MARIANI’S

  April 10, 2005                                                        NEWSLETTER

                                       "Share the Meal" (1942)                                                             Photograph by Ann Rosener

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DISPATCH FROM ATLANTA by Suzanne Wright

HANDICAPPING THE 2005 JAMES BEARD RESTAURANT AWARDS by John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER:  Roberto's by John Mariani

QUICK BYTES

        TWO urban licks (820 Ralph McGill Blvd.;  404-522-4622; www.twourbanlicks.com) is the second sensation from restaurant impresario Bob Amick, who also runs ONE.midtown kitchen. Borrowing a number of elements from ONE, he’s spiffed things up considerably at StudioPlex, the renovated warehouse where TWO is located.  Get this:  you drive up a platform, literally to the front door, where the valet relieves you of your car.  Then you enter a narrow corridor into a soaring space with dramatic lighting and a stunning skyline view of the city.  I like the witty unisex bathrooms with their porthole opening: if it is lit (red or blue), it's occupied;  if clear, it’s free.
      On the left side, there’s a massive stainless steel wine wall with 42 barrels of wine made just for the restaurant (more on that in a bit) and an open kitchen in the room’s center with a 14-foot tall urban rotisserie (below) and an immense hood crafted exclusively for TWO by Nobile Attie, an Italian oven designer.   Whole chickens twirl inside the cylinder, along with brisket and ribs.  There’s a wood fire oven for fish.
      Our server was pleasant but not overly familiar and as well versed on wine as the menu.  He leaves a bottle of filtered water after taking our drink orders.  Cute touch:  instead of a napkin on the table, there’s a dish towel rolled in a rubber band.  This place doesn’t take itself too seriously.
      Executive Chef and partner Scott Serpas (formerly of Sia’s and Mitra) is at the helm when he’s not prowling the room greetings folks. It’s a high-energy place that serves dinner until late every night, with a side of live blues.
      Two gripes before I get into the dining experience:  the place is loud, very loud, so don’t expect easy conversation, let alone an intimate tête-à-tête; just go with it (it might help to be part of a boisterous group). Maybe it’s just me, but my eyes stung from the rotisserie smoke, and it initially tickled my nose in a not-too-pleasant fashion; when I returned home I smelled like I’d been at a campfire.
      Wine from a barrel?  TWO claims it’s the first restaurant in the world to do this. (Maybe in the U.S.) I can verify that a variety of renowned boutique vineyards have made wine for TWO. You can hopscotch across vintages and varietals, served in non-stemmed glasses.  Partner Todd Rushing says, “We are breaking wine down to its simplest form.  Wine is a drink that is a combination of terroir and the winemaker’s abilities; it has nothing to do with the package or the label but has everything to do with the juice.”  Wines pour from the barrels through an old-fashioned spout and are served in a half glass, glass, mini-thief (10 ounces), half- thief (20 ounces), and full-thief (42 ounces).
    There’s a disproportionately large selection of reds, ranging in price from $4-$60; the whites range from $3-$48.  Red wines have argon and white wines have nitrogen pumped in to protect them from oxidation. We enjoyed a Vos Shiraz, a full-bodied Corison Cabernet Sauvignon,  an Andrew Geoffrey Cabernet Franc with a hint of chocolate, and a J.C. Cellars Zinfandel, during the course of dinner.
     Perusing the menu (“fiery American cooking”), I was intrigued to see hot frog's legs with bleu cheese and cucumbers, but my companion couldn't abide the thought of a roasted amphibian.  We opted for lemon crab fritters, salmon chips and rocket salad to start.
     The lollipops are actually ground balls of lamb meat wittily served on Popsicle sticks, with a dollop of grape chili jam and goat cheese as enhancements.  They are tasty good fun. Ditto the salmon chips, which, although advertised as smoked, are really mild.  The chips have a roller coaster shape and are topped with chipotle cream, capers and a dice of raw red onion. They are salty, zingy, yummy. The rocket salad was astonishingly fresh, with a grassy, summertime taste.  Candied pecans, crumbled feta,  and a cranberry Serrano vinaigrette enliven the bitter greens.
     Our mains were not quite as successful, and our attentive waiter lost his pacing (although in fairness, the room was packed from our arrival at 7:30 till our departure at 10 p.m.).  Maybe we should have tried the whole roasted chicken or sea bass, but we couldn’t resist the Louisiana-style jumbo barbecue shrimp, scallops and pork shoulder.
      The shrimp (below) were a success:  big, heads-on beauties in a simple but rich roux of lemon and a dash of Lee & Perrins.  We eagerly dipped the good French bread into the sauce. Bronzed scallops with smoked gouda grits was a disappointment:  the scallops were terrific, perfectly cooked, but the grits were runny, without body. And what a stingy portion! (Why? They are so cheap.)  The slow-roasted pork was fork tender, quite salty, and even slightly sweet with brown sugar; the accompanying baked macaroni and cheese was too thin and rather tasteless.
      Pastry chef Jennifer Etchison’s house specialty is carrot cake served with a candied lady apple.  It is gorgeous to behold, the slab of cake seductive with moist cream cheese icing. But the apple?  Biting into it gave me the sensation of shards of glass breaking in my mouth (not a good thing), and the apple was dry and mealy.  The upshot?  I’d return (in my glasses not contact lenses) for appetizers and drinks.
     Oh—and the name?  The waiter says it’s a reference to  guitar licks, lick fingers good, and licking  the lollipops presented with bill.
         Appetizers run $7-$10 and main courses $17-$22.
      
