Virtual Gourmet

Betsy Drake and Cary Grant in "Every Girl Should Get Married" (1948)

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THIS WEEK

WHY DO YOU GO OUT TO EAT AND WHAT
DO YOU EXPECT FROM A RESTAURANT?
by John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
Rouge Tomate
by John Mariani

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WHY DO YOU GO OUT TO EAT AND WHAT
DO YOU EXPECT FROM A RESTAURANT?
by John Mariani

In last week's New York Times, two articles seem to pose the same question: When you go out to eat, what do you expect from a restaurant?
    For columnist Mark Bittman (below), not much. After lamenting his agonies dining at "four-star white-tablecloth" restaurants, which he calls "circuses without clowns or trapezes," with "white-tooth phony" greetings, the "visit of the wine guy," the "discussion of the menu," the "waiting for the amuse-bouches," he ends his litany of pain with, "If the food isn't mind-blowing, what's the point?" To which the answer is, Duh?
    He then writes a paean to "my place," a "Japanese hole in the wall" he won't name that's "pleasant," populated "almost exclusively by expat and visiting Japanese." He calls it "ugly," with Formica tables, paper napkins, and a cash register "wrapped in plastic to keep the grease off the keys." The food is "quite good," the gyoza "better than average." The servers "say hello and send me to the back... The chef and cooks nod. They cook their fine food. The servers bring it. I eat it. A server comes and refills the water glass; she might ask if I want more sake... Eventually I pay the bill, without regret ($29 for two the other day, and that was four dishes), and I go home happy, satisfied and full. What more do you want, really?" Again, Duh?
    Turn the page, and there's a story by Susanne Craig about "What Restaurants Know (About You)," which details how white-tablecloth restaurants keep lists on regular customers. It cites Gramercy Tavern, which sends one regular only the ends of the bread, as he prefers, and cooks French fries for him even though they're not on the menu.
    Craig cites OpenTable as providing a service to restaurants whose owners want to bend over backwards to please a customer, and she alerts you to what it means if your name on the guest list has a "PX" (person extraordinaire), "FOM" (friend of the management), or LOL (for "little old lady" who may need special help). And here's the thing: In such restaurants, not having such an abbreviation next to your name in no way means you'll be treated any less cordially. That is what they do.
    I've written about such lists here and applaud them for their professionalism and courtesy, based on two centuries of adapting service to an American hospitality — without any "white-tooth phony grin." I love it when the captain remembers my cocktail preference and the "wine guy" makes a recommendation based on my choices on prior visits. When people asked James Beard what his favorite restaurant was, he would always reply, "Why, the one where I'm treated best!"
    Despite Bittman's love of eating in the back rooms of ugly holes-in-the-wall with paper napkins, going out to a restaurant is so much more than just eating some "quite good food." Assuming, of course, the food at the high-end restaurants is worth $100 or more per person, the reason for patronizing them surely begins with a sense of delight, an appreciation of what might be millions of dollars spent to provide a beautiful design, comfortable chairs, good lighting, and a state-of-the-art kitchen capable of turning out amuses and three-course meals for 150 people, and don't have to wrap their cash registers in plastic. The atmosphere of a classic steakhouse, the ebullience of a stylish Italian restaurant, the comfort of a place where you could bring your parents and kids, and the assurance of a restaurant where, being a regular, you can take a client with absolute confidence he will applaud your good taste — these are but a few reasons that 99 percent of the people who can afford to eat out, eat out.
    True, there seems to be a large flock of foodies for whom the 90-minute wait for a table, the rigid stools, the blasting music, and the same $100 tab is preferable to a restaurant where one is taken good care of and will dine extremely well. It's a form of contrary snobbism where less is more and more is suspect.
    Do I have my secret little holes-in-the-wall I like to go to? Of course — I'll tell you their names if you like — pizzerias, sushi bars, fried-seafood joints, noodle shops. I love 'em all, but I don't confuse them with the rapture and good feelings I find at fine-dining restaurants, where they really do care that their guests will have a unique evening out or one that is just as wonderful as the last time.

