Author: John Curtas

A Gentlemen’s Guide To Dining Etiquette

If you don’t think bad manners and worse dressing are the rule rather than the exception in restaurants these days, then you haven’t been paying attention. So I thought a refresher course in dining do’s and dont’s might be in order for all of you gents (and ladies) who think un-tucked shirttails, baseball caps, visible anal floss and appetizingly demure tramp stamps are acceptable for the world to see in a nice restaurant.

Ladies of course, are also guilty of dressing like they’ve never seen a mirror, and, even when they’re lookin’ might fine, of letting boyfriends and husbands look like slobs when they go out to eat.

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Eating New York…and Deconstructing Dufresne

Yes food fans, this entry finds me eating my way through the Big Apple. And last weekend I was eating my way through Vancouver – a town that’s as serious about food as any I’ve ever come across – but more on British Columbia later.

For now, I thought I’d give you a taste of the effort and stress and work that yours truly goes through to keep up his street cred as the world’s greatest restaurant critic.*

My New York summer day began late with lunch at La Goulue (746 Madison Ave., 212.988.8169). We were feeling fashionable – decked out as we were in a fetching ensemble of faded Chuck Taylor’s, RL jeans, and a Brooks Brothers seersucker jacket – so we ducked into the most fashionable restaurant we know on the Upper East Side. There we tucked into a superb steak tartare with equally good frites and a demi-bouteille of Gilbert Picque Ses et Filles Chablis.

All seemed right with the world as we strolled down Fifth Avenue (working up a sweat in the process in the 88% humidity and 85 degree heat), and found an outside table at Brasserie Ruhlmann (45 Rockefeller Center, 212.974.2020, www.brasserieruhlman.com) for yet another glass of Premier Cru Chablis (Robert Vocoret ’06) before heading to a business appointment. This being New York, showing up for a meeting with a decent Bourgogne blanc on your breath is quite acceptable.**

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KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) Restaurant of the Week-MAINLAND (in the Palazzo)

This groove-filled spaceship of awesome Asian cuisine inside the otherwise predictable Palazzo has got serious personality. And, as we know, personality goes a long way. Watch us explicate the merits of this well-worthy noodle joint on KLAS in his latest segment of Restaurant of the Week.

Click below to see the man, the gourmand, the myth….and a guy who talks too much with his hands….(with his second favorite food gal-Denise Valdez.)