Wine, Veal or Lamb, and an Historic Times Restaurant Review

***Straw GOSSIP***

As a blog participating in culinary culture I feel it is important that we mark the historic event which occurred this past Wednesday, June 11th. On that day Frank Bruni’s Restaurant Review of Ago was published in the New York Times. This review has now had some time to settle in to our minds and three days later I am ready to write some thoughts on what it means. Why ask a question of meaning in regards to a review? Well it is much more than a negative review of a restaurant, it has been called the greatest restaurant review ever written, if not the greatest review ever written. In considering the act of reviewing as an artistic act, this review should then be consider equivalent to that rare cinematic achievement that comes along every so often to remind us why we still consider cinema an art. This review reminds us that reviews can go beyond the simple task of reviewing and exist as a work of literature which is both enjoying and engaging to interact with.

Very soon I will engage the artistic qualities of this review as a work of literature at the Comparative Blogging Foundation, but for the purposes of Coffee Straws, I want to engage our readership in the discussion of whether or not this review resembles an extremely high quality review or does its literary success come from its literary style? In short I am asking if the praise it is getting is due to its great journalistic inquiry into the foundation of this restaurant or is it because it stands out as a work of literature which may redefine what we want in our cultural reviews? Again here is the review.

On a personal note, I am very eager to visit Ago and try it out for myself, I guess not heeding the advice of the review but after reading that review, I can’t but just see it for myself.

-Huysmans