, ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay travel magazine. My friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who have owned and run QSF magazine for many years, launched this publication recently. It has received industry accolades. They asked me to come along and write the occasional article for this venture as well.

Magazine articles, Passport Magazine

France, Paris, Restaurants, Travel

Bargain Hunting

Dan P.Thursday, April 5, 20010

Santé
The Magazine for Restaurant Professionals
April/May 2001
Page 30

FROM THE CELLAR
Bargain Hunting

I feel a little like the restaurant reviewer starting a column with “there’s this great little hole-in-the-wall that I probably shouldn’t say anything about, because it’ll become something that isn’t a great little hole-in-the-wall.” So how do you go about telling other wine buyers about wine bargains without writing yourself out of the bargain-hunting game?

The easy answer is that there are a whole lot more bargains out there than there are great little holes-in-the-wall, and bargain hunting takes more work than hopping in a cab to a back street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

DO-SI-DO

From my perspective, the key to good deals lies in my connection with suppliers and their suppliers. The process of building a good relationship is a lot like dating. There are boundaries to be worked out, phone calls to make, liaisons to keep and parents to please (i.e., restaurant owners and the owners of the distribution companies).

I learned long ago that the relationship cannot be one-sided if I want the really good deals. Wine buyers who think that they hold all the cards are sadly mistaken. Refusing to make appointments (“just drop bottles off”), blowing off appointments (“my time is more important than yours”) and similar moves just don’t work. Sooner or later, your suppliers will forget to mention a bargain that they know you would want. They will sell to someone more appreciative.

By the same token, you should understand that suppliers don’t hold all the cards either. Such supplier attitudes as “you can only have this if you buy that” and “if you don’t buy this, my boss is going to remember that when you ask for…” are equally counterproductive. There is no wine or spirit out there that you really have to have. You always can buy something else from another supplier.

Sometimes we dance the dance. A sales rep calls at the last minute and asks for a quick meeting with an importer rep who suddenly showed up at his/her door. We take ten minutes out of our lives and make him/her look good. Invest a little time with that importer rep or winery owner too – don’t forget who controls the flow of wine one link back on the chain. Sometimes the importer or the winery has something in stock that just might be made available to the right person.

The supplier tango usually doesn’t pay off overnight. Just like dating, we might only make it to first base for a while, then second, then third. Then one day we show up at work and find ourselves at home plate.

SUDDENLY ALL LESS EXPENSIVE (S.A.L.E)

What are the bargains to jump on, and what are the bargains to avoid?

Post-offs and closeouts. These are usually deals to help move stock that is not moving or to clear a line that is being dropped. They might look attractive, but look carefully; these wines aren’t moving for a reason. I always like to know the exact nature of the offer: Is the wine too old? Bad? Was it far overpriced and is now being offered at what it should have been?

Direct imports and direct offers. These deals are a method that suppliers use to sell something that they do not have yet so that they can judge how much to buy. Here is a nice way to pick up something at a slight discount. Saving that ten percent is attractive, but choose carefully; remember, if customers love the wine, there will be no more of it at the same rate. Will they still love it when the price goes up?

Vintage clearances. These deals are easy to like and to execute, but they do require a sizable up-front investment. Suppliers discount to clear space in a warehouse for a new vintage. They want the wine out of there – not just two cases, all of it. Make them an offer. Yes, it is an investment in cash and storage space, but you’d be surprised how much discounting room there is in the price.

Gems. These are my favorites and are what make the whole dance and dating ritual with your supplier worthwhile. These are the deals that are handed to us because of the relationships that we have built. Sometimes these gems come from your carefully nurtured sales reps, sometimes from their boss or from the winery or importer behind the scenes.

Gems are the “we’ll reserve all of this for you, at a reduced price, if you’ll feature it” deals. An exclusive with a discount – you can’t beat that.

Santé is a glossy format trade magazine for restaurant wine buyers and educators. I wrote as a freelancer for them on and off from the first issue in November 1996 until November 2002 when they decided to stop using freelance writers.

Magazine articles, Santé

Management, Restaurants, Wine

Manhattan’s Hottest New Restaurants

Dan P.Tuesday, September 5, 20000

Q San Francisco
September 2000
Pages 54, 55, 62

Manhattan’s Hottest New Restaurants

In New York restaurants pop up like a jack-in-the-box and close nearly as fast. Some restaurateurs take advantage of the world of trendy, treating their venues practically as day-trades. The glitterati come, see and be seen, and move on – but they come back when the theme, along with the chef and management changes; sometimes it seems they don’t even remember having been there before.

A half-dozen fairly high profile restaurants have opened within the last month. Another half-dozen are slated to open in the next few weeks. I predict three of those will be closed and three will be enroute to closure by the time you read this. Of the others, one, perhaps two, will shine and garner accolades from press and customers alike. That’s the key: the press and the customers need to like the place.

I was sitting with a group of restaurant friends a few nights ago and the question came up, “What restaurants have you been back to?” In the long run the ultimate measure of a restaurant’s quality is repeat customers – people who return time and again because the food is good, the winelist well chosen and varied, service is friendly yet unobtrusive and the ambiance is welcoming and enjoyable.

We came up with three places that all of us have been to repeatedly. The winners of our unofficial, apocryphal, and totally biased survey are: Five Points, AZ, and Fressen. Interestingly, all of our choices are in off-beat locations.

Five Points

Five Points is planted, nearly anonymously, on a cobblestoned block in the lower east side called Great Jones Street. It’s a half a block from the Bowery home to a mix of SRO hotels, half-way houses and off-off-Broadway theater companies and performance spaces.

We love the room. It has the feel of being in a large boathouse. I keep expecting a group of rowers to troop through the room ready to stroke their way along some nearby river. The room is divided by a long, hollow tree trunk, and a stream of water flows from one end to the other. High vaulted ceilings and indirect lighting create a comfortable place to sit and relax.

Chef Mark Meyer’s casual American food is comfort food with class. The kitchen offers wood-oven roasted foods that bring back memories of backyard barbecues and campfires. Admittedly, we never had food like this in the Boy Scouts.

Start with one of Five Points’ specialty cocktails. The cranberry-infused tequila cosmo, the cucumber “sake-tini” and the lemon-mint martini are the stars on my palate. There’s a nice selection of wines by the glass, along with a well-priced winelist with about a hundred choices. In a unique twist, the wines are simply divided by country: France, Italy, USA, Other. Most of the selections are from small, “boutique” producers, many from off-beat locales.

After cocktails order a selection of appetizers for everyone to share.

My personal favorite is the wood-oven roasted shrimp with chickpea crepes, a charred tomato salad and aioli. Other good choices include the grilled Alsatian-style sausage with a truffled-warm potato and red onion salad, and the fire-roasted mussels in white wine and citrus broth that had us mopping up the broth with baskets of bread.

Speaking of bread, Five Points makes a flatbread with mixed herbs and spices that you could make a meal out of all by itself. Among the salad selections, the lobster, mache and fava bean with golden beets and aged sherry vinegar is tough to beat. I usually don’t order pasta from non-Italian chefs, but ravioli of spring peas and morels was too tempting, and too good, to pass up.

For the main courses, buttermilk marinated free range chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes is comfort food at its best. My favorite is the baby lamb chops with parmesan-black olive risotto cakes; but I certainly wouldn’t turn down the fire-charred squid stuffed with shrimp, halibut and market vegetables in a roasted tomato vinaigrette.

The menu changes seasonally, so no doubt there will be new things to try the next time we get there, and we will be there again. Five Points, 31 Great Jones St., 212-253-5700

First, the disclosure. I am intimately involved with the creation and operation of AZ, and even I am amazed with the results of a year-long effort on the part of a stellar team of chefs and managers in putting together this new venue. Restaurant and foodie folk are flocking to this roof-top dining room, on a side street on the border of Chelsea, like they’ve been in hibernation for the winter. So what’s up with this new “Asian-Inspired American Cuisine” restaurant?

AZ is not just another attempt to palatize cuisines of the east for the western tastebuds. The approach is, for the most part, very American, with Asian-inspiration in the form of scattered spices, interesting ingredients, and more especially, presentation style. As chef Patricia Yeo says, “I’m an American of Malaysian descent. Anything I make is Asian-Inspired American”.

AZ is big, but it feels intimate because the restaurant is spread over three floors. The ground floor is a dark, midnight blue and scarlet red lounge scribed by iron rails, ultrasuede ottomans and a copper and iron bar that snakes the length of the room. Specialty cocktails that include a smattering of Asian ingredients rule here. The signature Metro AZ blends a creme of wild blackberry, fresh lemon juice and a buddha-hand lemon infused vodka sells as fast as we can make the infusion. Other favorites include a ginger martini called the tinA louiZe (we keep tabs on how many folk get the reference), a twist on the classic dArk and Ztormy using rum that we’ve infused with Chinese five-spices, and our Hawaiian punch for adults, the AZlammer.

Ascend to the rooftop in the glass elevator adjacent to the three-story black slate waterfall and you start to get the feeling you’re somewhere a little different. A retractable glass roof arches over a dining room graced by mahogany tables, blue ultrasuede banquets and flickering oil lamps.

The menu is prix-fixe, with choices from a dozen each of appetizers, entrees and desserts. Favorites among the starters include the grilled gulf prawns with soybean wontons and tomato water; an open-faced cured foie gras and roasted apricot sandwich; and a ginger-lacquered quail with roasted pineapple. Among the main courses the steamed halibut with soy-ginger sauce and Chinese sausage; the grilled lemongrass lobster in coconut-ginger broth and the absolutely heart-stopping double cut pork chop with Armagnac & oolong tea marinated prunes are complete winners.

Frank Lloyd Wright once said that “It is better to be honestly arrogant than hypocritically humble.” My winelist rocks. I had a dream situation – an entire year to choose the 500 plus selection with no limitation on budget. I was also involved in the design of the wine cellar, a beautiful glass and redwood display taking up the front of our second floor (just outside our private party room). AZ, 21 W. 17th St., 212-691-8888

Fressen

It’s the meat-packing district in all its guises. The space used to be a veal processing warehouse, and now it shares the block with a variety of late night casual sex venues and watering holes. Is it a pioneer or a lost soul? Maybe a little of both.

First you have to find it. An unmarked steel door in the middle of a group of warehouses doesn’t give you the clue that you need. If it’s a little later at night there may be a doorman the size of the door waiting. Despite the fear this may strike in the hearts of club-hoppers, he’s friendly, and merely there to greet you and open the door. Inside, prepare for more contrasts.

You find yourself in a bar filled with the latest model wannabees mingling with people who wish they’d made a call for a reservation now hoping to score a table. You, of course, were smarter than that – you have a reservation. Seating isn’t necessarily prompt, so plan on a short wait, but you’ll have your table soon enough and the cocktails are well-mixed, alongside a great selection of wines by the glass from consulting sommelier Geri Banks.

The dining room, or rooms, as one large space is divided in two by a wall, is lined on all sides with slabs of concrete. The industrial look is softened by golden lighting and bits of wood, stained glass and fabric scattered hither, thither and yon. Your table is actually big enough not only to sit at, but to fit everything you might order on.

The menu constantly changes. Constantly. It is short and “market-driven”, i.e., the local greenmarket informs the dishes of the day. Six to eight appetizers and a like number of entrees are prepared. Tomorrow, anywhere from one to a half-dozen of those is likely to be different. This leads to Fressen’s one real flaw. Now and again, you may feel like you’re the guinea pig of the evening.

Nonetheless, virtually everything I’ve eaten at Fressen has fallen somewhere between good and truly outstanding. Even the misses were never complete misses, just a little askew. The service staff are excited about presenting this kaleidoscope of food and are eager to tell you about it. Same goes for the winelist, a small collection of nicely priced, off-beat and regularly changing selections.

You can guarantee yourself a winner by just accepting that someone at your table has to order the Amish chicken in whatever guise it currently exists. The rich flavor of the chicken itself almost leads me to rent a car and drive the couple of hours to Lancaster, PA just to secure one. One visit we had the most amazing scallops with roasted corn salsa. Another we had a roasted beet salad that had us ordering a second round.

Chef Lynn McNeely (can we just say “cute!” and get away with it?) is especially good with fish and shellfish. His light touch with sauces and seasonings lets the fresh, organic ingredients shine through. He is at his best when he goes simple – perhaps the most memorable dish we’ve had was a plate that consisted of a half-head of butter lettuce, some scattered heirloom tomatoes and a light, lemon and cheese vinaigrette that was there more in spirit than in presence. Fressen, 421 W. 13th Street, 212-645-7775

Q San Francisco magazine premiered in late 1995 as a ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay lifestyle magazine targeted primarily for the San Francisco community. It was launched by my friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who had owned and run Genre magazine for several years prior. They asked me to come along as the food and wine geek, umm, editor, for this venture as well. In order to devote their time to Passport magazine, their newest venture, they ceased publication of QSF in early 2003.

Magazine articles, Q San Francisco

NYC, Restaurants, Travel

Tag Archive: Restaurants

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