Per Se vs. Eleven Madison Park - Page 14

They should open up a grocery store. That seems to be worth a star or two with Pete Wells.

My friend went the first week of the "new" revamp and then returned with me a week later so he saw it pre and post Wells piece. I thought everything was great and actually wish there was more narration. He told me, after each course, how drastically it was cut back. If you didn't read the Wells piece and were just going as a normal every day customer, i assure you, you wouldn't know anything was up. It really felt no different than my dinner in 2010. There's nothing forced or cheesy about it. It was really lighthearted and playful.

Edit: Here's the carrot course
I should note that this is not to demonstrate how lengthy or short the typical spiel is. This one is probably on the long side simply because he is listing the ingredients. The other ones are very short, like "On the east coast, clam bakes are popular [gone]"

Was he weirded out by your taking a video of him while he served?

were EMP to make a meat tartare, wouldn't they cut the meat by hand and not consider a grinder?

I also like the woman in that video who is baller enough to eat at EMP wearing a "bubble jacket"

One would certainly hope.

No, it was a small camera and I don't feel like I was making a big scene of it.

Kyle took a video of dessert at Alinea. Of course, we were pretty well lubricated by then and it was almost 2 am ...

Looked through the other 84 photos.. I hope you had a good time. Still not sold at all on the concept though, honestly.

I spoke to my friend about this - people who dress or act inappropriate in fine dining restaurants - and we came to a few conclusions. Often times, he says, they are (German) tourists. Well tourists in general who come to NY and want to try out that "famous restaurant". He says in particular they seem to be mostly German though, lol. In this case, it was probably the son or nephew who was the real foodie who just wanted to bring his auntie from Hong Kong (or whatever) to a nice meal. Another possibility is of course you can be rich/baller and just have no real sense of decorum or taste and also may not care at all what people think.

I had a great time. Honestly I am telling you, there's not much of a 'spiel' at all. In fact they cut it down pretty dramatically. You are really being held up on the Wells piece, which is really sad for the restaurant. When we were dining, Humm and Guidara came over to talk to us and he particularly wanted to hear my friend's opinion (since he was the first customer to have the experience twice, pre and post Wells). We talked about the piece and Guidara seemed genuinely interested in feedback and he said they were actively tweaking it.

This is still a 3 star Michelin restaurant, deservedly.

Careful there, buddy.

Come on, man... Look at the videos you have up there. It's literally theater at this point. The food might be delicious (I don't think it's been for a few years personally) but that's a lot of mise-en-scène...

Trust me, it is possible to be put off by a guy grinding a carrot through a meat grinder at your table without knowing who Pete Wells is.