As a New Yorker, I find it quite natuaral to be generally cynical about most things. This is perhaps why I found my adventure last night so off-putting. Everything was just a little bit too sweet.

It started with Eatery (798 Ninth Ave., at 53rd St.), one of those neon-sign-in-a-hip-way New American joints that line 9th Avenue from the mid-fifties all the way down to the Meatpacking District. When I walked in, there was just something that put me off about it. It was trying too hard. It was going for upscale, but it wasn’t quite polished. It had the legions of staff and the multi-colored drinks of somewhere more upscale, but the staff was inattentive and the menu pedestrian-in Columbia terms, it was Deluxe tries to be Community and falls flat on its face. Not surprisingly, I’ve heard it’s better for brunch.

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