[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 25, 2009]
Who can explain the disdain exhibited by the Times for this very good and generously priced restaurant, an Esquire magazine restaurant of the year, holder of a deserved Michelin star, and praised by the Pink Pig not once but twice.
The latest hater is Alan Feuer, who sets about SHO in the New York Region section, making it sound like something out of the Satyricon. He implies, but does not say, that diners here tuck into gold-leaf-decorated roasts of duckbilled playtpus while cooling their feet in buckets of '47 Cheval Blanc.
Well, what he does say is bad enough - especially when this restaurant prices dinner around twenty bucks cheaper than its peers. I have written to the the Times ' Public Editor, Craig Hoyt, as follows, and it will be interesting to see if he has anything to say:
I am writing to you about Alan Feuer's article,
"Decor: Far East Chic. Diners: Pure Manhattan" which appeared under the
"At the Table" heading on January 22, 2010. I am an independent food
writer, based in Manhattan, and have no connection whatsoever with the
restaurant discussed in the article, SHO Shaun Hergatt, other than
being an occasional client.
This restaurant, which opened last
year in a condominum building, The Setai Manhattan, has yet to be given
a full review by the Times dining critic, although it received a brief
and lukewarm notice by Pete Wells ("Dining Briefs," August 26, 2009).
Among other things, Mr Wells focused on the restaurant's decor, the
"vaguely Asian fashion I’ve come to think of as Hotel Orientalism."
Mr
Feuer also notes the "far East chic," but is mainly concerned with the
restaurant's economics. The restaurant, he writes, "seems to have been
created for purposes of wealth redistribution — that is to say, to
separate its upscale clients from their disposable income by way of a
$69 three-course dinner and a highly curated, high-altitude wine list."
The rest of the short article is devoted to two clients of the
restaurant who ordered some very expensive wine. The effect, and surely
intention, of the piece is to portray SHO Shaun Hergatt, which can be
reached by a "bankerish stroll," as a notably expensive and indulgent
dining destination.
This is more than just unfair: it is
tantamount to misleading. The $69 price for three courses at dinner is,
in fact, a notable bargain. Compare three courses at Veritas ($85), Corton
($85), Gramercy Tavern ($86), The Modern ($88) Eleven Madison Park
($88), Jean-Georges ($98), Daniel ($105). Every one of those
restaurants, of course, offers bottles of wine priced at many hundreds
of dollars, and wealthy clients presumably purchase them.
As for
SHO's decor, the group which owns the condominium tower (GHM) is the
proprietor of a chain of hotels and resorts in Asia; it is simply their
brand style and hardly remarkable.
I would be interested to
learn the reason this restaurant, which offers an unusually well-priced
dining experience, was singled out for this treatment?