Starting off a column on restaurants requires a little thought and meditation. This being my first address to you on the subject, it is perhaps in order for me to state what it is that attracts me to a given restaurant. Food and wines are first on the list, service is second, and surroundings third. I am not at all impressed by who the person at the next table may be, nor does the presence of the entire social register and half of Who’s Who do anything to add to my luncheon or dinner. I can appreciate a restaurant where the food and wines are above reproach and the service a little faltering, but I cannot abide a place where the service and appointments are perfect and the food mediocre or, what is worse, indifferent. Neither the lowest of bows from the waist nor the finest of damask cloths has ever made a poorly cooked dinner taste any better.
If you are really dining, take time to savor the food and drink which are served you and to appreciate the effort which has made it possible. Let the mellow glow of being well and leisurely fed inspire that gentle but almost lost art, conversation. It will be worth your while—you may be surprised at the results. Furthermore, it is a shame to make a major investment and not realize its full worth.
Restaurants generally may be placed in three categories. There are those where you dine, and that well, those where you eat, and those where you are obliged to go. Of course, in addition to these, there are a few institutions in nearly every country where one enters the hallowed walls with almost a reverential attitude and where one may be wafted to Olympian heights on magic gastronomical carpets. Such taverns are, alas, growing fewer and fewer in number. Those which still exist might easily be listed as Temples of Comus.
One also finds tiny places in rather remote locations speckled over the map of the world where high degrees of excellence are always maintained. One stumbles onto them here and there in globe-wandering, but such restaurants and inns are not to be considered here. We, unfortunately, are not trudging the highways and byways of the world at this point. We are merely trying to give you some idea of what there is to be found within a comparatively small radius of New York, where there are probably more eating places per capita than in any other spot in the world.
Two different experiences lately have emphasized to us the fact that the Brussels (111 East 56th Street) is one of the really fine Continental restaurants in New York. The term “Continental” may need a bit of defining. Few restaurants in this hemisphere really achieve the quality which has for years been maintained by the best European restaurants. Pleasant surroundings, impeccable service, food that is perfectly prepared and well seasoned, and a distinguished list of wines are the prime attributes. These are achieved under the constant surveillance of a wise and knowing patron, whose sharp eye and keen palate immediately are aware of any discord. Such a restaurateur is André Pagani. Since his first days in New York, we have been more and more aware of André’s intelligent and thoroughly delightful approach to the business at hand.
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