(646) 952-0828
Holy shit faithful 8! It's been so god damned long since I've been able to write about a place with such conviction, such fervor. I mean, a real gourmet place sans the pretension or buzz, at least to my knowledge, and from the looks of the crowd a pretty mellow place. As important, perhaps more important, this was an old-school double date with the ol' wifey wife and the other ol' wifey wife, sometimes referred to as the 2nd wife for those following a decade ago. I'd have to search around to know for sure, but know that it's been a long time since we've dined at a place we didn't own or that didn't suck.
Iconman, shut up, how was the food? In a word: great. We had just about all the menu had to offer, and I can tell you that it was all masterfully executed. The cuisine lends itself to simplicity, and the ingredients were high quality so there you go.
More importantly, however, was the excellent waiter and staff. Friendly, yet knowledgeable, they were able to navigate the menu with knowledge but lacking condescension or what I am now coining "faux service." You heard it here first, faux service. This is what people who don't know what they're doing hang on to the little that they do know, and then do that so much and in such a pronounced way that they look stupid. It happens quite frequently in the food and beverage industry, as you can take a little fragment about something, say where a wine was made, and be so confident in your delivery that people automatically assume you know what the fuck you are talking about. When you know one detail about one region in one country in the whole world of wine producers. Faux service manifests in many different ways: walking around the dining room with your arms behind your back being hyper observant, like Morpheus if he were a host. Or spouting fun facts and histories about the pastas, but mispronouncing the accompaniment. Or writing a badly written blog. It saddens me, as it is incredibly difficult to know, I mean truly understand, a menu like Alto Paradiso.
Any who, no faux service here. This place is legit as it gets.
12 hours ago
