And Sra. Martinez, Too

I reported yesterday that Area 31 was named as one of Esquire Magazine's Top 20 New Restaurants of 2009. Michelle Bernstein's Sra. Martinez also made the list. On the one hand, I apologize for missing that. On the other hand, the woman gets more than enough press.

One more acknowledgement: Kaitlin Yelle of Meat Market got Mariani's nod for  "hostess of the year". "Her secret? To smile and be happy, and make the customer feel special." Sort of sounds like a dumb award, but in fact the host/hostesses are the first people you deal with when entering a restaurant, and so many of them are either pretentious or clueless. So nice going Kaitlin. And, yeah, you too Michelle.