Unaccompanied Minor = Legalized Theft

My 13-year-old son travels to see me two weekends a month. All U.S. airlines will accept unaccompanied minors—that is, children traveling alone—starting at the age of 5. However, the rules and fees keep changing to parents’ detriment.

It used to be that children 12 and over could travel on most airlines “as adults,” without payment of a fee. You would normally be charged $50 each way for children under 12, though JetBlue, the airline we used most often, charged nothing extra. A few years ago, JetBlue started charging $25 each way; then, they raised it to $50, and later to $75.

I couldn’t wait for my son to turn 12. Just as he did, they raised the cutoff age to 13. And just as he turned 13, they raised it to 14. Many airlines have now raised the cutoff age to 15, and some are charging as much as $100 each way, which practically doubles the cost of the ticket.

You might have understood the change if it had happened after 9/11, but for several years after that the normal cutoff age remained at 12. I have to think that the airlines are changing because they need the money, not out of any newly-discovered concern for children’s safety.

Now, I don’t really mind when airlines charge extra for things that actually have value. It may be inconvenient that the second suitcase that used to travel free, now entails an excess baggage fee. And it may seem nitpicky that many airlines now charge for meals and snacks that used to be free. But food and luggage really do cost money. The costs may be egregious in relation to what you get, but at least there’s a connection.

But the airlines don’t do anything for unaccompanied minors traveling on nonstop flights. Basically, they provide an escort up and down the jetway—which they also do for wheelchair passengers, without charging extra—and that’s it. They don’t have any extra staff at the gate or on the plane. The don’t do anything to earn their fee.

As I paid Delta airlines $100 one-way for my frequent-flying son to be walked down the jetway, there was one word that came to mind: Theft. The airlines have now been reduced to stealing from their customers. How sad.

The Café at Country

 

Note: Country closed in summer 2010. Its replacement is Millesime, under chef Laurent Manrique.

*

The Greek tragedy that is Country continues. Geoffrey Zakarian ran his top-tier three-star restaurant into the ground. The gorgeous upstairs dining room is now closed indefinitely, supposedly to re-open as Country Steak sometime next year. Don’t all yawn at once. The downstairs café is now in the hands of Blake Joyal, who replaced Willis Loughhead, who replaced Doug Psaltis.

A friend was staying in the area, and I was curious to see what has become of the café, so I made a reservation. I wasn’t pleased with the café the first time I visited, but that was nearly three years ago, and Country was a very different place. Today, it feels like a hotel lounge—which it basically is. “A lot’s changed,” said a sullen bartender. He didn’t sound pleased.

I was surprised to find that the menu is reprinted daily, which suggests that Chef Joyal isn’t just phoning it in. The menu might not be adventurous, but at least it isn’t cast in stone. There are nine appetizers ($11–18), ten entrées ($18–39) and five sides ($8–9): a reasonable compass that a good kitchen should be able to manage. Except for the dry-aged sirloin ($39), entrées are all in the mid-twenties or lower.

 

The Café at Country was never the most comfortable place to eat, but it is not doing much business, so you’ll get a good table. The bartender clearly preferred to be somewhere else, but at the table our server was friendly and efficient. A warm mixed bean salad ($14; above left) was respectable, but I didn’t detect much of the cured pork belly that was supposed to be lurking under those green leaves. Brased shortribs ($26; above right) were acceptable, but not as tender as they should be. I didn’t note my companions’ entrées, but both of them raved about an onion soup appetizer ($14).

As of now, the Café at Country is serving above-average hotel food, but it’s a far cry from what this wonderful restaurant was once capable of.

The Café at Country (90 Madison Avenue at 29th Street, Gramercy/Flatiron)

Food: Satisfactory
Service: Average
Ambiance: Hotel Lobby
Overall: Satisfactory

Secession: The Menu

Secession opened this week. It’s the successor to the late lamented Danube, David Bouley’s tribute to Austrian cuisine that closed two months ago. The faux Klimmt décor survives, and it gives the restaurant its name. You might think that “secession” refers to the American Civil War, but it’s actually an Austrian art movement, of which Klimmt was a part.

