Gray Kunz and the Short Rib Derby

 
Left: Café Gray; Right: Grayz

Note: Café Gray and Grayz have both closed. Café Gray will be replaced by a clone of A Voce. Grayz re-opened in January 2009 as Atria, with Gray Kunz’s former chef de cuisine, Martin Brock, as executive chef. After four short months, it bit the dust.

Café Gray will shortly be closing, a victim of sky-high rents at the Time Warner Center. That will leave the talented chef, Gray Kunz, with just one restaurant, Grayz, which struggles with problems of its own.

Linking both restaurants is one of this town’s great chefs and his destination dish, the legendary braised short ribs. He served a version of the dish at the four-star Lespinasse, and it anchors the menus at both Café Gray and Grayz.

Recently, I tried the short ribs at both places. I wondered: how are they different? how are they alike? I also wanted to bid farewell to Café Gray, and to see if Grayz is as good as some message board enthusiasts say it is.

* * * 

At Café Gray, one can’t help escaping the glimmer of what might have been. In previous visits, I’ve never had the slightest doubt about the food: Kunz can cook rings around anyone. But the room: oh, the room! It’s noisy and ugly, and it interposes an open kitchen between diners and the world’s best view.

If you’re going to visit Café Gray, its final weeks are the best time. I found it mostly empty on a Wednesday evening. There’s no escaping the bone-headed design, but at least I had a pleasant supper without contracting a migraine.

 
Left: amuse-bouche; Right: petits-fours

Service was polished and seamless. The amuse-bouche was a small spoonful of chickpea yogurt, and there was a nice plate of petits-fours at the end.

I left Café Gray with a bit of sadness. This restaurant should have been, could have been, so much better.

* * *

Grayz is living proof of what happens when a promising restaurant botches its opening. The trouble here was that Kunz couldn’t decide if he was opening a bar that served snacks or a restaurant with a bar. The muddled concept was confusing, and early reviews weren’t favorable.

The menu has been revised, and it makes more sense now. The entrées, which numbered just three when I visited in the early days, have now been expanded to six. Whether you want a full meal or just to…well, “graze”—Grayz can accommodate you.

The interior design betrays indecision about the concept. You still feel like you’re in a bar that serves snacks, but the service is very good, and the food is first-class. Think of it as an elegant restaurant where the bar is closer than you’d like it to be, like a social misfit elbowing in on your privacy.

Despite its flaws, Grayz deserves your attention.

Unfortunately, it’s hard for a restaurant to get the word out after the early review cycle has concluded. The tables were less than half occupied on a Wednesday evening, and according to reports I’ve read elsewhere, that’s not unusual. The GM came over after my meal, greeted me warmly, and gave me his card. Grayz is still trying to cultivate a following.

 
Left: Bread service; Right: Weisswurst

To begin, Grayz offers the same wonderful spears of warm bread as before, with a Lebanese yogurt, spice, and olive oil dressing. I was better behaved this time: I stopped after only one.

I ordered the Weisswurst ($12), or German sausage, which comes with a homemade brown mustard. I’m not a connoisseur, so I don’t have much to compare it to. I loved the delicate casings, but the mustard was definitely needed, as the meat didn’t have enough flavor on its own. The bright-red cast-iron serving dish got in the way of my knife and fork.

To close, the petit-four was a hollow cylinder of crisp brown chocolate on a bed of sugar.

The cocktail menu here is a cut above the norm. I tried two of them, the Badminton Cup and the Aviation, both $14. My table was close enough to the bar that I could hear the conversation between the bartender and one of his customers—a post-modern meditation on the “art of cocktails.” I thought, “This is so 2008.”

* * * 

So, what about the short ribs?

 
Short ribs at Café Gray (left) and Grayz (right)

As you can see from the photos, they are quite similar. The manager at Grayz said he believes the meat is prepared identically. At Café Gray, it’s served on a bed of soft grits; at Grayz, it’s creamed spinach. The price is $41 at Café Gray, $39 at Grayz.

If I could have only one before I die, I’d choose the Grayz version. It was served on the bone; at Café Gray, there was no bone. At Grayz, it was slightly more tender, and spinach goes better with beef than grits. You could argue, though, that $39 is awfully dear for short ribs, even Gray Kunz’s.

* * * 

Kunz says that Café Gray will re-open at another location—rumored to be the current Oceana space.. He’s known to be a slow-poke, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for it. Wherever he goes, his first act should be to fire himself as an interior designer. But while we wait for Café Gray’s reincarnation, Grayz will be quietly chugging along.

Give Grayz a try. You could be pleasantly surprised.

