The Pete Wells Thread

[Wilfrid]

If you were on Instagram you would see.

[Diancecht]

53 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

Gage & Tollner as a new restaurant?

i vaguely remember the cream of cream soup 

glad to hear it’s being revitalized though

[Neocon maudit]

Starred reviews return to The New York Times: ★★★ for a Puerto Rican roast-pork trailer in 152nd St!

[Sneakeater]

So on the one hand, stars are back.

On the other hand, three stars for a food truck.

I wonder how Wells is going to make sense of this going forward.

[Neocon maudit]

Given the post-pandemic economy, no one's going to start a proper NYT ★★★★ / Michelin ★★★ restaurant any time soon, so they might as pave the way for the ★★★★ pizza slice.

[small h]

In the same issue (but not Wells-related, so a little OT), $3-$4/piece oysters sold from a cart. I like the cart idea, but that's kinda pricey.

[Wilfrid]

The column is called “Restaurant Review.” This is not a restaurant. Silly pandering.

[small h]

Uh oh. Now we need to define "restaurant." It's not a place that sells you ready to eat food and offers space to consume it?

[Sneakeater]

Agree with small h.  That ship has sailed, Wilf.  Not tenable anymore.  Not pandering at all.  Just accepting reality.  To do otherwise be offensive to much of The Times's readership (including me).

(I'll say it for the 23rd time:  you could just as justifiably argue that they shouldn't cover pop in music reviews cuz pop isn't "music".  That was a tenable [albeit certainly not valid] editorial policy in like 1940.)

[Sneakeater]

But they should jettison the stars, which only fuck things up.

[small h]

Yes, three stars for a food truck - sorry, trailer - reinforces the perception that the whole exercise is suspect. But! without stars, we're gonna hafta like read the whole review.

[Sneakeater]

I remember when the very restaurant I had a fabulous dinner in tonight was given three stars several years ago, someone at a restaurant I respected complained that such a rating for such a restaurant was an insult to everyone who worked hard at and invested in having a real top-level restaurant.

He had a point.  But the fault is not in ourselves, but in the stars.

[Sneakeater]

What's the point of a system where a place like Le Gratin, which has no particular relevance to anything, would be guaranteed a review, but a food truck like today's, which sounds genuinely great, could not get a review?

[Wilfrid]

41 minutes ago, small h said:

Uh oh. Now we need to define "restaurant." It's not a place that sells you ready to eat food and offers space to consume it?

Whole Foods is not a restaurant chain. The taco truck down the street is not a restaurant. The corner deli is not a restaurant. Shake Shack in JFK is not a restaurant. Someone offering delivery only is not running a restaurant.

[Wilfrid]

7 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

What's the point of a system where a place like Le Gratin, which has no particular relevance to anything, would be guaranteed a review, but a food truck like today's, which sounds genuinely great, could not get a review?

Sounds great. Has Wells explored the many other transient Dominican and Puerto Rican food trucks that show up late at night under bridges in the Bronx or out in Brooklyn? Is there a serious attempt to judge ranking here?

Or is it just silly pandering?