Tom Tuesday Dinner @ Craft Anyone Going Tonight?
Tonight is the first night of Tom Colicchio cooking in the private room @ Craft. Curious if anyone is going.
They are doing one tomorrow(yes a Wednesday) that I will be going to. Looking forward to trying some of Tom's cooking!
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Steve,
How did you get reservations? It's impossible. I joined chowhound just to find out how you did it.......›7 Replies-
re: sweetdreams4u
Note that OP went on the first night of Tom Tuesday Dinner ever. It seemed not too difficult to get reservations when Tom Tuesday Dinner was announced because a) the reservation books were completely empty when they first announced it online; and b) lots of people were wary as to whether or not it would be good.
After the first one took place, and reviews were positive, forget about it.
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re: sweetdreams4u
I waited until the first reviews came out, and then tried the next time -- it was insane. I hit redial for hours!
The problem was that they only opened up ONE new night 6 weeks in advance, so the Craft phone lines were getting jammed but only on every other Tuesday. HUNDREDS of people were probably calling. I think the phone systems got knocked offline. I was calling maybe on the second time they experienced the onslaught. When the dinners were first announced, I imagine demand trickled in as people read blogs, etc.
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re: kathryn
I tried three phones at once, hitting redial for 52 minutes until it came on that they were fully booked. I can't believe that Alana doesn't already have one years worth of a vips list and they just blocked the phones at 10 a.m. for some minutes and than play the recording. I am hoping in this recession that there may be a chance but I'm sure there are enough New Yorkers willing to pay $600 for dinner to fill the rest of the year.
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re: sweetdreams4u
sparkplug
Feb 4, 2009 09:12 AM
Yesterday 6 friends and I all tried calling the reservation line for 45 minutes straight starting at 9:50 a.m. Eastern, and none of us got a reservation. Line was busy all the way through until finally we each got the recording saying that they were fully booked for dinner, plus the waiting list.
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re: sparkplug
Went last night (Happy St. Paddy's Day!) They even had corned beef cheeks and cabbage on the 11-course menu. The food was phenomenal. Not an ounce of pretension in Chef Colicchio at all. He chatted with all the guests, and I think everyone came away thinking he was just about the nicest guy ever. Cooler than meeting Bono. :)
The full menu is already posted online, so I'll just say I particularly enjoyed the Languostines (interesting Thai flavors going on), the gnudi, and the corned beef. Right after the corned beef, was a mango yogurt smoothie that was soooo refreshing - I didn't think I could possibly eat anything else after something as heavy as the corned beef (the 10th course), but the smoothie made me feel great - the progression of courses was very well thought-out.
Not a single "good" dish, all were excellent - very balanced, clean flavors - but a little more playful than Colicchio has been at Craft.
As for the reservation line, good luck and keep trying, everyone - I feel for you. I had the experience from hell, too, involving calling from work on my cell phone on an almost dead battery, FINALLY getting through after 20 minutes of continuous re-dial, and telling Elena Silva that my battery was about to die. She was terrific and asked for an alternate number to reach me. I gave her my work phone number, but the connection was so bad, she could barely hear me. She repeated the number twice (incorrectly), and then the connection died. I was horrified. About three minutes went by, I was absolutely crestfallen, and my phone rang. She had figured out the number. :-) I saw Elena the night of my reservation, and gave her a heartfelt 'thank you.'
I hope Colicchio continues the restaurant past September. It's a really special place and so many people want to go. I hope you all get a chance to experience it.
Will post a more detailed report (it's really more of an ode to Colicchio - he was on CRUTCHES last night and still serving) and some photos on my blog when I get down from Cloud 9.
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re: rifkind81
pizzajunkie
Nov 23, 2008 02:43 PM
Saw the thing on CBS this morning about Tom, just thought I'd ask if there were any reviews or updates since last month. Was thinking of going to Craft when I come to NYC in June, but this sounds very cool!
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re: BW212
He does have a web site that has last night menu posted
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re: stevel
Its well worth going. It's in its own private room with about 10 tables. Very intimate but plenty of space between tables. They space out the reservations so when we arrived @ 6:30 we had the place to our selves for about a hour. It's a open kitchen with Tom facing out so you can watch him the entire time.
The food and staff were impeccable, what you would expect from a top restaurant. It was 9 courses with a couple of amuses to start. Porchetta, Sea Bass, Black Risotto(best of the night), Sturgeon, Squab(not great for me), Lamb, chocolate dessert. $150 was worth it. I enjoyed as much if not more then EMP
Highly recommended
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