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NEW YORK CORNER

ROUGE TOMATE
10 East 60th Street (near Fifth Avenue)
646-237-8977
www.rougetomatenyc.com

When Rouge Tomate opened three years ago, much was made about the restaurant's commitment to SPE®, the acronym for Sanitas Per Escam (Latin for Health Through Food), which also stands for Sourcing, Preparing, and Enhancing, an organization founded by Emmanuel Verstraeten, a Belgium entrepreneur concerned about poor eating habits and limited healthy dining options, in his city and abroad.
    Noble as that all is, a restaurant succeeds or fails not by philosophy but by good taste and pleasure, and NYC-born Chef Jeremy Bearman, here from the start, along with nutritionist Kristy Lambrou, has put far more emphasis on those virtues than was evident at the beginning. His résumé is certainly solid: db bistro moderne in NYC, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas, the Ritz Carlton’s Medici Café and Terrace in Lake Las Vegas, and Lark Creek Steak in San Francisco.
    The restaurant is set on two levels, with smart, high polish, a warm greeting, wonderful light and color, and well-set, spacious tables. The wine list is 200-plus labels strong.
    One a recent Indian summer's eve, we sat down to a lavish spread, allowing Bearman to work his magic, and he began with what he calls "toasts" (below), a duo of oyster with plum mignonette, crispy ginger and shiso; and a corn and mild sea urchin panna cotta with a lush lobster emulsion. A bright, flavorful gazpacho followed with a touch of sweet watermelon and sherry vinegar for acidic spark--which is very important in this cuisine because there is not much fat in the food.
    A series of silky crudi came next--Hawaiian walu with avocado, sugar snap peas, radish and yuzu; corn and avocado with Maryland crab, jalapeño, and cilantro; fluke ceviche with ripe melon, cucumber, brisk Kaffir lime and summer's mint; Arctic char with horseradish yogurt, trout roe, dill and pumpernickel, and more--all light, almost weightless, complex but complementary in tastes and textures.
    A fine Spanish octopus salad with colorful eggplant caponata, basil, tomato and smoked paprika vinaigrette came with a Maine lobster salad with avocado, beans, peach, and candied pecan with endive, all a little too sweet for the lobster, saved only by the bitterness of the endive. Cow’s milk ricotta gnudi melted on the tongue, with tomato, okra, sweet pepper, summer squash, and basil.
    There were three of us that night, and this was like a lot of food--before the entrees--but we were far from full, happily so, since what followed was cracked pepper garganelli with veal sweetbread, chanterelle, corn, okra, tomato and Shishito pepper, and a luscious duckling (right) with plum, ginger, horseradish potato, Japanese eggplant and honey-soy glaze that made this a contemporary, considerably lighter, less greasy version of Peking duck. Chicken was cooked juicy en Sous-Vide, with polenta, Swiss chard, and peppers.
    For dessert we had an array--yellow peach, raspberry, pistachio and candied lemon sorbets, a blueberry custard, chilled melon soup, and more, by which time we were feeling very satisfied.
    These are all exciting concepts and Bearman delivers the flavor. It s a menu all of a piece, and, though a vegetarian might feel blissful here, I am happy that it contains duck and squab and other fatted meats. What I'm not crazy about is the meadow of micro-greens strewn everywhere, which have little or no taste and just get stuck in one's teeth. (I wonder what his micro-greens bill is each month?)
    You may well find dishes like these around NYC, but nowhere is there such a panoply on a menu that is very devoted to doing what Bearman and his partners believe in.

Rouge Tomate is open for lunch daily and for dinner Mon.-Sat. Appetizers at dinner run $12-$18, main courses $21-$31. There is a 7-course tasting menu at $89.

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WHY NOT JUST EAT ON
THE SCIENTOLOGY SPACESHIP?

While in the Adriatic, Tom Cruise demanded a Montenegro hotel clear its dining room so he could eat alone. When refused, he got another restaurant to deliver to his yacht.

LEAN AND VERY VERY MEAN

Recipes in the new cookbook
The Need to Feed, A Hedonist's Guide by Lydia Lunch.

-Kill Billy with Beef Chipotle Marinade
-You'll Thank Me for Kicking Your Ass Curry
-Eat My Peach Before It Crumbles
-Sacrificial Lamb
-I Said Jerk That Chicken!

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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani, John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Suzanne Wright, and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.