The Big Dog and I lunched this afternoon at Ai Fiori, The Big Dog is my high-priced attorney. We were discussing some ultra-subtle legal maneuver that could only be fully investigated in a very, very good Italian restaurant. You’ll be happy to know that we solved all our problems — and everyone else’s, as well. It was a very nice lunch.
Ai Fiori is a Michael White creation. I had dined at his Marea after everybody told me this guy made the best pasta in town. I was concerned about this because I thought I made the best pasta in town. Well, okay, he gets paid for it and justifiably so.
Ai Fiori is sleek and rich. It’s on the second floor, which allows a nice light through the windows and a quiet midtown buzz. It’s in the Setai Hotel, which is a lovely new hotel on Fifth Avenue just below Thirty-Seventh Street.
The lunch menu is prix fixe – a choice of any two courses for thirty-six bucks, which given the quality of food, has to be one of the best deals in town.
I was lucky enough to snag a seat at the hallowed (and reservation
demented) Momofuku Ko in New York in early October because someone had
(oh my god!) cancelled and I was quick enough to grab the reservation.
For those of you not yet in the know, Ko is the premier flagship in
wunderkind David Chang’s gastronomic empire. In keeping with its
cutting edge food and service (the chefs, like sushi chefs, do the
serving but not the busing), Ko only allows you to make on-line
reservations. Just like Amazon.com, you need to open an on-line account
(something I had done about six months earlier) which allows you the
opportunity, and some would argue esteemed privilege, to make a
reservation. This system guarantees a degree of egalitarianism which,
as an attorney with a career dedicated to civil liberties, I really
should respect and appreciate. So even if your last name is DeNiro or
Gates, you (or your assistant) still have to compete with the masses in
making a mad digital dash to score a reservation. As a supreme
testament to Ko’s popularity and scrumptiousness, over the last year,
even as the echo of high-end restaurants slamming their doors shut
reverberated throughout Manhattan, Ko rarely had a night when it wasn’t
booked to capacity for at least a week in advance.
