Per Se, New York, NY, September 11, 2004 — Hot on the heels of the New York Times I finally caved and decided to make reservations at Per Se. This is Thomas Keller's expensive new venture in New York. Meals can go to hundreds of dollars per person. There's not that many seats. And lunch is served only Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. With the entire city of New York trying to get in, the odds weren't good. Basically you have to call two months to the day in advance to get a reservation. We're thinking of heading to New York City for a few days, and it seems like we should finally check out Per Se. I called late in the day today knowing that it was likely too late to get a reservation for November 11th, but I figured I'd give it a trial run before tomorrow. After seven redials I actually got through. Not bad. I thought, maybe this would work out. Ninety minutes later they finally took me off hold. Of course 90 minutes later was 6:02PM eastern - two minutes after the Per Se reservations office closed for the day. Aaaargh! Of course, I did get to talk to someone. She was very nice but made it clear that the 11th was booked anyway, they were closed on the 12th, and they will fill up very fast for the 13th, 14th, 15th, and beyond. (I heard they might raise their prices to unclog the phone lines. But I don't know for sure if that's true.) It became really clear to me that I will probably never eat a meal at Per Se. The work to get in there is just too much. And that's true of it's Napa counterpart as well. My friend tried to get us in to French Laundry (for a second time) for months and couldn't do it. Their phone was busy - for months.

It makes me more certain what the theme for our next trip to New York should be - cheap, ethnic, holes-in-the-wall. I just want to eat good food. It doesn't have to be fancy, popular, expensive, or have four stars from the New York Times. It just has to be special and delicious. I believe I can find that combination in some unexpected places. Wish me luck.