On the mayor of New York and his favorite restaurant – Hannah Goldfield in The New Yorker:

‘Adams’s support of La Baia—appearances there with other high-profile figures, including Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio; promotion on social media; and glowing praise, as quoted in the Post—sits in an ethical gray area. The Times reporters did not observe the Mayor handling his check at the restaurant, though a member of his camp assured the paper that he pays a monthly tab. They did observe the Mayor (who wrote a book about keeping a plant-based diet) being asked by a server if he’d have his usual: the branzino.

The meticulous investigation was missing only one key aspect: How wasthe branzino? That night, before our drinks had arrived, a server presented me with an enormous bowl of chocolate gelato. We both laughed at her mistake, but as dinner progressed it became clear that the error was my own. If only I’d eaten the ice cream and left.’

(…)

‘Still, none of it prepared me for the main event. Never had I seen a fish thus presented: gutted and splayed skin side up, with its head in a forward position, tail at attention, like a fish-skin rug. When I sent a photo of it to a friend, he asked if I had seen the movie “Midsommar”: “They kill a guy the way that fish is prepared.”’

The edges of the skin were bubbled and charred, but the center was taut and stretchy. My companions and I poked halfheartedly at the white flesh beneath, which sat on a mess of olives, tomatoes, and sweet peppers. It was enough to turn a pescatarian off fish.’

Read the review here.

The question remains, what does the mayor see in this restaurant if it’s not the branzino?

I’ll end with one more quote: ‘The mushrooms in the single vegan entrée tasted as though they’d been left to ferment under a heavy layer of damp leaves in a forest, and not in the René Redzepi way.’

I’m not sure who is René Redzepi, forgive me, but mushrooms that reminds the food critic of a fermenting process under a heavy layer of damp leaves, well that makes the reader eager to visit the restaurant, at least this reader.

After all and once again, you don’t go to the restaurant for the food.