189 replies to this topic

[Anthony Bonner]

We went on Friday. It's good, the way places like Locanda Verde and Peasant are good. It's not a cheap eat, but it is more accessible than the same chef's other places. New York is better with Osteria Morini in it.

I still have no sense of what Ai Fiori is going to be about. It's in the new Setai, and given the precedent of the downtown Setai (SHO Shaun Hergatt), one can infer it will be a high-end place. But unlike Shaun Hergatt, MW already has three high-end Italian restaurants in New York. How he intends to distinguish Ai Fiori from the others remains unclear to me.

Well its supposed to feature the food and wine of a region that is afaik unrepresented in NYC. That in and or itself is interesting

[Anthony Bonner]

We went on Friday. It's good, the way places like Locanda Verde and Peasant are good. It's not a cheap eat, but it is more accessible than the same chef's other places. New York is better with Osteria Morini in it.

I still have no sense of what Ai Fiori is going to be about. It's in the new Setai, and given the precedent of the downtown Setai (SHO Shaun Hergatt), one can infer it will be a high-end place. But unlike Shaun Hergatt, MW already has three high-end Italian restaurants in New York. How he intends to distinguish Ai Fiori from the others remains unclear to me.

Well its supposed to feature the food and wine of a region that is afaik unrepresented in NYC. That in and or itself is interesting

I also think Liguria is a pretty savvy choice. Cinque Terre is certainly on the list of first "adventurous" vacations taken by the honeymoon in Capri crowd.

[Wilfrid]

Well its supposed to feature the food and wine of a region that is afaik unrepresented in NYC. That in and or itself is interesting

Don't tell me. Raw fish appetizer, pasta with meat ragu, tweaked pizza, an interesting pig part or two?

(Note, I am not suggesting there is no cuisine of Liguria, just predicting what it will look like by the time it gets to New York).

[Anthony Bonner]

Well its supposed to feature the food and wine of a region that is afaik unrepresented in NYC. That in and or itself is interesting

Don't tell me. Raw fish appetizer, pasta with meat ragu, tweaked pizza, an interesting pig part or two?

(Note, I am not suggesting there is no cuisine of Liguria, just predicting what it will look like by the time it gets to New York).

Actually there is def a local pizza style - basically stuffed focaccias. I'm sure it won't be as interesting as it should be.

[Sneakeater]

Of course, if they don't serve a lot of pork -- if, say, they serve a lot of pesto, and fish, and pasta with potatoes -- they'll be accused by reviewers of diverging from standard Italian practice. (At least they'll have ravioli.)

At least they announced it was Ligurian in advance, so the reviewers will know what to look for.

[oakapple]

Actually there is def a local pizza style - basically stuffed focaccias.

I am not clear on how you filter that through the prism of the Setai, assuming they are looking for something as far upscale as they built downtown.

[Anthony Bonner]

Actually there is def a local pizza style - basically stuffed focaccias.

I am not clear on how you filter that through the prism of the Setai, assuming they are looking for something as far upscale as they built downtown.

I don't disagree with you - it could be a smidge more downscale and still pull off that trick. Grammercy Park hotel is very upscale, but Maialino certainly is not (in the way the hotel is - big fan of the resto personally)

[Sneakeater]

I'm not disputing anything ANYBODY is saying here, but just as point of interest, am I right that I read somewhere that Maialino is not turning out to very popular with the Gramercy's guests, but rather is being packed by locals?

[mitchells]

I believe most of the hotel restaurants are marketing to locals. They are using the hotels for financing. The hotels are marketing the restaurants to attract guests.

Many of the newer boutiquey hotels are too small to play a significant role in a restaurants success.

[Anthony Bonner]

Wilf was right

Posted 01 November 2010 - 12:28 PM

Anthony Bonner, on 01 November 2010 - 05:09 PM, said:

Well its supposed to feature the food and wine of a region that is afaik unrepresented in NYC. That in and or itself is interesting

Don't tell me. Raw fish appetizer, pasta with meat ragu, tweaked pizza, an interesting pig part or two?

(Note, I am not suggesting there is no cuisine of Liguria, just predicting what it will look like by the time it gets to New York).

Ai Fiori Menu

Crudo + offal, a few not so strange sounding pasta (no trenette? no pesto of some form?), and then some straight forward meat and fish

[Sneakeater]

I hate it when he does that.

[changeup]

Not knowing the first thing about it, is there something particularly Ligurian that makes it such an international menu:

Manchego, Caviar, Beurre Blanc, Lardons, Madeira, Esplette, Dijon, Porto, Julienne, Bouillabaisse, Crépinette & Bordalaise?

[Sneakeater]

NO.

(If they tell you Genoa is an historic port, from which Columbus set out, I call bullshit.)

[Anthony Bonner]

yeah this is incredibly lame sounding and utterly uninteresting. oh well.

[Nathan]

yeah, this is ridiculous. the place might be good but the menu is entirely contemporary pan-Italian....(I think the black bass with tomatoes is a Ligurian dish...just one that Batali has been doing for years)...sounds like a publicist's work to me.