[Wilfrid1]

I'm with Nathan on this one. I don't know if Soto is as busy as it was - and it was - but it's location nearby is worse if anything.

[Sneakeater]

Wait a minute. You mean we weren't on a date????

Wait a minute. You mean I was?

[Nathan]

[Nathan]

Sheridan Square is in the WV, not Murray Hill.

The part of the WV Sheridan Square is in is like the WV branch of Murray Hill.

only if you head south...and even then you've got Little Branch right smack dab in the middle. try that in Murray Hill.

look at it this way. when you tell a civilian friend that you'd like to try a new restaurant (or an old one they haven't heard of) their first response is usually "where is it?" if you say "the WV" they respond "oh, cool." if you say "Murray Hill"....

[spaetzle]

Civilian? You mean someone who is not a guerrilla restaurant "critic"?

[Nathan]

not a foodie.

Sneakeater's "date rotation" for example

[yvonne johnson]

Sheridan Square is in the WV, not Murray Hill.

The part of the WV Sheridan Square is in is like the WV branch of Murray Hill.

only if you head south...and even then you've got Little Branch right smack dab in the middle. try that in Murray Hill.

look at it this way. when you tell a civilian friend that you'd like to try a new restaurant (or an old one they haven't heard of) their first response is usually "where is it?" if you say "the WV" they respond "oh, cool." if you say "Murray Hill"....

WV branch of Murray Hill?

[oakapple]

I'm talking about "avoiding", for fine dining, a place on a corner that looks across a four-lane avenue into a garage, and spits you out after dinner onto a stretch of avenue full of lost drunken frat boys.

Sheridan Square isn't any more "fine dining" than various places Nathan mentioned (and others he didn't) that are literally no more than three minutes' walk away. It's difficult for me to believe that, if they get the other stuff right, the fact that it's on Seventh Avenue South (rather than a side street) will be the reason why it fails.

(And note how Pamplona is succeeding there, where Urena couldn't.)

There is a problem with the Ureña analogy. There aren't a whole lot of successful examples anywhere in town for a restaurant with the type of menu he had. It could very well be that people just weren't warming up to expensive Spanish food with foams and wacky ingredients, and that he would've had that problem even if he'd opened in another neighborhood.

Addendum: On OpenTable, you can get a Pamplona resevation anytime you want tonight or tomorrow night. Pamplona isn't packing them in.

[Suzanne F]

Will be going to Sheridan Square tomorrow for an early dinner. (It's a short walk from the theater we'll be going to.) But I doubt my experience will be that of a "normal" patron. Anyway, will report back.

[Nathan]

my comments are here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=115940

[yvonne johnson]

A very good dinner last night.

Tomato and basil martini was remarkably good. Rhubarb martini less so.

Crispy Squash Blossom jumbo lump crab with avocado, roasted corn salsa and mango chili sauce for me. A large blossom stuffed with stellar crab. The roasted corn and avocado went reasonably well, but the salad that also came with it didn't jive with the rest. Too much on the plate syndrome.
Foie Gras Ravioli in golden oxtail broth with satur farm's spring vegetables and early summer truffles for G. He deemed this excellent and very truffley.

Then I had the Anise Scented Crisped Long Island Duckling Breast duckling breast creamy cauliflower with braised fava beans, spring peas, and sour cherry rhubarb chutney. The duck came is rounds, nicely pink, but the fat lacked crisp, and the dish also suffered from too many different things on the plate.
G had the Juniper Scented Dry Aged Prime Rib Of Beef morels in red wine with parsnip hazelnut puree, wood roasted cipollini and crispy marrow and this was spectacularly good. The beef had a nice char and was very flavorful, unlike a lot of beef one gets around town.

I thought both desserts were poor: hazelnut semifreddo that seemed a little warm and G had a pot de creme of some sort that came with a shot glass of red berry juice (I think) and a crisp.

Service has kinks in it (e.g., had to ask for our wine several times, and we'd finished our apps just about before it arrived), but it's very early days. They certainly have plenty waiters.

The cocktail menu mystery continues. G asked if they had a cocktail list and our waiter said no, and he recited them to us. Those at the table next to us got a printed cocktail list 10 mins later. Is the hypothesis that they have only one printed menu?

Has lots of promise and we'll be back.

[Sneakeater]

The wine service problem is funny. When we went, the sommelier recommended decanting our wine. As he did so, I asked him if he had read that Christopher Hitchens piece on Slate where Hitchens takes the Rich line and decries servers' pouring of wine for the table as a rude intervention. I told him I disagreed with that.

He was on the wine pouring like white on rice.

[Sneakeater]

I agree that the duck would have been better if it were cripsier (or crispy at all).

Why, I wonder, do menus describe duck as "crisped" (as here) when it isn't?

[yvonne johnson]

The wine service problem is funny. When we went, the sommelier recommended decanting our wine. As he did so, I asked him if he had read that Christopher Hitchens piece on Slate where Hitchens takes the Rich line and decries servers' pouring of wine for the table as a rude intervention. I told him I disagreed with that.

He was on the wine pouring like white on rice.

For Hitchens every second, from bottle to his paw, counts.

[rozrapp]

Addendum: On OpenTable, you can get a Pamplona resevation anytime you want tonight or tomorrow night. Pamplona isn't packing them in.

While Pamplona may not be "packing them in," the dining area was pretty full the last time we were there, and that was on a Wednesday evening. I've found that once summer weekends roll around, it is often easier to get reservations at some restaurants where ordinarily it would be more difficult. For example, last weekend, we walked into Bar Milano on Sunday evening without a reservation and were immediately seated in the dining room. It was busy but not full.