Update: Grayz will close on August 10, 2008, for a facelift, re-opening on September 1. The downstairs catering space will become a proper restaurant, and the upstairs space—reviewed here—will presumably become what it was meant to be: a lounge.

Grayz (13–15 West 54th Street between Fifth & Sixth Avenues, West Midtown)

Food: **½
Service: **
Ambiance: *½
Overall: **

The Master Class at Gordon Ramsay

Note: The master class was offered under chef Josh Emett, who has since left the restaurant. Ramsay sold his interest, and is now affiliated in only a consulting role. The current chef is Markus Glocker.

*

A year ago, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened to outsized expectations. The city’s major critics quickly pronounced it a dud, with both Adam Platt and Frank Bruni awarding just two stars to a restaurant that was vying for four. I was more impressed than they were, awarding three stars, though I agreed with Platt and Bruni that the restaurant didn’t quite live up to the hype.

Ramsay fired chef de cuisine Neil Ferguson, replacing him with Josh Emett, who had cooked for Ramsay at the Savoy Grill. Neither Platt nor Bruni has been back since the change, which is understandable, given their hostility to upscale European (non-Italian) cuisines, even when it is executed well. But Ramsay was redeemed when the restaurant earned two stars in the 2008 Michelin Guide, making Gordon Ramsay at the London one of the top ten restaurants in town, in at least one informed opinion. It also earned the top rating of four stars in the annual Forbes survey.

I received an e-mail promotion for a Master Class at Gordon Ramsay, offered weekdays for parties of four to eight guests. Chef Emett demonstrates the day’s menu, and then you have a multi-course lunch at the Chef’s Table. My girlfriend and I thought it would make a great Christmas present for our parents. We made it a surprise, so they knew only that we were going to the London Hotel, with no idea what was to come.

The day went far beyond our expectations. We arrived at 10:30 a.m. After coffee and continental breakfast, Chef Emett spent ninety minutes demonstrating three complex recipes and explaining how the kitchen worked. We then sat down to a luxurious six-course lunch with wine pairings, finishing at around 2:30 p.m. All of that was only $195 per person for our party of five. This is a bargain when you bear in mind that it included what amounted to a private cooking lesson with a Michelin-starred chef and four bottles of wine.

The Master Class photos are in the previous post.

After the master class, we sat down to lunch at the Chef’s Table, which is in a nook facing the kitchen. We began with a bottle of champagne.

 

 

First we were served two canapés: a crispy cod fish with salmon roe, and a fried mushroom (above left). Then came the amuse-bouche, a light butternut squash soup (above right).

Another bottle of wine came out, as we watched the ravioli plated at the pass: 

 

 

Above: Ravioli of Tiger Prawn with Fennel Cream,
Shellfish Vinaigrette and Chervil Velouté

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the ravioli were plump and generously filled; two of them would have been excessive, especially given how rich they were. This was a four-star dish, easily the best ravioli I’ve had in a long time. It’s a popular dish, too: we saw many plates of it leaving the kitchen.

Another bottle of wine arrived. We watched the complex operation of plating of the Beef Wellington, and Chef Emett came by to check on us:

And the pièce de resistance:

Above: Short Rib of Kobe Beef; Fillet of Beef Wellington with Madeira Jus

The Beef Wellington entrée was outstanding, and puts to shame every other preparation of this dish that I’ve ever had. There were something like a dozen separate ingredients on the plate. The Kobe beef short rib practically melted at the touch. The beef was beautiful,  perfectly aged and tender, the crisp puff pastry shell offering a gorgeous contrast.

By the way, the Beef Wellington is not currently on the regular menu, although Emett told us it has been offered in the past.

It was time for dessert:

The palate cleanser was a passion fruit crème with coconut foam and mint granata (above left). I must admit that I had doubts about whther the rice pudding (above right) could live up to the culinary fireworks of the rest of the meal, but there was far more to it than I expected, with a raspberry jam, mascarpone ice cream and pecans. It came with a dessert wine, followed by petits-fours that we could barely touch.

This was among the best meals we have had in New York. It is difficult to rate a meal like this, bearing in mind that most guests won’t experience the restaurant under these conditions. But recent reviews seem to confirm our impression that Gordon Ramsay is now one of the top handful of restaurants in the city.

Gordon Ramsay at the London (151 W. 54th Street between Sixth & Seventh Avenues, West Midtown)

The Master Class at Gordon Ramsay (Photos)

Note: The background of our visit and the meal itself are in the next post.

We all donned aprons and joined chef de cuisine Josh Emett in the kitchen, where he demonstrated the Ravioli of Tiger Prawn, Beef Wellington, and Rice Pudding. Besides being a master chef, he was a patient teacher and a true gentleman, spending close to ninety minutes with us.

