Thursday, August 21, 2014

The ten top restaurants & bars in modern literature

Michael Gibney began working in restaurants at the age of sixteen and assumed his first sous chef position at twenty-two. He ascended to executive sous chef at Tavern on the Green, where he managed an eighty-person staff. In addition to his experience in the food service industry, Gibney also holds a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. He is the author of Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line.

At the Guardian, Gibney tagged the top ten restaurants and bars in modern literature, including:
Lantenengo Country Club smoking room in Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara

The Menu: "The liquor, that is, the rye, was all about the same: most people bought drug store rye on prescriptions (the physicians who were club members saved 'scrips' for their patients), and cut it with alcohol and colored water. It was not poisonous, and it got you tight, which was all that was required of it and all that could be said for it.

The Appeal: Watching the moth-eaten storytelling Harry Reilly get pelted in the eye with the round-cornered ice cubes from Julian English's scotch and soda.
Read about another entry on the list.

Appointment in Samarra is among Frederic Raphael's top ten talkative novels and Tom Wolfe's five most important books.

Also see: Esther Inglis-Arkell's ten best bars in science fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue