All stories about "Dovetail"
Eaters' Journal 7/3/08: Odeon, Bubby's, Dovetail, Festival Mexicano
Kalina, 12/26/07
Odeon: Wednesday, while around the corner Cutty, Platt, RG, Lee Schrager all dined at Forge under the watchful eye of Baum middle-ranker Jen Russo, I'm pretty sure the better move was to sit outside at Odeon. Chicken was serviceable to good, goat cheese salad wasn't bad, gazpacho missed completely, cavatelli got a gentleman's C. But the all-in of competent food, local Tribeca crowd, and a good pour gets the package to an A. —BL
Bubby's: Eater's love/hate relationship with Bubby's has been well documented, but we must give the Tribeca standby props for a special lunchtime innovation earlier this week: piping-hot gazpacho. Bravo. —LS
Clearly, 'tis the season for list-making, and this month's Conde Nast Traveler taps the best new restaurants in the. entire. world. The Conde Nast folks decided on the round number of 105 total eateries, and New York City represents with some obvi and some suspect choices. Dell'Anima, Allen & Delancey, Bar Boulud, Anthos, Insieme, Merkato 55 (?!), Market Table, Adour, and Dovetail make the cut. [Conde Nast via Eater SF]
What to Order: Upper West Side
Introducing What to Order, a new feature where we pick three new restaurants in one neighborhood and find out what the critics, the average diners, and the staff recommend. Tried any dishes from a new restaurant that blew you away? Let us know.
Kalina, 12/26/07
Dovetail
The critic pick:
From Bruni: "The lamb’s tongue — breaded, fried and straight out of Mario Batali’s offal dreams — is part of a deconstructed muffuletta sandwich that includes olives, pimentos, a caper mayonnaise and a visually arresting spiral of salami, provolone cheese and more. That’s just an appetizer."
The user review:
From Yelp: "Bread pudding with bacon!!!! It does not get better than this, I promise you. This was one of these dishes that you want to never swallow. just hold the sweet, salty, fatty, soft but crunchy bits in your mouth forever."
The staff rec:
From the host "I found the sweetbreads surprisingly good and light, and I like the avocado appetizer with the pickled ramps. For entrees the beef cheek lasagna is really amazing and incredibly tender, and I've heard good things about the red snapper but haven't tried it."
Two is a Trend: The Sunday Night Special
One of the major points in Bruni's February 20th three star review of Dovetail was his observation that their $38 three course Sunday night prix fixe "is quite simply one of the best deals in town." Now just last week we got a press release, and on Monday NYMag featured the stunt prominently, that the West Village restaurant Smith would be holding regular Sunday night grilled cheese nights launching (not coincidentally) during National Grilled Cheese Month. Having special deals on Sunday is nothing new. They drum up business on one of the industry's slowest nights, and when some sort of 'family style' arrangement is involved they attempt to change the pace of typical dining and give the chefs a break. What makes the Dovetail/Smith's announcement noteworthy is that these are both relatively new and buzzed about restaurants that really don't need specials or gimmicks to fill their seats every night. We wouldn't be too surprised if more restaurants of their stature think up Sunday night specials of their own.
· Two is a Trend: Potato Wars [~E~]
· Two is a Trend: Designer Firewood [~E~]
Week in Reviews: Chop Suey One Starred, Platt Gives Four to Ko
Bruni reviews the Renaissance Marriott's Chop Suey this week to see what consultants Zak Pelaccio and Will Goldfarb dreamed up for the menu. He spends the majority of his word count bashing the food, but according to Frankeriffic, the view of glorious Times Square alone merits one star:
"But we’d be sitting in a room that was New York all the way, its glass walls pressed up against the signature glow of Times Square....We’d be dazzled, at least by the scenery. And by the cooking? Well, our reaction might fall more along the lines of puzzlement, because Chop Suey, which mingles Korean and other Asian traditions, is an uneven mash of inspiration and clumsiness.And of course the Bruni doesn't pass on the chance to make a dig at the famous chef consultants: "The erratic results underscore the question of just how engaged such consultants get: of whether, once they’ve lofted a few ideas and cashed their paychecks, they feel any real pride of ownership or bother to follow through. I have my doubts." [NYT]...But sometimes food isn’t the primary consideration in deciding where to eat, and some restaurants have persuasive charms beyond the perimeter of the plate. Chop Suey is all about setting, a second-floor perch in the Renaissance Hotel that juts like a ship’s prow into a bold, brash sea of light."