 
      Another new culinary destination with a similarly affected spelling of its name, is grace 17.20 (5155 Peachtree Parkway, Norcross;  678-421-1720; www.grace1720.com),  located in the tony Forum shopping center in suburban northeast Atlanta.
      The name  is a biblical reference, and the partners have as a goal a “faithful” commitment to cuisine (hey, Atlanta's in the ‘Bible Belt,” remember?)  Thankfully, there are no lurking religious flourishes. Locals (read: neighbors in the surrounding subdivisions) are rightly thrilled to have a non-chain addition to the dining scene, which might be charitably described as lacking in sophistication.
     Grace 17.20 is a promising and certainly worthy outside-the-Perimeter dining option with several memorable dishes. Nearby Sia’s appears to have some competition in the fine dining arena.  But clunky service by a far too sycophantic waiter marred our experience.  He described dishes with almost reverential effusiveness, which I find,  um, provincial. Let’s hope our server was an anomaly or that as the restaurant matures, so do the staffers.
     The seasonal menu is dubbed contemporary American.  Chef Charles Schwab, formerly of The Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, has created an enticing menu of seasonal ingredients. There is enough variety with the appropriate amount of intrigue to appeal to locals and in-towners who make the trek.  Ingredients are high quality, which makes sense: the partners have all logged time at top restaurants, including Bacchanalia.
     The restrained interiors (right) are casually elegant, inspired by the California wine country.  Jazz plays softly, the lighting is just right and the white linen-dressed tables are comfortably spaced for conversation.  Even when crowded, you can hear your dining companion. There is also a delightful outdoor patio area (below) for dining and parties. Although the place is  new, it has  a pleasantly lived-in feeling, at least at night.  And kudos to management's allowing us to bring our own  wine, with  no corkage fee and no attitude.
     As at so many restaurants, the starters shine, and we cleaned our plates.  Whatever you do, do not miss the astonishingly rich mussels and Anson Mills grits that are slightly sweet and velvety and kissed with butter—all that inferior grits are not.  We had the appetizer portion but would gladly order it again as an entrée, Atkins be damned! Equally good is the lump crab cake, really more of a pile of pan-sautéed, buttery meat served with a tangy caper rémoulade.  The rustic eggplant bruschetta was a pricey but delectable blend of blue cheese, golden raisins, roasted eggplant and a touch of Dijon mustard.
     Our mains were less triumphant.  Seared diver scallops were a bit overcooked, but nicely paired with lemon ricotta ravioli, although we would have welcomed greater citrus flavor to cut the buttery richness of the scallops.  The prime ribeye was not transcendent, but certainly competently prepared and well matched with autumnal roasted root vegetables.
    The restaurant  rebounded at dessert. We  enjoyed the mascarpone chocolate tart with its smooth ganache and the homey, not too sweet, turnover with tangy goat cheese ice cream.
     And for that, we gave thanks.
 
Appetizers run $7-$13, entrees $14-$34.

HANDICAPPING THE 2005 JAMES BEARD RESTAURANT AWARDS
by John Mariani

Nominees have been announced for The 2005 James Beard Foundation Awards, with winners to be announced at a gala on May 2.  Given the financial scandal that surrounded the Foundation earlier this year, it’s a wonder the gala will come off at all.
    That dedicated members of the various committees—restaurants, books, TV and radio, and others—have managed to pluck a semblance of victory from the gaping jaws of being swallowed up by the criminal activity of one former board member is admirable enough.  Whether the awards will still carry the prestige they once did is something yet to be assessed.
     As a former member of the Restaurant Awards Committee for nearly a decade, and three years as chairman, I know the inner workings of the group, which numbers about a dozen members from many of the best regional newspapers and magazines in the country. This august group assembles several times a year in NYC to assess the hundreds of candidates in  various categories proposed by members of the Foundation, restaurateurs, and publicists. 

