Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 2, 2007 at 2:36 PM
Chicagoist has a really fantastic interview with Grant Achatz of Chicago's highly-acclaimed Alinea, talking about all sorts of things like his philosophy as a chef and restauranteur, and how his creative process works in his kitchen and with his colleagues. This was my favorite thing to read:
C: What food-related websites or media do you keep an eye on, for ideas and feedback?
GA: I do it a lot less now, but I used to be really into all the blogs, like eGullet, LTHForum, all of those. I don’t read them so much anymore, I don’t know why. I feel that some of it is that they’re losing some credibility. There’s a lot of good, honest material there, then there’s a lot of … bullshit. You know, where, at the beginning (of these sites), there was a lot of useful information, honest information. Now, somehow, I feel that maybe it’s a lot of people using it as a microphone to hear themselves. Then it becomes less credible. But what I’ve always enjoyed about it is it's the voice of the guest. If people come here and have a lousy time for a particular reason, are they ever going to come back to the kitchen and tell me? No, it’ll never happen. You might get a phone call the next day, or the occasional letter. But, if they immediately go online and list their complaints, I’ll know and then I can fix it. So it was always about the instant understanding of how people perceive the experience. That’s why I read them.
Every once in a while I read interviews with chefs or owners talking about how much they hate that people can so easily write negative things about their food or their service on the internet, and every single time I've immediately put their names and establishments on my "never give them a dime of my money" list. Don't they realize they're badmouthing customers? And, in my case, turning off potential customers? Heaven forbid I eat at one of their restaurants and the food is bad or my waiter rude—what's to make me think I'm going to be treated any better if I complain about it there? My list of places that I know for sure will do right by me is pretty long, and life is too short for me to spend any of my time or money somewhere that might treat me like dirt.
Getting poor reviews for what you've basically put your entire life into is hard and hurtful, no matter what industry you're in. If someone's just talking smack, life is too short to spend time worrying on what crazy people think—let it slide right off your back. If the criticism is valid, then it does you a service to learn from what's been said and move forward.
Related: Danny Meyer on fixing mistakes, Danny Meyer and hospitality
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 28, 2007 at 2:27 PM
Just one week after restauranteur Jeffrey Chodorow bought a pricey full-page ad in the New York Times declaring war on food critic Frank Bruni for dissing his new steakhouse with a starless review the week before, Bruni visits Robert's Steakhouse, the restaurant of the Penthouse stripclub in Midtown and gives it a very positive one star review. Anthony Bourdain weighs in: "Maybe I'm being cynical here but the Message seems to be: "Even a freakin' strip club--where you get lap dances offered between courses is better than your soulless, overpriced meat-emporium. I'd rather spend time in a hot tub with Bob Guiccione than you!" Subtext? "Don't Fuck With Me!"
Previously: Mimi Sheraton on Chodorow VS Bruni, You Win Some, You... Get Really, Really Mad At Some?
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 21, 2007 at 5:23 PM
The Washington Post's Joe Yonan has a short but great Q&A with NYC restauranteur extraordinaire Danny Meyer up today:
"Let's say I get a salmon dish at Union Square Cafe, and it's not too salty, it's not under- or over-cooked. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but I'm disappointed with how it all comes together, and I think, "eh." What should I do?"
"Tell me. Please tell me. And have the confidence to accept my suggestion for a solution. I have a choice. If it's a $25 entree, I have $8 or $9 invested in it. Would I rather save that $8 or $9 and have you go tell the world "eh"? Or do I make sure you leave the restaurant raving? You may say [that] "eh" doesn't rise to the level of a mistake, but I say that it does. Nothing is worse than to just "whelm" somebody."
Meyer's most recent book, "Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business", came out just last year and is perhaps unsurprisingly already on its seventh printing.
Previously: Danny Meyer and the importance of hospitality
Posted by Lia Bulaong, February 12, 2007 at 8:26 AM
Restauranteur Danny Meyer is best known for running eleven of the best places to eat in Manhattan, including Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern and the Shake Shack; his latest is Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. 37 Signals has a great post up, Danny Meyert: Hospitality Is King, with excerpts from the book, an interview and a speech he gave at NYU recently:
"The customer is not always right. While the customer is not always right, he/she must always feel heard." Meyer said his business strategy is built on both good service, defined as the technical delivery of a product, and "enlightened hospitality," which is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. He argued that hospitality is the distinguishing factor for success in this new, service economy. In the information age, competitors know how to offer the same products and services, but the culture and experience companies create for their customers will help them stand out. "It’s all about how you make the customer feel. You must make customers feel that you’re on their side,” he said."
Posted by Nathalie Jordi, January 16, 2007 at 6:12 PM
We love chefs who write (Tony Bourdain, Michael Ruhlman). We love restaurateurs who write (Danny Meyer). We love farmers who write (Wendell Berry, Verlyn Klinkenborg, Andy Griffin, David Mas Masumoto, and our favorite Arkansas homeboy/Slavok Zizek devotee, Ragan Sutterfield).
But we LOVE writers who happen to be all three rolled into one, and cute to boot.
Dan Barber's latest in the NY Times: Amber Fields of Bland.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 13, 2006 at 2:02 PM
First this was going to be a review of New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer's new book, Setting the Table. Then it was going to be a mouthwatering account of the food served at a party Monday evening that Danny and Audrey Meyer threw for their friends, colleagues, and extended family to celebrate the publication of the book. Then I realized that I could make this post about both those things and an exercise in shameless self-promotion for Serious Eats.
