Financial Crisis Hits Momofuku Ko

Monday evening, a writer at foodie blog Soup and Bread recounted her 10-course meal at Momofuku Ko, David Chang's 12-seat culinary mecca in the East Village with the tricky reservation system that requires diners to log onto the reservations Web site at exactly 10 a.m. in order to score a seat.

But while this blogger's meal sounds characteristically incredible—"fried nugget of black rice and pork belly" and "a huge mound of shaved foie gras over lychees, cubes of Riesling gelee, and pine nut brittle"—something was off at Ko last night.

"BTW, there were 8 empty seats. 3 different groups of people were no-shows," she wrote at the end of her post. "WTF? There were three (friendly, fun) chefs for the 4 of us there. We had the best night."

We thought the financial meltdown wasn't going to hit us yet, but here it is!

What could be a more accurate barometer of the flailing economy than empty seats at Ko? (Daily Transom has been logging on religiously for a reservation since May with no luck.)

But we think we side with Fran Lebowitz on this one. If the stock market crash means the hedge fund managers and stock brokers are abandoning their Ko seats, we'll gladly occupy those spots. Yay, meltdown!

(Daily Transom has contacted Momofuku Ko see if Mr. Chang sees last night's incident as a reflection of New York's current financial troubles. We'll update as soon as we hear back.)

[Via Grub Street]