Article on n/naka

very few people here read the new yorker, i guess.

anyway, look for it to become even harder to get a reservation.

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I love Helen Rosner’s writing. Her coverage of the Cat Cora/Alinea fiasco is must-read twitter :sweat_smile:

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Dave Beran, who took inspiration from kaiseki for his tasting-menu restaurant Dialogue, in Santa Monica, said, “If you asked me to name five kaiseki restaurants in the U.S., I couldn’t do it.”

There are at least 4 in NYC alone.

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I read it - and posted about it on the Michelin Thread.
Funny how she [the reporter] takes them [Nikki and Carol] to Matsuhisa.

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen “Twitter” and “coverage” in the same sentence before.

Nothing about Cat Cora is a must-read. Supposedly her pre-TV career as a chef was in the Bay Area, at Don Giovanni in Napa and Postino in Lafayette, but I’d never heard of her before she showed up on Iron Chef America. I don’t think the Chron had written a word about her at that point.

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I’m sure there are those who can resist reading about a celebrity chef going batshit crazy at Alinea (including flipping off the staff!) but I am not one of them :grin:

For anyone weak like me, here is the post by Nick Kokonas outlining what happened:

https://medium.com/@nickkokonas/into-the-litter-box-96fbf5a74f02

And here is Helen’s hilarious Serialesque dissection of L’affaire Cat Cora:

https://twitter.com/hels/status/1102327202010542085?s=20

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At least three I can think of in Northern California (100% kaiseki restaurant).

4 I can think of that can be loosely categorized as kaiseki (non cooked food portion of a omakase course) and sushi hybird (the sushi unfortunately being the focus for most diners), at least two of them where the core strengths are in the kaiseki portion of the menu.

One from each of those categories also has a Michelin star on top of that (whether they deserve them or not is another matter).

You folks are way too deep for me.

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I had a good chuckle over how batshit crazy she got at Alinea. I loved how Nick, the co-owner, took the step to map out the entire thing with thorough evidence. I just can’t believe that a grown-ass adult with business interests and a media/publicity team would act like that in public where there are literally cameras/camera phones everywhere…oh…who am I kidding? Look at our society.

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Does it matter when truth isn’t truth? :wink:

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“I’m a movie star. Can I talk to my entertainment lawyer?”

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I just tried to make a reservation, right on the dot at 10:00AM, when they’re supposed to release their next batch of reservations but they were all gone by the time I clicked “Complete” in Resy. Ridiculous :rage:

I guess I’ll have American Express concierge do it instead…

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Update: American Express concierge has 0 pull with n/naka

bummer…

Just do what I do, use @Ns1’s n/naka reservation booking service.

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Been doing that for a while and nothing pops up :roll_eyes:

Maybe I can pull a Cat Cora and invoke the “chef’s code” when they open?

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Oooh, can I bring popcorn, show up, and stream it live?

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Only if you promise to do a play-by-play while I flip the bird and demand to see Chef Nakayama in the middle of service.

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Can your tirade occur between my owan and otsukuri courses? 'Cuz popcorn would be an excellent entremet right about then…

Just give me a cue when that happens and I’ll immediately go full Cat Cora on them.

Are you going for weekend or weekday?

Weekend n/naka (esp the 5-6p seatings) is basically trying to get front row tickets at a concert. Possible but going to take luck and most likely numerous tries.