Rolling the Dice: Mas

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 re-reviews the West Village farmhouse gem, Mas. The Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 8-1
One Star: 5-1
Two Stars: 3-1 √√
Three Stars: 6-1
Four Stars: 7,500-1

The Skinny: Frank Bruni’s first review of Mas came early in his tenure: it was something like his fifth or sixth review. He awarded just one star, which even then felt too low. When I finally got around to visiting, albeit a couple of years later, the restaurant felt like a clear two stars, with the potential for three.

Despite Eater odds that suggest a real horserace, two stars is the only realistic outcome here. Two-step promotions are extraordinarily rare in the NYT star system, and Mas isn’t an important enough restaurant for Bruni to bother re-reviewing just to re-affirm its original one-star rating. Actually, Mas isn’t a restaurant I would have expected Bruni to keep on his radar screen at all, so I’m glad to see him rectifying one of his earlier mistakes.

The Bet: We agree with Eater that Frank Bruni will award two stars to Mas.