Ain’t we poor enough yet?
Thursday, February 5th, 2009If you haven’t heard, our economy is tanking and among those who are feeling the pinch big-time are restaurants, especially the more expensive ones. Opening my e-mail the last few days, I thought maybe I should write a post about the enormous glut of special, reduced-price, extra-indulgent Valentine’s Day menus, but I don’t have three days to record all of them.
These are an annual offer, but not typically of this year’s profuse and generous degree. And these follow the increasing number of incentives restaurants are offering routinely.
As it happens the New York Times‘ Frank Bruni wrote about the effect of the recession on restaurants a few days ago. His “Diner’s Journal” opens with this:
Has a restaurant hugged you lately?
Has it insisted that you can have it more cheaply than you thought possible and whenever you want, not just at 5:45 p.m., when your desire isn’t close to peaking, or at 9:30, when you almost can’t be bothered anymore?
Has it dropped its usual guard? Surrendered its typical reserve?
Yes, yes and yes. The only restaurants where I’ve had difficulty getting a table are Flip and the Original El Taco, neither of which take reservations. But I can’t think of a single other restaurant where I haven’t been able to reserve a table at the last minute or simply walk in. And, yes, I’ve noticed how staffs rush to tables to bathe the feet of diners and how perkiness has become epidemic among front desk folks.
But I have disconcerting news. Bruni’s piece mentions two NY dining-scene stars who have opened restaurants here recently. Both have begun offering super specials in Manhattan. One is Tom Colicchio, who has opened a Craft and Craft Bar here:
Craft, which in October opened its private room twice a month for 10-course, $150 dinners cooked by Tom Colicchio — called Tom: Tuesday Dinner — reached out in the other direction, to bargain hunters, last month. It opened that room once a week for Damon: Frugal Fridays, with a range of dishes cooked by Craft’s executive chef, Damon Wise, for $10 apiece.
The other is Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who has opened Spice Market and Spice here:
Mr. Vongerichten, many of whose restaurants have always offered price reductions at lunch, is being particularly aggressive (by which I mean huggy). In October Perry St. instituted the option of a $35 three-course dinner menu during the slow hours of 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 to 11 p.m. In December, his restaurant Nougatine, a casual adjunct of his Columbus Circle flagship, Jean Georges, instituted its own $35 three-course menu, every night but Saturday from 5:30 to 6:30 and 10 to 11 p.m.
That same month he began to offer a $35 seven-course omakase dinner at Matsugen, of which he is a principal owner. There are no restrictions on the hours when it can be ordered.
Ahem! Unless things have changed recently, neither restaurateur is offering comparable bargains here in Atlanta.
We dined at Spice Market, inside the new W Midtown Atlanta hotel last week. The restaurant is one of the latest in culinary superstar Jean-Georges Vongeritchen’s empire and features the flavors of street food in Southeast Asia. Ian Winslade, formerly of Bluepointe, Shout and Posh, is the chef.