IT was the year when caviar gave way to comfort food, and restaurants – the smart ones – started tightening their belts well before Sept. 11. But only in New York could openings outnumber closings by a landslide even after the worst terror attack of all time. Here’s a random romp through 2001’s dining-out triumphs, tribulations and fiascoes.
BEST NEW RESTAURANTS OF 2001: Town, a scintillating setting for Geoffrey Zakarian’s freewheeling New American style. Pico, an intoxicating TriBeCa stage for John Villa’s Portuguese-inspired mastery.
WORST NEW RESTAURANT: Lundy’s Times Square, an embarrassment to the Brooklyn original, made fresh fish taste frozen.
GOOFIEST ITEM IN A DISH: Popcorn – not popcorn shrimp, but popcorn – in $14.50 corn-and-lobster soup at the Carlyle Hotel restaurant. It’s worse than it sounds. Runner-up: melted American cheese on lobster, at East Boat Lobster on Kenmare Street.
DUMBEST USE OF FOOD FOR NON-FOOD PURPOSE: At faux-French Ada, a preposterously overpriced Indian, orange slices were inserted under dessert goblets as coasters.
BEST NEW INDIAN RESTAURANT: Tamarind.
WISEST MENU CHANGE: At Craft, the original menu – which required you to assemble a meal out of nine categories down to sauces and condiments – was whittled down to seven because ordering took forever. When that proved irksome still, they caved to reality by simply labeling certain items “starters” and “entrees.”
BEST REDESIGN: Jo Jo, from bistro-generic to bordello-plush.
WORST REDESIGN: Patroon, from clubby luxe to airport lame.
BEST NEW RESTAURANT IN A TACKY ROOM: Ilo in the Bryant Park Hotel, where Rick Laakkonen’s first-class – and expensive – dishes are served in economy-plus surroundings.
BRAVEST REOPENING AFTER SEPT. 11: 55 Wall, in the Regent Wall Street Hotel, which got its outdoor terrace up and running again within a week.
MOST EXAGGERATED EFFECT OF SEPT. 11: Restaurant closings, predicted to be many, have been very few. And shuttered Peacock Alley, Meigas and Virot were in trouble before the attack.
SADDEST LOSSES: Jean-Louis Palladin, Warner LeRoy, Jeff Salaway.
AND NOT FORGETTING: Windows on the World, Gemelli, Morton’s, and all the other places destroyed on Sept. 11.
DISH WHOSE DEMISE WAS GREATLY EXAGGERATED: Foie gras, widely predicted to disappear after Sept. 11, continues to turn up everywhere. But hold the chocolate-covered number – puh-leeeze – that Tan Da offered at a tasting.
BEST SEAFOOD STEW IN A POT PIE: The cioppino at Centolire, where succulent shellfish and bracing tomato sauce lurk under a golden-brown crust.
BEST NEW HAMBURGER: DB Bistro Moderne, where the $26 monster conceals braised short ribs, truffles and foie gras inside an innocent-looking beef shell.
MOST OVERWORKED GREEN HAPPILY ON THE WANE: Fennel, whose indiscriminate application made a licorice pit out of dishes from Italian to Indian.
MOST LAMENTABLE TREND IN DINING: Slobs who show up at $100-a-head places looking dressed for a rent strike.
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS: Ouest joined Ruby Foo’s to give Upper West Siders reason to go out and eat, besides just getting out of the apartment.
PLACES WITH A SURPRISING LACK OF ATTITUDE: The Park, Man Ray.
LEAST HELPFUL EXPLANATION OF A DISH: Asked what “hard shell lobster” meant on the menu at Thom, the waiter made a face and said, “It has a hard shell. The shell is there.”
MOST OVERDUE EXILE OF AN EATING UTENSIL: At Alain Ducasse, they finally shipped frightening “asparagus tongs” – which looked like gynecological forceps – back to France.
PROOF THAT LOVE IS NOT ALL YOU NEED: Talented former Thalia chef Michael Otsuka married talented Verbena chef Diane Forley. Working together at Verbena, they turned out bistro dishes depressingly low on passion.
MOST FALLEN HERO: David Bouley, who turned his restaurants into relief kitchens for Ground Zero workers. Though the effort was widely believed to be selfless, it turned out Bouley was collecting a hefty fee from the Red Cross.
CHEF HARDER TO TRACK THAN OSAMA: Gray Kunz, the former Lespinasse wizard rumored to be headed for locations from the Meatpacking District to Union Square to points north.
THINNEST SKINS ON PARK AVENUE SOUTH: Patria chef Andrew DiCataldo stormed into neighboring Aleutia and tore down a newspaper story in the window because it included a picture of one of DiCatalado’s own dishes. Aleutia chef Gavin Citron filed a criminal mischief complaint.
MOST CREATIVE EDITING OF A REVIEW: Alfredo of Rome, where a blurb on the wall quotes The Post: “Don’t be shocked to find genuine Italians at Alfredo. You’ll find plenty of Italians at Cipriani … at twice the price.” We actually said, “You’ll find plenty of Italians at Cirpriani, where the food is [even] worse, at twice the price.”
BEST LAST LAUGH FOR A CHEF AT CRITIC’S EXPENSE: Our review of Asian-fusion AZ said chef Patricia Yeo was not as good as Tadashi Ono, the chef at Asian-fusion Sono. But AZ thrived, Sono closed, and now Yeo is opening her second restaurant on its former site.