It’s my friend’s birthday, and I’ve been put in charge of picking the restaurant. Somewhere cool downtown that the critics love. I’m thinking the West Village, SoHo or Nolita. Maybe Tribeca.
Where do I even start? Do I check Resy or OpenTable to see what’s available? Do I read The Infatuation to see which places the critics love most? And what about the restaurants that are really hard to get into?
Then there’s my trip coming up: Madrid, San Sebastián, then Barcelona. My travel agent sent me a list of restaurants, the hotel concierge sent another, and now it’s a whole research project. Can I even trust either list?