Go on, click it….

Those little blue icons don’t lie: Tribeca Citizen now has a restaurant guide!

I’ve long noticed that people click on “restaurants/bars” in the website’s list of sections—even though it’s not particularly helpful—and I can only assume they’re looking for listings. So now you have it! Just click on the blue icon to take a peek. (To get out of the restaurant guide, click the “Tribeca Citizen” logo.)

A few notes about it….

1. I’ve only included restaurants and bars from Canal to Murray, Broadway to the Hudson. I aspire to take on Battery Park City and Hudson Square someday, but I need a break from writing these blurbs. In fact, I still have a handful in Tribeca left to write.

2. I left out delis, slice joints, fast food chains—anywhere food is treated as a commodity. If you want that, I encourage you to use Google Maps. I have included bars and non-Starbucks cafés.

3. “What is New American food?” I hear you asking. In my opinion, it’s food that’s not obviously of any other ethnicity, but veers from the comfort-food we all long thought of as American food. (And it’s often an indication of higher prices.) So among the many cuisines, you’ll find both “American (New)” and “American (Traditional).” Think of the Harrison and Bubby’s, and I hope you’ll see the difference. Restaurants may sometimes show up under more than one cuisine. If anyone can tell me how to classify Macao Trading Co., I’d be grateful.

4. I haven’t included pricing info because I’ve never found those “$$$” icons illuminating. (The best way to find out prices is to call up the restaurant’s menu on its website.) Instead, I went with a similar-but-different classification system: fancy, more fancy than casual, more casual than fancy, and casual. The bulk of the restaurants are in the middle two categories, and you may decide I got a few wrong, which leads us to….

5. Please weigh in! I tried to make the blurbs more about describing than judging, because I’m hoping the community will take on that role. Over time, I’d love to be able to add excerpts of your comments into the blurbs themselves, à la Zagat. Ideally, the comments will be less along the lines of “I had a bad meal and shame on them” and more based on a history of visits—that ought to be one major benefit of a local readership (unlike, say, Yelp’s). And you may always direct suggestions and criticisms to tribecacitizen@gmail.com.

6. I thought about “kid-friendliness” as a category, but I kept remembering the impeccably behaved girl—she was maybe five years old—whom I once saw dining at Chanterelle. So much depends on the kid, doesn’t it? If that’s a priority for you, you should check out MiniMunchers. As for adding other categories, I’m all ears.

P.S. Thanks again to Steve Santurri at Soren Technology Consulting for his help!