Food snobs will tell you you’re a chump for signing up for this because chefs just dump their cheap ingredients on supposedly less-refined palates, and sometimes the prix-fixe isn't even much cheaper than their usual price (21 Club’s standard prix-fixe is only $5 more). Also, once the staff finds out you’re there for Restaurant Week you might as well be invisible, for they sometimes wrongly assume you’re a cheap bastard.

But we can personally vouch for very positive Restaurant Week experiences at Crema and Indochine during the last Restaurant Week (though the hotties who work at the latter can make it hard to focus on things, like chewing and swallowing.) The only thing to do is to pick a well-reviewed restaurant that’s way more expensive than you’d usually pay for and throw caution to the wind. Worst case scenario is you pay what you expected – plus the drinks and whatever loose change you can scrounge up for a tip. Reservations will be taken starting tomorrow; details here.

Taste of Tribeca® was founded in 1994 by the parents of children in Tribeca's two public elementary schools, PS 150 and PS 234. They created this fundraiser as a way to showcase their very special neighborhood and pay for the much needed arts and enrichment programs at their childrens' schools.

"The inhabitants of Tribeca shared an extraordinary wealth of great architecture, restaurants and children. What we didn't have enough of was money for art in local public schools.

The dazzling success of Taste of Tribeca ® shows how the best part of life, given the right conditions, will occasionally spring forth with more power than ever imagined. Food, art and our children's education all converge on this glorious spring day. Taste is a day when everyone can see that when we share, we share a great deal."

SATURDAY MAY 16, 2009
11:30AM - 3:00PM