President Obama and First Lady Michelle recently ate at New York’s Blue Hill restaurant on a well-publicized date night, said Frank Bruni in Nytimes.com. The Obamas enjoyed a rare evening out. But, given that the First Couple have their own White House garden, the occasion also had to send out the “proper message” about how to eat “green”: Blue Hill is known for using ingredients that are “local, seasonal, organic, humane.” Of course, Blue Hill is also an outstanding restaurant, located in a quiet, dimly lit townhouse.
“And yet,” Blue Hill was almost too predictable a choice in a city filled with adventurous dining options. As the president sat down to dinner with his wife, “it would have been interesting to watch him bust loose” and dig into a New York strip steak at Minetta Tavern, an oyster pan roast at the John Dory, or a plate of fatty lamb at Resto. Instead, a man with a reputation for being “almost joylessly disciplined” around food chose a restaurant whose pleasures are “more like a hushed foreign film with subtitles” than a freewheeling Brian De Palma flick. Blue Hill’s food may be gorgeous, but it’s also often sexless, making you long for some charred skin or messy fat. Blue Hill is a restaurant for the brain, “not for the heart, not for the viscera.”
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.