Rolling the Dice: Bar Stuzzichini

Every week, we take our turn with Lady Luck on the BruniBetting odds as posted by Eater. Just for kicks, we track Eater’s bet too, and see who is better at guessing what the unpredictable Bruni will do. We track our sins with an imaginary $1 bet every week.

The Line: Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Bar Stuzzichini. The Eater oddsmakers (after a hiatus last week) have set the action as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 4-1
One Star: 2-1 √√
Two Stars: 6-1
Three Stars: 75-1
Four Stars: 25,000-1

The Skinny: Yawn. Another review, another Italian restaurant…Bruni’s favorite. Yet again, it’s one of those earnest neighborhood places that probably belongs in the $25-and-under column.

Adam Platt gave the place two stars this week, but he admitted he was biased:

Bar Stuzzichini is in my approximate neighborhood. It is modestly priced (off-duty restaurant critics tend to be cheap), and as the name indicates, you can dine by yourself (off-duty restaurant critics also like to be left alone) at one of two long, convivial bars.

I give Platt credit. At least he admits that he is reviewing based on criteria that no responsible critic should depend on. Bruni is less self-conscious about doing the same.

Though Platt’s tastes tend to track Bruni’s rather well, in this case I don’t think Bruni will be quite as generous. He’s going to want to let Franny’s bask in the glow of the big wet slathering two-star kiss he adminstered a couple of weeks ago. To do it again so soon would dim the luster of that review.

The Bet: We agree with Eater that Frank Bruni will award one star to Bar Stuzzichini, though probably on the higher end of one star—it is Italian, after all.