Attorneys Rebecca and Linda, who hit Craigslist searching for a couple of guys to accompany them to Ko, wrote in to assure us that they weren’t the party that canceled there on Monday — in fact, they were so giddy about their meal that (shocker!) they blogged about it. At first, their blind dates, a Wall Street guy and his friend, “seemed like adequate dining companions but nothing to write home about,” but that changed when (after being served by Chang himself!) they failed to thank the Ko girls for scoring the resy: “Okay, so these guys have now been downgraded from Adequate to Totally Lame, but we still enjoyed our dinner immensely.” The account is a bit of a snooze (at least they spared us the 5,000th description of the foie gras dish), but you know that won’t prevent Darren Star from turning it into a scene in the Sex and the City sequel.

Update: And here we go all over again...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Ko Girls! [Eater]
Related: Were the Latest Craigslisters a No-Ko Last Night?

There was nary a surprise at Ko last night — the menu was pretty much the same as it was a couple of months ago — except for this one: empty seats! A note to Eater confirms there was a cancellation: “I was at Momofuku Ssäm last night with my cousin, and a guy who hooked us up when we all went there a few months ago came over and told me they had a cancellation at Ko and asked if we wanted to go.” (Sort of like those street pushers who beg you to sit in on a taping of the Letterman show at the last second.) Could the no-show have come from the “Ko girls” — “one blonde gal, age 28, and one sassy brunette, age 32” — who, inspired by our own Ko-thario, trolled Craigslist for “a handsome gent from Manhattan available on the evening of Monday, June 30th, and capable of fantastic dinner conversation”?

During a recent charity auction, dinner for two at Ko went for a whopping $2,870. Which seems completely bonkers until you consider that a table at Pink Elephant costs about the same. Portfolio's finance blog points out that if David Chang were to auction off a resy every now and then, he wouldn’t have to raise prices to make up for food costs (the dinner bill, without tax or wine pairing, recently went from $85 to $100). We also wonder what the occasional “win a date with Dave” contest would yield — hell, he might even be able to lower prices!

Momofuku Ko Datapoint of the Day [Market Movers/Portfolio]

David Chang's no-photography policy at Ko was bound to cause a stir — after all, along with its draconian reservations policy, the stolen furtive glimpses of dishes you might never taste helped make the restaurant the city's ultimate food-porn fantasy. Chang is probably right in thinking that cameras disrupt the meal, but he is alone in creating a ban, according to an informal survey by Serious Eats. "It's just food. Eat it," Chang said to explain his rule. But Messrs. Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, and Drew Nieporent all feel that there's little they can do about it. At Daniel, they'll try to hide you away where you won't cause too much commotion; Nieporent just wants you to “be considerate of the other people in the restaurant,” and Batali has the most liberal attitude of all, refusing to “stop joyous foodies clicking an occasional photo of the food on the table with a small camera.” For someone that, at least until recently, hated food bloggers, this is an especially enlightened position to take.

On Friday night we tagged along with a few dozen people protesting Bruce Willis’s Bowery Wine Co. as they walked from the John Varvatos store (chanting “Die yuppie scum!”) to Gemma, where one woman snapped photos of sidewalk diners and told them they were going to die of cholesterol. Chants of “Whose fucking neighborhood? Our fucking neighborhood” and signs reading WINE BARS ARE TOO EXPEN$IVE; BAN BELLINI, SAY YUCK TO YUPPIES; and EVICT YUPPIE WINE BARS elicited a mixed bag of reactions — some applauded, and then there was the guy outside of soon-to-open Yem Yem Falafel on 3rd Street and Second Avenue who yelled, “Fuck you.” We were half-expecting the protest to make it up to Ko, but yeah, no chants of “This is what democracy looks like! That is what foie gras with litchi looks like!”

Earlier: Reverends Protest Wine Bar and Union Square Cafe Restaurant

The saga of the Momofuku Ko-thario — the man who used Craigslist to leverage his extra seat at Ko into a date with Dominique of Dominique Eats Out — has come to an end, with the Ko-thario revealing himself as Seth Gordon, an experimental musician who has soundtracked gay pornos. Being suckers for he-said/she-said stuff like Blind Date, we were thrilled to see both parties blog about their rendezvous, though in true foodie form, it’s the foie gras dish they get hot and heavy about: Dominique gives it a twelve out of ten, saying it’s “so orgasmic, J and S went outside for cigarettes afterward,” and Gordon says it’s “like eating dirty sex,” giving it a five out of five (yes, Ko has inspired amateur reviewers to give each course a star rating). The kids seem smitten with each other (Dominique is “lovely,” Seth is a “good guy”), though nowhere near as passionately in love as they are with Ko (“amazing,” they agree). Maybe they’ll return there for their anniversary — though they’ll have to approach some Craigslist swingers to get in.