I was encouraged to take photos liberally, which I did: He said, “We’re very laid back about that, contrary to popular belief.” He also said that he speaks to Ramsay almost every day, but that he has complete freedom to design the menu.

We began with…

Ravioli of Tiger Prawn with Fennel Cream, Shellfish Vinaigrette and Chervil Velouté

First, Emett makes the pasta by hand:

There’s enough leftover for a heavenly linguini, which was not actually part of the planned menu. We ate right out of the skillet it was prepared in:

The ravioli are filled with a shrimp and tiger prawn mousse, then assembled and trimmed into a circle. They are extremely delicate and prone to puncture, in which case the whole operation must be repeated:

Now it was onto… 

Fillet of Beef Wellington with Madeira Jus

The beef had been seasoned and pre-seared in a hot pan. A chicken, mushroom and shallot mousse was spread onto a light crêpe:

Then the fillet was wrapped inside, and the edges sealed:

Then, a flat puff pastry was brushed with an egg wash, and the crêpe containing the fillet rolled inside:

Lastly…

Rice Pudding with Raspberry Jam & Mascarpone Pecan Ice Cream

I’ve not much to say about the rice pudding, which was the most straightforward part of the demonstration, so I just offer the photos:

And some scenes from the kitchen:

Left: A line cook prepares venison loin for the dinner service; Center: There are two massive French stoves, which cost $750,000 apiece; Right: Emett is proud of an Apple Tarte Tatin, which is offered as a dessert for two.

It was time to sit down to lunch…

Allen & Delancey

[Kalina via Eater]

Note: Allen & Delancey closed in March 2010, after something like five chefs in three years. A Scottish-themed restaurant, Mary Queen of Scots, from the Highlands team, opened in November 2010.

The new restaurant Allen & Delancey had one of those star-crossed births that give restaurant owners nightmares. It was announced for the Fall of 2006 with former Craftbar chef Akhtar Nawab at the helm. Then, an investor pulled out, and the project seemed dead…or was it?

A year later, Allen & Delancey has finally opened, with Neil Ferguson in the kitchen. Ferguson is the chef that was canned after the critics demolished Gordon Ramsay at the London. Ramsay is still alive and kicking with a new chef de cuisine, while at A&D you can enjoy, at less than half the price, the chef whom Gordon Ramsay thought was capable of earning four stars.

The space has been beautifully decked out, but it’s so dark you should bring a flashlight to read the menu. Ferguson keeps things simple, with just seven appetizers ($12–18) and seven entrées ($22–29). The similarity to the menu at Gordon Ramsay is striking: not a lot of fireworks, but simple things are done well.

 
Terrine of Guinea Hen (left); Cabbage, Beef and Onion (right)

My girlfriend and I both started with the Terrine of Guinea Hen, Smoked Ham Knuckle, Foie Gras, and Beetroot ($18). It takes a sure hand to make all of those ingredients work, but Ferguson managed it.

I probably wouldn’t have chosen Cabbage, Beef and Onion ($29), had not the server recommended it. This is the kind of dish that got Ferguson in trouble at Gordon Ramsay. It’s a technically impeccable presentation that doesn’t have much oomph. I was pleased with it, but perhaps some people will say that it doesn’t deserve to be a nearly $30 entrée.

The major critics have yet to weigh in on Allen & Delancey. The staff, who are all excited about the restaurant, mentioned that both Adam Platt and Frank Bruni visited earlier in the week. I can only hope that Ferguson gets a fair shake this time. Allen & Delancey deserves to succeed.

Allen & Delancey (115 Allen Street at Delancey Street, Lower East Side)

Food: **
Service: **
Ambiance: **
Overall: **

Smith & Mills

You could easily walk right by Smith & Mills, and I nearly did. I was actually on my way to another restaurant when I saw a tiny little space I’d never noticed before. I had no reservation that evening, so I changed my plans and gave this new spot a try. I had no trouble getting seated immediately when I wandered in at around 7:00 p.m., but later on the place filled up.

The space, which was formerly a garage, and was a stable before that, is decorated with faux rusticity that is persuasive enough that you’d think the place had been there forever, but it has only been open four months. It earned two stars from Randall Lane in Time Out New York, and a strong write-up from Peeter Meehan in the Times.

I suspect most of the clientele is local. There is no sign on the outside. The couple seated next to me said that they, too, had found it only by accident. Even the name is cloaked in mystery: it’s not printed on the menu. When I asked, the server said there’s no one involved that’s actually named “Smith” or “Mills”; someone just liked those names.

