PX This.

PX This presents THE F&F REVIEW

Hey, sorry we couldn’t make it to "Friends&Family," we were out of town/ had to work/ not invited. We’re really glad we finally managed to come by, though— it’s so nice to see you!
What’s that? You would still like us to take the time to fill out the F&F survey, because you’d love to take advantage of all our vast experience, knowledge, insight, and expertise as long as we’re already here? Because you invited 75 people to F&F, and afterward all you got was 41 "Congrats[es]!" 22 "Awesome[s]!" 3 "Ciao[s]!" and 9 "Best of luck[s]!" ?
Of course, we’d be honored. Oh ha, yesss, we’ll be honest— brutally honest even, ha ha! After all, that’s what friends & family are for!
No no please, don’t send anything more, we’re stuffed, we can’t breathe, you’ll have to roll us out of here, ha ha ha… !

Beba [CLOSED June 2010]

What was your first impression?
oh, here we go. another one of these…

Please rate the Bar:
okay. small, but comfortable. nice enough. and the bartender is sweet— poor child, in that hideous awful uniform.

Please rate the drinks/ cocktails/ wine:
ugh i’d already started my evening elsewhere so i completely forgot to look to the wine list. sorry! but one of my guests this evening is a wine aficionado, and she opted for glass of wine, so the offerings can’t be all bad. there’s a pretty sparse selection of liquor though— the bartender did say they’re "working on" the inventory and was kind enough to make note of my request for don-julio blanco. but they did have chopin, so— somebody’s thinking.
also: SoHo prices. of course.
but yet: stoli bev naps. whatever, kids.

Please rate the Dining Room:
it’s okay but personally i think the front dining area is sightly nicer than the back. i would have done it differently, but hey— to each his own. actually i thought it was better than the photo i’d already seen, but my wine snob buddy commented something along the lines of: "was some of this shit here already [in its prior incarnation]? cuz i can’t imagine anyone would throw this look together on purpose." oh snap.
i didn’t think it was that bad— on the contrary, i can well imagine someone did throw this look together very much on purpose (and probably got paid for it too). but i mean, really— i’ve seen worse. (i kinda like the "chandeliers"!)
really bad acoustics, however.

Please rate the BOH:
pretty good. seriously, better than i expected— especially from one of these joints. yesss, Beba is so totally jumping face forward into the whole tired assed nightclub posing as restaurant trend. you just have to take one look at all the lovely staff ladies in those hideous awful uniforms to know this— Hooters® by marc-jacobs (or some shit).
so, i feel a little bad for the poor, sure to be underappreciated BOH. but maybe they’re making such great salaries in the club business they really couldn’t care less.

How was the staff?
sweet. lovely. very pretty. and friendly. those poor girls in those hideous awful fucking uniforms.

What did you eat?/ How was the food?
i just tried a bunch of the smaller things cuz, like i said, i wasn’t expecting the food to be that good. there was the "selection of spreads," calamari salad, salmon and tuna tartar, keftedes (meatballs), and grilled sausages. and it was all quite good. a bit fancy (there’s the whole bit with the ice cream scoop presentation for the hummus and taramosalata etc, e.g.) but certainly not cloyingly so. and really very tasty. clean, quality execution. a great twist on greek classics, made with an undoubtedly accomplished, artful hand.
but who cares, right? i know i know, you’re a little too busy right now ogling the Hooters® by marc-jacobs.

What did you like?
the food was really a very pleasant surprise.

What did you dislike?
did i mention how i feel for those poor lovely ladies? i’d rather work for lois-freedman than don one of those atrocious things. and you knooow i mean that shit literally.

What was your last impression?
well, it was sweet of fellow diner matt-levine to say "nice meeting you!"— but uhh, we didn’t actually meet. duh.

Would you come back?
bar, drinks, nibbles— sure, i think so.

Thank you, and hope to see you soon!
thank you, and best of luck to you.

One Response to “F&F: Beba [CLOSED – June 2010]”

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