     Let me state as clearly as I can that in my years on the board, there was never a whiff of impropriety (we were all unpaid volunteers, with out-of-town members reimbursed for travel expenses to NYC), and that, contrary to popular rumor, major contributions to and attendance at JBF events were never  considerations in making up the list of 20 candidates in each category, which would thereafter be further assessed by dozens of regional judges around the country.  After their opinions came in, the final nominees, five in each category, were sent out to hundreds of previous JBF winners and other food professionals  whose secret ballots  determined the final winners. 
     When I was chairman, I was never told the winners until midnight before the gala.  It is outright nonsense to suggest that the board could in any way "fix"  the nominations.   We all worked very hard to asses each and every candidate on the merits.
      I don’t believe the process has changed much since I left the board, and subsequent chairpersons have been first-rate in maintaining the board’s integrity.
      The reason I finally resigned about four years ago was largely based on my belief that no one should serve on a board for more than five years, and I was long past my time. I also found that the laborious process of whittling down hundreds of candidates into 20 nominees in nearly 20 categories was open to question, when in several cases chefs barely known to most board members would get nominated, especially since the criteria called for a restaurant or chef to "serve as a national standard bearer."   How can you be a national standard bearer when a most people on a  panel of national food media  have never heard of you?
     The problem was due in part to not having enough judges from various regions and in rarely rotating the judges from those regions.  As I recall, we never had a judge from Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, San Diego, Providence, Tucson, Tampa, Portland, Richmond, Aspen, Las Vegas, Cincinnati, Boca Raton, Birmingham, Pittsburgh, or anyone at all from Hawaii or Alaska,  though they were represented among the regional judges to whom we sent the nominations.
       I was also bothered by what was inevitable: Restaurants with the most media attention on the east and west coasts always got nominations year after year.  I used to inveigh against giving Wolfgang Puck every award it was possible to win—including Humanitarian of the Year!—not because I didn’t think Puck is a great chef with great restaurants but because his rooting section seemed so blindly fervid in his support year after year.
     There was also a disturbing refusal by many board members to care in the least if the celebrity chef they voted for ever set foot in his or her restaurant or even cooked at all any more.
    As a whole, the nominations are strong and difficult to argue with. They have become stronger in the regions where chefs who have been working for years, even decades, are finally getting the attention they deserve because the bigger, louder guns have already been given all the awards in previous years. 
      To comment briefly on the nominees, let me begin with the Outstanding Restaurateur award for “A working restaurateur, actively involved in multiple restaurants in The U.S., who has set uniformly high national standards as a creative force in the kitchen and/or in restaurant operations. Must have been in the restaurant business for at least ten years.”  The nominees are Daniel Boulud, of the Dinex Group; Thomas Keller of The French Laundry; Richard Melman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises; Danny Meyer of Union Square Café, and Drew Nieporent of Myriad restaurant Group—all extremely worthy candidate; three are NYC based.
         The Outstanding Chef Award goes to a “working chef in America whose career has set national industry standards and who has served as an inspiration to other food professionals. Must have been a working chef for the past five years.” In this category is Mario Batali, who now runs six or seven restaurants, stars in his own TV show, and is usually found on “Iron Chef” and at celebrity cook-offs; Tom Colicchio, who is busy opening Craft steakhouses around the country (next up, Dallas); Nobu Matsuhisa, who now runs a dozen or more sushi restaurants with his name on the door, though his presence is a rarity; and two very hard-working working chefs, Paul Bertolli of Oliveto in Oakland, CA, and Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill, known for his dedication to his restaurant six nights a week.  These last two seem to me to deserve the award far beyond those who have become little more than self promoters with multi-million dollar management contracts in their pockets.
    In the Outstanding Restaurant Award to a “restaurant in the U.S. that serves as a national standard bearer of consistency of quality and excellence in food, atmosphere and service. Restaurant must have been in operation for at least ten years,”  Boulevard in San francisco, Everest in Chicago, and Montrachet in NYC are all very strong contenders; I would not put Norman’s in Coral Cables in that league, and Galatoire’s, which is a delightful and nostalgic New Orleans reverie that has just in the last couple of years upgraded its food and service,  doesn’t belong in this category at all. 
     In the Best New Restaurant, “opened in 2004 that already displays excellence in food, beverage and service, and is likely to make a significant impact in years to come,” four are in NYC—Per Se, Cru, Spice Market, and The Spotted Pig—and one in NY State, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a magnificent development of natural resources on a Rockefeller estate with very serious food and wine.  The first two are spectacular restaurants with extraordinary commitment to wine and service. Spice Market, however, is a mere concept eatery opened by the here-today-gone-tomorrow Jean-Georges Vongerichten that turns out Asian style fare to hundreds each night. The teeny-weeny Spotted Pig is a charmer, but it's nothing more than a dark, cramped bar with good food.  I don't see how mixing these restaurants together in a category that is supposed to span the U.S. is anything but myopic.
          The “Rising Star Chef of the Year, age 30 or younger, who displays an impressive talent, and who is likely to make a significant industry impact in years to come,” include four I have never heard of—Daniel Humm of Campton Place in SF, Christopher Lee of Striped Bass in Philly, Melissa Perello of the Fifth Floor in San Francisco, Aaron Sanchez (him I’ve heard of), and Tre Wilcoz of Abacus in dallas.  None owns his own restaurant, as far as I know.
     I shall skip over the Pastry Chefs, only two of whom I know at all, and also the Outstanding Wine Service award, because it’s almost impossible to judge, as is Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional, whose nominees differ so much from one another, this year including a wine merchant, a cocktail authority, and winemakers.
     The same difficulty comes in judging Outstanding Service, because  styles of service differ so much from nominees like Spiaggia in Chicago and Terra in St. helena. (Spago, by the way, is up for this award, which is the only category it has not won in before.  Go figure. )
     We then come to the Regional Chef’s Awards. In California three are in Los Angeles (including--surprise!--the chef at Spago), and two in San Francisco.  In the Mid-Atlantic, I applaud the inclusion of  Todd Gray of Equinox, frank Ruta of Palena, both in DC, and Fabio Trabocchi at Maestro in Tysons’ Corner,  I’ve never heard of Mark Furstenberg of Breadline in DC, and Marc Vetri of Vetri in Philadelphia is a throughly medicore chef.
     In the Midwest, four are in Chicago, all good picks, and one in Minneapolis.   The NYC nominees include Dan Barber, whose Blue Hill is up for Best New Restaurant; Floyd Cardoz of Tabla; Andrew Carmellini of Café Boulud; Scott Conant of L’Impero, and David Waltuck of Chanterelle—all excellent candidates.
      In the Northeast, Boston claims four out of five nominations, which is ridiculous.  Not to have anyone from Greenwich, CT, or Providence, RI, is amazing.
     The northwest has always been lumped in with Hawaii as one region, which has always puzzled me.  Of the nominees, I know only one, the very fine Holly Smith of Café Juanita in Kirkland, WA.
    The Southeast is a very disappointing category, omitting many of the best and listing  at least three (I won’t name) whose restaurants I would never set foot in.
   the Southwest—a pretty vast region—has very good representation: Bruce Auden of Biga in San Antonio, TX; Nobu Fukuda of Seesaw in Scottsdale, AZ; Sharon Hage of York Street in dallas; Mark Kiffin of the Compound in Santa Fe;  and David Robins of—get ready now!—Spago in Las Vegas.
      So there yo have it (a complete list is available at www.jamesbeard.org).   It could be better but it is fairly representative, unless you happen to be in California and have the misfortune not to run a restaurant in either L.A. or San Fran,  or happen to cook in Juneau, Alaska, where you have tough competition from the chefs in hawaii.   I am dismayed  that the list pays scant attention to Italian restaurants, Asian restaurants, or the exciting new Spanish restaurants around the USA, omissions that give little credit--or exposure--to the true melting pot of cuisines that make up American gastronomy in 2005.  And, sadly, women chefs are woefully under-represented.  Still,  it is a list of impressive talents indeed.
      Good luck to them all.

   I'm not sure how to write about Roberto Paciullo's menu,
because it changes every day.  There is  a printed menu, and there's a blackboard menu, but I've never paid much attention to either. (Now that I think of it, I've never actually seen the printed menu.)  I always just ask Roberto to cook for me, and most of the regulars do too.
     I'm sure the items on the regular menu are all right, but Roberto (left) is one of those chefs who cooks out of the market, which happens to be all around him in the Belmont section of the Bronx, whose main street in this thoroughly Italian-American neighborhood is Arthur Avenue, where Dion and the Belmonts first doo-wopped on the corner of 187^th Street and Chazz Palmieri wrote “A Bronx Tale” and where Mayor Bloomberg’s chief of staff still runs the neighborhood’s best bakery, Madonia’s.
      Most of the restaurants there are pretty run-of-the-mill, with the exception of Roberto's and Mario's (to be reviewed here soon).  For several years Roberto's was located on a triangular corner, a small trattoria with rough-hewn tables in a cramped room with an even more cramped kitchen.  Somehow Roberto turned out terrific, very personalized food, but now, having moved around the corner to larger quarters, he has  been able to replicate the look of the old place while giving himself and his kitchen staff room to maneuver.  New, however, is a splendid downstairs wine room (above), where you may have a private party.
      “Whaddayou like? You like baby lamb?," he'll ask, if he's got great baby lamb. If he doesn't, no baby laamb. "You want I make you some ditalini with funghi porcini? But I got some fantastic rabbit tonight, you gonna go crazy you taste this rabbit.  You wanna fish?—I got branzino so fresh it gonna bite you back. I do it simple, a little arugula, olive oil, that’s it. With this you gotta try this new wine I just get in from Sardegna. You drink this you make love all night.”
     Roberto does this with anybody who shows real interest in his food, the kind of people who aren’t looking for chicken parm and ziti with red sauce, the kind of people who start off with some crostini with smoked scamorza mozzarella, then a big plate of bucatini with lamb ragù, then a seafood stew full of calamari and vongole, then end off with a perfect Neapolitan cheesecake called pastiera.  You leave almost bewildered that food can taste so good.
          Think of Rao’s with great  food and without the Wiseguys. (It gets a very high complement of celebs, pols, and just about every NY Yankee.  Think of a dockside trattoria in Salerno--where Roberto comes from and learned to cook from his mother--and how the clams and the shrimp taste like the sea.
         The prices here are very very reasonable, the portions generous, and the wine list the best in the neighborhood. I could do without the extremely loud "Happy Birthday" song played whenever somehow has one, but I don't think I could ever do without Roberto's.

