recipient:
Citibank/ PO Box 1899/ Hartford, CT 06144-1899
sent:
Tailor Business Card
reasoning:
i’ve been a huge sam mason fan ever since i discovered these Dinner with the Band podcasts, and was super excited when SL considered my suggestion of Tailor for dessert. check out the DWTB videos where sam creates tasty and interesting combination foods like miso butterscotch halibut, olive cobbler and avocado margaritas for indie musicians (matt and kim, tokyo police club, pela, el-p) who then play in his brooklyn apt – it’s hipsters rocking their craft and making me wish i didn’t have an office job. everyone expected this place to be fancy schmancy and super tasty. it was fancy and tasty, but the menu threw a lot of people off – scallops with red papaya, maple-poached snails, bell pepper cake, and beet parfait.
to assuage the skepticism, i kept telling everyone that sam mason is a rockstar who used to be the pastry chef at WD-50 where wylie dufresne deconstructs food with science (molecular gastronomy) – coffee-flavored gnocchi, coconut milk in a gel, grapefruit molasses. dufresne been on top chef a couple of times and i saw this interview with him on epicurious, and while i can’t necessarily tell the difference or appreciate ‘fine cuisine’, WD is doing really cool stuff. pastry chef sam mason took rockstar mixologist eben freeman (also of WD-50 methodology) to open Tailor.
been reading up on the new restaurant for awhile, so when we cabbed it there and were kind of lost, i immediately recognized the entrance and excited pulled open the large wooden door. i was all flustered b/c i had to buy ‘proper’ clubbing shoes and was running around manhattan at 9PM looking for a store that was still open. and another reason we were in such a rush to make our 10PM reservation was if we didn’t show on time, they’d charge $25/head – so for our party that’d be $250 on my already-beyond-capable-spending-limit credit card. we all got there on time, and were made to wait downstairs at the bar for 45 minutes. i kept waiting for sam mason or eben freeman to walk by – of course it didn’t happen, but if it did, i’d be able to forgive everything that happened after. we ordered 4 desserts – manchego cheesecake on graham cracker ice cream, mango ravioli with cilantro and coconut, strawberries with celery ice cream, and chocolate with sesame ice cream & mole. i tried to order their solid cocktails – you get an 3 for $12: cuba libre, gin fizz and white russian. i knew getting that would have put everyone’s skepticism and gripes to rest when they saw how cool it was. unfortunately they ran out for the night. LAME. (more…)
