Luxurious Standards at L’Ami Pierre and Lodi | The New Yorker

"On another afternoon I went to Le Bernardin alone for lunch: I drank champagne and started with a precisely circular disk of scallop tartare topped with a generous quenelle of caviar, then had medallions of lobster in a verjus sabayon and a plump fillet of halibut over sunchoke–truffle purée surrounded by tiny, toylike carrots roasted to perfection; for dessert I spooned chocolate pot de crème and caramel out of a hollowed eggshell. The food was beautiful and the service impeccable, and the dining room felt hushed and almost holy even as some diners behaved blasé. The restaurant, founded by Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze in Paris in 1972 and moved to New York in 1986, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in November, and under Eric Ripert (who began there in 1991) has maintained top accolades — Michelin stars, Times stars, and high placement on local and global best-of lists." - Hannah Goldfield