A mighty labor

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, in the midst of giving a mediocre review to NYC dining institution The Four Seasons, on being "made" (identified as a critic) mid-meal:

The standouts on the menu aren’t as numerous as they should be. The signs of a restaurant that runs on two tracks — one for the anonymous, another for the anointed — are too obvious.

I get the sense that I’ve moved from the first to the second group about a third of the way into one of my dinners, with the arrival of a salad to be prepared tableside. Suddenly the romaine’s lone squire is joined by several others, who fuss and fret over the cart as if what’s under way isn’t a Caesar but a Caesarean.

Heh.

No Longer Young, But Still Turning Heads (Frank Bruni reviews The Four Seasons and gives it two stars in the New York Times, April 4, 2007)