The cuisine here is mostly that of a French brasserie, with a nod to Austria (Wiener Schnitzel remains from the Danube days), and another nod to Italy via consulting chef Cesare Casella. It says on the door, “Breakfast Lunch Dinner.” (You can only barely see that in the photo on the left.) Breakfast and lunch haven’t started yet.

I worry about the sprawling menu, which seems to offer a bit of everything. The charcuterie could be impressive, but it’s not available till October 13th. As one poster noted on Mouthfuls, “they offer six different preparations of boudin noir alone. How much boudin noir are they planning to sell?”

Our reservation is a week from Friday. In the meantime, we offer you the menu (click on the image for a larger version):

Archipelago

Note: Archipelago closed in December 2008 after about two months in business. Either the space or the food was doomed. Take your pick. The owners claimed they would be re-opening with “an exciting new menu,” but that idea was short-lived.

*

I’m not a believer in “cursed” restaurant spaces, but the new restaurant Archipelago threatens to challenge that view. It occupies the space that was formerly home to the doomed Dani, a pretty good Italian place that couldn’t attract diners to the cavernous gloom of Hudson Square, the dead patch of land west of Varick Street between Houston and Canal Streets. It’s not that a serious restaurant couldn’t draw people to this neighborhood. But it would need to be serving “destination cuisine” — the kind of food people go out of their way for.

Archipelago tries to make the case for Japanese–French fusion cuisine, but it fails. The chef here is Hisanobu Osaka, who was the sous chef at Morimoto. With such a pedigree, who’d have thought the food would be so awful? Maybe we just missed the boat, but this was the most mediocre meal we’ve had in quite some time—a real disaster at the price. Can an Eater Deathwatch be far off?

The menu is divided into three sections, not counting dessert: starters ($12–18), mains ($20–32) and shokuji—rice dishes—to conclude ($10). The server advised ordering one of each. This is wise, in that the mains are practically appetizer-sized; but also unwise, as you’ll probably be wishing you were somewhere else by the time the last course arrives.

Many of the items have French-sounding names but Japanese-sounding ingredients, such as Côte de Boeuf with Yuzu Foam or Carré d’Agneau with Japanese eggplant. Despite occasional nods to France, the “feel” of the restaurant is mostly Japanese, and a majority of the patrons seemed to be Asians.

 

Cannelloni ($14; above left) sounded better than it turned out. Cold crabmeat was plated lazily between two cold sheets of cauliflower pasta, with a bland avocado purée on the side and a bizarre crabmeat mini-sandwich at the top of the plate. Crevettes et Canard ($13; above right) offered poached shrimp and smoked duck, both of which tasted like they’d been in the fridge for a week.

 

A dish called Sake ($20; above left) is pan-seared salmon with a tasty tomato and lemon confit under the skin. This was the only dish we had all evening that we liked. It was actually a respectable hunk of fish, skillfully prepared, albeit looking a little lonely on the plate. Côte de Boeuf ($32; above right) may look impressive with yuzu foam on the top, but under the foam were just a few wan slices of cold beef that tasted like the London Broil they serve at a Bar Mitzvah.

 

Risotto ($10: above left) was alleged to contain toro, but it tasted merely like slightly over-cooked rice. But that was a gourmet experience compared with Oshi Zushi, or “pressed sushi” ($10; above right), which seemed to be a salmon paste slathered onto hunks of chalky rice.

At least the sake was comparatively inexpensive. Bottles of Tamano Hikiri were $30 apiece, and after two of them the food here almost seemed decent. I say “almost.” Dinner for two was $172 including tax, but before tip.

The space has been lightly redone since the Dani days. It is rather sterile and charmless. The restaurant was only about 3/4 full at prime time on a Saturday evening, which does not bode well for its success. Despite the rather low degree of difficulty in the dishes we tried, the food took a long time to come out. It wasn’t worth the wait.

Archipelago (333 Hudson Street between Charlton & Vandam Streets, Hudson Square)

Food: Mediocre
Service: Friendly but too slow
Ambiance: Dull
Overall: Mediocre

Michelin New York 2009 Ratings

Note: Click here for the 2010 Michelin Ratings.

