by Ann Christenson
photo by John Cizmas
When I was little, I was more than a finicky eater. I was an epicurean delinquent. I took great delight in vandalizing my cousins’ food at holiday dinners. (When someone would leave the table, a glass of milk might meet the contents of, say, a salt shaker.) So it’s with some marvel – my relatives say – that I became a dining critic.
But something took hold of me in my teens. I started reading cooking magazines and paying attention to the way my aunts made gravy and rolled out pie crust. Unlike Ruth Reichl, the former New York Times dining critic whose mother served the family moldy food left in the refrigerator, I ate 1970s casseroles made from recipe cards my mom collected. Simple stuff that I still love. How does a dining critic develop? In ways that might include a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup.
May is our month to serve the heartiest, headiest, high-octane-est dining issue of the year. In the two years since our last Top Restaurants feature, the industry took a hit, understandably so, given the sluggish economy. Yanni’s steakhouse was one of the high-end closings of the last 18 months. On a midpriced family-dining scale, there was the denouement of Heinemann’s after 86 years in business.
It’s no embellishment to say the economic angst has made many restaurants work harder. Mason Street Grill is one of several high-ends that responded with lower-priced prix fixe meals. Others, like Washington Heights’ Meritage, give diners a simple punch card. After a certain number of dollars spent, they get a gift certificate to the restaurant.
Running parallel to the industry’s woes is the growing interest in keeping the focus local – buying directly from farmers and changing menus seasonally. La Merenda and Le Rêve, for example, work with a local organization that operates as a conduit to the farmer, making it easier for the restaurants to keep their menus fresh.
So while some of this list’s names – which are not in any particular order – will be familiar, they are changing in interesting ways and working harder than ever to get to the top – and stay there.