The server said that the cuisine was “Rustic European.” I suppose that’s accurate. House cured salmon ($13) was quite respectable, and I very much enjoyed the seasonable vegetable soup ($6).

I’m afraid I’ve forgotten the dessert ($6): an apple cake, I believe, with cheese drizzled on top. The skimpy wine list was short on specifics, but the house sancerre ($12) and bordeaux ($14) were just fine.

There doesn’t seem to be a kitchen. All of the food is prepared behind the bar, which explains why most of the offerings (everything but the soup) are served cold. There are only seven tables, but service was almost excruciatingly slow, even in the early part of my meal, when most of the seats were still empty. It’s a pleasant space to kick back and relax, but be prepared to wait.

I don’t normally comment on bathrooms, but this one had to be mentioned. It’s built into the original freight elevator, and like the rest of the restaurant, is made to look like it has been there forever. The toilet is kept clean, but the “tilt” sink is arguably a bit gross.

Smith & Mills doesn’t break any new culinary ground, but it’s a welcome casual addition in a neighborhood where most of the dining options are expensive. Three courses and two glasses of wine set me back just $51 (before tax and tip). Credit cards aren’t accepted.

Smith & Mills (71 N. Moore Street east of Greenwich Street, TriBeCa)

Food: *
Service: Satisfactory
Ambiance: *
Overall: *

Grayz

 

Note: Click here for a more recent review of Grayz.

Whatever he does, Gray Kunz seems to take his time. After he left the four-star Lespinasse, it was six years until he opened a new restaurant, Café Gray, which was much delayed—the last to appear of the originally announced restaurants in the Time-Warner Center.

Then, Grayz was announced. The Times featured it in their September 2006 fall dining preview section. In October, the Post broke the story that plans had been scrapped, apparently due to a dispute with the construction company. In January, it was back on again. Two weeks ago, Grayz finally opened in the former Aquavit space, in the landmarked 19th-century Rockefeller townhouse.

I have never warmed up to Café Gray. While no one would dispute Kunz’s talent as a chef, the restaurant is crowded, loud, and distinctly unpleasant. I dined there twice, and wasn’t happy either time. For his next venture, I hoped that Kunz would open the kind of refined restaurant that his breathtaking talent deserves, but with Grayz he has gone in the opposite direction. It’s mainly a catering place, with a lively bar that serves finger food. Kunz’s finger food may beat everyone else’s, but Grayz is still a place for…well, grazing, not dining.

Frank Bruni previewed Grayz in a June blog post. He included a sample menu, which is fairly close to what Grayz is offering now. He described it as “a theater for fancy private parties.” The dinner concept, according to a publicist, is “one big cocktail party.” The lunch menu is supposed to be more traditional (which would be wise), but Bruni had no lunch menu to show, and as far as I know the lunch service hasn’t yet begun.

Bread service

I was seated immediately when I walked in at around 6:00 p.m. on a Thursday evening, but an hour later the place was packed. Kunz’s catering strategy had already paid dividends, as the downstairs room was booked for a private party by the accounting firm KPMG—not bad for a restaurant that had only been open for 10 days.

The menu offers nine appetizers, captioned “Small Plates and Finger Food” ($13–22) and just three entrées ($16–33). Included among the latter are Kunz’s famous short ribs, which are also a mainstay on the Café Gray menu (and were offered at Lespinasse, as well). I asked the server how many small plates would make a meal. She cautioned, “They are small!” So I ordered three of them, after asking her for suggestions.

 Homemade bread sticks came, with a wonderful yogurt dipping sauce that tasted like a soft goat cheese. I finished all of it, and could probably have eaten more. (I apologize for the quality of the photos, but note the elegant silver tray—typical of the service at Grayz.)

 
Salt Stone Grilled Prawns (left); Crisped Calamari (right)

Grilled prawns ($18) were served on a hot stone, with a kaffir rémoulade seasoning. This appeared to be the most popular dish, as I saw more prawn orders coming out than anything else. The Crisped calamari ($12) with a lemon–honey chutney was much more delicate than the usual deep-fried calamari. (As New York revealed, Kunz makes it with Nabisco graham crackers and Cream of Wheat.) It was the largest portion of anything I ordered, but I got bored with it about halfway through.

 
Pasta Fiori and Tomato Concassée (left); Cheese and marinated vegetables (right)

Pasta Fiori ($15) in a lemon thyme broth was the best item I tried. A soft pillow of silky pasta in a delicate tomato sauce, it would be at home in any four-star restaurant. Good as it was, it seemed out of place at Grayz, as the portion was far too small to be shared, and it certainly wasn’t finger food.

