Bonus Review: The Palate Takedown

On his aforementioned SoCal trip, Frank the Tank Bruni can't understand the buzz surrounding Palate, and let's just say things got messy: "I can’t quite settle on a favorite moment among the many when I found myself scratching my head and asking: is this place for real?" During his dinner, service was off, the restaurant was out of quartinos and Mason jars, and then there was the food: "Someone needs to hand the cooks a spice rack and make them use it, or at the least force them to pick up, invert and go up-down-up-down with a salt shaker." Ouch. [NYT]