Friday Day One FNNYCF&WF
Friday was more of a Prelude to the weekend. We spent the day being a tourist and doing a little
shopping. My wife had a mission to go to Barneys and go to their Cafe Freds on the top floor. It looks like the economy is booming when you are in Barneys. Freds is famous for their salads and ours did not disappoint. Highlights on Freds, great service, great ambiance and people observing and pretty good food. At the end of the day we ordered salads which are pretty hard to mess up.
shopping. My wife had a mission to go to Barneys and go to their Cafe Freds on the top floor. It looks like the economy is booming when you are in Barneys. Freds is famous for their salads and ours did not disappoint. Highlights on Freds, great service, great ambiance and people observing and pretty good food. At the end of the day we ordered salads which are pretty hard to mess up.
Our big Food Network event of the day was the New York Times Talks Star Studded Chefs featuring Daniel Boulud, Jean Georges Vongerichten and Michael White moderated by Frank Bruni NYT Writer, http://www.nycwineandfoodfestival.com/2010/event_detail.php?id=8. This was a great way to start the weekend for me becuse it was focused on the business end of owning a restaurant. These guys look for an ROI within 5 years, they talked about the rigor associated with having a Michelin Star, they talked about the amount of employees that depend on the success of the restaurant and why they do not favor the early to bed west coast, not enough seating's like in New York and Internationally.
After the event we rushed over to Barolo in Soho http://www.nybarolo.com/. Barolo was recommended to us by a friend as far as I was concerned it unfortunately was a wasted opportunity to eat at a better restaurant. 
Barolo is a very large restaurant that really trades on it's garden seating area. The night we went it was a great opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the phenomenal weather. That is where it stops for me at Barolo, the service was slow and infrequent, the outside chairs felt like i was sitting in a barrel and the food was mediocre. I know I ordered the wrong thing the Veal which was nothing more that a pounded out veal chop that was fried. My wife's meal was better, she had the ravioli filled with granny smith apples with a lamb ragu. To sum it up I would not recommend going there again.
Barolo is a very large restaurant that really trades on it's garden seating area. The night we went it was a great opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the phenomenal weather. That is where it stops for me at Barolo, the service was slow and infrequent, the outside chairs felt like i was sitting in a barrel and the food was mediocre. I know I ordered the wrong thing the Veal which was nothing more that a pounded out veal chop that was fried. My wife's meal was better, she had the ravioli filled with granny smith apples with a lamb ragu. To sum it up I would not recommend going there again.