Lunch Is Back In The Big Apple

Of course, the rest of us figured that out first

Hello, and welcome to the CulinaryWoman Newsletter! I am happy to welcome new readers and I’m so pleased to see our returning subscribers. CulinaryWoman doesn’t accept ads and has no sponsors. If you’d like to keep us running, please consider upgrading your account.

Thanks, and let’s go to lunch!

New Yorkers Rediscover The Lunch Hour

Spring is such a beautiful time in the city — meaning New York City. Central Park glows with flowering trees, there are tulips on Park Avenue. Even more important for restaurants, there are customers filling daytime seats.

If you’re a regular newsletter reader, you know that breakfast, brunch and lunch have become big business for chains like First Watch. And, that early diners have been flocking to restaurants to eat dinner as early as 4 p.m., upsetting the traditional expectation of a 7 p.m. or later dinner hour.

But lunch time has been tough for big city restaurants. Since the height of the pandemic, some have kept their doors closed until late afternoon, focusing on evening service hours, which have always generated more revenue.

However, that’s changing. Eater New York reports that a series of restaurants there have restored lunch time service. They say this is happening all over, “from hotels to off-the-beaten-path neighborhood spots.” Backing up their claim is data from Open Table, which shows that lunch time reservations are up nearly 20 percent compared with this time last year.

In Tribeca, Houseman, which opened in 2015, is serving lunch for the first time. This might seem risky, since the restaurant sits on a stretch of Greenwich Street that historically doesn’t see much daytime foot traffic.

In Brooklyn, Laser Wolf is now taking reservations for Saturday and Sunday lunch (not brunch). Service at the restaurant, part of Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov’s group, will start May 4, and the reservations are already gone for the first week of May.

The Middle Eastern-focused restaurant is in the Hoxton Hotel, which has seen “insane demand” for midday meals, Brian Jackson, director of food and beverage, told Eater. Its lunch will be a pre-fixe affair at $39, or $35 for vegetarians, served family style, as it does with its dinners.

Meanwhile, the legendary power lunch — dealmakers and VIPs dining out — seems to have returned to NYC. High profile restaurants like Michael’s, a hub for the publishing world, and restaurants from Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten are filling up with the powerful again, according to the New York Post.

“People are coming back and we are ready for them,” said Rosanna Scotto, the “Good Day New York” host and member of the Fresco by Scotto family. 

Why I prefer lunch to dinner

When I was a young reporter in New York, I loved going out for lunch. Our New York Newsday office sat squarely amid some legendary steakhouses, including the original Smith & Wollensky’s, Sparks, and The Palm and The Palm Too.

Now that I’m a veteran writer working from home, I still prefer to dine out during the lunch hour, for a variety of reasons that I’m sure other diners share.

The primary reason for me — and I suspect many diners — to eat lunch out is cost. Restaurants traditionally charge less at the lunch hour, and portions are usually smaller, as well (although not always). As inflation sends menu prices higher, and fees are tacked onto them, a lunch bill can be tens of dollars cheaper than dining at night.

Another reason is that you can time your arrival. Sometimes, I’ll head out for an early lunch if I haven’t yet eaten breakfast. Other times, I have breakfast and I’m not hungry again until after 1:30 p.m. or 2 p.m. Especially if I have morning interviews, or I’m facing a deadline, I like to get things out of the way before I eat.

Since I often dine by myself, and I don’t drink alcohol, I usually feel a little safer at lunch time than I do in the evening. That’s not a huge concern, since the staff at the places where I like to eat are always looking after me, but it reduces the noise that can make a place rowdier at night.

Considerations for restaurants

Eater points out that these big city restaurants face a risk. While many companies have nudged their employees to return to offices, fueling the lunch business, some are resisting.

Nationally, office vacancies remain at about 37.2 percent, although it is lower in Manhattan, where about 17 percent of commercial properties are vacant. It is even higher in some business districts, like the Loop in Chicago.

People who come back to work on hybrid schedules, say Tuesday through Thursday, might not want to take time for a sit down lunch. Instead, they focus on the tasks that need to be done in person so they can get back to their homes.

Meanwhile, adding lunch service means hiring more people. While the brutal staff shortages of the pandemic are largely eased, a number of places might not want to take on the expense of two shifts unless they can be sure they’ll have enough business.

And, consumers continue to watch their pocketbooks. Restaurant price inflation continues to rise more than grocery price inflation, and unexpected expenses and shortages can pop up.

Still, it’s nice to see people filling tables once more, especially as spring arrives.

I’d love to hear from servers and restaurant owners with their views about lunch versus dinner. Feel free to weigh in.

Open Table Revises Its Review Policy

Last Sunday, I told you that Open Table was scrapping its anonymous review policy. It apparently got an earful from its subscribers, and has issued an update to its new rules.

Said Jen D’Aniello, an Open Table spokeswoman, “We have received feedback from our diner community and are making some new refinements as a result.” 

While it will no longer support anonymous reviews, IDs will be shared on an ongoing basis. It won’t retroactively update reviews. The changes will go into effect later this year, rather than OT’s original target date of May 22.

And, before and after those changes, diners can elect to delete and edit their reviews.

Jamie Oliver And Paul Prud’homme Celebrate Significant Anniversaries

In 1999, Jamie Oliver burst onto the television scene with his original program, The Naked Chef. Viewers were treated to a boisterous, motorcycle riding young man whose enthusiasm was a departure from more-formal cooking shows.

This spring, Jamie is celebrating his 25th anniversary. His social media team put together a reel of 25 years of his television programs. Jamie has seen a restaurant empire grow and in some cases collapse, and has become the best selling non-fiction author in Britain.

Meanwhile, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the late chef Paul Prud’homme’s landmark cookbook, Louisiana Kitchen, which introduced many cooks to recipes for then-novel dishes like blackened redfish and shrimp etouffee.

Far from being a fad, Chef Paul’s blackened redfish became a staple on restaurant menus across the country and turned him into a celebrity. “Blackened,” or cooked at high heat with Cajun spices, is now an option on proteins well beyond redfish, which was in such demand that it was considered overfished.

Sadly, the chef died in 2015 and his New Orleans restaurant K-Paul’s has since closed. But his spices can still be found in many groceries and his legacy is on menus everywhere,

Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman

Red Lobster is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, as I wrote for Food & Wine. It was too generous with last year’s endless shrimp special, lost its lead investor and now may wind up in court protection.

Meanwhile, our panel on Lions, Towers & Shields looked at a very entertaining — and risque — movie from 1931 called Employees’ Entrance. It came out before the Production Code that imposed censorship on Hollywood and wow, there are some spicy parts to this film.

Like Swifties everywhere, I got my copy of The Tortured Poets Department this weekend. It actually turned out to be a two-disc affair and I’m still absorbing what Taylor has shared. My intial impression is that this is grown-up Taylor Swift. She’ll still bop on occasion, but she’s become much more introspective.

You are more than welcome to follow me and get in touch.

• Website: www.michelinemaynard.com

• Email: culinarywoman (@) gmail dot com

• LinkedIn: Micheline Maynard

• Threads and Instagram: (@) michelinemaynard

• Etsy shop: City Tips Vintage

On Monday, I’ll be back for our paid subscribers with the highlights from this year’s Public Radio Cake Week. Be prepared to be dazzled.

Have a great week.