Ashok Bajaj put his Bibiana cooks and servers through six different practice runs this week, in preparation for what was supposed to be a Monday, Sept. 7, opening. So why did the downtown osteria and enoteca open today instead?

“Practice, practice, practice,” Bajaj tells Y&H this afternoon. “Like everything else, we needed a little bit of work.”

Because Congress returns to work next week, Bajaj wanted to make sure that his latest restaurant would be performing at its peak before the power players start to stumble in following their fisticuffs over health-care reform. “No matter how good you think you are, you can always get better,” he says.

Read More “Looking for a Little Practice, Bibiana Jumps the Gun and Opens for Service Today” »

Food isn’t like music or movies. The hospitality business doesn’t obsess over every restaurant or bistro or pub that opens during any particular year; it doesn’t base its overall health on the success or failure of the newbies coming into the market. Restaurants, young and old, must complete against each other. In some ways, the older restaurants have it easier: They may already have a loyal clientele that doesn’t require expensive marketing to lure them back to the place.

I say all this as prologue. You don’t see as many Year in Food lists as you do lists for movies and music. And when you do see them, they tend to be trend oriented, like the one Chow posted earlier this month. Now come two more:

Read More “Those Year-End Lists We Love to Hate” »