Meatloaf is French, non?

Went for dinner last night with the British contingent at Brasserie 52 up on 9th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. (How did Canada get stiffed on the accent, by the way??? Australia fared well and we are both part of the Commonwealth. I think it is patently unfair that we didn't retain at least a spec of that British charm in either our accent or our vocabulary.)

The restaurant definitely had a brasserie/bistro sort of feel based on the architecture, the ambiance and even the waitress who wasted no time in telling us "zee specials" of the evening. We started getting a little suspicious, however, when Gemma pointed out that there was meatloaf on the menu. Up to that point, the dishes did seem pretty authentically French. Over the course of the evening, the music seemed to get a bit louder and we realized that it was bass-heavy techno/house music. Maybe it was an ever-hip Buddha Bar CD playing, but ultimately, it would have been nice to have a little Josephine Baker or one of her 1920's jazz contemporaries coloring the airwaves.

The food was pretty good, but Gemma joked that the name of the restauarant should actually have been "Brasserie 52 Minutes" because they were over-efficient in their serving -- we were not even finished our soups and salads when the entrees appeared... and both waitress and busboy attempted to take our plates numerous times before we were done eating.

So we did what anyone would have done to buy ourselves more time -- ordered a second bottle of wine, of course!