And it gets worse. The Post's Steve Cuozzo isn't thrilled with the group's to date body of work:
But to get a whiff of what the team has done so far, we journeyed to Philadelphia’s Beau Monde — its only other restaurant. Surely, Mayor Bloomberg’s functionaries checked it out top-to-bottom before tapping them to relaunch Tavern next year under a 20-year license.
.....Philadelphians don’t seem to flock there in huge numbers — seats are available on opentable.com just about any time, and it was half empty Saturday night.
Web site photos make the place look a lot grander than a cookie-cutter tavern festooned with gold-leaf botanical prints by Salama himself.
The brunch-around-the-clock joint has a fast-food feel, bathtub-warm red wine and toilets as cold as a freezer aisle. And while Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe claims the owners “have done an outstanding job in Philadelphia,” our savvy friend in the City of Brotherly Love describes Beau Monde and its attached L’Etage “nightclub” as “total nonentities on the hospitality scene.”
The staff, friendly enough, seemed eager to go home; waitresses twice tried to sweep away our appetizers, which had arrived five minutes earlier, to make room for entrees.
Salad greens looked and tasted out of a supermarket bag. The jumbo square crepes were fine, but fillings — “Cajun” shrimp; creamed spinach and grilled chicken; and shrimp with seafood sauce — had the formulaic, starch-bomb heft of thickened canned soup.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/food/what_load_of_crepe_OG8wwerW7KfWlBTIsBw5YM#ixzz24wShTnit because it's a bit frightening.
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