Review of Momofuku Ko, Saturday May 2008 [Dominique Eats Out]
Seth Gordon’s blog [MySpace]

Our favorite Craigslister recently checked in to let us know that his ad offering a seat at Ko had sparked interest from a “dominatrix/food blogger” and “atheist carnivore.” Hm. Also in the running, according to her blog, Maggie is Restless, was Magdalena Kennedy. She describes the Ko-thario as “funny, charming, lots in common, cute. Looks like a tall dark Jewish Michael Cera,” and goes on to post her letter to him in which she says she’s an “omnivore / recipe anthologist / windowbox gardener / online journalist.” Somehow, however, the Ko-thario wasn’t convinced— his ultimate choice was Dominique of Dominique Eats Out. Quite a score, but he’s keeping a level head. “I don't think for a second that food-loving women are competing to go out with me,” he tells us. “I know full well that they’re ‘competing’ to go to Ko to eat foie gras and pork fat. I am, admittedly, just shy of extraneous in this equation.” Now that's modesty worthy of David Chang himself.

Ko-thario and Me: More Banter [Maggie is Restless]

Earlier: Craiglist Ko-thario Reveals Himself As Creator of $12,000 Knish

Momofuku Ko is now taking Tuesday reservations, meaning it’s open seven days a week. Will people care about this? We suspect so. Witness the latest e-mail received by the Craigslister who’s offering up a seat at the place: “If you're romantically forking foie gras into [my] mug, I'll let you cop a feel. Left or right breast, your choice — each is magnificent. Feed me uni too, and you can touch both.” To this woman, we suggest you try your luck again now, unless you want to be this guy’s “foig buddy.”

Ko-BOOM BLOCKBUSTER: Momo' Ko Now Open 7 Days a Week [Eater]

Ah, the wonders of the Internet — after we reprinted a Craigslist ad in which an anonymous foodie gloated about his Ko reservations and offered a seat up to any takers (preferably Brazilian porn stars or Padma Lakshmi), the author of the ad wrote to us and confessed that he was the selfsame person who sent us a tirade about a $12,000 knish being served at the “Suffolk Kitchen.” You’ll remember that satire was so flawlessly executed that pundit Andrew Sullivan fell for it. So how many responses did “Chef Suffolk” get and how passionate were they in their love of Ko? He tells us himself. (Bolding ours.)

A reader sends us a Craigslist posting from a Momo-freako who is really hard up to go to Ko with a fellow foodie, preferably a Brazilian porn star. This is easily the best ad we’ve seen since Tom Dubrowski seduced Gael — in fact if we didn’t know any better, we’d think it was Dubrowski again, hoping for an even comelier dining companion (this guy has his sights set on Padma).

Both Restaurant Journal and Eater are predicting Bruni will award three stars to Momofuku Ko. Tomorrow, when his final word comes out after much hair-pulling, the armchair reviewing will be mute — but we were intrigued by a bit of trivia that New York Journal unearthed: Bruni hasn’t thrown down four stars in 175 weeks, meaning that he has exactly matched the Times’ longest stretch without a four-star rave (Bryan Miller upgraded Bouley to four stars in 1990, and Ruth Reichl did the same with Chanterelle in 1993). So where will that record stand after Ko — and will the handiwork of the Times’ photographer, who was in during the same night that Tom and Gael were, shed any light on that whole affair?

Update: Bruni’s review is up and it is, indeed, three stars— after noting the off-putting set-up and resy system, he concedes, “Ko in its early months serves a few dishes that merely intrigue along with others that utterly enrapture. It also falls prey to some inconsistency.” On Chang: “Deification may have come prematurely to Mr. Chang. But a low-key coronation makes sense.” And: “You’ll love it, provided you ever get access to it.” Well, yeah.

Rolling The Dice: Momofuku Ko [New York Journal]

BruniBetting: Ko [Eater]

Gael Greene finally weighs in on her date with Tom Dobrowski, the Craigslister who was accused of canceling his reservation at Momofuku Ko only to show up playing dumb. Following in the steps of The Wall Street Journal reviewer, the Insatiable Critic bemoans the dour chefs, or “Stepford cooks” as she describes them: “Too joyless, rushed, indifferent, possibly bored.” Nevertheless — with the exception of finding the desserts more interesting than delicious and downright hating the bowl of foie gras shavings, Riesling gelée, pine-nut brittle and nuggets of litchi — she admires much of their output as “provocative and delicious.” But let’s face it, it’s not the food we're dying to hear about. What was the “shocking farewell” from Chef Chang that Gael promised to tell us about?

