Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Bites A Restaurant Tip: Read Frank Bruni's Parting Tips in Today's 'Times'
Posted by Jim Ridley on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Frank Bruni's final food column as restaurant critic for the New York Times runs today, and in it he uses the occasion to answer questions that he was either asked all the time or wishes he'd been asked. Why are you reading this in a Nashville-centered food blog? Because two of his points struck me as valuable whether you're dining in Woodbine or Williamsburg.
One is Bruni's response to a question about which restaurants offer the best value. He answers: sometimes the ones that charge the most. A $20 difference in the check total, he writes, is all that separates a lavish, comfy spread at one elegant restaurant from the relatively spartan experience at another (which he also recommends). "Value doesn't mean a low price," he writes, "it means you're getting a lot for what you're paying."
The other is this amusing response to the question, "Is there any best, safest way to navigate a menu?"
Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you've seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef's heart isn't in them.Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef's vanity--possibly too much of it--spawned these.
Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil.
Choose among the remaining dishes.
Comments (11)
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Thanks for the link Jim. I have to agree with Mr. Bruni in at least one regard -- having an omakase experience at the bar in front of Yasuda-san was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to NYC this past May. Pretty much ruined my teenage son for Nashville sushi...
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This was so very close to my own answer when people asked how I know what to order. I had an additional direction: go to Robert Orr/Sysco (now CASH N CARRY) on Charlotte. Examine the freezers carefully. Do not order anything you see in there, from vegetable lasagna to profiteroles to con queso, unless the menu says "house made" or "our own."
Oh, hey, was anyone else surprised that Bruni was retiring? I hadn't heard anything about it.
is someone else posting under Nicki's name? Bruni's pending retirement has been only slightly less written about than Michael Jackson's demise. Okay, maybe an exxageration. But it's been all over NY-based food/restaurant blogs for weeks, ad nauseum, plus noted in every story/review of his new book, or publication of his photo, breathlessly revealed. (or taken off the walls of every restaurant in Manhatten and Brooklyn). Oy, enough already. It's the longest goodbye ever.
Also, NY Times critics of the last 20 years or so generally put in about 5-7 years, so readers begin looking for hints of retirement around then. He was right on schedule. I think RR did about 5.
I'm culturally clueless after a summer writing two cookbooks and a non-cookbook and the anatomy class and all. All non-essential, non-Nashville food reading was triaged out. Funny, though, I listened to a BBC excerpt/interview about his book and never heard that. In the same vein, Brian Miller left the times in about 94 -- he lasted a record 9 years -- and in his farewell interview, he said the oven in his apartment had never been switched on in all those years.
nicki, you wrote 3 books this summer? wow... good luck with that.
the ny times announced it officially well over 3 months ago.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/14/frank-bruni-leaving-emnew_n_203610.html
sifton's photo has been plastered everywhere... so like bruni and rr he shall be using disguises.
bruni's new book is excellent. i really enjoyed it. 'born round'.
Born a shicksa, immersed in the best of cultural Jew-ism thanks to my childhood best friend Andrea Hoffman and her parents Lew and Norma, and my first fiance, Ronnie Fine, son of Micki and Marvin. Micki Fine made the best kugel, matzoh ball soup and cheesecake on the planet. There was no better shopper than Lew Hoffman.