The 2009 Michelin restaurant ratings for New York were announced this morning, with an early sneak peak available from Eater. (See also: press release.)

Obvious winners are Masa (promoted to three stars); Gilt (promoted to two); and both Adour and Momofuku Ko (awarded two right out of the gate). Four restaurants got one star in their first year of consideration: Allen & Delancey, Eighty One, Insieme, and Kyo Ya. The latter restaurant was ignored by most critics, including Frank Bruni, but the Michelin folks found it somehow.

The other promotions to one star were Alto (which got a new chef) and Public. We’ve never been impressed at Public, and we’re not aware of any intervening event that would have justified a re-evaluation. Fiamma re-gained the star it formerly had, which was taken away last year after a chef change.

Restaurants losing their stars include: A Voce (departed chef), Babbo (no obvious reason), Bouley (relocating), Café Gray (closed), Country (closed), Danube (closed), Dévi (no obvious reason), Kurumazushi (no obvious reason) and Vong (long overdue).

Eleven Madison Park remains the most obviously star-worthy restaurant that does not have one. Jewel Bako remains the most obvious candidate for demotion, but the Michelin inspectors seem to like it.

The full four-year history of the NYC Michelin ratings is presented below. Promotions are shown in green, demotions in red, ineligible restaurants (closed or opened too late in the year) in gray. A demoted restaurant that still has a star is shown in yellow (that has only happened once).

Restaurant	2006	2007	2008	2009
Adour				**
Alain Ducasse	***
Allen & Delancey				*
Alto				*
Annisa	*	*	*	*
Anthos			*	*
Aureole	*	*	*	*
A Voce		*	*
Babbo	*	*	*
BLT Fish	*
Blue Hill			*	*
Bouley	**	**	**
Café Boulud	*	*	*	*
Café Gray	*	*	*
Country		*	*
Craft	*	*
Cru	*	*	*	*
Daniel	**	**	**	**
Danube	**	*	*
Del Posto		**	**	**
Dévi		*	*
Dressler			*	*
Eighty One				*
Etats-Unis	*	*	*	*
Fiamma (Osteria)	*	*		*
Fleur de Sel	*	*	*	*
Gilt			*	**
Gotham Bar & Grill	*	*	*	*
Gordon Ramsay			**	**
Gramercy Tavern	*	*	*	*
Insieme				*
Jean Georges	***	***	***	***
Jewel Bako	*	*	*	*
JoJo	*		*	*
Kyo Ya				*
Kurumazushi		*	*
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon			*	*
La Goulue	*	*
Le Bernardin	***	***	***	***
Lever House	*	*
Lo Scalco	*
March	*
Masa	**	**	**	***
Modern, The	*	*	*	*
Momofuku Ko				**
Nobu	*
Oceana	*	*	*	*
Perry St.		*	*	*
Per Se	***	***	***	***
Peter Luger	*	*	*	*
Picholine	*	*	**	**
Public				*
Saul	*	*	*	*
Scalini Fedeli	*
Spotted Pig	*	*	*	*
Sushi of Gari		*	*	*
Veritas	*	*	*	*
Vong	*	*	*
Wallsé	*	*	*	*
WD~50	*	*	*	*

The Marshall Stack

 

The Marshall Stack is a sophisticated Lower East Side bar, named for a brand of guitar amplifier. Hung behind the bar is a photo of The Who’s Keith Townshend smashing his guitar on a Marshall Stack. The barely-labeled space is unfancy, but the bartender knows his beers. I counted 42 in all, including 20 on tap. There’s even a Sixpoint Craft Obama ale, made in Brooklyn, NY. Who knew there was an Obama tribute beer?

I was there early, before the kitchen staff arrived, so I didn’t sample any of the food. I was headed off to dinner anyway. But the Marshall Stack is certainly worth another visit.

The Marshall Stack (66 Rivington Street at Allen Street, Lower East Side)

Little Giant

 

Note: Little Giant closed at the end of 2011.

