I first heard of Guy Fieri's new restaurant in Times Square when my daughter's friend organized her birthday party at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar. Plenty of Brooklyn hipster types are crazy about Fieri kitsch, including the now notorious blue cocktails that "glow like nuclear waste."
After the party, their summations ran something like this: "It's a tourist trap in Times Square, and the drinks are too expensive. We had a blast."
It seems critic Pete Wells was expecting a little more, according to his scathing and hilarious review published about a week ago in The New York Times. The review is written in a crescendo of questions that include these kinds of humdingers: “Why is one of the few things on your menu that can be eaten without fear or regret — a lunch-only sandwich of chopped soy-glazed pork with coleslaw and cucumbers — called a Roasted Pork Bahn Mi, when it resembles that item about as much as you resemble Emily Dickinson?" Ouch.
The review is must-reading for Fieri fans and foes, provoking more than 1,000 comments on the Times website and a spoof for SNL's Weekend Update that for some reason did not air Saturday. Fortunately, NBC posted the dress rehearsal online, where it quickly became a viral hit thanks to a very funny Fieri played by SNL's Bobby Moynihan.
One of my favorite lines is the skit's closer: "If you come in expecting Le Cirque, you're a jerk." But there are plenty more funny moments, so click here and see yoursel f.
