ENOUGH already with the food recession blues. Believe it or not, there are actually some good things the econopocalypse hath wrought — the demise of water sommeliers, gold-flecked sundaes and reservation scalpers chief among them.
So let’s get back to basics and toast an end to bloat. Check out our Top 10 reasons for loving the recession.
An end to velvet ropes
While the Meatpacking District is still fueled by models and bottles, there are signs that the trend is waning. We were happy to see the uber swank of Level V recently replaced by 675 Bar. The honest-to-goodness joint is billing itself as a local’s hangout (“because the Meatpacking District is a neighborhood, too”) offering “a casual, no bottle, no guest list vibe.” The menu — featuring chicken parm sliders, chocolate-dipped bacon and pickled vegetables (all pictured) — is all priced under $10. “It’s a place where people come and they’re welcomed rather than looked up and down,” explains 675 Bar night-life director Andrew Wintner.
Negotiating sommeliers
When it comes to wine lists, restaurateurs are ready to deal. We’ve even heard tales of sommeliers spontaneously reducing bottles by up to 50 percent. Chef David Burke is taking this trend to the extreme by encouraging diners to negotiate with the sommelier at both Fishtail and David Burke Townhouse. Customers receive a card featuring the day’s “wine auction” selections on which they can offer a price. Negotiations take place from there: “Rarely does the first bid meet the required minimum,” says Fishtail wine director Branden McRill. Still, he maintains he’s “never been insulted” by an opening bid. “The whole purpose of the card is to get people to have fun . . . People are walking away with some really great deals.”
Fewer multicourse mandates
There’s a fine line between a tasting menu that dazzles and one that’s overly long and showy. Either way, it’s the ultimate luxury — not just in terms of money, but also time. And these days, who has either? You can now forgo Chanterelle’s six-course tasting menu (reduced to $95) for a la carte items such as grilled seafood sausage ($19) and roast squab with pea ravioli ($39). Or bypass Per Se’s epic $275 tasting menu for small plates costing up to $46 each in the lounge. Neither are particularly affordable options, but they may signal the end of the all-we-say-you-can-eat era.
GETTABLE reservations
Most of us can’t figure out what we want to eat for lunch, never mind what we want to eat for dinner four weeks from now. So when a colleague informed us that he had procured a prime-time table at Babbo — twice — with not much more than a week’s notice, we took note. After all, it wasn’t too long ago when the best table we could wrangle for a party of two on a Thursday night was 11 p.m. — and that was with nearly a month’s lead time. And remember reservation scalpers like TableXchange? They’ve thankfully gone the way of Urbanfetch. As TableXchange put it: “With tables remaining empty at restaurants that once had 30-day-plus waiting lists, the niche filled by . . . services like TableXchange are no longer necessary.”
Bars are for drinking again
We’re not sure at what point the bar became an overflow dining area, with place mats replacing coasters and white bean purée and focaccia replacing Chex mix. But now we’re starting to see the opposite phenomenon: On a recent Friday evening at Rouge Tomate, drinkers not only dominated the bar — but the surrounding tables, too. So no, we won’t be dining at the bar this evening, but we will be enjoying our martini without getting jostled left and right by bankers.
The return of the neighborhood restaurant
Impersonal big-box restaurants are out, and personable neighborhood eateries exuding warmth and hospitality are in. What’s not to like about that?
Entrees under $40
A couple of years ago, the entree shattered the $40 ceiling and never looked down. How things have changed. Nowadays, even a $30 entree at the trendy new restaurant of the moment seems out of place. At Table 8 — the fashionable newcomer inside the Cooper Square Hotel — entrees (with accompaniments!) top out at $29 for filet mignon with confit baby potatoes and charred leek. Meanwhile, additional “small accents” like grilled cauliflower with fried capers can be had for $5 or less.
Democratization of menus
We’ve been hearing grumblings from the restaurant world about the dumbing down of menus — every hot spot from downtown (Minetta Tavern) to uptown (Monkey Bar) now features a selection of burgers, steaks and other foods people like to eat. Of course, we still need restaurants like wd-50 to push boundaries and make us a great dining city. On the other hand, fewer shaved truffles and more chopped meat in the hands of novices may not be such a bad thing.
Gilt-free dining
No more over-golding! If we never, ever again have to be confronted with a $175 burger topped with gold flakes or $88 fried rice flecked with real gold or a $25,000 sundae strewn with — betcha saw this one coming — five grams of edible 23-karat gold, we will die happy.
Tap water with impunity
There was a time when a request for tap water was looked upon with scorn. (Occasionally, it still is. Just last weekend we were brusquely asked: “Sparkling or still?”) But thanks to the recession, bottled water is now an option for suckers — not gourmets. So say it loud and say it proud: “Tap water.” And is it too much to ask that the irksome bottle-or-tap question be dropped altogether now that Europeans are no longer keeping local restaurants afloat? In the meantime, we hope the water sommelier is enjoying his unemployment check!