Triple-Digit Meal Comes Into Its Own in Zagat’s Newest Survey of Eateries
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The 2005 Zagat Survey of New York City restaurants is hitting the shelves today. And if you want to eat with the best of them, you’d better start saving your pennies. Though the survey found that the average price of a restaurant meal in the city increased only slightly – to $37.45 from $37.06 – this year’s volume includes five restaurants where the average price of a single dinner, including one drink and a tip, is more than $100.
The most expensive of the lot is Masa, the ultra-upscale sushi restaurant in the Time Warner Center. The average tab for a meal at the hand of star chef Masayoshi Takayama is $366 – for one prix-fixe dinner. By comparison, dinner at Nobu comes in at a bargain basement $76.
Also in the triple-digit club are Masa’s neighbor Per Se, at $166; Alain Ducasse, at $191 (up from $185); Daniel, $102 (up from $100), and Kuruma Zushi, at $114 (up from $112).
With nearly 2,000 restaurants included in the survey, these five are only the smallest tasting. But the extra-expensive restaurant is a growing category.
“We were surprised there weren’t more,” the survey editor, Curt Gathje, said. “In a world where a theater ticket costs $100 and you can spend $300 for a Madonna ticket, people don’t think twice for something like that.”
Thomas Keller’s Per Se has earned another distinction in this annual survey, which compiles comments and ratings from the public. If more diners had responded, Per Se would have landed itself a triple crown: No. 1 ratings of 29 out of 30 for food, decor, and service.
The voting on Per Se was limited, however, because the original opening in early winter was delayed by an electrical fire in the kitchen. Given the high price tag and the limited availability since its spring opening, the number of Zagat respondents was not high enough to land Per Se at the top of the lists.
“The fire is what kept them from getting enough votes,” Mr. Gathje said. “They were closed for six weeks to two months. During that period our survey was on line and in progress. We’re really curious to see what happens next year.”
The big boys, though, don’t have a lock on the highest ratings for food this year. The postage-stamp-sized restaurant Tasting Room in the East Village earned a 27 for its market-driven menu.
That puts Tasting Room in the very good company of Jean Georges and Alain Ducasse. Unlike most fine-dining establishments, Tasting Room offers food only in tasting portions, as “tastes” or “shares.” Operated by the chef, Colin Alevras, and his wife, Renee, Tasting Room is this year’s sequel to last year’s surprise high rating for Grocery, a tiny restaurant in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, also owned and operated by a couple.
Meanwhile, no restaurateur managed to break Union Square Hospitality Group’s six-year lock on the top two slots in the ranking of Most Popular restaurants. This year, GramercyTavern took the No. 1 ranking back from Union Square Cafe. This is the fourth consecutive year the two have swapped the top two spots.
The twice-blessed owner, Danny Meyer, says the staffs of the two restaurants are competitive, but cheerful about it all.
“We have an expression for it: sibling revelry,” he said. “Each one likes to win. They admire each other. The managers are close with each other, and the chefs get together. They exchange information.” What’s Mr. Meyer’s secret to keeping both restaurants on the top of the popularity heap? “The management teams of each restaurant are just so strong,” he said.
In some ways, that has a lot to do with the Zagat Survey itself.
“As wonderful a marketing benefit as it is, the No. 1 benefit to finishing well is that it’s an amazing recruiting tool,” Mr. Meyer said. “People often turn to the Zagat when looking for jobs.”
Obviously, the gourmet public, too, is attracted to both restaurants, which each serves its own take on contemporary American fare. Though Mr. Meyer said he doesn’t know why the two alternate annually, he’s just happy that they seem to reinforce each other.
“When I opened Gramercy Tavern, I was naive, and it was painful for me to realize, as I ran back and forth, that not everybody loved each restaurant equally,” he said.
But that turned out to be fortunate, he later realized. “The worst thing would be for one to cannibalize the other,” Mr. Meyer said. He estimated that there is a 20% overlap of customers who are fans of both.
Another major trend emerging in the survey is that while the prominent classic French restaurants La Caravelle, La Cote Basque, and Lutece have closed, the popularity and availability of high quality Japanese cuisine have increased. In 1995, only one Japanese restaurant earned a Zagat rating of 26 of 30 for food. Now there are 11 with rankings from 26 to 28 for food.
“It’s just a phenomenon that’s been in the air for a while and reached a flash point this year,” Mr. Gathje said. “There’s a new generation that’s redefining fine dining.”
Perhaps it won’t all be for $100 or more.