The cheese course ($11), which I ordered from the dessert menu, was a miscalculation. The marinated vegetables at the corners of the plate were miniscule, while the pile of shaved cheese in the center tasted like supermarket provalone. (It also came with bread; not shown in the photo.)

Service was first-rate, with beautiful platings, and fresh silverware delivered for every course. It almost seemed overwrought and a little too precious. Every plate was left in the middle of the table, as if to be shared with an imaginary companion (I was there alone).

The total for three appetizers, a cheese course, one cocktail, and two glasses of wine, came to $100 before tax and tip. That’s a high total for finger food. The menu could evolve considerably as Kunz figures out what works, and what doesn’t. For now, I’d say that it’s worth dropping in if you’re in the neighborhood, but it’s nothing I’d rush back for.

Grayz (13–15 West 54th Street between Fifth & Sixth Avenues, West Midtown)

Food: *½
Service: **½
Ambiance: **
Overall: *½

Gilt

Note: This is a review of Gilt under chef Christopher Lee, who left the restaurant at the end of 2008 to take over at Aureole. Gilt closed in late 2012. A new restaurant from French chef Michel Richard is expected to replace it, sometime in 2013.

*

Gilt was one of the most hotly anticipated restaurant openings of the 2005 season. The chef, enfant-terrible Paul Liebrandt, delivered a menu that lived on danger’s edge. It was at times dazzling, and probably exceeded the legal limit for ingredients per square inch. In the Times, Frank Bruni wasn’t wowed, awarding two stars.

I was a little more enthusiastic than Bruni, and awarded three stars. Yet, I can see why Gilt v1.0 ran into problems. Much as I appreciated what Liebrandt was doing, I wasn’t dying to try it again. I suspect others felt the same. And no restaurant can survive solely on first-time visitors. I also suspect that in that neighborhood, and in the same space that once hosted Le Cirque, a more conservative style was called for.

In late 2006, Chris Lee replaced Paul Liebrandt. Prices, though still expensive, were reduced somewhat. The three-course prix fixe that was $92 under Liebrandt now sells for $78. A seven-course tasting menu that was once $160 is now $135, and there is also a five-course tasting menu for $105. Bruni was more impressed with Gilt v2.0, though it received only a “Dining Brief,” not a full re-review.

Last week, I took a friend to Gilt for her birthday dinner. Truth be told, I was planning to order the standard three-course menu so that I could try Lee’s best known dish, the Tuna Wellington. But my friend rather liked the five-course tasting menu line-up ($105), and as it was her evening, that’s what we ordered, along with the sommelier’s wine pairing ($65).

This was the menu:

Wild Japanese Hamachi Sashimi
Watermelon “Margarita”, Cucumber, Jicama, Anise Hyssop Dressing

Soft Shell Blue Crab
Sweet Yellow Corn, Avocado, Lime Crème Fraîche, Spicy Tomato Broth

Crispy Black Bass
Piperade with Chorizo, Red Bliss Potatoes, Garlic Aioli, Saffron Mussel Broth

Smoked Prime Beef Tenderloin
Creamed Corn, Pickled Vegetables, Pancetta, Bourbon Sweet Potatoes

Chocolate Ice Cream Cones
Peanut Butter Chocolate, Mint Chocolate, Banana Brownie

There was a consistent quality level that could almost be called dull. I liked everything we tried, without loving any of it. There wasn’t any “wow,” but there were no duds either. Most tasting menus I’ve tried have a wider variety of extremes, both good and bad. This was a menu that could have offended no one. The smoked tenderloin was particularly good, and that is somewhat unusual at this type of restaurant. The wines, too, seemed to be chosen for their ability to blend with just about any diner’s sensibilities.

The early courses came out a bit too quickly. My friend and I are both fast drinkers, but when the third glass (of six) arrived, we hadn’t yet finished the first or the second. To their credit, when we asked them to slow down, they did. That point aside, the service was as professional and seamless as you’d expect for a restaurant in Gilt’s price range.

While I would have preferred a bit more sense of adventure in Lee’s choices, clearly he was hired as the conservative antidote to Paul Liebrandt, and he appears to have given Gilt’s owners what they wanted.

Gilt (455 Madison Avenue at 50th Street in the Palace Hotel, East Midtown)

Food: ***
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***
Overall: ***

The Four Seasons

Note: Click here for a more recent review of the Four Seasons.

