SUteiSHI

 

Front Street is quickly becoming the center of Lower Manhattan’s nightlife revival. It’s the spine of several blocks between the South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridge that fortuitously managed to avoid the modern redevelopment that obliterated most of the original low-rise buildings downtown. There are a few other isolated pockets like it, but on Front Street, with its cobblestones and distressed brick facades, you actually feel like you’ve left the canyons of Wall Street far behind.

SUteiSHI (spelled thus), which opened in early December, is a new example of what Front Street could become. It’s an edgy Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, with family-friendly service and a surprisingly fun menu. The left side of the menu features classic rolls, sushi, and sashimi; the right side features the chef’s original creations. Prices are modest, although an omakase can take you all the way up to $120, if you want to go that far.

Spicylicious shrimp ($14) was incredible. The golden sauce touched the perfect spicy and sweet notes, and the shrimp were both hot and crunchy.

A smoked salmon and avocado roll, with a sprinkling of fish roe ($10) was competently done, but the flavor was rather dull.

For dessert, the mochi ($6) were excellent: ice cream scoops (mango, chocolate with red beet, coffee) in a doughy flour crust, resembling dumplings. I had a small caraffe of warm sake to drink, which was just $5.

The décor is industrial chic. There are garage doors on one wall, which I’m sure will be wide open in the summer, with perhaps an outdoor café. From its perch at the corner of Front Street and Peck Slip, there are gorgeous views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The clientele was a mixture of young professionals and families. I saw two parties there with children (don’t fret; they were well behaved), including the unusual sight (in Manhattan) of a child at the sushi bar. Service was excellent; at one point, the matre d’ even came over to my table and offered me a selection of magazines to read.

There is much more on the menu at SUteiSHI that looks like it’s worth exploring. As it is just a five-minute walk from my apartment, I suspect I’ll soon be a regular.

SUteiSHI (24 Peck Slip at Front Street, South Street Seaport)

Food: ★
Service: ★
Ambiance: ★½
Overall: ★

Bridge Cafe

Bridge Cafe is located in a 1794 building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, on the corner of Water and Dover streets. One of the oldest buildings still standing in Manhattan, it has been consistently the “site of a food and/or drinking establishment” for the entire time, although the precise purpose for which it was used has changed frequently. For a while during the 18th century, it was a bordello. The current owners bought the building in 1979 and chose the current name, retaining an interior that is unchanged since the 1920s.

Bridge Cafe is one of the few serious restaurants below Chambers Street, by which I mean a restaurant not serving tourist or “formula” food. The New York Times awarded it one star several years ago. Ed Koch, the former mayor, once said it was his “favorite restaurant.” The menu, which changes seasonally, is an eclectic mix of New American specialties. Appetizers are $7-11, entrées $16-27, making Bridge Cafe fairly expensive for the neighborhood, but mid-priced by Manhattan standards.

Unfortunately, Bridge Cafe misfired on most of what my friend and I tried on Friday night. We both started with a cold cucumber and avocado soup, which was dominated by tabasco sauce. I happen to like spicy food, but when an ingredient takes over the soup, it ought to be mentioned in the description on the menu. My friend couldn’t finish it.

For the entrée, I chose “Our Famous Buffalo Steak,” which comes with a lingonberry sauce and homemade potato gnocchi. The buffalo was tough and tasted gamey. The lingonberry sauce was dreary, and seemed to be there only to mask a piece of meat that never could have stood as an acceptable meal on its own. It was also the most expensive item on the menu. My friend ordered a vegetarian dish that was dominated by a white bean ragout, with the other promised vegetables getting literally lost in the sauce.

Bridge Cafe has garnered mostly favorable reviews, so I have to think we caught it on a bad night, or that we just happened to order the worst items on the menu. Many of the other dishes certainly looked tempting, at least on paper. I’ll give them another chance one of these days. The wine list offers mostly U.S. vintages, and there’s a 30% discount on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Bridge Cafe (279 Water Street at Dover Street, South Street Seaport)

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

Pacific Grill at Pier 17

Pacific Grill has been open since June 30th on Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport. It’s run by the same people who operate Ixta, which led a number of writers to speculate that the the Seaport was ready to escape its “all tourists, all the time” mentality.

For instance, Time Out New York wrote, “This new marine-themed restaurant stands out among the TGI Friday-type establishments in the South Street Seaport.” Andrea Strong, the doyenne of what’s hot-but-cool, wrote:

When was the last time you went to the South Street Seaport for a meal? I think I was in high school. I seem to remember lots of bars…and then I blank out completely. Anyway, there may be a reason to return. Pacific Grill will open on June 30th at 89 South Street Seaport in the Pier 17 Mall. (Mall dining is very chic now? Good heavens.) The menu features Modern Pan Asian seafood by consulting chef Kenneth Tufo, currently of industry (food).

Well, I paid a visit on Sunday evening. Pacific Grill is located in the space that was formerly “Cajun.” The menu is mostly seafood, with a Seaport tourist-friendly spin. I’m probably a tad more likely to frequent Sequoia next door, with its unobstructed harbor views. However, I’ll not render judgment on one visit.

I had a lobster club sandwich, which was a traditional club with lobster and avocado replacing turkey and lettuce, not exactly a Pan Asian specialty. It came with crispy shoestring fries and made an enjoyable light supper, but there is much more to sample before I’ll say whether it’s just another Pier 17 restaurant.

Salud!

Note: Salud closed in 2012, after the restaurant was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

*

The arrival of any new restaurant in the Seaport district is newsworthy, because there are so few of them, and what’s there is in general so bland. Pier 17 itself is the haunt of tourists and weekend revelers, although Sequoia at the end of the pier is worth a visit for satisfactory seafood and some of the best views in Manhattan.

Salud is about a block away from the Seaport’s main drag. The space was formerly a sushi bar called Orange Peel. The place has been gutted, and it is now the most civilized dining space so close to the Seaport. Walk in, and the hubbub nearby is left behind. There is a cool dark glow to the polished wood tables and white walls. An live ensemble plays Spanish music, but although Salud’s space is small, the noise doesn’t overwhelm table conversation.

The cuisine is described as “South American,” of which I have no other experience with which to compare. The menu offers both Tapas (about $8-12 each) and entrée-sized mains (about $17-25 each). Fish/seafood dishes, the restaurant’s specialty, outnumber meat/vegetable dishes. I wasn’t that hungry, so I ordered two tapas. Rellenos stuffed with seafood were a big hit. The plate came with three hot cupcake-sized rellenos, each with baby shrimp, clams, and calimari inside (at least, that’s what I took the ingredients to be). Crispy & spicy chicken was not as happy a choice, as the chicken had been a bit over-cooked. The dish had potential, though. It reminded me of General Tso’s chicken, but it was a cut well above the freeze-dried versions found in so many Chinese restaurants; it just needed to come out of the deep fryer a bit sooner.

My mother ordered hanger steak, which she reported as flavorful, but having too much gristle. This is the hazard of ordering steak in a restaurant that doesn’t specialize in steak.

I was especially taken with how witty the platings were. My mother’s french fries, for instance, came stacked like Lincoln Logs. The crispy & spicy chicken came with diced green and red peppers arranged around the outside edge of the plate, framing the food. The rellenos had a white cream sauce, overlaid on the seafood in the shape of a letter Z.

I don’t mind hopping on the subway, but this is my neighborhood, and sometimes I want to stay close to home. In a part of town where there haven’t been many options, any new arrival is something to cheer about. It’ll take a few more visits to take the measure of Salud, but for now I’m happy it’s on the scene.

Salud (142 Beekman Street at Front Street, South Street Seaport)

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