AND THE SECOND PERSON RUNS THE FIRST PERSON DOWN IN THE DOORWAY


A pub named El Boqsue in Quilmes, Argentina, has begun offering free drinks to all customers until one of them goes to the rest room, at which point a red light goes on and drinks must again be paid for. Reported one of the managers, "It is funny because the first person to use the toilet is always spotted and ends up being booed and cursed at."








SOUNDS A LOT LIKE MICHAEL JACKSON'S BEDROOM

"Come into our world, where little droplets of goodness shower down on you from the heavens, nourishing you to the core of your aching soul, and where we treat you like family. . . even if you're a carbophobe. $30 prix fixe (three courses, your choice)."--Advertisement for Firefly restaurant in San Francisco.

 I will be hosting a very special and, I think unique, cruise event this summer from June 4-16 on the  S. S. Crystal Serenity.  I have chosen some of my favorite places in the whole world to visit and dine at, including Alain Ducasse’s illustrious three-star Louis XV restaurant in Monaco, and the enchanting Don Alfonso on the Amalfi Coast.  You will be treated to the finest these and other dedicated restaurateurs have to offer in their unique way.     I will be telling you everything worth knowing about the food and wines of the regions we visit—Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Monaco, Florence, St. Tropez, Sorrento, and Rome—including the best places to find haute cuisine to the most charming trattoria or the liveliest bistros and cafes.    
     My wife Galina, co-author with me of The Italian American Cookbook (which we’ll sign copies of), will also be giving an exclusive cooking lesson onboard I know you will enjoy.
    Between relaxing and enjoying yourselves onboard and coming with us to the loveliest sites and restaurants in the Mediterranean, you will have a unique and memorable trip and, I hope, become as familiar with these glorious places, cultures, and people as I am.     Galina and I look forward to seeing you onboard in June!    For details, go to http://www.festivalsafloat.com/html/mariani/letter.html
-- John Mariani

* On April 26, Roy’s San Francisco has teamed up with Ravenswood Winery for a 5-course dinner, with Roy’s Sommelier Rand Nielsen and Chef John Sikhattana.  $85 pp. Call 415-777-0277.

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,  Naomi  Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Lucy Gordan, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).  

 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com by clicking on the cover image.

copyright John Mariani 2005