zagat news

Newsworthy stuff from ZAGAT’s newsletter.


  • BED: The trendy South Beach restaurant and lounge where patrons eat their meals on beds is readying a Chelsea offshoot located above the club Spirit, in a sixth-floor space that leads to a roof terrace (530 W. 27th St.).
  • New York Burger: This modern-looking Park Avenue South fast-food shop will feature high-quality ingredients, including burgers made of Coleman all-natural beef, homemade dipping sauces, freshly cut fries and real fruit smoothies (330 Park Avenue South / 24th street).
  • Starwich: The first of four branches to open by the end of the year, this hi-tech sandwich shop on the far West Side will provide patrons with optional smart cards to pre-program their orders, which can be customized from over 100 ingredients, including luxe items like lobster, lump crab meat and pomegranate duck. The space itself will feature Wi-Fi, complimentary cell-phone chargers and original artwork (525 W. 42nd St./10th ave).

    Comments: What separates a gimmick from just a good idea? BED sure seems to be a gimmick since I can’t think of a good reason to eat on a mattress. But then again, who knows maybe I’d like it. I don’t immediately discount stuff that’s trendy as much as many of my peer group naturally would.


    Virtually any establishment can lure me in with technology. Starwich certainly sounds like they fit that bill. Except with 100 ingredients I’m already feeling a stifling Paradox of Choice. For the lazy non-link followers, Paradox of Choice is a book subtitled “Why More is Less” and is about how consumers today are often faced with too many choices. The constant drive towards more options has left us overwhelmed, stressed, and unhappy.


    UPDATE: I didn’t do the book description justice, here’s a better one.


    … as choices proliferate, people have a harder and harder time making decisions. And they end up less satisfied with the decisions they make. They are filled with regret over those that turned out well but might have been better; they develop unrealistically high expectations; and when decisions disappoint, as they almost always do because of these expectations (we bought a terrific stroller and left the store dissatisfied that we couldn’t find the perfect one), they blame themselves. The result is stress, unhappiness, and in extreme cases, clinical depression.

  • Published

    2 comments

    1. seriously though, i just spent 3 hours researching horse vacations and now just want to climb in to bed and cry and never see a horse again

    2. i’m going to pick up a copy of that, thanks for the rec. It’s nice to hear that perhaps my "weak" decision making skills aren’t entirely my fault. So often do I get flustered.

      After reading your post, I tried starwich. My head did spin at the number of possibilities, but moreso because everything sounded so good. So often i’m stuck trying to determine the lesser of two evils, but here it was trying to pick the best from their refreshing options.

      Can’t wait for their online cards to come out, so i can make up a few favorite salads and just click on them each time.

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