Celebrity chef to the beautiful people is having trouble with his new NYC restaurant, though I can't imagine why

the rest of us will just have to make do with our gates burgers

Someone named Daniel Humm went full vegetarian at his formerly successful restaurant, and is struggling

A $335 prix-fixe menu for the ordinary rich to buy and consume vegetables in public view of their peers, and a private, special room for the truly blessed, where meat can be consumed in private — how could this fail?

Yet troubles there have been.

Even the NYT’s restaurant critic was not amused, though clearly, an ink-stained laborer of the people can hardly be expected to appreciate the finer things of life offered here:

New York Times critic Pete Wells' review last month went viral for its withering lines, including one about an EMP beet tasting like "a cross between lemon Pledge and a burning joint."

… And, importantly, he noted that through the end of this year, EMP still offers a meat option for customers who book a private dining room, a "metaphor for Manhattan, where there's always a higher level of luxury, a secret room where the rich eat roasted tenderloin while everybody else gets an eggplant canoe."

The Post has more of the story:

In 2019, shortly after it was announced that Humm and Guidara were splitting, it was revealed that Humm and Laurene Powell Jobs — the widow of Steve Jobs and a longtime vegan for the most part — were dating. She’s “allowed me to see myself more clearly, and I get to be more myself by knowing her,” Humm told Vanity Fair of their relationship. “She inspires me every day.” [She since left him for her personal trainer, alas]

Perhaps it was her influence that led to a shocking announcement in spring 2021: Humm would be reopening the restaurant with a fully vegan menu. “The current food system is simply not sustainable,”he told the New York Times.


I’m astonished that the 0.01%ers aren’t willing to endure inedible food for the pleasure of showing how special, woke, and rich they are, but according to the Post, the restaurant’s running at just 70% capacity these days, which must be alarming to the chef’s business partners. Sad.