Recently in Gripes Category

Sometimes we wish there was a course for restaurateurs on what to do and what not to do when opening a place. Three recent openings are indicative of how things can quickly go awry:

Recent trips to a pair of wine focused restaurants makes us wonder why we can't get more interesting food to go with our obscure wine varietals.

Really, Malaysian food week? Vinho Verde wine week? Sud de France Week? On top of Rioja Week, Riesling Week, Alsatian Wine Month and more. Folks, we just have to say enough is enough. Right now, there is too much of a glut of these promotions to mean anything - and we are wondering if folks back home would think it so great that tons of marketing dollars, mainly from the financially teetering EU, are being used to line the coffers of various NYC websites and publications with endless promotional ads.

If you don't believe us, here is what Vinho Verde week is advertising on Grub Street: "It's finally here! For the first week of summer, top restaurants and wine stores in NYC will highlight the refreshing virtues of Vinho Verde by offering tastings, discounted selections and special pairing menus."

In other words, they're doing what every other wine week does. Woo Hoo! Glad it's "finally here," we don't know how we get along those other 51 weeks a year. Oh yeah, by drinking Rioja, Riesling, Belgian Beer, etc.

Spare us.

Sometimes the food blogosphere goes crazy for something we just scratch our heads over. This week we had the curious case of OYO (as Urban Daddy puts it) - New York Vintners, a wine store on Warrren Street that no one had ever heard of suddenly getting covered all over the place. Why? Because they launched a program where customers can order wine and get it delivered to restaurants. Pieces quickly ensued on Grub Street, Serious Eats, Eater and the aforementioned UD.

Of course, five seconds of digging reveals a few problems with this scenario, something that should have led to more skepticism on the part of bloggers. For starters, it's only available at one restaurant right now - Kuma Inn. The fact that a New York Vintners partner is an investor in Kuma Inn Brooklyn is also worth mentioning - kudos for Grub Street for picking that up. After all, until they get another couple of restaurants onboard, this is merely an extended form of nepotism and hardly some breakthrough public service worthy of press coverage.

Of course, this may turn out to be a cool idea - though don't doubt the party pooper service known as the SLA getting involved with places trying to offer BYOB while skirting the law (you can only be BYO if you have a liquor license). But New York Vintners do send us an email when you have a good number of restaurants in the program. In the meantime, we'll file this under "non-story" and hope our blogging friends are a little more suspect of these types of "services" in the future.

Message to the media - please stop writing about PDT. It's in the name of the place for god's sake. Yes, it's a great bar. Yes, we like it very much. But enough's enough. The latest offender is Food & Wine. In their May 2009 issue featuring the best restaurants and bars around the world, they go for the obvious when it comes to NYC and highlight PDT - complete with photo. Yup, more tourists trying to figure out how to get through the phone booth. Just what we need. 

Few things go as well together as pizza and beer. Unfortunately, few things are as ripe for extreme mark-up as those two items. In the case of Co., or Company as you like, don't expect the recession to mean customer-friendly pricing.

We'll come right out and say it - we were underwhelmed. The pizzas were small (about 11") and the edges of the ballyhooed crust were almost reminiscent of Pizza Hut. The crust itself was pretty good, but the toppings deserved to be seasoned properly though, with salt definitely missing in action. And the pizzas seemed overloaded with cheese and bechamel, guess to explain the pricing - the majority of pizzas are $16 to $18 and appetizer up-selling is heavy.

But this is a booze blog. And there is nothing more depressing than staring at a beer list where everything is $7. Really, $7 for Blue Moon, Sixpoint and Stella? While we're at it, could they come up with a more cliched list of beers? What possible justification can there be for marking up beer over 500% anyway?

We here at Boozy are getting real tired of being ripped off for the privilege of drinking designer beers - not to mention the Belgian equivalent of Bud. If restaurateurs have so little respect for beer drinkers that they view them merely as a profit center, maybe they should just stop serving beer. On this particular day, we silently drank water. That is not our preferred dining mode.

