Perry St

In the last post I talked about the trails I had scheduled. After completing them all, I took a job at Perry St.

Saveur Magazine was only looking for an intern, so it was cool to see what they do but I have to pass. The trail at Gramercy Tavern was uneventful - just standing around watching. It turns out they're not hiring at all right now. Next.

I wanted to check out corporate dining. I met someone who had worked in the corporate "club" kitchen for Sony in NY and said the food was amazing and the hours were 9-5. So, I looked around and found job openings in the kitchens at Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Sony. I never heard from Merrill or Sony, but set up a trail at Lehman Brothers. Unfortunately, there's a difference between corporate dining and "executive" dining. Sony does "executive", where you're serving high-end food to execs and their guests. That's what I was hoping to see. The Lehman Bros corporate kitchen is no more than a cafeteria. I arrived at the trail and told them I wasn't interested.

I trailed at Lupa, part of the Batali empire. The food is good and I'd love to eat there, but I just wasn't super impressed with the work environment.

Perry St is a new Jean-Georges restaurant. Jean-Georges is considered to be "the most influential chef in NY for the last decade". The menu at Perry St is just clean and simple. The kitchen is well-designed and brand new (the restaurant has been open for just three weeks). The chef (Greg Brainin) and I seemed to hit it off from the start. There was a bit of time pressure in making the decision. They needed someone to start ASAP and I needed an income. The restaurant starts serving lunch next week, so they need me trained this week to take on the lunch shift. My hours should be way better than at Aquavit and the pay about the same. Check out the link below to read about Jean-Georges. I'll post the Perry St menu when I get a chance.

On the 13th, I'm going home for 8 days!!! I'm really in need of a break from NY right now. Luckily, Perry St was willing to work around my vacation. I'm flying in Saturday the 13th and heading straight to New Braunfels to meet up with my family. We're stayin in a lodge on the river until the next Wednesday, then I'll be in Houston until that Saturday. Can't wait!

Article on Jean-Georges