Week in Reviews Bonus: The Tom: Tuesday Dinner Hammer Drop

We already mentioned this review in our regular edition of Week in Reviews, but the Bruni hammer drop on Tom Tuesday Dinner was so precise, so definitive, that we feel it deserves some revisiting. First off, we all need to accept that the entire column was a ruse to stick in a review of Colicchio's new venture. The other two venues were of little import, and their inclusion doesn't begin to cover the swath of chefs' tables the city has on offer. It was a way to throw in his two cents without stars or logging onto Diner's Journal.

But most important, of course, is what happens once he gets to Tom. It's delicious, it's divine, the delicacies are "abundant and the pleasures intense" etc. etc. And then comes the Hammer Drop:

"But the overall arc of the meal — the rhythm of it — wasn’t exactly right...Bitter and peppery notes recurred too often. Across the first seven savory courses there was almost nothing — on the plate or the palate — with much brightness. Yes, it was a meal for late autumn, but not for late autumn in Scandinavia. If food could brood, Mr. Colicchio’s did.

...And he experienced the downside of performing in the open, where no one can doubt your involvement but anyone can register your distraction. Riveted at one point by his BlackBerry — Padma calling? — he fiddled with the keys for a good 30 seconds and then, to fiddle some more, crouched down below counter level."