wigstheone
Oct 10, 01, 8:11 am
AT Town, one of the year's most successful new restaurants, Geoffrey Zakarian is no longer flying in fresh turbot from France, because the restaurant can no longer afford it. He's using local fish instead.
Rather than foie gras, Christina Kelly at Avenue is serving duck liver mousse. The price: $6 versus $15.
At Abajour, where the prix fixe menu has been dropped to $19.95 from $25, gulf shrimp have been replaced with less expensive popcorn shrimp. Halibut has been swapped for catfish.
At Union Pacific, a menu called "market treats," which featured exotic sushi from Japan, top-quality caviar and esoteric herbs, has been dropped. Instead, Rocco Di Spirito said, "We're running a menu that's slightly smaller but that has friendlier choices." Like steak and mushroom soup.
While small neighborhood restaurants have been thriving since the terrorist attacks, high-end restaurants all over the city have watched their businesses fall by as much as 50 percent. For many, that has meant layoffs, lower prices and promotions that they would have never imagined during the economic boom of recent years.
But deeper changes have taken hold, too: chefs are tiptoeing instead of swaggering, pulling back from experimental dishes and innovative menus, and not always reaching for the best ingredients. It may be a temporary reaction to quiet dining rooms, or a change for the long term — for now, nobody can say what the effect will be on New York's remarkable growth as a restaurant city. In recent years, the city was considered to have overtaken Paris as the culinary star of the world. Now, it looks like a town of timid and frightened cooks.
There is reason for restaurateurs to worry.
Last week, Peacock Alley in the Waldorf-Astoria closed for good. So did Virot, a promising new restaurant run by an acolyte of Jean- Georges Vongerichten. Daniel, perhaps New York's most revered restaurant, stopped serving lunch for lack of business. Charlie Palmer cut prices 10 to 15 percent at Alva, his casual restaurant in the Flatiron district. Abajour, an Upper East Side bistro, sent out 30,000 cards offering free dessert.
"There's no question that things weren't great before the disaster," said Mr. Di Spirito, the chef at Union Pacific. "The disaster just sort of sealed the deal."
Since Sept. 11, tourism in New York City has fallen drastically, deeply affecting destination restaurants like Tavern on the Green, Picholine and Aureole. Trendy restaurants like Peasant and Mercer Kitchen downtown have also suffered, while business-lunch traffic in Midtown has slowed to a crawl.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/dining/10DEAL.html
Rather than foie gras, Christina Kelly at Avenue is serving duck liver mousse. The price: $6 versus $15.
At Abajour, where the prix fixe menu has been dropped to $19.95 from $25, gulf shrimp have been replaced with less expensive popcorn shrimp. Halibut has been swapped for catfish.
At Union Pacific, a menu called "market treats," which featured exotic sushi from Japan, top-quality caviar and esoteric herbs, has been dropped. Instead, Rocco Di Spirito said, "We're running a menu that's slightly smaller but that has friendlier choices." Like steak and mushroom soup.
While small neighborhood restaurants have been thriving since the terrorist attacks, high-end restaurants all over the city have watched their businesses fall by as much as 50 percent. For many, that has meant layoffs, lower prices and promotions that they would have never imagined during the economic boom of recent years.
But deeper changes have taken hold, too: chefs are tiptoeing instead of swaggering, pulling back from experimental dishes and innovative menus, and not always reaching for the best ingredients. It may be a temporary reaction to quiet dining rooms, or a change for the long term — for now, nobody can say what the effect will be on New York's remarkable growth as a restaurant city. In recent years, the city was considered to have overtaken Paris as the culinary star of the world. Now, it looks like a town of timid and frightened cooks.
There is reason for restaurateurs to worry.
Last week, Peacock Alley in the Waldorf-Astoria closed for good. So did Virot, a promising new restaurant run by an acolyte of Jean- Georges Vongerichten. Daniel, perhaps New York's most revered restaurant, stopped serving lunch for lack of business. Charlie Palmer cut prices 10 to 15 percent at Alva, his casual restaurant in the Flatiron district. Abajour, an Upper East Side bistro, sent out 30,000 cards offering free dessert.
"There's no question that things weren't great before the disaster," said Mr. Di Spirito, the chef at Union Pacific. "The disaster just sort of sealed the deal."
Since Sept. 11, tourism in New York City has fallen drastically, deeply affecting destination restaurants like Tavern on the Green, Picholine and Aureole. Trendy restaurants like Peasant and Mercer Kitchen downtown have also suffered, while business-lunch traffic in Midtown has slowed to a crawl.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/10/dining/10DEAL.html