William Grimes stepping down as New York Times Critic

A Critic's Coda is a fascinating interview with William Grimes who will step down on December 31st as New York Times food critic.  I love the following quote where he talks about eating four star meals day in and day out:

QUOTE

 NEWSWEEK: You are leaving the coolest job on the planet.
       William Grimes: Well, yes and no. Thats the realistic answer. Youre dining at the best places in New York and somebody else is paying for it, and you dont have to do what normal people do, which is look at the price side of the menu. You have to think about it for the benefit of the reader as an information point, but its never anything I need worry about. The downside is that you have to do that again and again and again. Its like Groundhog Day. You wake up the next day having eaten a four-star meal, you must go out and eat another four-star meal. And you get up the next day and you have to go out and eat another four-star meal.

UNQUOTE

I personally couldn't eat more than two meals a week at four star restaurants.  It's not the food but it's more the formality of a four star restaurant.  I really like the down home coziness (or what the Germans call gemuetlichkeit) of  'hole in the wall' restaurants.

My ideal food week would consist of one four style meal, one or two hole in the wall meals and four or five nights of home cooked food! If anybody wants to pay for our restaurant meals (of course this site will remain non commercial), please leave a comment or email roland AT vaneats.com.