Ko, Ago, and the Elsewhere, one click away
Resy Giveaway Aftermath: "I'm Desperate I Tell You!"
Last Friday, we gave away reservations to Le Bernardin, Dovetail, The Little Owl, and Allen & Delancey. There were two major takeaways here: You people love The Little Owl (and to a lesser degree A&D), and you're getting more creative with your emails. Picking a winner this time around was a tad heartbreaking. Here are some highlights:
"I'm desperate, I tell you! I'm going on a date-- for the first time since puberty, practically (I'm 44)-- and I've dialed so many restaurant numbers for tonight that gangrene is setting into my fingertip(s). Nothing sexy available. Why the Owl? It's sexy."Broken Ankles, pregnant wives, 'I don't want to end up a White Castle'.>>"Not so much because of the food, but because I love owls. I like them so much, I've make pictures of them from computer symbols (attached in pdf) ." (winner for creativity)
"My friend spent hours last week to get a Ko reservation and I'd love to get him this in return as he's never been to The Little Owl and has wanted to go since his wife left him."
Friday Resy Giveaway!! Little Owl, Allen & Delancey, Le Bernardin, Dovetail
Didn't get that spot at Ko and need a resy for tonight? Skip the resy scalpers. In an attempt to throw a meaningful albeit small wrench in their system, we'll be giving away primo reservations. Every Friday. For free. Boomski.
This Week:
· 7:45 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at The Little Owl
· 8:15 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at Le Bernardin
· 8:30 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at Allen & Delancey
· 8:30 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at Dovetail
If you want one, email tips@eater.com with the name of the restaurant in the title and why you should go. And tune in next week for Nobu and another resy for The Little Owl.
Resy Giveaway Aftermath
To review, on Friday, we gave away reservations to Dovetail, Union Square Cafe, Blue Hill, and Babbo. Somewhat surprisingly, only one person wanted the Blue Hill resy and two people each wanted in at USC and Dovetail. Babbo, was a different story, natch, and the winner beat out 22 other entries. Let's break down the submissions:
· Two people, perhaps having forgotten to plan ahead, tried to score the resy for anniversaries· Friday Resy Giveaway [~E~]
· Two entries were for pregnant women
· One sob story about the death of a family member
· One person bringing Ashley Alexandra Dupre
· Four people bringing fiancés, one "who I have been very very mean to lately because of planning stress. He doesn't deserve that at all."
· One girl bringing a dad; one dad bringing his "baby girl"
· The most concise and an Eater favorite: "PLEASE!"
Friday Resy Giveaway!! Babbo, USC, Dovetail, Blue Hill
Didn't get that spot at Ko and need a resy for tonight? Skip the resy scalpers. In an attempt to throw a meaningful albeit small wrench in their system, we'll be giving away primo reservations. Every Friday. For free. Boomski.
This Week:
· 9 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at Blue Hill
· 8:30 p.m. resy for 2 tonight at Union Square Cafe
· 8:30 p.m. resy for 2 tomorrow night at Dovetail
· 8:00 p.m. resy for 2 next Thursday (3/20) at Babbo
If you want one, email tips@eater.com with the name of the restaurant in the title and who you're bringing with you. And tune in next week for Gramercy Tavern, Allen & Delancey, Little Owl, and Le Bernardin.
