Brooklyn Fare

[Chambolle]

It was pretty good back then. Still ain't bad.

[Suzanne F]

I'm sure I've said this already, but soon after the original Bouley opened (the one on Duane Park), my wife and I went there for an anniversary dinner. The next table were two guys closing a real estate transaction. What a romantic night!

Yeah, well, at Madras Woodlands for an anniversary or birthday dinner, we sat next to an couple on a very serious date. They spent the evening filling each other in loudly on family histories (including her Uncle Yankel who went to prison for murder, or something like) and ended up with a discussion of living in Borough Park [an enclave of Orthodox Jews, for those who don't know] that included how good the schools are, "but I could never live there--everybody knows your business." Our evening was pretty much shot until we decided that they were the entertainment.

[Sneakeater]

Madras Woodlands! Totally forgot about that place!

[Robert Brown]

I asked servergirl why my friend Bob, who assiduously writes down each dish he has wherever he eats, why he couldn't take notes, she said "It's not allowed". I asked her why, and she said "I don't make the policy". I think anyone who spends several hundred dollars a head ought to at least have the right to grasp and retain the experience. If Cesar not of the Ritz gave you a list of what he served you, that would be fine. For many years I was able to recall every dish I had in my first five meals at a certain restaurant in France. Now I no longer can, even though there were only a handful of dishes at each visit to remember. At least every one of those early visits and every one of those dishes were memorable. Try to recall half the dishes of even one visit to a pishy-portion restaurant if you don't have a mind like a steel trap. In retrospect I wish I had been like Bob and noted in some detail every meal I had in France during my first 30 years of going there. All in all, however, Brooklyn Fare is worth a go.

[TaliesinNYC]

Sure, you can't take notes, unless you're a New York Times critic.

 

I could probably remember a handful of dishes, but Robert's post just reminded me why I won't be bothered to make the effort to go anytime soon.

[TaliesinNYC]

What multiple "likes" translates to is "I am a fucking moron who has nothing interesting to say. Instead I construct sentences out of catch phrases and hope my listeners are dumb enough not to catch on."

 

Since morons tend to travel in packs it usually works. That crowd also salts their conversation with lots of Awesomes and Amazings.

 

I talk like that occasionally...

 

It's the California surfer dude who lives inside me.

[TaliesinNYC]

No Flash Photography is an easy rule to support.

 

Point and shoot, texting, answering emails--all potentially very annoying if you're with the person doing it, and was hoping for a conversation. Otherwise, even if you're seated at the same counter, who cares? Other peoples' conversations have far more potential to be distracting and annoying, and I haven't yet seen a No Talking rule.

 

Rules like the ban at Ko and at BF are part of the reason why I stopped shooting at restaurants and started focusing at home. Besides, I can control more variables there.

[TaliesinNYC]

I'm confused. What does that have to do with my taking notes?

 

I've never taken notes at a musical performance. I enjoy it (or don't) and then it's over. If I want to explore it further, I try to find a recording.

 

If I understand you correctly, I've gone to performances under something like the conditions you describe. All I knew is that it was a work I'd never heard before (maybe a world or local premier) that I knew from general knowledge I wanted to see/hear, even if the performers were unknown to me or even unidentified. What more do I need?

 

(I still don't see what that has to do with taking notes, though.)

 

The vibe I'm getting w/r/t the note-taking is that Cesar somehow views his work ... indeed the entire experience that a diner has at his restaurant as copyrighted or his own intellectual property.

 

Thoughts?

[Wilfrid]

Many, many years ago the chef at Club Gascon prevented Cabby taking photos for precisely that reason. He was concerned about his work being re-created.

 

It's rather silly, isn't it, because if you were capable of re-creating the food served at restaurants like BF or Club Gascon, I don't think you'd really need the aid of pictures or notes.

[TaliesinNYC]

I don't know.

 

If you knew what was in a dish down to the precise detail, then it would be a true re-creation.

 

For some people, a photograph or a note serves as a mnemonic device.

 

It was just something that popped up. The whole vibe I have about BF is like this little precious jewel that has to be coddled at all times. Remember Jewel Bako? Forget that. This is like Jewel Bako during its first couple of months on steroids to the umpteenth degree; and the restaurant has been around for years by this point.

[Sneakeater]

Certainly your home photos are incredible.

[Sneakeater]

I'm sort of frightened what it'll all look like when you move to CA and get some real produce.

 

(I guess we've already had a foretaste.)

[joethefoodie]

The sorrel there is so much better!

[TaliesinNYC]

I prefer natural light when it comes to shooting food...

 

B has an eastern exposure in his kitchen window which faces a light well that also looks into his study. Doesn't really receive much light in that regard.

 

His overhead lights are okay but might need supplemental help from a couple of standing floor lamps. It'll be interesting shooting in his kitchen on a regular basis, mostly because I've not been satisfied with the quality of pix in the handful of times I've been there previously.

[Suzanne F]

 

I'm confused. What does that have to do with my taking notes?

 

I've never taken notes at a musical performance. I enjoy it (or don't) and then it's over. If I want to explore it further, I try to find a recording.

 

If I understand you correctly, I've gone to performances under something like the conditions you describe. All I knew is that it was a work I'd never heard before (maybe a world or local premier) that I knew from general knowledge I wanted to see/hear, even if the performers were unknown to me or even unidentified. What more do I need?

 

(I still don't see what that has to do with taking notes, though.)

 

The vibe I'm getting w/r/t the note-taking is that Cesar somehow views his work ... indeed the entire experience that a diner has at his restaurant as copyrighted or his own intellectual property.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

Many, many years ago the chef at Club Gascon prevented Cabby taking photos for precisely that reason. He was concerned about his work being re-created.

 

It's rather silly, isn't it, because if you were capable of re-creating the food served at restaurants like BF or Club Gascon, I don't think you'd really need the aid of pictures or notes.

At one restaurant where I worked in the late 1990s, there was a fairly striking dessert (for the time). Sometime after I'd left, I saw a picture of the same dessert presentation credited to another chef/restaurant. I was outraged on behalf of my chef. Turns out both of them had stolen borrowed it from another chef they had both worked for in their early days. And what about Amanda Cohen and that other chef both coming up with the same dessert, something with beets, iirc?

 

Isn't it true that you cannot patent/trademark/otherwise protect a dish? And if someone else wants to recreate it they will, no matter what you do to prevent them.