Brunibetting: Merkato 55
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

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Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Merkato 55, the Meatpacking District restaurant in which the Sweedish Sensation, Marcus Samuelsson, is loosely involved. Today, the Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows:

Zero Stars: 6-1
One Star: 2-1 √√
Two Stars: 3-1
Three Stars: 9-1
Four Stars: 25,000-1

On average, Merkato 55 has gotten the middle number of stars from most critics. Two from Platt, two-five from Danyelle Freeman, three (of six) from Randall Lane. At best, it's great and at its worst, it's only a little more pleasant than Chinese water torture. It's plagued by a management structure that has Samuelsson there less than he should be (he's said to own a single-digit percentage of the restaurant) and promoters Kyky and Unik around too much (they've got some sort of management/promotion deal). The extent to which these various forces showed themselves during Bruni visits will prove the deciding factor this week. If dudeski was spotted and the house kept things on the rails, he probably liked the place very much. If he wasn't and they didn't, the zilch train isn't out of the question. And ergo thusly therefore, the all-in for us today is that Merkato is consistency-deficient. It has its two star moments, but not quite enough of them. Bookie, Eater is rolling with one star for Merkato 55, not altogether certain it's the right move, however (see also, the two star bet).
· Merkato 55 [NYT; after 8:00 PM]

√√ denotes the Eater bet.

Bonus: If it gets two stars, the Merkato bar around 10:30 PM is going to be a good time. If not, still could be a worthwhile stop. We'll see you there, Baltz.

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