Savoy is getting its pig on, though you would hardly know it from the website.* Fortunately, some kind soul added me to their mailing list, and I got a card detailing the following:
Thu 23, through Mon 27, an Italian Pig Menu.**
Next Tue, the Ossabaw pig dinner with Peter Kaminsky. (There are better ways to spend Fat Tuesday, but if you are stuck in NY, consider also laissing the bon temps roulez pour les autres.)
Further down the road road, passover food of the Italian Jews, and a whole roast lamb for Easter.
I'd love to be there for all, and interested on hearing details of any, but should also mention my (non) encounter with Peter Hoffman. I met him, tooling around the Greenmarket on his lowrider bicycle with which he forages ingredients, and mentioned my plan to stop in. He said "Let me know you're there if you do." The next day, the Cinetrix and I trooped in, and somewhat awkwardly informed our server to tell Peter we were there. We ordered, the food came, we ate it. The bill came, we paid it, we left. Never saw hide nor hair of Hoffman, or evidence that we knew we were there. Distinctively awkward all around.
This problem of not being recognized and getting only regular service is the opposite of the one masked banditti like Reichl face, but I imagine it happens more frequently. My aquaintance with Hoffman was slender, and I am not one to presume goodguy treatment on the basis of a brief meeting. I'd be interested in hearing about similar experiences from servers, chefs, or patrons. I imagine that there are folks who expect to breeze into a hot restaurant at 7:30 on a Friday on the strength of having gone to kindergarten with the chef, which would be un-fun for the front of the house, and I imagine that there are chefs who confronted with the name of a huckleberry friend when deep in the midst of cooking unintentionally offend. If you have knowing a chef/presuming to know a chef anecdotes, please share in the comments.
* Can someone explain why every chef who has advanced beyond the clam strip station at Friendly's must have flash animation on their website? JGV, this means you.
**If you are reading this, you have dodged the Gopnik choucroute bullet. (For reasons not quite clear, he seems to be a veritable sponge for bile in the blogosphere. Perhaps a bit self involved at times, but not quite clear why about 68% of bloggers would opt for kicking Gopnik in the balls as their make-a-wish wish. Obviously Gopnik is not fit to tote his doggy bag, but I wonder if the likes of Liebling faced the same ire in their own days.)
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