On the town in New York, from 1776 to the present

by Michael Batterberry

Book by Batterberry, Michael

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction, New York, Culinary, Cooking, Food and Drink

354 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[craige]

Recommended by Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential.

[Vassilena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read that one based on a recommendation from Anthony Bourdain, It’s definitely not my favorite but it was an interesting read. It’s a collection of stories about different restaurants and establishments throughout the history of New York. But it’s no more than that. It’s weak on overarching narratives, which makes the whirlwind of individual stories reads disjointed and sometimes overwhelming.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is short on analysis and long on anecdotes. Many of the stories are fascinating, but since they are poorly integrated, they can seem like a long list of restaurants, menus and events rather than a proper history. If I owned the book, I would just dip into it from time to time. But this copy is going back to the library unfinished.

[Trish Graboske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and well-written; still, rather exhausting to read.