*

Little Giant is a happy comfort-food place. It was an instant sensation when it opened four years ago on the Lower East Side, and it has more-or-less stayed that way. I’ve been meaning to visit for a long time, but whenever I called for a reservation it always seemed to be full. Frank Bruni awarded one star in early 2005, in a mostly favorable review that was as much about the owners’ iPod playlist as it was about the food. One star would be a compliment, if Bruni hadn’t awarded two stars to so many uninspiring places.

The restaurant has a corner lot in an early 1900s tenemant building. The owners, Julie Taras Wallach and Tasha Garcia Gibson, did the renovation themselves. It has an understated homespun charm. There are 35 seats in the dining room, 5 at the bar. Space is always at a premium in these small spaces not originally designed as restaurants. But Little Giant seems less self-consciously crowded than other restaurants of its ilk, like the Little Owl and Prune. It wears the space well.

The owners accurately describe their cuisine as “refined comfort food,” using the usual modern buzzwords: “Seasonal American” and “creatively celebrates local farmers and small, artisanal producers.” Oh, and “We bicycle to greenmarkets.” It may sound a little hackneyed, but they do live up to it.

The menu features half-a-dozen appetizers ($7–14) and an equal number of entrées ($17–27). Side dishes are $4–8. I was tempted by the “world-famous” buttermilk-chive biscuit with honey butter ($4), but the free bread service, with soft, rich butter on the side, offered all the carbs I needed.

 

I loved a simple salid of warm figs, nuts and prosciutto ($15; above left). Chicken liver mousse ($13; above right) was soft and creamy, the liver taste balanced by other ingredients—probably about a half-pound of butter.

 

“Swine of the Week” ($25; above left) is a recurring menu item: always pork, but the preparation varies. The offering when we visited was braised pork butt off the bone with barbecue sauce, baked beans and cole slaw. I found this dish successful (though it is hard for braised pork to fail), but my girlfriend found it a bit dry. We agreed that the cole slaw was too bitter. A terrific side dish of mac & cheese ($7; above right) was enormous. It could have been dinner all by itself. It was the best mac & cheese I’ve tasted in a long time, with a crisp crust and gooey cheddar filling.

Frank Bruni’s review complained about long waits for food, but that didn’t happen to us. However, our reservation was at 6:30 p.m., which is a very early hour in this neighborhood. Most of the tables were empty when we arrived, but most were full (as was the bar) by the time we left, at around 8:00.

The owners announced recently that they’ve signed a lease in Chelsea at Ninth Avenue and 19th Street, for a space that is double the size. The new restaurant, planned for an early 2009 opening, will be called the Tipsy Parson and will feature southern-style comfort food. They’ll have a twofold challenge. The first is to ensure that their charming concept maintains its allure when it plays on a bigger stage. And the second is to ensure that Little Giant doesn’t lose its edge once it is no longer the owners’ only property.

Little Giant (85 Orchard Street at Broome Street, Lower East Side)

Food: *
Service: *
Ambiance: *½
Overall: *

Revolving Door

It has been a while since our last episode of Revolving Door—our periodic coverage of restaurant closings and chef departures.

At Fresh, former owner Eric Tevrow was found guilty of tax evasion in December 2007. In July, the new owners hired chef Michael Ferraro, replacing former chef Kento Komoto, who returned to Japan. Just two months later, Ferraro was out, and the restaurant was shuttered. It will become a Puerto Rican restaurant called Sazon, a sister to the uptown Sofrito on 57th & 1st. We liked Fresh, but it never seemed to be full when it needed to be.

Sheridan Square bit the dust. The cursed restaurant took forever to open. Gary Robins, the original chef, left after less than two months. His replacement, Franklin Becker, tried gamely to rescue the place, but it finally succumbed after its owners had lost $4 million. We had good first impressions, but it’s a bad sign when the chef is gone after six weeks. Some food board participants found the location problematic, but with tons of successful restaurants within a five-block radius, we find it remarkable that the right chef with the right menu couldn’t make it here.

Django, the midtown 300-seater, closed quietly. Was anyone paying attention? We liked our meal there (way back when), but not enough to consider visiting again. I guess we weren’t the only ones.