wigstheone
Dec 26, 01, 8:18 am
IN a year filled to bursting with improbable events, most of them alarming, it may be hard to make a case for restaurants as a big story, but I have to try. There were too many memorable meals, too many chefs doing inspired work and too many good new restaurants not to make the effort. Well before disaster struck in September, I was already convinced that 2001 was shaping up to be a year to remember for New York diners. The turmoil and uncertainty of the following three months did nothing to change my opinion.
The crop of newcomers in 2001 was stellar, with standouts like Pico, Town, Ilo and Craft at the top of the list, each exhibiting, in a very different way, a daring, almost giddy creativity. Two superior French restaurants, Restaurant Daniel and Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, got even better, joining the city's four-star elite. Patria, the hot-beating heart of Nuevo Latino in Manhattan, not only survived the departure of Douglas Rodriguez, it also improved in the hands of his understudy, Andrew DiCataldo. At Aquavit, Marcus Samuelsson could easily have decided to stick with a successful formula. Instead, he became bolder and more experimental, and the restaurant felt fresher than ever. Proving that sequels can be better than the original, Jimmy Bradley opened the Harrison, a casual American restaurant in the spirit of the Red Cat. Manhattan, which does not have any shortage of bistros, happily made room for Ouest and DB. The list goes on and on.
It has become almost reflexive to call Manhattan the best restaurant city in the world. The homegrown chefs at Pico, Town, Ilo and Craft, pure products of New York's restaurant culture, go a long way toward explaining why. The talent pool in New York is deep, the sense of freedom exhilarating, the local audience highly educated and quick to perceive genuine ability. The results can be seen up and down the price scale.
It's almost taken for granted that New York will deliver the best of the best: the big-ticket French restaurants that can traumatize even platinum credit cards, the high- end steakhouses, the stylized global and New American gastronomic temples. The real strength of the city's restaurants does not really show itself until you begin working down the hierarchy, and see the talent at the two-star and one-star restaurants, many of them good enough to be the best restaurant, by a wide margin, in any midsize American city. There were lots of those in 2001, too. It often made for some difficult reviewing choices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/26/dining/26NOTE.html
The crop of newcomers in 2001 was stellar, with standouts like Pico, Town, Ilo and Craft at the top of the list, each exhibiting, in a very different way, a daring, almost giddy creativity. Two superior French restaurants, Restaurant Daniel and Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, got even better, joining the city's four-star elite. Patria, the hot-beating heart of Nuevo Latino in Manhattan, not only survived the departure of Douglas Rodriguez, it also improved in the hands of his understudy, Andrew DiCataldo. At Aquavit, Marcus Samuelsson could easily have decided to stick with a successful formula. Instead, he became bolder and more experimental, and the restaurant felt fresher than ever. Proving that sequels can be better than the original, Jimmy Bradley opened the Harrison, a casual American restaurant in the spirit of the Red Cat. Manhattan, which does not have any shortage of bistros, happily made room for Ouest and DB. The list goes on and on.
It has become almost reflexive to call Manhattan the best restaurant city in the world. The homegrown chefs at Pico, Town, Ilo and Craft, pure products of New York's restaurant culture, go a long way toward explaining why. The talent pool in New York is deep, the sense of freedom exhilarating, the local audience highly educated and quick to perceive genuine ability. The results can be seen up and down the price scale.
It's almost taken for granted that New York will deliver the best of the best: the big-ticket French restaurants that can traumatize even platinum credit cards, the high- end steakhouses, the stylized global and New American gastronomic temples. The real strength of the city's restaurants does not really show itself until you begin working down the hierarchy, and see the talent at the two-star and one-star restaurants, many of them good enough to be the best restaurant, by a wide margin, in any midsize American city. There were lots of those in 2001, too. It often made for some difficult reviewing choices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/26/dining/26NOTE.html