1)With all due respect to Queens, El Patio, Northern Blvd., and the people and cuisine of Ecuador, we?d love to know what Robert Sietsema did to his editors to deserve this. His review of El Patio reads like a cry for help. Here is an excerpt:
Hungry folks will go right for the big platters, which typically supplement a stew of meat, chicken, or fish with a shifting combination of supporting players, including a rudimentary onion-heavy salad, twice-fried plantains, mote (whole hominy kernels), soupy red beans, polished white rice, and the aforementioned llaphingachos. Nearly everything is flavored to one extent or another with lime juice. Strewn with chopped green onions and spiked with lime, seco de chivo ($8) is one of the best entrées, a plate of goat stew on the bone, abundant enough to keep you gnawing for a good 15 minutes.And the headline to boot: Wave the Flag. He?s giving up. Enough is enough, he?s saying; you win. Please, for the love of it all, the guy has paid his dues. Someone assign him a restaurant one of these days.
Anyway, the Seits goes to Queens to replace a stolen hubcap and visits El Patio while in the neighborhood. [Voice]
2) Brun Baby Brun, in a shout out to his UES readers, gives out another two stars as if stars grew on trees. To review, other two star recipients of late: Red Cat, Taboon, Cendrillon, and Alto. Unofficially, two stars is the new one star and one star is the new zero stars. (Is someone on Conant suicide watch?) As for the review itself, on 25-seater Spigolo, have a look if you live up there. Otherwise, let?s keep it moving. [NYT]
3) Given the well-worn subject, we?d place Rubenstein?s review of Bette below, save for the fact that it?s actually quite positive. Indeed, he enjoys the "McNallyesque" cuisine and finds Sacco "works it so well." [NYM]
Elsewhere, Tables for Two does Mercadito; Paradise at El Rey del Sol; Senior Cuoz at the new Havana Central; good news for Compass; $25 and Under likes You-Chun; and Judy Seto and Tides may need a buoy.
