French Laundry--Napa Valley

707.944.2380

Holy shit.  Where do I begin?

So went with the ol' wifey wife, her sister and husband participating in said husbands' scratching off a bucket list item.  I was a tagalong.  And to be honest, I had no idea what to expect.  I've been to Frenchette, and 11 Madison, and as well as other gastronomically credentialed places all over NYC (see restaurant list), so part of me had my NY snob-o-meter dialed up.  However, another part of me was actually a bit curious and trepidatious of being simply too over my skis on this one.

How was the food you inevitably ask me after my longwinded intro? Spectacular.  However, this was only a mere component of arguably one of the best, if not the best dining experience of my life. Here's the dinner menu in its entirety as they hand it to you when you leave:

• Oysters and Pearls
• Bitter Garden Chicory Salad
• Sweet Butter Poached Nova Scotia Lobster
• Bread and Butter
• Applewod Smoked Wolfe Ranch White Quail
• Carnaroli Risotto Biologico
• Prime Rib of Elysian Fields Farm Lamb
• Gougere
• Caramelized K & J Orchards Sour Apple
• Hojicha Tea Ice Cream
• K & M Rogher
• Mignardises

There were some truffle and Wagyu beef options that other people tried, but not for me.  So aside from the abundance, the care and craft of the food, the wine pairing and service were equally unparalleled.  And perhaps that is why I'm still rock hard about this place weeks later. Alex, our front waiter and de facto sommelier was exemplary (he confessed he started working there after learning all he could at Charlie Trotter's!  Ha!) both in terms of breadth of knowledge but also affability.  The back waiters were personable not pushy.  Tod the maitre d'hotel took us on a personal tour.  Chris talked about fish forks.  There was wine poured when we arrived, even before water, and we drank the entire night.

Perhaps most amazing, however, is that I saw Alex keeping his distance from the romantic couple, and dumbing down his delivery to the status seekers that were their simply for cache. He knew that Husband wanted to talk shop, he recognized that my wine selections for the pairing (they paired wines not to the food but to our tastes first and then the food) were too expensive for our budget, so got close with what we could afford, and saw that my wife basically wanted to be left alone to dine so laid off the flirtatiousness.

Lights out.  Nothing more I could add to make it better.

Atoboy--Manhattan

646.476.7217

The 2nd wife's other husband loves this place.  It's gourmet, interesting (Korean if I had to guess) and rather hard to get into.  I don't see what the hubbub is about, but interesting is definitely the case.  

Before I go on about the $40 chicken boneless chicken wings, I will say that they took the whole service ninja thing to the umpteenth level.  And for no good reason as they didn't quite execute.  I understand the whole back-waiter, front-waiter system can be elegant and allow for a coverage that a single server can't.  But when each server that walks up doesn't know what we are drinking (and we're clearly empty), and doesn't know who ordered what (as we ordered the entire menu), and solicits us for jobs because they overheard us talking and deduced we were "in the industry,"  the whole cover gets blown.

Run on sentences aside, how was the food?  Solid according to my spouses that eat Korean food.  Not that it isn't for me, but when you have absolutely no idea what it is you're being served, it's less about meeting an expectation and more about creating one.  According to them it was delectable.  According to me it was weird.  The fried chicken was fine, but incredibly expensive. I mean, they have to carry that service overhead somehow.