The New York Times has an aggressively early sneak peek at how Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick will transform the Four Seasons space once they open their still-unnamed $30 million restaurant come 2017. Aside from re-creating dishes from the 1960s, like “coriander prosciutto” and “stroganoff with rare beef,” there’s one part of the plan that seems pretty problematic:
Mr. Carbone and his two partners, whose restaurant company is called the Major Food Group, want the tone of the room to be masculine, meat-embracing and signified by the brisk confidence of the Kennedy years. Mr. Zalaznick described it as “a true American grill.”
A few steps away in the Pool Room, however, Mr. Torrisi will oversee a different vision: a shrine to newness. He said the room would have a more feminine feel, a menu revolving around vegetables and seafood, and service that would not shrink from tableside extravagance.
Perhaps the Major Food Group team is taking its retro concept a bit too seriously? Throwback dishes are great; tired, outdated gendered stereotypes are not.
