52 replies to this topic

[Anthony Bonner]

I can't remember seeing portabella on any non-pub menu, very innovative of them.

Hey Northern Spy that other bastion of green dining has a portabello sandwich !!!

[Wilfrid]

I stopped by for a light lunch last week,which they are good at-cold green pea soup and some mackerel ceviche were tasty,satisfying on a hot day.Great lime ginger drink.But when I heard the waiter discussing an heirloom-something ridiculous that I now can't remember-special,it was very hard not to burst out laughing.I'm all for green restaurants,but don't hit me over the head with it,and make me feel silly for eating there...

Very well put. It's overdone.

[Lex]

... and the remarkably beautiful busser.

Creeping Ozerskyism.

[ghostrider]

The straight restaurant review is starting to seem otiose, as places are previewed into the ground, then reviewed twenty or thirty times in their first month of operation. So I am consciously rambling and getting a few things off my chest when I discuss ABC Kitchen at the Pink Pig.

Not a bad restaurant, but one taken too much at face value by a number of critics.

I am going to be contemplating the notion of a "sustainable chair" for some while.

[Wilfrid]

The tables and chairs for the most part looked like white plastic, but I assume they are made of some unspeakably noble recycled material.

There are "reclaimed wooden tables," and my best guess is that this means the slices of tree trunk from which they are fashioned were reclaimed from trees felled for other reasons (or by chance?). I suppose trees aren't being chopped down in order to make the tables. It really is all such a big silly fuss to attract downtown diners, though, otherwise the standards would be consistent throughout the group.

"Oh but we have to start somewhere."

Okay, start on the Upper East Side or in the Bahamas, and maybe I'll lose my cynicism.

[Sneakeater]

I thought it was more like:

"We have to open another restaurant. What's it going to be?"

"Well, this one's in ABC Carpet, with its overpriced world tchatckies. And it's a couple of blocks from the green market."

"So this'll be our sustainable/market restaurant! Brilliant! Write the mission statement and the back side of the menu right away!"

"But what about the front of the menu?"

"Oh, don't worry about THAT. We've got WEEKS before we open."

[Sneakeater]

Talia Baiocchi's analysis of ABC Kitchen's wine list on Eater is remarkably congruent with Wilfrid's review.

[wingding]

I stopped by for a light lunch last week,which they are good at-cold green pea soup and some mackerel ceviche were tasty,satisfying on a hot day.Great lime ginger drink.But when I heard the waiter discussing an heirloom-something ridiculous that I now can't remember-special,it was very hard not to burst out laughing.I'm all for green restaurants,but don't hit me over the head with it,and make me feel silly for eating there...

Very well put. It's overdone.

Now I remember;It was an excited remark about the 'heirloom toast',a title that begged for a comedy sketch.I wander into ABC to browse around every now and then,and find that the entire store seems to be saturated with the same silliness,good in principle,if I choose to fork out 2 grand for a righteously made chair-maybe the owners have an influence on the restaurant.

[Wilfrid]

The restaurant really fits in well with the ABC aesthetic. I can remember years ago when I was single and had no hungry mouths in the nest and reasonable disposable income: I used to browse in ABC and come out empty-handed, astonished by the price of bric-a-brac.

[rozrapp]

The restaurant really fits in well with the ABC aesthetic. I can remember years ago when I was single and had no hungry mouths in the nest and reasonable disposable income: I used to browse in ABC and come out empty-handed, astonished by the price of bric-a-brac.

I remember once picking up a gorgeous throw pillow. When I checked the price, it left my hands as though it was suddenly on fire!

[ulterior epicure]

The restaurant really fits in well with the ABC aesthetic. I can remember years ago when I was single and had no hungry mouths in the nest and reasonable disposable income: I used to browse in ABC and come out empty-handed, astonished by the price of bric-a-brac.

I remember once picking up a gorgeous throw pillow. When I checked the price, it left my hands as though it was suddenly on fire!

You kill me.

[Lex]

The restaurant really fits in well with the ABC aesthetic. I can remember years ago when I was single and had no hungry mouths in the nest and reasonable disposable income: I used to browse in ABC and come out empty-handed, astonished by the price of bric-a-brac.

The place carries stuff that's 20% better than similar items at Pier 1 at 5 times the cost. I've had the impulse to confront the people standing on the checkout line with these ridiculous* tchotchkes and ask "Are you insane?"

* From time to time I've been known, nay proud, to buy stupid shit but I never pay full retail, let alone the extortionate prices of ABC.

[Anthony Bonner]

Well we all know this place isn't going to make any list of "most essential dining destinations" but it has been well reviewed and the place was pretty packed - but well sorta good not great. Wife had a salad with massive pieces of roast carrot that had some gentle harissa spicing to it. I had a raw scallop thinly slice with anise hyssop and chile. For mains she had a bass stuffed with chile in a broth, I had steamed halibut. Notice something? yeah everything was spicy including both of my rather delicate fish preps - the chile completely overwhelmed the flavor of the scallop. For some reason my Halibut which I chose because I expected a really nice piece of delicate fish with a slightly mustardy counterpoint from the nasturtium broth must have had a quickie with a bottle of cayenne on the way out the door. Not totally obliterating like the chile in the scallops but distracting and served no purpose. The wife's Sea Bass was good as long as you ate around the chile - which even the bass had a hard time standing up to. Desserts were a solid cobbler and a mediocre "ice cream cake". Decent wine list - had an Alsatian Riesling off of it.

Crowd was entertaining mix of bankers and those who love them, tourists, girls night out. and date night.

Not bad but not a place I need to go back to or recommend someone go there. But also not so bad that I would wave someone off if I heard they were going.

[Wilfrid]

That nails it, I think.

[Lex]

Notice something? yeah everything was spicy including both of my rather delicate fish preps - the chile completely overwhelmed the flavor of the scallop.

They're working on the premise that 3rd world peasants like their food spicy and that you'll join them out of solidarity.