Mr. Critic Strikes Back Against Those Snobby French Foodies

“We’ll get to your needs in a minute. Here’s what would be great from my point of view, and which would make up entirely for the time I was in the Marais with my pregnant wife and this jumped-up little terrier in a Basque restaurant sneered at us for arriving without a reservation at his entirely empty restaurant at 6 p.m. He was plenty sophisticated-European. He responded to our request for a table for two with a curt, ‘Non,’ adding that all the tables-he even swept his arm back to indicate them-were reserved. So do me a favor and take your husband to Peter Luger in Brooklyn and see how he fares with those waiters, speaking English with a French accent. Just in the interest of explaining to him how New York used to be. Hey, now: the food’s plenty authentic.”
–Sam Sifton sort of attacks a reader who wrote in asking where she should take her “sophisticated-European” French husband to eat on their visit to New York City. All in good fun, though. After grinding that small personal axe a bit, he recommends Scarpetta, Le Bernadin, Annisa and 11 Madison Park.