One of our readers has a bone to pick with the media, especially today's AM New York pizza article. "Can everyone please stop calling Artichoke "Artichoke Basille's Pizza & Brewery"? The place is not a brewery! They have two beers - Bud and Bud Light available in 32 oz styrofoam cups for $5.50! Give me a break."

We have to say he has a point. The media often just blindly repeats nonsense without doing even basic research. We don't care if the owners want it called by such a nonsensical moniker, the place is known as Artichoke to everyone and that's what we'll call it.

Oh, and singling out Lombardi's as a "legend" is just wrong. The place is a tourist trap with overloaded crappy pizza. It's high time the media stop pushing that place as worth a visit.

Time Out New York would seem to be a fan of our own Manhattan Project - why else would they advertise the "Perfect Manhattan" on the cover of this week's issue? Sure, the article delves into NYC themed drinks that the Manhattan has inspired, but why do they fumble so badly when highlighting where to have the original?

Our guess is the writer was not aware of our own post about the Bemelman's experience - short version: dated room, overpriced drinks and a piss poor Manhattan made by someone who could have cared less. We'd actually be willing to bet that the writer did not set foot in Bemelman's for the story - since the default Manhattan when we were there was made with Makers, which is certainly not a rye as listed in the recipe on TONY's website. Not to mention that the recipe doesn't even include bitters. Huh?

Among their picks for Manhattan-inspired cocktails, our favorite is the Little Italy at Pegu Club. Basically a somewhat bitter Manhattan, made with Cynar, it's one of our favorite drinks around town.

We popped into Bemelman's the other night for a quick drink and found the room surprisingly busy for a cold January weeknight. Whether this was due to the live music or the famed bar being bullet-proof in our recessionary times is unclear, but the welcome at the bar itself was hardly warm and inviting.

Even before sitting, the bartender warned us there would be a $10 per person cover charge ($20 each at the tables, more on weekends). Then we looked at the menu - $19 for a cocktail. Sheesh. The list has fallen a ways since Audrey Saunders redid it and seemed tailored to the crowd. We were talked out of the famed "punch of the day" ($15) by the gruff bartender, who implied the punch is the same every day and predictably suggested the most expensive drink ($20). Instead, we got a barely stirred Manhattan made with Makers that was rough, to say the least. They do give you a sidecar and the nuts are good.

The room itself has seen better days, even though it was renovated in 2002. The famed murals seemed dim and the large piano right in the middle of the room forces you to dodge musicians and tables to reach the bar. The bar itself is merely functional, and the footrail was partially dislodged and not a secure place for feet.

I guess the joint is content to ride on its history and good will of the aged clientele. But who knows for how long at these prices?

Bemelman's Bar
The Carlyle Hotel, 35 E. 76th Street (at Madison)

NY Barfly has the dismaying news that political correctness has struck again. That's right, Macao Trading Co's cheekily-named Lovee Long Time has been re-christened as the theoretically less offensive Bashful Maiden. Really? Is this what we are reduced to in this day and age? How is naming a drink for a waiting-to-be-rescued princess an improvement?

Look for a review on this site of Macao coming soon.

We love eating at restaurant bars, in part because we prefer to chat up bartenders, but also because you have a lot more freedom in how and what you order. Unfortunately, something has started rubbing us the wrong way - restaurants charging wine prices for artisanal beers. OK folks, we know these beers are more expensive than your typical Bud or Coors Light but do they really cost you $3 each?

New restaurants seem particularly egregious about jacking up beer prices. The John Dory has a tiny list of four beers, three for $8 and one for $9. I recall much better prices on the beers at sister restaurant The Spotted Pig. While they have only been open a few weeks, perhaps they'll see the light at the end of 10th Avenue and give beer drinkers a break.

Irving Mill, a recent recipient of criticism for serving beer in less than pint size glasses, has a huge list of $7 and $8 tap beers. Ommegang from Cooperstown is $8? Brooklyn Pilsner is $7? That's pretty excessive in our opinion. Even worse, their list by the bottle has beers for $12 and $13.

Perhaps restaurateurs are forced to raise beer prices because people will only pay so much for wine or food. But the approach is counter-productive. When faced with a list of over-priced artisanal beers, we now just tend to stop at one. What do you do?