Talk:The French Laundry

POV language
As someone else has noted with the cleanup tag, much of this article reads like either a review or an advertisement. I removed some of the unsourced stuff about the wait staff, but other parts are a bit over the top, too. Esrever (klaT) 02:24, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

What is wrong with sounding like a review? The better reviews try to be NPOV too: addressing facts and citing qualities that are of interesting to people who want to know more about restaurants. So to begin with, it isn't POV to assume that history, ingredients, price, taste, reservations, etc., etc. are the proper components of a good encyclopedia entry. The thing being described--a restuarant--by its nature calls for an examination of the same points that restaurant reviews cover. What I see is that the facts of the place are that they use exotic ingredients, have fabulous ratings from a vast preponderance of expert raters, they charge high prices, and book their tables far in advance and incredibly quickly. The article I see is an NPOV collection of NPOV facts drawn from POV sources...which is pretty much what encyclopedia writing is all about. KevinCuddeback (talk) 21:53, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Current Cost
Does anyone know how much the FL costs for lunch these days? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 171.64.42.89 (talk • contribs).


 * Lunch and dinner are the same price. Last December, for two people, with wine for one person, the total was $671.89, including gratuity and tax.  This included an additional $25 option for one entree.   EncMstr 00:37, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

If this wants to be seen as an unbiased article, the fact that this place is ridiculously expensive should be mentioned. Otherwise it comes across as an ad, as the extreme price is certainly notable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.132.165 (talk) 22:57, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

A critical question
I came across this site as a reference from a salon.com article. Truthfully, I have no experience with fine cuisine or expensivre food but as a novice, I'd be interested to know what it is about a restaurant that justifies such a high price tag and "its good" doesn't seem good enough. If someone good endeavor to provide an explanation for the price it would be greatly appreciated. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Y.Pestis (talk • contribs) 2006-10-10T19:22:50 (UTC).


 * You're right—"good" wouldn't be enough. If you go to the French Laundry, you know for certain that the food, service and environment are superb, every time.  Ever been in a restaurant where the waitress is having an off day?  That doesn't happen there.  (How?  I don't know, but it doesn't.)  First of all, the service is top notch, which means every time you want something or have a question, there's someone highly qualified to immediately handle it.  That doesn't mean they're fawning or hovering about:  it's pretty impressive how they are gone when you don't need them, and they're there when you do.  Another aspect is the professionalism and demeanor of the service:  they speak at your level, and are ready to educate at length—as though you're their only customer.  For example, I saw several parties who had no experience with truffles, so the truffle waiter did a mini-appreciation course on the spot.  (Yum.)  There's no problem communicating something to one waiter and not having another waiter know about it—they've communicated it amongst themselves seemingly instantly somehow.


 * The food was extremely fresh, despite ingredients originating all over the world, including the FL's garden outside the door. There were a few dishes which might be found elsewhere, in name anyway.  For example, the vegetarian pot pie was anything but ordinary:  perfect crust, an exquisite blending of textures, tastes and colors.  The portion sizes might seem small, though not in the context of 7 or 9 courses.


 * Compare a room at Motel 6 versus a Ritz-Carlton. If sleep is all you want, the $300-800 per night difference is not worth it.  But if you want to experience the ultimate in amenities, location, well maintained facilities, furnishings, artwork, fresh flowers, and service, ... those aren't at Motel 6.  — EncMstr 21:24, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Difference between menus
This quote says there are three different menus, but the tasting menu is mentioned twice in the sections that follow. Is one of those supposed to be the prix fixe?

"There are three menus daily. Each is $240 (as of 2007) including service. One is a prix fixe menu; the second is a tasting menu, and the third is a vegetable tasting menu. During the holiday season, the restaurant may offer special dishes that would not otherwise be on the menu." WLGades 10:05, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

French?
In what way is the cuisine French, beyond the fact that most top-end Western restaurant food is influenced by classic French cuisine, and much of the language is French? I just looked at the current menu: sure, there's foie gras, but there's also sashimi, pork belly, jamon iberico, Asian pear, even granola. Sounds pretty eclectic to me. Tsuguya (talk) 04:31, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Food goes beyond ingredients. Presentation, preparation, style, method, all of these give you a final dish that can be called French. Nukeguy04 (talk)

Damaged in August 2014 earthquake?
I think I saw on the news that this building was damaged by the August 2014 earthquake? Another Believer ( Talk ) 18:10, 24 August 2014 (UTC)

Burglary
I removed this recent addition to the article and put it here:
 * On December 25th, 2014, the wine room of The French Laundry was burglarized. 76 bottles of wine with an estimated value of $300,000 were stolen in the heist.

Time will tell, but I doubt this is appropriately encyclopedic, especially for being sufficiently notable. —EncMstr (talk) 05:56, 31 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Something like this might not make the pages of Britannica, but Wikipedia is not Britannica. It should go back in, and even be fleshed out. The loss is of merit to someone with more than a passing interest in wine.
 * Rather than get in a stupid edit war that I have no time for, why don't you bring the matter up with whatever "boss" you wiki nitpickers have.Wezelboy (talk) 05:11, 6 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Our "boss" is the policies and guidelines derived from The Five Pillars. Have a look there for a suitable and recognizable guideline-based reason for including the burglary.  Simply saying "It should go back in, and even be fleshed out" is not an acceptable reason.  The incident might be suitable for List of heists or Biggest wine thefts if those articles existed.  That they do not exist is mildly surprising considering the English Wikipedia's scope.  —EncMstr (talk) 05:35, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on The French Laundry. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080321093842/http://travel.nytimes.com:80/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/california/napa-valley/restaurant-detail.html?vid=1154654635092 to http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/california/napa-valley/restaurant-detail.html?vid=1154654635092

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

checked by —EncMstr (talk) 01:03, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 15:07, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

COVID and Gavin Newsom
Removed, because per what I believe is a reasonable application of WP:NOTNEWS. I think it's more appropriate on the governor's page. This is a controversy about what Newsom did. Although reading https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/01/san-francisco-mayor-london-breed-french-laundry-coronavirus, it could be possibly inclusion worthy, but not in the amount it was covered in. Graywalls (talk) 06:48, 6 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Agree with removal. It seems particularly relevant to 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, and is covered well there. But not here, per connective trivia guidelines WP:HTRIV. Davidwbaker (talk) 10:32, 6 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I smell bias Politicalwizard2000 (talk) 00:16, 30 October 2023 (UTC)