Week in Reviews: Bar Boulud Gets the Deuce
Kalina, 1/4/07
"Bar Boulud is a terrine machine, a pâté-a-palooza, dedicated to the proposition that discerning New Yorkers aren't getting nearly enough concentrated, sculptured, gelatinous animal fat, at least not of a superior caliber...Franktastic doesn't share in the other critics' disappointment—with the price point and the ambiance, this place was never meant to be a temple of haute French cuisine: "Daniel Boulud finding more glory in lunchtime sandwiches than in dinnertime lamb stew? It's a new era, and Bar Boulud belongs to it." [NYT] Olana, Elettaria, Adour, and the Elsewhere, up next.>>From all of these you can assemble an oversize snack or undersize meal, to be rounded out with wine from a list that's a knockout in terms of its tight focus, its enterprising selections, its elegant organization and its price range...
...all but one of the entrees on a recent menu were under $30. That’s a clue to the limited ambitions that Mr. Boulud and his executive chef, Damian Sansonetti, have for the dishes beyond the charcuterie, and that’s the context in which their efforts and output should be evaluated. Sure, there's little wow from the kitchen, which turns out treatments of salmon, sea bass and roasted chicken that, while not quite losers, are definitely snoozers."
A couple weeks ago it came out that Dovetail hired a Food & Wine editor as a hostess on the condition that she would spot food critics and hand out soignee tickets alerting the staff to a VIP arrival. Well the writer, Jane Sigal, finished her stint on the UWS and filed a piece about it today in TONY. Looks like she didn't help out John Fraser and his staff too much after all: "The coats all have numbered tickets, and it doesn’t occur to me to hang them in numerical order...I push the flower vases too close to the candles and the room fills with an acrid, smoky smell...I’m taking a reservation, tap the screen to enter the data and it disappears. I can’t remember the party’s name or phone number." [TONY]
Dovetail, the recently three-starred UWS charmer, hired a Food & Wine editor as a hostess on the condition that she would spot food critics and hand out soignee tickets alerting the staff to a VIP arrival. No word on if she outed Platt, Paul Adams, or the RG, but the claim here is that she missed Franktastic: "She did not, however, recognize Bruni. 'Oh no, I was no help there,' she laughs. 'And it’s even my job to hand out the soignee tickets'...'No, the only thing that I contribute to Dovetail is I make sure everything is spelled correctly on the menu. And even there I don’t have much influence.'" [Mouthing Off]
Week in Reviews: Dovetail Gets a Tres
Kalina, 12/26/07
His majesty the Bruni graces Dovetail, the newcomer taking the Upper West Side by storm, with a whopping three stars this week. It's not just that the food is oh so good or that the menu draws in the crowds in the unadventurous and "fussy" UWS. It's that the place is crafty as well:
Both he and his pastry chef, Vera Tong, come at their cooking with intellect and wit, but they seldom get too cerebral, too cute. Leaving quotation marks out of the titles of dishes, they leave it to you to make certain connections...But what does Bruni think of the drab design, maligned by other critics and reviewers?: "The inconspicuousness of the restaurant’s entrance may be bonkers or in fact brilliant, a subtle signal of Dovetail’s confidence in its inner strength. The carpeting and padded walls in the back definitely make sense. They keep noise in check." It's settled then—three stars all around. [NYT] Bar Boulud to the third power, Madaleine Mae, and the Elsewhere up next.>>...you find yourself not only enjoying but also comparing the two kinds of seafood. Then you notice some seared foie gras, which may or may not be another inspired bit of culinary free-association, inasmuch as monkfish liver has been presented as the foie gras of the sea...And the real point is that such crafty plotting of a composition seems entirely plausible, given the amount of energy Mr. Fraser lavishes on his dishes.
Brunibetting: Dovetail
Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Dovetail, John Fraser's new, critically-heralded hotness on the Upper West Side. Today, the Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows:
Zero Stars: 9-1Imagine, if you will, that you're rolling a die and each of the six sides of the cube contained two little black dots. It would be easy to predict the outcome, no? This week, your die had two dots on all sides but one, which has one dot. Dovetail has become a real critical darling in the last bunch of weeks. Even Platt, the stingiest guy ever to use a five star system, gave it a whopping three stars. When there is such consensus the Bruni usually follows suit within a star, so two stars is quite likely and there isn't a chance in hell it'll get less than one. As for the possibility of a surprise threespot, we'd advise against breath holding. The room and the aim of the New American isn't quite high enough to spark that streak in Frankiepants. Mark it in the ledger: Eater's rolling the dice on an up-the-middle deuce this week.
