Shu and I and our family dined at Graham Elliot in Chicago. As you can see, their Web site describes it as a "bistronomic" restaurant, which is a new word for me. They say that a bisronomic restaurant juxtaposes four star cuisine with humor and accessibility. They say that it means they are doing away with old world dress codes, white table cloths, elaborate floral displays, and tuxedoed survers and replacing them with hip music, dynamic gastronomy, and a lively and relaxed atmosphere.
The word doesn't appear in dictionaries, but it has over 3,000 citations on Google. Here is one NY Times article that says:
quote:
“I was noticing this new kind of restaurant, places opened by young chefs, without investors or a lot of money, but with excellent technical training,” he said in an interview. “I needed a word to describe what I was seeing to my readers.”
The solution? A combination of bistro (a nod to the traditional dishes that form the starting point for these chefs) and gastronomia (a reference to the haute cuisine techniques used to update them) produced bistronomia. The fact that the same word can also encompass economía — or economy — only made it more appropriate. Mr. Arenós didn’t discover until later that a journalist, Sebastián Demerold, had earlier used the same term to describe a similar Parisian trend.
Apparently there are at least 15 "bistonomics" in Barcelona now.
Have you heard or used this word? BTW, Graham Elliot was excellent!
I'll bet they don't serve chow mein sandwiches. Just learned you can now only get them in Fall River, MA but you have to hurry if you want one since they seem to be on the road to extinction. I wonder why.
Words ending in -onomy 'rule of; law of' are interesting: astronomy 'stars', autonomy 'self', economy 'house', gastronomy 'stomach', and bistronomy 'tavern, bistro'. French bistro(t), etymology uncertain.
chow-mein sandwich
Never heard of it. I had heard of the egg-foo-young (or St Paul) sandwich (via a PBS documentary on sandwiches, Sandwiches That You Will Like, link). Either one sounds delightfully un-bistronomic and artery-plugging yummy.
A bistro is a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Essentially, bistros serve good, wholesome, and cheap meals. Slow-cooked foods like braised meats are typical. I can't see that a four-star restaurant can lay claim to any "bistro-ness".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
a four-star restaurant can lay claim to any "bistro-ness".
they can "lay claim" to anything they want. Whether it is true is something else. I can say my wife serves four-star meals but the emergency room doctors might dispute that point.
Originally posted by arnie: A bistro is a small restaurant serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting.... I can't see that a four-star restaurant can lay claim to any "bistro-ness".
I guess the irony/absurdity of my above post didn't show through. Oh, welllll...
I don't think I've ever had the occasion to look up bistro since I thought I knew what it meant. However, were I to tell you what it meant, I'd have said an up-scale French restaurant. But you are correct, Asa and arnie, in how you describe it. Here's what the OED says about bistro:
quote:
A small wine-shop, bar, or restaurant.
1922 C. BELL Since Cézanne 213 Perhaps the best painter in France, one of the best musicians, and an obscure journalist were sitting in a small bistrot on the Boulevard St. Germain. 1924 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 649/1 The cook of our little bistro restaurant. 1941 ‘R. WEST’ Black Lamb I. 144 A restaurant which though small was not a mere bistrot. 1954 KOESTLER Invis. Writing 249 He bought me a real hot dinner in a bistro. 1959 Spectator 31 July 134/3 Candle-lit Chelsea bistros.
The etymology seems to be unknown. Here is what etymology.com says:
quote:
1922, from Fr. bistro (1884), originally Parisian slang for "little wineshop or restaurant," of unknown origin. Commonly said to be from Russian bee-stra "quickly," picked up during the Allied occupation of Paris in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon; but this, however quaint, is unlikely. Another guess is that it is from bistraud "a little shepherd," a word of the Poitou dialect, from biste "goat."
To dine at a place bistronomic You know it won’t be economic. And your biggest concern Is to deal with the burn- Ing stomach-ache, rated "atomic."This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,
It is a common false belief that vomitoria were places designated for purging one's stomach after a Roman banquet, but they are an architectural feature of Roman amphitheaters (link). They were called thus because they appeared to vomit forth people entering the theater.
I just went back to this restaurant with one of my committees. Let me be perfectly clear (I just watched the debate; can you tell?), this restaurant is excellent. And, while it certainly isn't cheap, the food is spectacular. It really does do just what their definition says is intended.