Gael Greene’s and a Craigslister’s dinner at Ko has turned into a matter of he said, she isn’t saying yet, and now, Eater said (we weren’t kidding about Momofuku essentially being a satellite office: They’ve now produced computer records which they say show that Dobrowski canceled his resy about a half an hour after making it). Clearly a witness needs to come forward, and that one has. A diner who says he ate at Ko that fateful night has emailed us to offer his account of events.

Gael Greene still hasn’t followed up on yesterday’s post revealing that she took a Craigslister up on his offer of a seat at Momofuku Ko, and she still hasn’t refuted Eater’s speculation that the Craigslister might’ve canceled his resy only to show up at the restaurant and pretend he hadn’t. But Frank Bruni has weighed in, refuting claims that he was turned down as a dining companion, and now the Craigslister himself, Thomas Dobrowski, who doesn’t appreciate Bruni calling him a “weird guy,” writes in to tell us his side of the story.

Were it April 1, and not May 1, we’d assume that Ed Levine was kidding with his discovery of a David Chang doppelgänger. And as if it weren't enough that he looked like Chang, the doppelchanger's name is David Chan. What are the odds? (Even Bruce Lee's Bruce Li wasn’t really named Bruce Li.) But New York never runs out of surprises, and here’s one for all those people who felt that what New York needs is another David Chang. If we were Chan, we’d open Momofuko Ke and watch the lines form.

Meet David Chang's Doppleganger: David Chan [Ed Levine Eats]

The guy who posted a Craiglist ad asking for someone to pay for his dinner at Momofuku Ko actually got some takers — and some high-profile ones, at that. He told our own Gael Greene, his ultimate choice, that he turned down Frank Bruni for her (Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, and Elvis certainly would’ve done the same.) In a post, Gael says she’ll tell us about the “shocking farewell” she received from David Chang in a follow-up, but, in the meantime, Eater offers juicy speculation.

If you haven’t had your fill of Adam Platt from his magazine reviews, his Gobbler posts, or his weekly post–Top Chef IM exchanges, sit back and settle in for a veritable Platt glut: Our critic sat down with the site Big Think and shot twenty videos of his immense, silhouetted head discoursing on everything from Top Chef to his review of Momofuku Ko to the ins and outs of being a restaurant critic.

Adam Platt [Big Think]

We saw this one on Craiglist over the weekend. We might not take him up on it. But you can!

MOMOFUKU KO DINNER - Weds

Reply to: pers-658615295@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-27, 7:06PM

I recently achieved what most have found impossible. I have a resi for two (2) at Ko this Weds at 9:15pm. I am offering my one extra seat to anyone who wants to treat me to this most coveted dining celebration. You pay for the food, if we have fun I will pick up the tab for the booze.

Just tell me why this will work for us and the seat is yours.
Best,
tom

Momofuku Ko Dinner - Weds. [Craigslist]

John Mayer’s short-lived career as a food blogger was clearly a joke, but Martha Stewart seems pretty for real about her blog. Among posts that begin with “Yesterday happened to be donkey-washing day at the farm,” there are a few in which Martha clues us in to her favorite restaurants — for instance, La Grenouille, as well as a hidden gem called Momofuku Noodle Bar, “one of my favorite places to stop for what I like to think of as fast food.”

David who? The Momofuku Man may be the center of attention here in the New York, but Wolfgang Puck has his own gastro-empire to contend with. When the Observer asked about Chang at yesterday's New York Women in Communications Matrix Awards, the king of California played coy: “Who? No, I don’t know him; I have never been to his restaurant.” Not to worry, Wolfie! Few of us have.

Wolfgang Puck Doesn't Know David Chang [NYO]

When Frank Bruni posted on Diner’s Journal on Thursday about the difficulties of getting a reservation at Momofuku Ko, angry foodies complained about the glitchy system. But when Ko defended its online-reservation site in a subsequent DJ post, the programmers chimed in. The geek debate, which grows more and more acrimonious, is no longer about David Chang or his food, but about whether the deficiencies of Ko’s reservations system are the fault of the restaurant or the Internet itself. Comments range from the maddeningly dismissive (“This is a very simple system, and it works perfectly. The gentleman in question did not click on a reservation fast enough”; “The KO answer is correct that IS how the Internet works. Think about it people”) to the abstruse (“This is a multi-user concurrency problem that all sites with limited inventory and a high demand… have to deal with”). At last view, tempers were running high (“This is nothing more than a yank job and at best a lottery”), but no resolution was in sight. (A recent post began, unpromisingly, “This is not a mind-numbing explanation of this system”). For his part, Bruni thinks deeply upon the whole matter, which he says shows “how ready many food lovers are to jump through whatever hoops they must in the hunt for what may be the next great eating experience, or at least for bragging rights.”

More Fun With Ko! — Comments
Ko-da [Diner’s Journal/NYT]