NY Times Gives 4 Stars

to Thomas Keller's Per Se in the new Time Warner building at Columbus Circle. One of the most wonderous meals I have ever eaten was at the French Laundry in the Indian Summer of 2000 during a trip to San Francisco and the wine country. Read Frank Bruni's review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/dining/08REST.html

What a difference the critic makes. I sort of doubt that the last couple of Times critics would have been so in love with Per Se. Indeed, there seems to be a lot about Per Se that the Coastal food pundits gleefully chide about Chicago restaurants at that level: the opulent spaces, the marathon tasting menus, the army of sometimes "cheeky" servers, the de-re-consructed potato salads, popsicles, etc.

One could almost insert the word "Tru" for Per Se and change "Central Park" to the "Magnificent Mile" and edit the piece into a review from Vettel circa 1999 (or into the USA Today yearly dining review proclaiming Tru the best new restaurant in America).

Mind you, I can't disagree with the review, and I am very sure that Per Se is great. I wonder whether this new-found respect for the "overblown" is a function of Keller-worship or whether Bruni hasn't the same issues with places like our three "T's" as others.

Jeff, I am not sure if I agree with what you are saying. I occassionally read the high-end food zone called OA, and one thing they all seem to agree on is, they hate Frank Brunei. And there has been a lot of complaining amongst this kinda crowd of foodies (which none of us here hardly know) to the NYTimes about Brunei. Essentially, I think that Brunei had to give Per Se 4 stars to validate his standing.

Most of the comments and reports on Per Se on places like OA do rate it on par with French Laundry and thus the best dining in the USA. So, for this crowd, even if Brunei barely "got" Per Se, he could reward superiority when faced with it.

Rob, I'm not sure we understand eachother. Are you saying that the really erudite, coastal fancy food mavens enjoy places like Tru, Per Se and the Symbol Formerly Known As Trio, and therefore pressured the Times and Bruni to give Per Se and Keller stars? That I can believe. I know that folks who travel in the celestial sphere of, say, Cabrales, credit our "overblown" places (notice the ironic quotation marks, I for one really like Tru and Trio as you know) as being nearly as good as such spots in France or Spain. I was referring more to the newspaper and magazine people who seem constantly to snicker at the Chicago "200 dollar dinner" like it's an oafish admission of unsophistication, a hundred dollar tie with a fifty dollar suit, or 20 inch dubs on a 1995 Celica.

JeffB wrote:Rob, I'm not sure we understand eachother. Are you saying that the really erudite, coastal fancy food mavens enjoy places like Tru, Per Se and the Symbol Formerly Known As Trio, and therefore pressured the Times and Bruni to give Per Se and Keller stars? That I can believe.

Yes

I am not so sure if it is mutually exclusive, but I think the attitude amongst sophisticates (as if I can measure that!), is that Per Se, Trio, etc. are worth all the pizzaz and that they are not the "empereror's new clothes" kinda thing. In other words those mocking Trio, Per Se, etc. are the real philistines (so to speak) And that Brunei had to give Per Se 4 stars lest he seem totally behind the times.

Rob

The New York Post's Page Six reports that Per Se will be moving to a standard 20% service charge instead of tipping, regardless of party size.

I'm surprised more of the high end restaurants haven't done this... or why they haven't moved away from tipping/service charges entirely and just bumped up the pay of their servers.

The buried lede in the article, though, is this:

Most of the service staff are planning on quitting at the end of this month when the salary changes happen

.

Any guesses why?

Today's NYTimes Op-ed page has a piece from Steven Shaw defending the decision to abolish tips at Per Se:

http://tinyurl.com/c7dpp

Best,
Michael / EC

I don't have a strong opinion on tipping vs. service charge, but if it's to be a mandated service charge I guess I don't see the point. Just factor it in to the prices on the menu and be done with it. If I feel that the service given doesn't warrant the 20% service charge can I discuss a discount with the management?

We had dinner at Per Se on Sunday night, and I enjoyed it immensely. They didn't have a wine pairing for the Chef's tasting. They had enough wines by the glass and 1/2 bottles to take care of it, and good wine guys, but it would have been easier to just have them take care of it.

We definitely felt indulged. They kept trying to pour more into our glasses (we had 2 glasses, 2 1/2 bottles and a weirdness...) - when you order a glass, if you want more, they pour more - and I don't think they would have charged us. One 1/2 bottle we ordered, and then it turned out that they had just sold their last one. They said that one of the glasses we ordered would now be on the house. We ended up ordering a full bottle (at the same price the 1/2 bottle would have been). And they said that if we didn't finish it (if?) they would figure out a way to pack it for us to take home. We didn't finish it, but didn't take advantage of their offer.

Interesting - I thought the pacing was fine, if a scootch quicker than I was used to for tasting menus. But the table next to us (Europeans) told them to slow down a few times. AND about 2 or 3 courses after they had told them to slow down, they felt rushed and said "we want to slow down" and the server said that they had already cooked the next course, could they slow down after that one? And the man really was upset. He said "look, if I say to slow down 3 courses ago, you need to slow down" and I didn't hear the rest. But they were clearly feeling rushed.

We had so many little desserts, cookies, candies, etc, at the end. I couldn't eat all of them. They put dishes with cocoa almonds and truffles on the table, and I asked if they could use them again. One server said yes, the other said "well no, what if you had sneezed?" He advocated dumping them all into my purse I took a few for later, but left most.

I liked that it was less stuffy than other places I have been for similar level of food. And the food was really good!