Yes. Yes, Restaurant Week Is Worth It. Oh, for the Restaurants?
Monday brings this summer's Restaurant Week, when 201 eateries around town will offer three-course lunches for $20.12 (must the Olympics campaign overtake everything?) and dinners for $35. We're very much in favor of the Week (actually, two weeks this year), appealing as it does both to our foodie side and to our cheap side. As it happens, though, some restaurants are less supportive; it's hard to make the math work at those prices, and, as we've always suspected, some chefs skimp on Restaurant Week meals. The Times uncovers some schemes...
• Requiring supplements for house favorites: "Jean-Georges Vongerichten's molten chocolate cake, one of the most recognizable signatures of the 1990's, will cost you $6 more at Nougatine, the dining room adjacent to Jean Georges. And the menu at Dos Caminos does not include guacamole, which is like going to Disney World and skipping Space Mountain. Of course, diners are encouraged to order it."
• Trying to get you drunk: "At Tocqueville, near Union Square, the $15 three-glass wine flight, paired with courses like house-cured bacalao, is a worthy addition (so long as you can nap afterward)."
• Using cheap meat: "David Waltuck, the chef and an owner of Chanterelle, said he uses ingredients that are 'maybe a little less expensive' like chicken or salmon during the Restaurant Week lunch rush. 'I wouldn't do calves' liver or tripe or a strong fish,' he said."
• Leaving you hungry: "Portions, [CraftBar chef Akhtar Nawab] said, are slightly smaller."
• And, worst, cutting back on the fancy ingredients: "'It may be the amount of fresh morels,' said Kerry Heffernan, chef at Eleven Madison Park*, referring to his signature English pea flan, one of five appetizer options."
Dear God, not the fresh morels. Anything but the fresh morels.
[*We joke. In truth, we had a fantastic Restaurant Week lunch last year at Eleven Madison Park, and we were sad to learn it was fully booked by the time we got around to calling.]
