Last night Time Out New York held their annual Eat Out Awards at Webster Hall. The show, divided into the Critics' Choice awards and the Readers' Choice awards with an awkward mixology competition in between, was a bit of a snooze. Attendees applauded politely, winners went up silently to get their award plates, nobody drank too much, and pretty much everyone filed out after the big group photo. That said, we do have a few hangover observations:
1) While the bar remained very open throughout the evening, attendees were way more sober than they'd like to have/ought to have been. Since most nominees were seated, we think cocktail service would have been a good move.
2) Food was not in abundance. Nominees with designated tables had some cheese, meat, and bread arrangement going on but nary an hors d'oeuvre passed the lips of those in the media ghetto upstairs or of the PR people and general loiterers in the back.
3) Florent Morellet, winner of the lifetime achievement award, was in top form last night, eating up all the attention. He tells Eater once his restaurant closes at the end of June he's going to focus on cooking at home with his boyfriend and on writing his memoirs.
4) Though Anne Burrell does get credit for her general exuberance and for actually dressing up for the event, we have to take off points as she was caught leaving the ladies room without a pit stop to wash her hands. We will give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she just spilled something on her dress or needed a tissue.
5) Show highlight: A la the Oscars, TONY ran a tribute clip listing all of the restaurants that shuttered in the last year. RIP.
6) Team Sam Mason gets our 'good sports' award for showing up to accept their plate for "Best Restaurant You Were Sick of Before it Opened."
7) Low point of the evening: The off-the-cuff banter between hostess Lauren Scala and her guests. At one point she scolded Jim Meehan for not being at PDT when she wanted to get in. She also made Dave Martin say his catchphrase, "I'm not your bitch, bitch."
8) If you need more coverage, no worries: TONY's Dustin Goot was up in the media ghetto on the second floor, liveblogging the event.
· Eat Out Awards Announced [TONY]
· Eater Exclusive: TONY Eat Out Award Winners! [~E~]
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