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I begin this blog not by noting how many of our city's new mega restaurants are outsized theme parks, but by discussing the pan-Asian explosion as it pertains to an early player: China Grill. But instead of starting in this outsized Manhattan laboratory of monumental-scale gastronomy, we start in America's Midwest.
Perhaps I should begin by way of Marco Polo's travels to China, a perennial favorite for businesses seemingly inspired by historical themes. For example, the website for Manhattan's China Grill haughtily declaims: Excerpts from Marco Polo’s diary inscribed in marble mosaics on the limestone floor. Firmly creating one's restaurant with a world-historical perspective? My synopsis of the diary: ragged man returns to Italy after possibly visiting a number of foreign countries. In fact, a rather astute book by Frances Wood asked the big question some years ago:Did Marco Polo Go to China? We might actually never know. But the real question for us is: Did China Grill go to China? Does China Grill's conception of world cuisine mesh with Marco Polo's Description of the World?
Last Friday we attempted a stab at these questions. (Actually, we were just hungry, but eventually these questions came up.) In Chicago with some colleagues, we stood admiring the stunning Art Deco Carbide and Carbon Building, which although a landmark has been conveniently transformed into the sleek Hard Rock Hotel. As it happened, the lustrous black marble coupled with the word "carbon" to us suggested grilled steak, and therefore the adjoining China Grill seemed most convenient. Although the nearby Palm steakhouse would have been another option, one does tire of overcloned theme restaurants. That is to say, China Grill with a mere five outposts has been less cloned, only one-sixth as many times as the Palm, with 30 outposts.
And there we were: a table of three in a largely deserted restaurant at prime dining time. It would be no problem to have our run of the house, and the staffers' earnest Midwestern attitude felt quite refreshing for these intrepid New Yorkers. We found it a fascinating multicultural experience, with our Asian-American guest noting that we could barely see an Asian employee at the restaurant. (It reminds us of our favorite Chinese restaurant in Manhattan, now successful enough to afford Mexican kitchen staff.) So did Marco Polo or the China Grill ever go to China?
Whether the Classic Saketini or Ginger Pear Saketini, the pan-Asian themes were certainly well threaded throughout the restaurant's entire concept (think red color scheme that evokes rare lacquer, etc.). The cocktail list alone reflected all manner of possibly exotic ingredients that suggest we've come a long way since the raging Polynesian and tiki-theme approaches of decades past. Yet it was quite obvious we were—to appropriate a phrase coined by the Sunday New York Times magazine—dining by satellite. At this remote outpost, the concept went on autopilot, the prices zoomed through the roof, and apparently the customers attempted to follow suit. For while one appetizer actually suggested—indeed evoked—fine meals redolent of China past, everything else screamed America present. The waitress exuded charm, and did a fine upsell on our second bottle of wine. Portions were enormous, reminding me that I had recently attempted to watch Super Size Me on DVD and found myself fast-forwarding through most of it. (After all, I know what happens, right? Man gets fat eating sugar and fat.) Nothing was lavished upon us, nor did we find any flaws. We simply overate and overdrank, and that suggests the dining by satellite concept can indeed succeed. Until dessert, that is, when we admired the enormous Banana-in-a-Box, a towering wonder of sugary delights evocative perhaps of the surrounding Art Deco architecture of North Michigan Avenue. We began daintily scooping out fluffy wonders from its roof when the waitress reappeared, and deftly wielded a spoon in order to turn the tower on its side and smash it open with a spoon, thereby exposing its innards—dozens of banana slices. We could not help but think: World Trade Center. We moreover could not help but think: symbolic of this restaurant concept. In other words, sleek packaging of overpriced but ordinary staples. A drunken chicken here, a rather inedible skirt steak there. And with that, we drank the espressi and left. Ambitious, of course, yet nothing stunning. After all, we were dining by satellite.
Tags:
art deco, chicago, china grill, dining by satellite, marco polo, palm steakhouse, pan asian, saketini
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Posted on 6/6/2006
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