Le coucou is still closed
Whoops! Thanks for the correction.
That sounds AMAZING. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the full reopening.
I think Gramercy Tavern could be a contender too. Thank you for the comparison!
That’s true for anyone anywhere I think - suburbs included.
I actually think New Yorkers are willing to travel much further on a given day for food / whatever than people elsewhere. People from Manhattan go to queens for dumplings or kababs or Greek food, to painful-by-public transport far reaches of brooklyn for pasta or thai or middle eastern or russian, to Staten Island for Sri Lankan and italian american, to the Bronx for seafood and italian, and that’s such an appallingly incomplete list off the top of my head… I mean, show me another place where people do half that…
There’s a reason visitors are “exhausted” when they leave after visiting for 2 days, lol.
1 Like
I think that’s a small minority that travel so far. Most people I know probably eat 80% of their restaurant meals within 20 blocks of where they live. Getting someone to travel a couple of miles to meet can feel like you’re going cross country. I have a place out of the city. There are very few dining options close by so it’s not at all unusual to drive 20-30 miles for dinner. There isn’t the variety that NYC has but if you want to go out for dinner, a 20 mile drive is typical. Go 20 miles from your home in NYC and you maybe in another state. Where I grew up it wasn’t unusual to drive an hour to go to a restaurant. There was nothing within walking distance and public transit doesn’t exist so you had to travel long distances to go to a restaurant. So in my experience if you are outside of NY and you wanted something different the distance you had to cover was far greater than what you would travel in NYC.
1 Like
Agree to disagree.
There’s a difference between where you are willing to go on a random work night - ie within a short radius around home or work - and where you are willing to go with some planning or time on a weekend or to seek out a restaurant or a type of food.
Conflating distance with time is a mistake, as anyone who has taken a cab or bus or subway in nyc knows.
A 20 mile drive in the suburbs or “out of the city” can take less than the time it takes from tribeca to midtown, never mind further uptown or to another borough. (2-3h from midtown to JFK in traffic - how many miles is that again?)
And no, you won’t be in another state, other than emotionally - annoyed at the “traffic” or fill-in-the-blank impediment to your plans that evening. (Unless you’re going to NJ, yeah, that can be quicker than Queens from the westside.)
Even where public transit exists, it takes a long time - a car can be a quicker and less fraught way to Williamsburg or Park Slope from the westside than the subway.
So yes, people want to stay close much of the time, but also people travel - time-wise - much further for good food or types of food or a chef than anywhere else, I’ll hold to that.
It’s odd - some other Starr restaurants have reopenened (Pastis, Buddakan, Upland).
I have no idea how these decisions are made.
Me neither. Just musing out loud.
huh?
1 Like
I think country mouse and city mouse would be a better metaphor.
Forgive me if I’m posting about the obvious.
Outside NYC, many of us conflate time and distance. I will say someone lives a 2 h drive away when they live 120 miles away, accounting for 70 miles/ h on the freeway and 50 miles/h in the city, and rushhour.
In Manhattan, crosstown traffic is often gridlocked during the day. (Like Jimi Hendrix’s song ). During rush hour, a cab to or from LGA might take an hour from midtown.
In Manhattan, I don’t think in miles, I think in uptown blocks and wider crosstown blocks. Or I think in time when there’s little traffic, thinking it might be a 20 minute taxi to or from the Met Museum or a theater, or a 30 minute taxi to the airport. I have a rough idea of time for taxis heading north and south. I often walk to a few blocks east or west so I there’s less crosstown travel.
I have gotten to the point where I plan my NYC visits so I leave have my flights to LGA arrive around noon, and leave midtown between 11 am and 1:30 pm, to avoid afternoon rushhour.
I haven’t been visiting the other boroughs enough to have an idea of how long it takes to get to a restaurant or a neighborhood.
1 Like
Four years ago when we travelled to Manhattan, we dined at Le Bernardin and Chef Eric Ripert is quite an amazingly exceptional chap. Truly enjoyed … His fish and shellfish are totally exquisitely sublime.
Highly recommend.
2 Likes
It took us a little over an hour to go 37 miles from home in NJ to the Lincoln Tunnel, and close to another hour to go 3 miles from the tunnel to NYU on the other side of Manhattan.
'Nuff said.
1 Like
@eleeper Because we have an apartment in Manhattan, we are old hands at traveling forth and back to the city. Travel time is strictly dependent on traffic. Our house is in Marlboro, and our apartment is on 3rd Ave. & 24th St. We tend to travel off-hours, i.e., not during rush hours. We usually make it door-to-door in about an hour and 5-10 minutes. Any tie-ups on the Turnpike or heavier crosstown traffic will increase that by a few minutes. We usually take 26th St. to the apt. and 29th heading out.
(Note: For those whose might not know, when it comes to going crosstown, even-numbered streets go east, odd go west,)
1 Like
Just out of curiosity, are you saying that for a dinner with special visitors you still have geographic limits to how far you will “travel” ? Within Manhattan? We West Coasters have much wider sites including Marin and East Bay.
I’ve been missing those invitations to different parts of nyc. I can’t wait to get back to that. Inter-borough travel for an exciting new cuisine.
1 Like
Yes. We live 45 minutes from midtown by commuter train; going to Brooklyn would add an additional 45 minutes or more to the trip one way. It would also double the already-considerable cost of an Uber home. It simply isn’t worthwhile when there are plenty of excellent options in a neighborhood that is convenient for both parties.
3 Likes
Talked to my friends today and had them check out a few menus. They chose…UPLAND! Definitely looking forward to this one. Reservations open up in a couple of days; hopefully it won’t be too difficult to snag a decent time. Will report back after our meal!
6 Likes
Reporting back from our dinner at Upland last night. It was a big hit with our whole party! We ended up trying most of the apps and pastas, then ordered the short rib and branzino plus most of the vegetable sides. Kind of an insane amount of food for four people, but we’re all big eaters (and all 6’+, so not small people either, LOL!).
Anyway, there wasn’t a dud among the dishes we ordered, but I did have one complaint about all of them - they were WAY too salty. I like salt and tend to have a somewhat heavy hand with it in my own cooking, so it’s not that I’m especially salt-sensitive. I also noticed that most dishes had a strongly acidic component, which again, I like, but it started to get a little one-note after trying so many things. Standouts were the tartare, pappardelle, octopus, short rib and crispy root vegetables.
Thanks to everyone who helped me decide!
5 Likes
This was our favourite for a short stay while at a Travel Convention in Manhattan approx 4 years ago.
***Michelin Starred Chef Eric Ripert - ***Michelin Starred Restaurant Le Bernardin …
Truly bespoken masterpieces of art … Highly memorable …