*

The Four Seasons is an iconic restaurant. Located in the Seagram Building at 52nd & Park, it opened in 1959 to immediate acclaim. Architect Philip Johnson designed the interior, which cost $4.5 million to build. Even today, that would be a large sum to invest in a restaurant. The space is landmarked—the only Manhattan restaurant to be so designated. (There are other restaurants in landmarked buildings, but no other restaurants that are landmarks themselves.)

Reviewing for The New York Times on October 2, 1959, Craig Claiborne wrote:

There has never been a restaurant better keyed to the tempo of Manhattan than the Four Seasons, which opened recently at 99 East Fifty-second Street.

Both in décor and in menu, it is spectacular, modern and audaceous. It is expensive and opulent and it is perhaps the most exciting restaurant to open in new York within the last two decades. On the whole, the cuisine is exquisite in the sense that la grande cuisine française is exquisite.

The Pool RoomThese days, the Four Seasons is mostly known as a power lunch destination. In the famous grill room, one may rub noses with Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Mike Bloomberg, or Sandy Weill. The serene pool room is one of the city’s most romantic dining spots. Celebrities have flocked there from the beginning. John F. Kennedy had his 45th birthday party at the Four Seasons, of which the restaurant doesn’t fail to remind you: a copy of the menu for that occasion is bound into the wine list.

For many years, the kitchen at the Four Seasons turned out food that justified all that attention. eGullet historian Leonard Kim found numerous Times reviews from 1971 onward—generally three stars, although in 1979, its twentieth anniversary year, Mimi Sheraton demoted it to two. Her successor, Bryan Miller, restored it to three stars in 1985. He re-affirmed that rating in 1990, as did Ruth Reichl in 1995.

The BarIn recent times, no one has suggested that the Four Seasons is a hotbed of culinary invention. Earlier this year, Frank Bruni demoted the Four Seasons to two stars, where it is likely to remain for a very long time. Christian Albin has been in charge of the kitchen for the last seventeen years, and though the menu does change with the seasons, Albin is not a risk-taker. He dutifully turns out the continental classics that the restaurant’s conservative clientele demands. Bruni found, and I concur, that the cooking can be terrific, but it can be boring and sloppy too.

Though I expected no pyrotechnic fireworks on the plate, I nevertheless craved a visit to the legendary Four Seasons, and my friend Kelly’s 37th birthday provided the occasion. Frank Bruni warned that this is “a restaurant that runs on two tracks — one for the anonymous, another for the anointed.” As Kelly and I are clearly in the former category, I wondered how we’d be treated.

I needn’t have worried on that score. I requested a Pool Room table, and we were indeed seated there, close to the famous pool. The serving staff at the Four Seasons seem mildly bored with their lot in life, but they provided classic, efficient service. When I arrived a bit wet (it was raining, and I’d forgotten my umbrella), the host handed me a napkin to dry off with. I started the evening with a drink at the bar, and the tab was transferred to my dinner bill, as it should be at any fine restaurant. At no point were we made to feel anything less than special.

The prices are eye-popping, with most appetizers $18–42 (not counting caviar at $140), and most entrées $37–56 (with lobster $75 and Kobe beef $125). Of sixteen entrées, eight are over $50, and only three are under $40. As far as I know, it is the most expensive à la carte menu in town. While we enjoyed almost everything we had, it was one of those celebratory occasions when price is really beside the point. Viewed in the cold light of day, very little that the kitchen produces can justify these prices.

To start, I had the Beef Tartare with Osetra Caviar ($38; above right), an assembly-line dish that had none of the tangy, spicy seasoning I was longing for. Kelly started with an assortment of oysters and clams ($25; below), with which she seemed satisfied.

I was keen to have the duck, which was one of the few dishes Frank Bruni really loved. Fortunately, Kelly was of the same mind, since it’s served only for two ($55 per person). As Bruni put it, the duck, carved tableside, “emerges from a Peking-style sequence of many days and steps, is as astonishing as ever, a knockout of crunchy skin and succulent meat.” Have I ever had duck better than this? Not that I recall.

Kelly loves soufflés ($15), so we ordered them for dessert: strawberry for her, Grand Marnier for me. We both thought the strawberry was a little better, though neither one matched the absurdly decadent chocolate soufflé we had at Town.

I alerted the management in advance that this was Kelly’s birthday, and they brought one of the odder birthday cakes I’ve seen: a large ball of cotton candy with a candle on top. It was probably the most creative idea they had, but after a few bites the cotton candy quickly became cloying. There was an attractive selection of petits-fours, and we finished nearly all of them.

For a restaurant of this calibre, I was surprised to find that the wine list was rather unimpressive. Indeed, more pages of the little book are devoted to photos from the restaurant’s past than to wines. However, I was happy to find a wonderful 1999 Gewurtztraminer from Alsace for $76. At the restaurant’s overall price level, I considered it a bargain. It arrived at our table before we were done with our champagne, and the server was astute enough not to pour it right away—a nice touch that many restaurants wouldn’t get right.

