Noted food critic Josh Sens of San Francisco Magazine recently compared noted chef Michael Mina to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, one of the worst-reviewed musicals of all time. Sens writes:
A meal with Mina is dinner and a show. How much you like the show depends on what you look for in live entertainment. Mina specializes in big-budget blowouts, more Spider-Man the musical than Spalding Gray. You get pretty sets and pyrotechnics, not the quirky charms of an off-Broadway production.
Let's see how New York Times' Ben Brantley reviewed said Broadway musical turned "national joke." Behold:
The sheer ineptitude of this show, inspired by the Spider-Man comic books, loses its shock value early. After 15 or 20 minutes, the central question you keep asking yourself is likely to change from “How can $65 million look so cheap?” to “How long before I’m out of here?”
Egads! Does this mean that Mina's newest installment - aptly named Michael Mina (252 California) - parallels Julie Taymor and Bono's musical fecal matter? Thankfully, no. Sens goes on to explain:
Though my preference is for [Spalding Gray], I still enjoyed the latest Mina installation, a lively retooling of his flagship restaurant, which moved last year from the lobby of the Westin St. Francis Hotel to the space that once housed Aqua, where Mina worked before he trademarked his name and his tuna tartare.
Whew. So, you see, we think he means to say that Mina is more like Wicked or Cats - not the second coming of Carrie the Musical. Anyway, Broadway Musical AP 101 aside, Mina's new effort sounds like our kind of place. [cue jazz hands]
