i liked bruni’s review this time around. i think i have a pretty good idea of nyc food and the food at USC is 1 star. i know that might sound shocking but it truly is. bruni nails it on the execution argument. these are not exciting dishes – they are shockingly ordinary by any definition and have literally stood still while the entire food culture in NYC has lapped it several times over the past 20 years. but if you use good ingredients and execute perfectly, it should be a passable meal in a nice setting. but in my experience proteins aren’t cooked properly and there’s always at least one element of a dish that seems out of place or just not executed the way it should be. the trappings, service, wine list, etc., can all be perfect, but when they falter even slightly, it magnifies how incredibly ordinary and underwhelming the USC experience is. there’s no reason for this and i hope meyer uses this as a wake up call. time for an all-hands meeting to re-invent the place the same way he did with EMP (though i don’t suggest that USC should become a haut-cuisine restaurant like EMP).
the food in the tavern room at gramercy is eons better than USC. just by comparison. i still don’t think EMP deserves 4 stars though. but they might get it. would be karmic in the context of today’s USC review.
i suppose the one glaring omission by bruni was his failure in mentioning Hong at the bar with a half bottle of off-vintage bdx.
It’s been 1-1/2 years since I was at EMP, but I found the amuse gueles and first courses excellent, but the main courses to be rather, well, unexciting – nothing wrong, just lacking in interest.
Hard to say which is better, the food or the service. And their wine service is outstanding, particularly with wines brought in by customers. We drank like kings last June and were treated famously.
Posner - any time. Love it there. Bubbles and Pork!
EMP knew it would be reviewed and it was the 3rd time in Bruni’s tenure. There was no reason to re-review it and keep it at 3 stars and demoting to 2 stars seems a stretch. So between knowing the review was coming and having a better than 50% chance of getting upped to 4 stars, they probably had that massive bottle of bubbly on ice just in case.
though it was known that he was doing USC and EMP back-to-back, so it wasn’t a leap to figure out that USC would be demoted and EMP would be upgraded.
What’s interesting is that EMP seems to have been weighing on his mind for several years and that he not only thinks highly of the restaurant in the context of reviewing it for Times readers, but personally loves it. Bruni expounds on the review here: Four Stars, More Thoughts - The New York Times" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The celebration party was amazing–I flew in for it as I had no patients that day and wasn’t planning to be in NYC otherwise. Got to the restaurant around 11pm and it was going strong! They had hired a DJ (Time Out reported they had Shack burgers for folks but I didn’t see any). It was quite the crowd–Daniel Boulud was there congratulating Chef Humm (Boulud has assumed a role of mentor of sorts) and there were lots of wine and food folks there. Of course, Danny was greeting folks; everyone was so happy! As the night went on, the music got louder and louder, and by around 2AM, the younger employees took over the main floor dancing like crazy. I even saw Daniel Humm dance for about 20 seconds! His 13 year old daughter from Switzerland had flown in, and was being watched over by Daniel’s new bride, Geneen. Fred Dexheimer was in good form (winner of “Best Sommelier of the World” competition for the United State–i.e. he was the USA representative to the competition) as was Garret Oliver, master brewer of Brooklyn Brewery, who took to the dance floor around 1AM. Had a long talk with the GM of l’Atelier Robuchon and sat next to Chef Kreuther of The Modern for a good while. The energy in the room was electrifying. John Ragan was so happy and serving lovely bottles (the '79 Shafer was great). Will Guidara, the GM, was just on top of the world with bear hugs for everyone and smiles beyond ear to ear. What a night! I left a bit before 3AM and it was still going strong. Everyone was on such a high, and we all shared stories of everyone clicking “refresh screen” from 8pm on via the NYT website until the review appeared. Brandon Barton, former wine director of Tabla who is now in Las Vegas for work, was rooting for EMP and was part of the “click refresh” crowd–he apparently called everyone once Bruni’s review came up–he was so excited (I got a call from him as I was having dinner at Craftsteak asking if I had seen the review). The new Tabla GM Kevin Richter was there with his new girlfriend–very proud of his next door neighbor, EMP.
What a night for friends and family of EMP. It was an honor to be a part of the festivities. Its a night I’ll never forget. As my friends and I commented, probably the only time in our lives we’ll be at a party of friends who one day had 3 stars and the next day, 4 stars. What a privilege to share the joy with them.
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
![[winner.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/07ec25c9fd71159fe15d7f1ba5fad64e91238d0e.gif "winner"){kind=small}
![[dance-clap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/835ce082e2fa9c96c4b7f96406bf6e9a0db882ff.gif "[dance-clap.gif]"){kind=small}
His 13 year old daughter from Switzerland had flown in, and was being watched over by Daniel’s new bride, Geneen. Fred Dexheimer was in good form (winner of “Best Sommelier of the World” competition for the United State–i.e. he was the USA representative to the competition) as was Garret Oliver, master brewer of Brooklyn Brewery, who took to the dance floor around 1AM. Had a long talk with the GM of l’Atelier Robuchon and sat next to Chef Kreuther of The Modern for a good while. The energy in the room was electrifying. John Ragan was so happy and serving lovely bottles (the '79 Shafer was great). Will Guidara, the GM, was just on top of the world with bear hugs for everyone and smiles beyond ear to ear. What a night! I left a bit before 3AM and it was still going strong. Everyone was on such a high, and we all shared stories of everyone clicking “refresh screen” from 8pm on via the NYT website until the review appeared. Brandon Barton, former wine director of Tabla who is now in Las Vegas for work, was rooting for EMP and was part of the “click refresh” crowd–he apparently called everyone once Bruni’s review came up–he was so excited (I got a call from him as I was having dinner at Craftsteak asking if I had seen the review). The new Tabla GM Kevin Richter was there with his new girlfriend–very proud of his next door neighbor, EMP.