While I wouldn’t visit the Four Seasons for the food alone, the whole package is certainly impressive. For the right special occasion, I’d be happy to dine there again.

The Four Seasons (99 East 52nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, East Midtown)

Food: **
Service: ***
Ambiance: ****
Overall: **½

Eleven Madison Park

Note: Click here for a more recent visit to Eleven Madison Park.

In 1998, Danny Meyer did the absurd. Within a month’s time, he opened two contrasting luxury restaurants in a neighborhood not then known for fine dining. The location, a landmarked Art Deco building, ought to have been perfect, but it adjoined the dilapidated Madison Park, better known at the time for drug dealers, broken fences, and crumbling asphalt. The park was eventually rebuilt (Meyer himself contributed $60,000), and both restaurants were hits.

Apparently, Meyer’s original intention was to open just one restaurant on the ground floor of the old Met Life building, but the wall separating two dining rooms had landmark status, and couldn’t be removed. So in the smaller of the two spaces, he opened the Indian-fusion restaurant Tabla; and in the spectacular former Assembly Hall, he opened Eleven Madison Park.

Though both restaurants were a success, Ruth Reichl in the Times found Tabla more impressive, awarding three stars. To Eleven Madison Park, she awarded only two in a 1999 review, finding chef Kerry Heffernan’s main courses “disappointingly uneven.” Six years later, for no apparent reason, Frank Bruni re-reviewed Eleven Madison Park, again awarding two stars, finding “much of his food…unremarkable” and “some of it…poorly executed.”

My only visit to Eleven Madison Park under Chef Heffernan was on Mother’s Day in 2005. I was impressed with a five-course tasting menu, especially bearing in mind that most restaurants under-perform on major holidays. But most observers didn’t share my three-star assessment. By the end of the year, Chef Heffernan had departed, replaced by wunderkind Daniel Humm. Suddenly, the food community was buzzing that Eleven Madison Park was practically a new restaurant.

The Gourmand Tasting MenuFrank Bruni took notice, issuing using the first self-re-review of his tenure to elevate Eleven Madison Park to three stars. (He then managed the peculiar feat of insulting the restaurant by absurdly awarding another three stars to the casual Bar Room at The Modern in the same review—in the process dissing the best restaurant in Danny Meyer’s empire, the main dining room at The Modern.)

Last week, my girlfriend and I returned to Eleven Madison Park, our first visit since Chef Humm took over. Nowadays, the restaurant offers a three-course prix fixe at $82, a four-course prix fixe at $96, or a Gourmand tasting menu, which we ordered, at $155. Counting hors d’oeuvres and petits-fours, that tasting menu weighs in at 13 courses, making it one of the city’s more ambitious of its kind.

A full description of 13 courses would extend this post to the length of a minor novel, so an impressionistic fly-by will have to suffice. The full menu is pictured above right (click for a larger image).

Hors d’oeuvres (left); Maine Diver Scallop with caviar (right)

The hors d’oeuvres were mind-blowingly good. From left to right, I believe they were a foie gras sandwich; a sweetbread; hamachi in a cucumber wrap; and sorry, I cannot recall the fourth.

I loved the first savory course, a diver scallop with caviar. My girlfriend doesn’t eat scallops, so they just gave her a version of the dish with the scallop omitted, which we thought was a rather unimaginative substitute.

California Celery, Cappuccino with Celery Root, and Black Truffles (left); Peekytoe Crab Cannelloni (right)

A celery and cappuccino puree with black truffles was topped with a fried quail egg. Peekytoe Crab Cannelloni was satisfactory, though it did not eclipse our memory of the crab salad we had at Daniel a couple of months ago.

Foie gras with Venezuelan Cocoa and Quince (left); Mediterranean Loup de Mer (right)

It’s hard to go wrong with foie gras, but the torchon here was particularly dreamy. The accompanying soft brioche was wonderful—but also, in a way, superfluous. Chef Humm has a delicate touch with fish, and the Loup de Mer was wonderful.

Scottish Langoustine (left); Four Story Hill “Boudin Blanc” (right)

The next couple of courses didn’t register as impressively. A Scottish Langoustine was slightly dull, as was the boudin (a kind of sausage), though I was a bit more fond of it than my girlfriend was.

Three variations of Vermont Farm Suckling PigSuckling pig is apparently Chef Humm’s signature dish. Frank Bruni raved about it. When he came out to greet diners late in our meal, he made sure to ask, “How about the pig?”

