No tipping in restaurants!
Nov 19th, 2015 | 09:09 PM
#82
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 6,476
Likes: 0
This week's restaurant review from the New Yorker. The complaints were about the pretense.
The subtle pungency of acid—A glug of red wine in beef stew, capers in pasta, a squirt of lime across a taco—can give an ordinary dish a mouth-watering brightness. This particular technique is on wide display at Virginia’s, a new restaurant in Alphabet City from the chef Christian Ramos and the owner Reed Adelson, who worked together at Charlie Trotter’s, in Chicago. From cocktails through dessert, the pleasing sweet-and-sour flavors conferred by fruit, vinegar, and even cheese appear in practically every dish. But, applied as a universal device, the trick results in taste-bud strain.
It’s enough to induce longing for simple bread and butter. Instead, there’s a starter of two small toasts spread with tangy La Tur goat cheese, covered with chunks of Honeycrisp apple and sunflower seeds—currants are uncalled for but fun, each berry bursting in the mouth like roe. One way to mute acidity is with fat, a tactic Ramos puts to beautiful use in duck rillettes, which play nicely with pickled pole beans and Concord-grape compote. Recently, vinaigrettes factored into a small plate of caramelized romanesco as well as a salad of red-oak lettuces, and were unnecessary and excessive, respectively. Seared cuttlefish with braised kale was leavened with Moroccan olives and chunks of sourdough bread, lest we get a taste of the ocean creature.
The larger dishes at Virginia’s are better equilibrated, with the exception of a butternut-squash risotto so soupy and sweet that even fishing for the meaty porcini and pecans was dispiriting (the rice was completely lost to a puddle of sauce). Ramos’s technical execution is impressive, and his strongest suit is proteins, cooked to tender perfection. The diver scallops, with Meyer lemon and Seckel pear, and the chicken breast, with fig jam and small, red sweet peppers, were both moist and silken—they could have been served stark naked, their fruity garnishes mere distraction.
Dessert should be an adventure, not a difficult challenge, and though nothing on the menu from Lauren Calhoun (another chef imported from the Windy City) is too traditional, neither is it too satisfying. The subtlety of raw honey and panna cotta was bulldozed by zesty apricot and sharp ginger, as though someone had turned the contrast way up. And there is no chocolate to be found, unless you count that insidious imposter white chocolate, meekly dolloped over profiteroles and duking it out with inexplicable cashews and apple butter. But there’s hope for Virginia’s: the menu changes seasonally. Is restraint too much to ask for the holidays? ♦
Open for dinner Mondays through Saturdays. Entrées $20-$28.
The subtle pungency of acid—A glug of red wine in beef stew, capers in pasta, a squirt of lime across a taco—can give an ordinary dish a mouth-watering brightness. This particular technique is on wide display at Virginia’s, a new restaurant in Alphabet City from the chef Christian Ramos and the owner Reed Adelson, who worked together at Charlie Trotter’s, in Chicago. From cocktails through dessert, the pleasing sweet-and-sour flavors conferred by fruit, vinegar, and even cheese appear in practically every dish. But, applied as a universal device, the trick results in taste-bud strain.
It’s enough to induce longing for simple bread and butter. Instead, there’s a starter of two small toasts spread with tangy La Tur goat cheese, covered with chunks of Honeycrisp apple and sunflower seeds—currants are uncalled for but fun, each berry bursting in the mouth like roe. One way to mute acidity is with fat, a tactic Ramos puts to beautiful use in duck rillettes, which play nicely with pickled pole beans and Concord-grape compote. Recently, vinaigrettes factored into a small plate of caramelized romanesco as well as a salad of red-oak lettuces, and were unnecessary and excessive, respectively. Seared cuttlefish with braised kale was leavened with Moroccan olives and chunks of sourdough bread, lest we get a taste of the ocean creature.
The larger dishes at Virginia’s are better equilibrated, with the exception of a butternut-squash risotto so soupy and sweet that even fishing for the meaty porcini and pecans was dispiriting (the rice was completely lost to a puddle of sauce). Ramos’s technical execution is impressive, and his strongest suit is proteins, cooked to tender perfection. The diver scallops, with Meyer lemon and Seckel pear, and the chicken breast, with fig jam and small, red sweet peppers, were both moist and silken—they could have been served stark naked, their fruity garnishes mere distraction.
Dessert should be an adventure, not a difficult challenge, and though nothing on the menu from Lauren Calhoun (another chef imported from the Windy City) is too traditional, neither is it too satisfying. The subtlety of raw honey and panna cotta was bulldozed by zesty apricot and sharp ginger, as though someone had turned the contrast way up. And there is no chocolate to be found, unless you count that insidious imposter white chocolate, meekly dolloped over profiteroles and duking it out with inexplicable cashews and apple butter. But there’s hope for Virginia’s: the menu changes seasonally. Is restraint too much to ask for the holidays? ♦
Open for dinner Mondays through Saturdays. Entrées $20-$28.
Nov 20th, 2015 | 05:36 AM
#83
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 3,959
Likes: 0
> There will no longer be a line for tipping on the bill, and the people we spoke to have adopted a wait and see attitude about how the changes would affect the take-home of front of the house staff, while concurring that the back of the house would accrue definite and substantial financial benefits with the new system. I imagine that in a restaurant of this caliber there will be diners that will leave tips, disregarding policy changes.
I don't suppose they plan on tracking what happens to their service quality.
Didn't think so.
Now you know the actual reason for the policy change.
I don't suppose they plan on tracking what happens to their service quality.
Didn't think so.
Now you know the actual reason for the policy change.
Nov 20th, 2015 | 07:00 AM
#85
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 13,215
Likes: 0
Neighbor has a son working at one of the restaurants that are considering doing away with tipping and I asked him what he thought of it.
His thoughts were that it would probably be income neutral with the "bay" days of low tips offset by the salary. He can't see it affecting his behavior or performance in the least.
His thoughts were that it would probably be income neutral with the "bay" days of low tips offset by the salary. He can't see it affecting his behavior or performance in the least.
