the pete wells thread

[mongo]

(ori: can you at least bring back the malta/yalta content from the old mouthfuls?)

[Orik]

I hope to get everything back later this month, but no promises yet. 
 

[small h]

1 hour ago, Orik said:

one of two trendsetters in America 2024. 

Who's the other one?

[Orik]

Urbane Cafe in LA, seems like a fast-casual place. This is a highly technical publication aimed at chefs and restaurant owners (think pages upon pages of comparative analysis of sales data, portion sizes, trends, etc.) but their NY correspondent is the very lovely Akiko Katayama and it was a pleasure to host her. 

Anyway, the Pete Wells list - I can tell you it has a far broader reach than individual reviews. Like, my parents heard about it. 

[small h]

I wonder what trends Urbane Cafe is setting, because everything looks awfully familiar to me.

[backyardchef]

22 minutes ago, Orik said:

 the very lovely Akiko Katayama and it was a pleasure to host her. 

 

She is delightful

[MitchW]

I thought it might be Superiority Burger. Or Hamburger America.

@Orik - I've had friends from all over text me this morning asking if I'd seen the Wells' list. It is far reaching.

[backyardchef]

"A man's reach should exceed his grasp"

[AaronS]

hamburger america <<<< shake shack let alone the seneca or whatever 

[AaronS]

5 hours ago, Orik said:

I can tell you it has a far broader reach than individual reviews.  

seems to have broken the resy link

Edited April 4, 2024 by AaronS
Fucking autocorrect

[Sneakeater]

On 4/3/2024 at 9:31 PM, Wilfrid said:

Wrong guys. His editors are defending stars and rankings. Hence his entertaining guerilla war.

The thing is, I don't think Wells is engaging in a "guerilla war".  I think he's trying ;to be intellectually honest working within constraints he doesn't believe in (sort of like me living under Capitalism).

Other than Wells's first starred review, which concededly (albeit justifiably) engaged in point-making, what reviews and ratings do you think weren't good-faith efforts to be informative? Certainly this week's review is EXACTLY what he should be doing (by his and my lights, in any event).

Edited April 5, 2024 by Sneakeater

[Wilfrid]

Guerilla war in the sense that he is not publicly taking the stance that the constraints he is working under are wrong; that would mean resigning. He is cunningly trying to demonstrate that they are wrong.

[Sneakeater]

I wonder if he is, though.  Or just doing the best he can?

[Sneakeater]

Remember, The Times itself pushed Well's first starred review after the interregnum as ushering in a new era.

It's not like he was doing anything behind their back.

[backyardchef]

I can't read it. I can't remember the last restaurant review I read and enjoyed. Has to be more than 20 years. 

[Diancecht]

if any of you are on threads, the new twitter clone, there’s this app called beli

supposedly, they have their own list based off pete’s. le bernardin came in at 9 while torrisi clocked in at 2 or 3

[Simon]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:57 PM, Orik said:

Testing investor patience at the obvious place he hasn't covered yet?

I wonder how miffed they are that he mentions Acme in passing in this latest review but still hasn't covered them.

[small h]

Is Acme even remotely still Acme? I checked their Yelp page and it seems like a bottle service club, with a particularly nasty server named Natalie.

[SethG]

1 hour ago, Simon said:

I wonder how miffed they are that he mentions Acme in passing in this latest review but still hasn't covered them.

Maybe he’s waiting for them to settle on a permanent menu format. I think it’s changed half a dozen times since they opened. 

Or if his initial visits were anything like ours, he could also be waiting to see if it actually gets interesting before revisiting  

i wonder, when he seems to just skip past a notable opening, if it’s simply a place he didn’t care for (message sent - it didn’t even show up in his top 100) but he has some fondness for the proprietor and doesn’t want to knock them down. See also: Le Trois Chevaux / B. 

[Sneakeater]

I think he might have once come out and said he does that.

[Wilfrid]

Yes, that’s right. 

[MitchW]

Hamburger America's investors are probably happy.

[Orik]

The path of maximum confusion - open a vaguely korean burger tasting menu joint

[Diancecht]

offtopic although related/tangential:

”Anybody read the comments for NY Times Restaurant reviews? 

Holy crap they are insufferable. Filled with people complaining about the costs and wanting the reviewer fired for giving positive reviews to expensive restaurants. Omakase and tasting menus are not for everyone but I don’t understand the anger toward restaurants and people who enjoy them.”

“It’s even more strange when you factor in that Pete Wells was known as the guy at NYT that started reviewing more ethnic, low key places rather than the typical highbrow Michelin-bait.”

click - it’s a shadow world of food/restaurant criticism i never knew existed 

[small h]

My fave commenter is the guy who complains every time Wells reviews a restaurant that's not "European" enough.