Tarry Lodge: Slumming in the Suburbs?

In many ways I must say I feel for Coleman's attitude regarding Westchester restaurant patrons. I've always been a strong proponent to "up the ante" and educate Westchester diners to demand more from the burbs. Coming from a NYC background, I see a big difference in what is essentially 15 miles or so of driving.

I am the general manager of a new restaurant in Yonkers called The O Bistro and, while we are not yet open to the general "walk in" public, we have held some private events to get a feel of how our food will be received. Our chef, Harry Otto, relies heavily on sous vide preparations and, as such, presents dishes that sometimes look "unorthodox" to those used to dining in Larchmont or White Plains.

On a recent event, we served an organic pork loin prepared at 131 degrees for over two-hours (safe and in accordance with the Federal Food Code and USDA regulations) that could have been eaten with a plastic spoon. To our surprise, about 25% of the orders came back to the kitchen for a final sear because the customers were so used to eating the same dish overcooked from the majority of restaurants in Westchester. One customer actually explained that they were used to seeing the pork “flake” when cut with a knife (a sure sign the meat has been overcooked). Only when we invited the patron into our kitchen to view the equipment used to prepare these dishes, did they finally trust us enough to enjoy the dish the way it was intended to be served.

Our training manual is long and extensive. More than half of the servers we interview walk away when they see the test they’ll need to pass before they can work the floor. They need to study food science, the purveyors we use, where our selections of olive oils come from and read selections from books by Charlie Trotter and other successful restaurateurs for group discussion. Our management team is fanatical about knowledge and training and I just hope other restaurants in Westchester take the initiative to follow suit.

Any questions or comments are gladly received at anthony.rangone@theobistro.com

Anthony Rangone
The O Bistro
Yonkers, New York

Anthony,

The other side of the coin form a restauranteurs pint of view is to give the customers what they want and expect instead of having to take them into the kitchen just so they will feel comfortable enough to eat the food.
Maybe The o Bistro should open where the concept will be better understood.
Just a thought.

When I read this article, I was prepared for a snarky review by Coleman Andrews. If you read it: http://www.gourmet.com/restaurants/2008/10/first-taste-tarry-lodge, it's really not that bad. After all, it hasn't been that many years that we in Westchester had more than a few great restaurants where you didn't have to wear a suit. And the stereotype thing works both ways. There are terrific restaurants in places other than the NY metro area. Even in Richmond, VA.

"Anthony,

The other side of the coin form a restauranteurs pint of view is to give the customers what they want and expect instead of having to take them into the kitchen just so they will feel comfortable enough to eat the food.
Maybe The o Bistro should open where the concept will be better understood. Just a thought."

Yes we agree. But all customers get the tour if they'd like. Nothing drives us crazier than restaurants that lie and don't allow patrons to view the facilities. Our kitchen has a street level 8 by 14 foot window so the public can look right in. When the patrons see how critical we are with our approach to cooking and cleanliness, they develop a certain trust that can not be achieved in restaurants that hide their little secrets behind the guise of "sorry, can't let you see the kitchen because of health regulations". This, by the way, is a fallacy. There is no such rule. Education, we believe, is the key to bring the diners’ experience to yet another level. But as you stated (by your opinion that perhaps we should have opened elsewhere), we’re not for everyone. We humbly admit this fact and our team is trained to treat everyone as valued guests whether or not they know what a guinea hen is.

Thanks for your reply to my comment.

Anthony Rangone

Anthony,

Most Fairfield County and Westchester residents moved to the suburbs from NYC and many of us have businesses in NYC and dine there once or twice a week. So, educating us isn't necesaary. There are not nearly as many, but we do have some excellent restaurants with excellent service and excellent food. There are MANY more restaurants per square foot in NYC than the suburbs, therefore a higher level of everything can and should be expected in many establishments. There are also many restaurants in NYC where the food and service are abysmal. I would take an educated guess and say per capita for restaurants in the suburbs versus the city, ratings flush out the same. i.e. we have far fewer restaurants in the suburbs, so there will be fewer excellent, good and bad restaurants, but likely a simliar ratio!

Also, I would never go to a restaurant I wasn't comfortable eating in and most people from the suburbs know what their food should look like. While that is lovely to open the kitchen up to your patrons, if I want to see a kitchen I will stay home.

Good luck in your venture!

Great point. I recently asked a health inspector why Westchester does not post their health inspection reports online. The answer was a bit astounding. "People in Westchester don't really care about the results like those in the city".

The New York City Department of Health website gets well over a hundred-thousand hits a month by people checking the health inspection results of restaurants. In Westchester, they may get an occasional call here or there for someone inquiring on a restaurant’s inspection results.

So you’re right. People that want to see the inside of a kitchen (or care what goes on in there) generally stay at home. This may also explain why the “chef’s tasting table” never really took off here in the burbs.

Luckily we’ve carved a niche and have developed a following that brings in the foodies that enjoy this “front row” sort of engagement. I’ve always had a problem with restaurants that take the extra step to shield the kitchen from the public. Whether it be paper that’s taped on the window that would normally shed view to the kitchen, or a sign that says “EMPLOYEES ONLY!!”.

It’s only my opinion and everyone’s entitled to one. I really enjoy reading all the feedback though. Thanks for taking time out to write. Your comments allow us an inside view of what’s on the mind of potential patrons. Information that’s more valuable than you can imagine, especially in this economy.

Anthony

Umm... you lost me there. Which part of Coleman's piece on the Batali/Bastianich venture in Port Chester sounded all dissy and snarky to you?

To me it reads as a super review of a good local restaurant for a national magazine's blog, contextualized in the notion of city chefs moving north. By one of the top food writers in the world. Who, by the way, would be the last authority on earth you could accuse of being nose-in-the-air about food.

I think you misread the "ethnic" thing. And he's merely quoting the waiter about declassifying the guinea hen.

Anyway, thanks for pointing out Andrews' review. I'll go get in line at Tarry Lodge.

While Andrews's piece is positive toward the restaurant, which absolutely deserves the shout-out in Gourmet, it's much less flattering to Port Chester. I find the shackling quotation marks around the word ethnic offensive here. Is "ethnic" a euphemism for Latino, just as "urban" is a euphemism for African American? Why "ethnic" restaurants and not ethnic restaurants? There's a difference. Also, as i pointed out--this is a very poorly trained waitress. To suggest that guinea hen was too arcane an ingredient for diners Port Chester-- while ingredients like farro, treviso and fregula pop up elsewhere on the menu--seems lazy on her part. And as hackneyed as a Polish joke. And probably not even the reason for the nomenclature change(es)at all. (BTW--now the dish is "pollo al Mattone".) I suspect the real reason for the shift is that that this dish is the chicken option on the menu, aimed at those compulsive, unadventurous chicken eaters, who live in Manhattan as well as in Greenwich, Rye, and even Port Chester. There's a veggie option at Tarry Lodge, too. Chicken menu anchors are geared toward the folks (whatever their area code), who are looking for a pale, white, mild, lower-fat protein option and they don't really like fish. Sadly--these diners are out there, and in pretty high numbers, too. The white meat eaters might be put off by the phrase guinea hen--which might sound gamy or unfamiliar to them--so why not call it chicken? And as I say, these folks live in Manhattan, too. There's a chicken dish at Del Posto.
--Julia Sexton