Steve Cuozzo reports in today’s Post of a financial-district restaurant project so oversize, ambitious, and doomed that we are already thinking of it in mythological terms. SHO Shaun Hergatt, as the Cuozz describes it, will be a “lavishly conceived, 12,500-square-foot eatery and lounge” at 40 Broad Street that will serve “modern French, bold Asian flavors, and seasonally driven” food to its well-heeled patrons, according to its eponymous chef. That really narrows it down! The entire project sounds like a Promethean folly: 150 fine-dining seats in an area that can barely support a steakhouse, and a so-called “value-driven price range” of $25 to $40 entrées. Some value! SHO Shaun Hergatt will be all white tablecloth and traditional service in an era when everybody is doing small plates and casual dining. Our scorn, though, may not be that well founded: Cuozzo is a seasoned and skeptical observer of the restaurant scene, and he doesn’t see automatic doom for the project. So maybe we are being too harsh. But it sure doesn’t sound like it.
Sho Time [NYP]
