The there there

EAST SIDE ENCOUNTERS

BY ARLENE KAYATT

Restaurant redux, redux, redux — Il Carino, a charming Italian restaurant on Second Ave between 87th and 88th Streets has been around, I’d guess, for at least 30 years. In the same location. But they disappear for months, sometimes years at a time leaving the location empty. I’ve never figured out nor have I asked why or how they always get to come back. Maybe they own the building. Anyway, right now Il Carino is back. But you’d have to look for it to find it. It’s completely non-descript — the exterior is painted white — and squeezed between the colorful canopied Selena Rosa Mexican restaurant with its outdoor cafe immediately to the north, and the almost street-long Genesis sports bar restaurant, also with an outdoor cafe, on the south side. Il Carino’s brown canopy doesn’t make it more noticeable or inviting. And why brown? Many years ago the Genesis spot was occupied by Dan Maxwell’s popular steakhouse. Il Carino was around in those days and its presence was more noticeable than it is today. It’s OK to be sedate, but if Il Carino wants to stay in business — not stay and go — then they should figure out how to make the business more noticeable. The food’s top-notch. The room’s warm. Service is solicitous and friendly. Yorkville would welcome a restaurant of Il Carino’s caliber. Not much good though if nobody knows they’re there.

Where’s the M — and does it or doesn’t it _atter? — I’ve been trying to find out — and figure out — the concept behind the branding of Quality Meats and Quality _eats restaurants since the latter now has a location on East 78th and Second. There’s another in the West Village. Owned by Michael Stillman, whose dad Alan brought the still standing Smith and Wollensky’s to our town (where the once venerable Manny Wolf’s stood on the corner of 50th and Third). Quality Meats opened in 2006, first in the space occupied by the shuttered Manhattan Ocean Club on West 58th St, and then it moved to its present location on the northeast corner of 57th and Avenue of the Americas. Or Sixth Avenue if you insist. It’s a classy spot for lunch and dinner with high-quality steaks at high-end steak prices. How to capitalize on that from a perch in what is now Trump Country and from a branding perspective that might pique even our brand-savvy president’s interest? What the younger Stillman and his chef Craig Kotetsu have done is put a millennial twist on the neighborhood steak place. So instead of calling itself “Quality Meats,” it’s signage on the 78th Street restaurant deletes the “M” and the neon-ed sign reads “Quality _eats.” Cute. Maybe. Maybe not. Prices are cheaper and the crowd trends local. Quality Meats on 57th is more cosmopolitan and attracts a more business-attired crowd and those who may still have expense accounts. Several passers-by standing outside the newly opened Quality _eats on the East Side, and noticing the quirky, unlighted “M” in the restaurant’s name, thought the lighting on the sign was defective. A vegetarian hailed the darkened or deleted M thinking that the new owners had the guts to riff on the carnivorous crowd by deleting meat from the menu altogether. At the end of the day, another day’s ink and social media, and the crowds will come. And then maybe fall away when the next kitsch comes along.

Oh those buses — Riding the bus is generally not anyone’s favorite pastime. It’s a means to getting where we’re going, the sooner the better. So if somebody forgets to timely use the exit mechanisms — by pulling the overhead wire or pressing the button on a pole within the seating or tapping the strip alongside the window — it doesn’t mean that they want to keep riding. Well, try and tell that to the bus driver who should be stopping at all stops anyway, even if there’s no one waiting at the bus stop and nobody’s given exit notice. Some bus drivers have taken it upon themselves to pass stops and not let a passenger off the bus because he or she didn’t do any of the get-off-the-bus rituals, resulting in their having to ride to the next stop. No fun if you’re on a Limited. As for the means available for giving getting-off notice, I suggest that the MTA add more accessible mechanisms especially on the pole alongside the seating. There aren’t enough. Bus drivers are required to stop at all bus stops whether or not anyone’s waiting or getting off the bus whether the driver or other passengers, like it or not. The driver can call out approaching stop and say if he or she is intending to pass it by. Or calling out and asking if anyone is getting off if the driver doesn’t intend to stop at a particular location. It’s just not fair to punish the public by not allowing them to exit — and the bus hasn’t left the stop — because they forgot to follow protocol. Or because the driver doesn’t want to stop at a stop if no one’s waiting. And intentionally not following protocol.