My Grub on the ‘Street

You know that change is in the air when The New York Times‘ restaurant critic claims that the latest bauble of legendary restaurant family Cipriani’s gourmet empire “exists to affirm its patrons’ ability to throw away money” on the same day that eating-out bible New York Magazine‘s hourly restaurant blog covers a home cooking contest using only bodega ingredients. If you catch my long-winded drift, that waft I smell might be something along the lines of, oh… not eating out.

Okay, call my suspicions giddy, reductionist crap — a result of flush from being mentioned by New York mag’s venerable Grub Street editor “Mr. Cutlets,” and smugness for never having to worry about falling into the trap of an alluring, yet mediocre restaurant. But let’s just say I have an extra-sensitive nose for all things eaten in. It wasn’t too long ago when eating at and talking about restaurants as quickly you could produce the saliva for seemed like the only thing people were interested in. And now — is it just me, or does The Times‘ food section have more recipes than restaurants in its average weekly ouevre?

Maybe it’s a seasonal thing.