Me too but hope the new franchisees are adequately trained culinarily
Like, totally. Here’s hoping for a Le Bernardin chain.
That’s your idea of a small business?
Have you seen the biryani cascading out of HZ?
No? But what does that have to do with Le Bernardin being not at all a small business?
Because, if you read the thread above, the hope for expansion of “small businesses” was expressed in connection with HZ. If HZ is small, so is Le B (the real one).
In my understanding (and as per this Yelp photo), it IS small (and yes, I read the thread). It just churns out a lot of food.
Conversely…
Sorry, I don’t understand that comparison.
Six of us went to the relatively new “seafood steakhouse” Time and Tide, from the fancyfood folks at Kent Hospitality. It is steakhouse-like in that the fish is aged.
and there’s a lot of expense account-y large format (and large price tag) menu items, like this tuna collar with gochuchang, which was delicious, but - as is typical for collars - did not contain much actual tuna. Look at the size of those radishes, though!
I was most excited about the halibut pithivier, which looked very impressive. The fish was a bit bland, but I am easily seduced by presentation and vin jaune sauce.
I also liked the monkfish make-your-own-mole-taco plate. The mole was quite spicy, as it should be, so I would advise choosing this or the tuna, but not both, 'cause it was a little too much overall heat.
This crab tagliatelle was very nice, but not as crabby as in the video, so that was deceptive.
And I fought for the wedge salad, but we had a leek freak among us, so we got the leek salad instead. I was won over. The frisee wasn’t as much like a ball of hair as frisee usually is.
I was less enamored of the squid (the rest of the table loved it), as the sauce was too heavy.
And I’m not much of a carrot fan (I lost the battle to not order this).
The biggest disappointment of the evening was the uni toast, which had zero discernible uni. There’s none on the toast, as you can see, and there’s apparently none in the spread either, which just tasted of citrus (or maybe sour apple - that’s what’s listed on the menu).
The steelhead and mackerel were fine - I kind of think it’s a waste to order raw fish in an expensive place, since it’s something I can make myself.
And this giant goldfish is a good conversation piece, but not that exciting a dish. It’s a cheddar shortbread, basically (I was hoping for a biscuit).
Desserts were very good, a panna cotta and maybe the best olive oil cake I’ve ever had.
All in all, a mostly solid, very expensive meal, so this isn’t a place I’d rush back to. The room is enormous, so who knows how they’re going to keep enough tables filled to stay afloat (reservations look pretty easy to get). Service was excellent, and points for not making me feel bad about hurling my martini glass to the ground while trying to brush off my plate.
I’d forgotten about Oceana, it’s been decades. Dining room still looks like a cruise ship?
Did it at one time? Looks like this now:
In college I was a waiter at a good steak and fish restaurant. When the fish started approaching its freshness date (or maybe a little after) management incented us with cash prizes for the server who sold the most fish, the chef whipped up a sauce that did a great job at hiding the underlying lack of freshness and it became a well-priced special.
It sorta seems like they’re doing the same thing but actually charging more for old fish
Ps customers are a lot more knowledgeable today but one waiter (I swear it wasn’t me) always won the contest by a huge margin. Turns out if the customer ordered sole for example, he’d bring them whatever white fish was on special and not one person over the course of the two years I worked there ever complained
It did. A bit of sleuthing indicates it moved around 2009 from a townhouse on the UES. It was elegant and intimate. The new incarnation looks the opposite.
I remember a boat themed Restaurant at 1 Fifth Ave. well before Otto. Was that one of the incarnations?
No. There was a restaurant there called “1 Fifth” and I vaguely recall it did have a nautical theme.
I was actually going to say that I thought it was after the original 1 Fifth & before Otto, but I’m not sure.
so the current 1 5th Ave. restaurant has a history of the restaurants at that address on its website. You are correct. The seafood restaurant was 1 Fifth, and it was followed By a different restaurant before Otto. Thanks For the memory jolt.
the other day on the way to meet y’all, I noticed the boat is no longer in tripoli?
There’s a coffee shop on the main floor for several years now. Tripoli moved its restaurant downstairs, but I’m not sure that its still there either.
This is just a general question, and I feel like maybe it’s been answered before, so please bear with me? With almost a thousand posts from 2024 in this thread, I am finding it difficult to find anything there. Is the thread searchable by borough? Or in any way? If not, any way we could at least have different threads for different boroughs? Or…? Am I just so deficient at this point that remember a thousand posts and when what was said is impossible for me, and everyone else is okay with this? Thanks for considering.