One Star: 3-1
Two Stars: 2-1 √√
Three Stars: 15-1
Four Stars: 25,000-1
· Dovetail [NYT; after 8:00 PM]
√√ denotes the Eater bet.
Week in Reviews: 2nd Ave Deli Gets the Onespot
As he did with Katz's last year, today the Bruni hands down an expected onespot to venerable and newly relocated "and newly misnamed" 2nd Avenue Deli. Brunster devotes much of his word count to the musings of his famous dinner guests, Ed Koch (who likes him some fatty pastrami), Nora Ephron (who looks for "courage" in her hot dogs), and writer and director Laura Shapiro (who thinks all liver should be made in the home). You catch on quickly that the overarching theme here is "to each his own:"
It's about tradition, nostalgia and (my favorite part) the sport of friendly bickering over what's orthodox, what's not, whether there's room in this short life for lean sandwich meat and who has the best tongue in town...Our pastrami — on rye — turned out to be plenty fatty. It was borscht red. It glistened. The machine-carved meat was also stacked very tall, which troubled Nora...
And I realized that we weren't so much eating in a specific restaurant as passing through a communal storehouse of memories, on a bridge of babkas from the past to the future.
Precious. But in the end, what kind of star count can nostalgia, grease, and kreplach earn? A good, solid, uno. [NYT]
South Gate, Dovetail, Bar Blanc, and the Elsewhere up next. >>The RG also files on Dovetail this week, three stars it, and pretty much comes to the same conclusion as Platt -- it's an UWS miracle: "Eating salmon on the upper West Side doesn't sound particularly thrilling, but at Dovetail it's a religious experience...Before I could even order a glass of wine, a nearby table was offering their (unsolicited) suggestions and gushing about a salad; a frisee and bitter lettuce salad so compelling they had traveled from their West Village neighborhood uptown for the second time in a week." [NYDN]
Adam Platt files on Dovetail this week, awarding the UWS newcomer a surprise three stars. There's not much to the design and one of the dishes tastes like "old socks", but at least it's better than Compass: "Fraser's last restaurant, Compass, was (and is) famous for giving chefs the ax. Not surprisingly, his cooking there was disorganized and overambitious...But in this smaller, more placid space, there's an edited, unhurried quality to the cooking, and the pride of ownership is apparent in almost every dish." [NYM]
EaterWire: Dovetail Back on Track, Dept. of Health Shuts Mendy's
UPPER WEST SIDE—Though too soon to give it an official Certification, Dovetail has sorted out their ConEd issues and is now open for friends & family. Public service is to start on Saturday, which is, per the resy line, fully booked. Resies are still available for Sunday. [EaterWire]
MIDTOWN WEST—Mendy's, home of Kenny Bania's favorite pea soup ("...the best. The best, Jerry!"), has met with the Department of Health and not come out of said encounter in good shape. From the tipline: "Mendy's closed by DOH…Many signs on the exterior covering up and claiming water and plumbing problems that will keep them closed for two days…" [EaterWire Inbox]
EaterWire: Luger New Dining Room Confirmed Open & More!
WILLIAMSBURG—TONY confirms via photo (right) that Peter Luger did, in fact, get their brand new dining room open this weekend. The project only took five years, and seems to have been almost exactly concurrent with a widely reported decline in quality at the restaurant. Here's to hoping that the new digs mark the start of an all-around refocus on quality control. [TONY]
UPPER WEST SIDE—Those eagerly awaiting the opening of Dovetail, John Fraser's new spot on the UWS, will have to wait until at least Wednesday, per woman with British accent manning the RESY line today. As DailyCandy acknowledged last week (in an uncharacteristically early item), the restaurant is waiting for its ConEd hook-up-age, which is to say this wait could easily extend into next week. [EaterWire]
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