Trends for 2010
By
Geoff Kalish, M.D.
Compared with the burgeoning scene in New York City, food and wine trends in
our area seem fairly staid. No profusion of ethnic “food trucks;”
no lunch counters specializing in Vietnamese subs or banh mi; no new
restaurants with overthe-top décor and $100-plus tasting menus; few wine
shops selling bottles from little-known areas like the Jura, Chinon, and Uruguay;
and even fewer wine lists offering more than one or two top-tier choices by
the glass.
Nope, change here in Westchester and Fairfield is both subtler and more glacial.
It is, however, happening. The economy is shaking things up, forcing restaurants
and shops to either innovate or fold. So what can we expect in 2010? I contacted
a number of local trendsetting figures in the world of food and wine to find
out.
“Casual dining will continue to dominate the Westchester dining scene,
and bars and bar dining will continue to grow,” says Nick Livanos, who,
along with other family members, owns the City Limits Diner in White Plains
and Stamford, the newly re-opened Oceana in Manhattan (where we recently dined
on outstanding seafare, including exemplary stuffed branzino), and the soon-to-be-open
Moderne Barn in Armonk. Livianos predicts that the growing trend of eating at
the bar will stay strong this year. “Single diners and couples enjoy the
company of the bartender and the opportunity to meet other people in that setting,”
he says. “And it’s even been stronger than ever since smoking has
stopped.”
Affordability, says Livianos, will continue to be important and will impact
menu design. “People will still want to continue dining out, but they
are watching their pennies,” he observes. “At our restaurants, wine
by the glass is very important, and sales here are stronger than ever. We find
that many customers are ordering one to two glasses of wine rather than a full
bottle, and will occasionally treat themselves to a higher priced wine—so
we have all price points in our wine-by-the-glass program. In addition, there
is a continued and growing demand for signature cocktails, especially when they
are made with fresh-squeezed juices and exotic ingredients.”
Phil McGrath, whose Iron Horse Grill in Pleasantville continues to put out sensibly
priced, fresh, flavorful American cuisine, says his diners want quality and
variety, not quantity. “Downsizing seems to be the catchword of this recession
and the same sentiment is reflected in how the dining public has approached
their eating options,” he explains. “We find customers gravitating
towards smaller, multiplecourse meals and drinking less wine, leading to burgeoning
trends of dining at the bar and an increase in selection of half bottles of
wine. To accommodate these movements, we now offer a $28 three-course small
plate special (which can be served in the dining room or at the bar) and have
markedly expanded our half-bottle wine holdings. It will be interesting to see
if these trends continue when the economy expands.”
With a dozen metro New York eateries, including the recently opened Bistro Citron
in Scarsdale, restaurateur Fabio Machado’s insights echo many of those
offered by McGrath. “Overall our business is off about 8 percent from
a year ago, with fewer customers, and those who come to our establishments are
eating and drinking less and more economically. For example, rather than an
appetizer and main course, people are opting for a salad and two appetizers.
Wine-by-the glass costing less than $12 is popular, but bottles costing more
than $60 are a hard sell. With a recovery in the area’s financial strength,
I would expect to see more people dining out, but I think that the tendency
towards smaller portions and less-expensive wine is here to stay.”
Peter Kelly, who owns four area restaurants including the popular X20 Xaviars
on the Hudson in Yonkers, sees “an overwhelming trend in the food industry
to downsize and simplify the dining experience, removing some of the luxuries
that have been associated with fine dining and its pricing, thereby enabling
many more people to sample the work of great chefs.” It sounds great,
right? Kelly isn’t so sure. “The downside of this trend is that
it has brought way too many sliders, chicken wings, marginal wines, and paper
napkins to establishments where more was expected.” Instead, Kelly would
rather see restaurants focus on traditional fine dining that offers quality
and value for the dollar. “We have learned from all the trends that have
come before to take what is good about it and incorporate it into our own particular
style. So I think you will be seeing more tables in restaurants dressed with
linen, more products coming from local vendors and farms, and chefs increasingly
committed to guest satisfaction, with more vegetables taking over the center
of the plate—all of which should bode very well for the customer.”
Also, it appears that at least for the near future the wine side of the equation
will favor the consumer. In particular, shop owners/managers like Dodd Farber
of Dodd’s Liquor City in Millwood and Paige Donahoo of Stew Leonard’s
Wines in Yonkers see bargains galore. They report a precipitous drop in sales
of reds from Bordeaux, with bottlers of currently available vintages, like 2005
and 2006 going unsold even at over 30 percent reductions from original asking
prices. And older vintages of premium brands from France and Italy can, in many
instances, be bought at auction for half of what they cost just two years ago.
“The market has shifted towards bottles of wine sold at retail shops for
under $12,” comments Bill Deutsch of WJ Deutsch & Sons, a White Plainsbased
importer (Duboeuf wines,Yellow Tail, etc). Moreover, Deutsch says the public
seems increasingly willing to try non-traditional wines. Glenn Albright, former
restaurant columnist for The WAG and now co-owner of International
Spirits & Wines importing in Mt. Kisco, and Derek Todd, former director
of wine for Blue Hill at Stone Barns and currently co-owner of The Wine Geeks
store in Armonk, report a similar wave of adventurousness. “There is a
significant increase in interest in high quality, low production, so-called
‘New World’ wines from Australia, and areas south of the US border,”
says Albright. “Improved wine-making techniques in areas as farflung as
Hungary, Slovenia, Morocco, Sicily, and even Mexico are giving consumers a much
wider field to choose from, with the popularity of some of these lesser-known
regions is expected to take off in the coming year,” comments Todd. “Moreover,
five years ago most distributors had no idea if a producer was organic. Today,
they aggressively promote these ‘green’ wines, and I feel that this
growing market will continue to expand.”
So, while we might have to wait a while before we’re debating the relative
merits of all the competing banh mi shops in Westchester, change is
coming. And from where I sit, it all tastes good.
Captions: top to
bottom: Photography
by Paul Johnson: Oceana's chocolate custard brownie; Oceana's dish of seafood
sausage-stuffed calamari; City Limits Diner's hanger steak