First the book. Setting the Table is an uplifting, revealing account of Danny Meyer's journey from precocious product of a privileged Saint Louis upbringing in what sounds like a fairly dysfunctional but absolutely fascinating family. Meyer learned early that what made him happy was discovering great food of all kinds and celebrating those discoveries with other people, which he calls the new paridigm of hospitality. It's not a traditional self-help book, and there's a refreshing lack of self-congratulatory yada-yada. Meyer's enthusiasm and passion for what he does is contagious, and it carries along the narrative in a way that few other books of its kind do.
Danny Meyer's great innovation as a restaurateur is this: You can be serious about food without being pretentious, patronizing, and off-putting. At every one of Danny Meyer's restaurants, from the Shake Shack to Gramercy Tavern to Blue Smoke, customers are made to feel welcome from the moment they walk in the door to when they leave after paying their check. As a result, most often you really do feel like you're taking a little vacation from your life when you eat there.
The party was the same way. Although there were a couple of hundred people there, it felt like an intimate, very personal gathering. The menu, according to Meyer, was all inspired by foods he talked about in the book:
Quail Eggs in a Hole: As good as eggs in a whole get.
Mini-Lobster Rolls: Just about as good as the ones at Pearl
Pasta with Fennel Sausage and Cream: Union Square Cafe Executive Chef Michael Romano himself was cooking the pasta to order.
Pasta with Bread Crumbs and Bottarga: Ditto
French Fries: Served six at a time in shot glasses
Mini-Shake Shack Cheeseburgers: These made me want the Shake Shack to stay open all year. According to Al Gore, this should now be possible.
Fried Calamari: A little greasy and not crunchy enough.
Whole Pig: Deelish!
Beef Ribs: The Surprise of the Blue Smoke room at the party. I'm going to order these next time I'm at Blue Smoke.
Baby Back Ribs: A little tough, mostly because they don't reheat well after they've been cut up.
Macaroni and Cheese: I hate to admit it, but I didn't have any.
Three kinds of crudo: I liked the Arctic Char and the tuna best.
Key Lime Pie: Great. Just sweet enough and oh so creamy.
Walnut-Cranberry Pie: A perfect blend of sweet-tart.
Mini Chocolate Cupcakes: These were moist and fluffy.
Mini Ice Cream Cones: The mint ones rocked.
Brownies: A little too sweet for me.
Tart Flambé and Robiola-Filled Focaccia: Tasty but a little tough.
Overall it was just a great, great feed (well, the fried calamari was a little soggy), and more important, it all clearly meant a lot to Danny and the assembled multitudes. Danny loves the pleasure derived from eating good food and sharing it with the people he cares about most.
And I guess that's what I hope we do at Serious Eats. We may not do it as smoothly as Danny, whom I call Mr. Smooth. Not yet, anyway. We haven't been doing it as long as Danny, so it's a little messier here at Serious Eats. But our goals are the same, to provide our community of serious eaters with a forum to celebrate eating and cooking and to talk about great food.
I hope we can deliver the same kind of hospitality at Serious Eats. If Danny Meyer can do it at eleven restaurants, we should be able to do it at one website. And reading Setting the Table should jumpstart the process.
Photograph from the Union Square Hospitality Group
Posted by Ed Levine, December 12, 2006 at 7:43 AM
First this was going to be a review of New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer's new book, Setting the Table. Then it was going to be a mouthwatering account of the food served at a party Monday evening that Danny and Audrey Meyer threw for their friends, colleagues, and extended family to celebrate the publication of the book. Then I realized that I could make this post about both those things and an exercise in shameless self-promotion for Serious Eats.
First the book. Setting the Table is an uplifting, revealing account of Danny Meyer's journey from precocious product of a privileged Saint Louis upbringing in what sounds like a fairly dysfunctional but absolutely fascinating family. Meyer learned early that what made him happy was discovering great food of all kinds and celebrating those discoveries with other people, which he calls the new paridigm of hospitality. It's not a traditional self-help book, and there's a refreshing lack of self-congratulatory yada-yada. Meyer's enthusiasm and passion for what he does is contagious, and it carries along the narrative in a way that few other books of its kind do.
Danny Meyer's great innovation as a restaurateur is this: You can be serious about food without being pretentious, patronizing, and off-putting. At every one of Danny Meyer's restaurants, from the Shake Shack to Gramercy Tavern to Blue Smoke, customers are made to feel welcome from the moment they walk in the door to when they leave after paying their check. As a result, most often you really do feel like you're taking a little vacation from your life when you eat there.
The party was the same way. Although there were a couple of hundred people there, it felt like an intimate, very personal gathering. The menu, according to Meyer, was all inspired by foods he talked about in the book:
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, July 10, 2006 at 3:28 PM
Lots of new pizza places opening all across America by chefs and pizzaiolos serious about ingredients and crust and fire and all the things that go into great pizza.
My friend Tom Douglas is opening Serious Pie in Seattle sometime late this summer. In many ways Tom is the founding father of the Seattle food scene. His restaurants include the Dahlia Lounge, the Palace Kitchen, Lola, and Etta's.
Tom is one of the country's great chefs. He's also a longtime eating buddy of mine. The man can flat out eat. Full disclosure: I co-wrote one of Tom's cookbooks, Tom's Big Dinners. Tom has loved pizza for a long time, and he has often talked about opening a pizzeria. I guess now is the time.
Posted by Ed Levine, May 8, 2006 at 5:22 PM
5:57 PM: Mario Batali is not nervous.
6:01 PM: Jean-Georges Vongerichten looking dapper as usual.
6:05 PM: Cokie Roberts is an extraordinarily gracious and charming host.
Continue reading »
