The Coco Chanel Syndrome, or, you can't spell "Dayenu" without "u"

 Coco Chanel is famous for saying something like “Before you leave for the day…take one thing off…” or, "take off the last thing you put on." In any case, it's a dictum that comes to mind for a certain kind of restaurant that's a little bit ambitious and is likely in a town with an Airport with more gates for Southwest than for legacy carriers. They want to please, but they want that Beard nom, etc, so they keep on adding stuff, a la Todd English on an Adderall bender. Soby's, the restaurant where the Cod and cinetrix hit on this Coco-restaurant connection, (and the host for a recent Romney fundraiser), has an unusually compelling example this evening. Skirt steak w/ mashed potatoes? So far, so good, though the mashed potatoes seem out of keeping with the Gaucho vibe skirt steak wants. But then, grilled asparagus (in September? where does it come from, besides off the Sysco truck?), and a dressing that screams "scared money don't make none" - toasted garlic and chives? For a salad dressing? 

And dessert. Bread pudding? Dayenu - in the right hands, bread pudding can be a ridiculously compelling dessert. But, this one, propped up w/ blueberries, and, uh, lemon curd, and an utterly confounding garnish of "fruit and nut white chocolate bark"? Is there any reason to imagine that the chef at Soby's has thought much about a) skirt steak or b) bread pudding? De La Soul has the answer: