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Food, Glorious Food
New York Restaurant Week, Part 1, JAN 23-27 and JAN 30 – Feb 3 (that’s MON – FRI Only)
Restaurant Week is swift approaching, that magical time when we can sample some of the city’s best cuisine at special prices. This is an opportunity to gorge without guilt; menus are prix fixe, with lunch coming in at $24.07 and dinner at $35.00. There is no reason to feel like a grinch.
The origins of Restaurant Week are not exactly clear, but the idea is generate buzz and business during a time of the yearwhen restaurants are usually slow.
January is usually the holiday-hangover month, and many people have no interest in making a foray into the cold once the gifts have been begotten. But they might just be enticed by a good deal at the likes of Tribeca Grill or Grammercy Tavern.
Serious foodies on the other hand wait all year for Restaurant Week and no matter how cold it is outside, they will not miss “Restaurant Week”. There is no better excuse to visit Eleven Madison or Montrachet in January, after all the holiday lights have been taken down, than the promise of a prix fixe.
How to Choose A Restaurant During Restaurant Week
Many of the numerous participating restaurants have a special prix fixe for lunch only; these are worth exploring if you are lucky enough to have a lunch hour. In fact, these are sometimes the most enjoyable of meals you will ever have in the city.
Explore the menu. If there is something you are dying to try, like a nice venison entrée, check out the Restaurant Week menus, or call ahead to see who is offering what. Some restaurants will highlight their signature dishes, while others will offer innovative specials.
The Vocabulary Du Jour
No one really likes to put the word “sampler” on the menu these days; it’s way too pedestrian. This simple two-syllable word conjures up memories of those days when road trips across the wide USA were punctuated with stop-overs at a Howard Johnson’s, with a meal in the white-tablelothed dining room. The plate was a “seafood sampler” and everything on it was fried.
New words for “sampler” include “trio of, flight of, selection of,the highlights, the headlines, triple header, the high notes, chef’s choice, your choice, our choice….” It’s anything but “sampler” even though that’s precisely what it is.
Prix Fixe is another word with a special set of meanings; it now means that for one price we can get a set of limited choices. We have come to expect three offerings for each course of the meal, but wine is not included. That’s where the wine pairings come in, effectively doubling the cost of the meal, which is often not a bad thing, since one can try a variety of wines that would are not always available by the glass. A bottle of wine can be a nice a little investment for the meal, and if it is a bad choice, well, the meal is not as memorable as it could have been.
Beware of restaurants that lure you in with a promise of a Restaurant Week deal, but then give you the same old menu with nothing special except some kind of incongruent pasta dish or an overabundance of cod.
Do stop by one of the restaurants (this is a partial list only!) listed below and pick up a copy of the official guide and map. Also, call ahead for reservations and information.
21 Club
Aquavit Cafe
Aquavit Dining Room
Artisanal
Asia de Cuba - New York
Blue Smoke
Blue Water Grill
Brasserie 8 1/2
Butter
Café Boulud
Café des Artistes
China Grill - New York
Craftbar
davidburke & donatella
Dawat
Delmonico's
Devi
Django
Eleven Madison Park
English Is Italian
Fiamma
Dinner
Estiatorio Milos
Fleur de Sel
Gramercy Tavern
Lunch Only
JoJo
Lunch Only
Jovia
Le Colonial
Mesa Grill
Molyvos
Naples 45
Nice Matin
One if by Land, Two if by Sea
Dinner Only
Ono
Patroon
Payard Patisserie & Bistro
Periyali
River Cafe
Roy's - New York
Sea Grill
Tabla
Thalassa
The Modern - Bar Room
Tribeca Grill
Union Square Cafe
Vong - New York
Water's Edge
Tags:
glam, great deals, prix fixe, restaurant week
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Posted on 1/16/2006
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