My girlfriend was transported, though I found it a bit too dry. We overheard diners at the next table, and their views were exactly reversed: it was the lady who thought hers was too dry. I’d love to come back and try the full entrée version of it.

My sense was that this is precisely the kind of dish that suffers from being served in a tasting menu portion. You need more of it, to give the fat room to spread out, to give alternating crisp and gooey textures the chance to shine.

Lynnhaven “Chèvre Frais” (left); Coconut sorbet with pear and parsnips (right)

The next two courses are perhaps best classified as palate-cleansers. Nothing stands out about them, and I present them (above) without comment.

Chocolate cake with Passion Fruit Bourbon Sour (left); Candied lollipops (right)

The main dessert course was a wonderful chocolate cake with a passion fruit bourbon sour for contrast. I only wish I had had enough appetite left to enjoy more of the candied lollipops.

Service throughout the evening was up the the standard you come to expect at a Danny Meyer restaurant. Given his success, I wonder why more restauranteurs don’t emulate him? When I arrived, the host offered immediately to show me to the table—rather than insisting I wait at the bar until my date arrived, as so many restaurants do these days.

The wine list is excellent, with a good selection of half-bottles. I was also pleased to see a decent selection below $60, an price level often not available at restaurants in this class. Our wine selection was unimaginative: a Barolo that I chose for no other reason than I was happy to find it at $89. The staff decanted it, a service few restaurants offer these days. Wine decanters are an Eleven Madison Park specialty, and you see them on display in a wide variety of shapes.

The bread service, too, was excellent, with nice soft butter in a silver serving dish, and several home-made breads to spread it on. The whole meal took around 3½ hour, and I was never conscious of it being either too fast or too slow.

The large space, with its soaring Art Deco ceilings, leave some people cold. We find it coolly elegant and understated, but it won’t be to all tastes. We were happy to find that those high ceilings gave ample room for the sound level to dissipate, but the restaurant wasn’t quite full, so we didn’t have the acid test. We were seated at a table that could normally accomodate four, so we had a bit more space to ourselves than we normally would.

A few of the courses on our Gourmand tasting menu misfired slightly, but I say this only in relation to the high expectations one has at a price level that puts Eleven Madison Park near the top of the heap in this already expensive city. Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I would be delighted to return.

Eleven Madison Park (11 Madison Avenue at 24th Street, Flatiron District)

Food: ***½
Service: ***½
Ambiance: ***
Overall: ***½ 

Klee Brasserie

 

Note: Klee Brasserie was supposed to have closed in July 2011, to make way for an Austrian wine tavern, or heuriger, operated by the same husband–wife team. Instead, they sold the restaurant and will be opening a new, currently unnamed project elsewhere.

*

Klee Brasserie (the first word is pronounced “Clay”) opened late last year in West Chelsea. Many of the dishes, like Chef and co-owner Daniel Angerer, hail from Austria. But Angerer has gotten around, working for Joël Robuchon, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Bouley, and others. The restaurant is not purely Austrian, but draws its influences from just about everywhere.

 

The interior make-over is lovely. If only the food were more appealing. Black Bean Soup ($8) was more like bean-flavored water: it had practically no texture, and was over-salted. Swordfish Steak ($26) was dominated by barbecue sauce. Good thing too, as the fish itself was both ropey and cold. The bed of spinach was the best thing about the dish, but you don’t pay $26 for spinach.

My girlfriend ordered the Lamb Shank ($23). She was surprised to find that it didn’t come with any shank. It seemed more like Lamb Osso Buco without the bone. That said, there was nothing else objectionable about it.

I didn’t note the description of the palate cleanser (pictured right, absurdly out-of-scale), but it was better than either of the dishes I paid for.

The wine list was a definite asset, with a nice list of half-bottles available. We didn’t want to drink much, so we had a nice half-bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape at just $27. The bread service was an asset too, with three warm home-made slices served on a warm stone, with a small jar of soft butter, probably also home-made.

Service was mostly okay, but we had a seriously annoying waiter. His leering comment as he dropped off the dessert menus, “Now, let me lead you into temptation,” was typical. It also took him something like ten minutes to uncork the wine, a task that I shouldn’t have thought was that difficult.

Klee hasn’t had many reviews. In a blog preview in the restaurant’s early days, Frank Bruni also found the swordfish cold, so apparently they haven’t solved that particular problem.

This was a restaurant I wanted to like, but it was merely humdrum.

Klee Brasserie (200 Ninth Avenue between 22nd & 23rd Streets, Chelsea)

Food: fair
Service: okay
Ambiance: good
Overall: fair