What's a great restaurant?

We all have our favorite restaurants.  And they come in all flavors…steakhouses, fishhouses, continental, ethnic, even fast food (tell me you don’t have a preference on the McDonald’s menu!).  And then there is New York, where the list of restaurants looks like a phone book and if you can eat it , they serve, somewhere there.

A career filled with world travel affords one the opportunity to experiment with food.  And it gives you a taste for what you like and what you don’t, whether you’re a gourmet, a carnivore, vegetarian or just an eater.  My friends in the restaurant business have always said that a great restaurant has three main qualities…food, atmosphere and service.  Good restaurants hit two of those three but great restaurants make the grand-slam.

 My list of good and great restaurants is quite long, quite eclectic and quite spread out…all over the world, in fact.  Dan’s Restaurant on Sydney Street in London was a qualifier.  The Noon Gun Café on the hill above Cape Town is a winner.  In Beijing, Da Dong Roast Duck is a hit from the minute you walk in the door and see all those ducks just hanging there.  And in Houston, Good Company Barbeque makes my mouth water just thinking about the line and how hungry you are by the time you get to order.

Last week, I read that George Lang, the owner of Café des Artistes, passed away.  Although his restaurant went away almost two years ago, it has left a huge void in my culinary palette.   A client recommended Café des Artistes many years ago and, after my first visit there with Jane, we were hooked.  It had it all.  And George was always there to make you feel even better.

 Café des Artistes was an all-purpose establishment that made the New York madness outside disappear in a flash.  It worked before and after the theater.  It worked for holidays.  We had a magnificent Thanksgiving dinner there.  You could drop in on the weekend for a sandwich or have the special of the day and experiment with something like beef cheeks that would melt in your mouth.  Or you could take your best client there and find Julia Child at “her” table just inside the door, laughing that distinctive laugh while entertaining her friends. (I let Jane identify the soap stars who would walk over from the ABC studios for lunch, although I did recognize Regis and Kelly.)

George made you feel as though you were family.  Everyone we ever referred there, came back happy. He would order for you, if you couldn’t decide.  And, if you didn’t like that, he would bring something else.  “Let’s try a little of all these desserts from the cart,” he once said. And we did.  OOOFFF!  But excellent.

 I distinctly remember the Thursday that we didn’t call first and headed straight to the restaurant from our hotel.  When we found the doors locked, the man at the reception desk in the building said, “Sadly, they had to close.”   We’d lost a sanctuary in the big city, a place that was warm like home.  We were forced to continue our search for the next great restaurant.  It’s out there.  We’ll find it.  But there’s one thing about great restaurants.  Each one stands alone.  They’re one of a kind.  The owner, the chef, the wait staff, the menu, Howard Chandler Christy’s pastel murals of naked beauties prancing through romantic landscapes on the wall, all make dining more than just a meal.  You feel like it’s part of your life.  I can taste mom’s eye-of-round with cheese potatoes right now.  Let’s eat.