Rolling the Dice: 10 Downing

The Line: Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Jason Neroni’s comeback at 10 Downing. The Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 8-1
One Star: 3-1
Two Stars: 4-1 √√
Three Stars: 55-1
Four Stars: 20,000-1

The Skinny: The range of outcomes here is bounded by Bruni’s past reviews of Neroni’s work: two stars at 71 Clinton, a singleton at the short-lived Porchetta. We found 10 Downing promising when we visited in mid-December. We weren’t quite ready to buy into two stars, but we certainly thought it could be headed in that direction.

The restaurant has been open for four months. That’s longer than Bruni normally waits. We’re guessing he was on the fence between one and two stars, and wanted to see how Neroni’s performance here would mature.

The Bet: This has been the year of the one-star restaurant. We think Bruni has been itching to find a place to get excited about. Perhaps 10 Downing is that place. We agree with Eater that Frank Bruni will award two stars to 10 Downing.

La Fonda del Sol

Note: This is a review under chef Josh DeChellis, who left the restaurant in May 2011. The new chef is Christopher DeLuna.

*

La Fonda del Sol was one of the iconic NYC destination restaurants of the 1960s, often mentioned in the same breath as The Four Seasons (which is still around) and Forum of the Twelve Caesars (which isn’t). The restaurant closed in the early 1970s. Fans still mourn the loss of Alexander Girard’s striking design (see this fansite).

Now Patina Restaurant Group, which owns the rights (inherited from the old Restaurant Associates) wants to re-capture the magic. A new Fonda del Sol opened six weeks ago in the Met Life Building. Except for the name, it has little to do with its predecessor. Adam Tihany’s design could be just as opulent as Girard’s, but it’s his own, not a re-do. The menu, under Josh DeChellis, is Spanish, rather than Latin American.

The new Fonda was conceived before the recession. It is one of the most luxurious openings we’ve seen in quite a while. The large bi-level space offers a casual tapas restaurant facing Vanderbilt Avenue and an elegant formal dining room. The tapas space was totally empty on Saturday evening, except for a couple of people drinking at the bar. The location doesn’t lend itself to weekend walk-ins, but the staff claim they’ve been doing well on weekdays, with Grand Central just a half-step away. The dining room looked to be about 80% full at 9:00 p.m.

Reviewers will obsess over the clash between the luxurious space and the tanking economy. Gael Greene is the only active critic who dined at the old Fonda, and she’s smitten once again. In the Daily News, Restaurant Girl awarded four out of five stars. Those are the kinds of reviews La Fonda del Sol will need, as it is on the expensive side and could have trouble attracting a crowd without good word of mouth.

We liked nearly everything we had. The amuse-bouche (top left) was a thin slice of cured ham with a daikon radish. We then tried three tapas: the Potted Duckling and Pork ($11; above right), Tuna Tacos ($9.50; below left) and Veal Terrine Croquettas ($9; below right).

The potted duckling, resembling a pâté, was luxuriously rich; the tuna tacos with avocado and jalapeño pickled onion packed a flavor punch. The croquettas, however, were rather forgettable.

Suckling Pig ($28) was a masterpiece, with a constellation of unmentionable pig parts rolled up and covered in pig skin, served with smoked dates, almonds, and charred brussels sprouts.

We loved a side dish of spicy potatoes ($9; right), but a server ought to have told us that the pig already came with brussels sprouts, as we certainly didn’t need a separate side order of it ($7).

The after-dinner petits-fours were as impressive as nearly any restaurant we’ve been to in New York, especially as the entire box was left at our table (many places ask you to choose, then take the box away). We were obviously not going to finish anywhere near all of that, but it was an impressive selection.

The only real disappointment was the bread service. What is the point of offering two different kinds of rolls, when both are rock-hard? Our server was a bit wet behind the ears. When I asked for a wine list, she said, “You mean, by the bottle?” Hmm…what else would it be? The list could use a few more options below $50. I found an acceptable Spanish red at $38, but it didn’t have much company.

With judicious ordering, we managed to keep the bill to $143 before tax and tip. That’s not bad at all for a restaurant as elegant as this one. This is a restaurant we’ll be rooting for.

La Fonda del Sol (200 Park Avenue at 44th Street, Met Life Building, East Midtown)

[Note: Despite the Park Avenue address, the entrance to the restaurant is actually on Vanderbilt Avenue.]

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

Savoy

Note: Savoy closed in June 2011 after a successful 21-year run. It re-opened (with the same team) as Back Forty.

*

The restaurant Savoy, in SoHo, has been running a cassoulet festival in February and March, with different versions of the classic dish on the menu, depending on which week you visit.

We liked Savoy when we visited in late 2006, but it never advanced on my “revisit” list. You know the drill: so many restaurants, so little time. Chef Peter Hoffman’s version of the haute barnyard theme, new as it was when he inaugurated it nearly twenty years ago, has since then been replicated at dozens of other restaurants. Few have done it so well.

Some restaurants get you back by lowering their prices. Savoy did it by putting cassoulet on the menu. Next Saturday, March 14, they’re even offering a cassoulet tasting festival for $55, with different versions of the dish offered by six restaurants. (A portion of the proceeds will go to charity.) We weren’t up for quite that much cassoulet, but we were impressed with the sample we tasted last Friday evening.

The appetizers were examples of the simple, seasonlly-driven cuisine Savoy has specialized in. A large hunk of Crispy Pork Belly Confit ($14; above left) came with a poached apple, carrot purée, and cider jelly. A Beet Consommeé ($10; above right) kept company with goat cheese dumplings and baby leeks.

The cassoulet ($32) was cooked in the dining room fireplace. It can be made with a variety of ingredients, though beans are a constant. This version had goose confit, braised pork, house bacon, and Toulouse sausage. Among its many merits, it was one of the few cassoulets I’ve had that didn’t take 20 minutes to cool off to an edible temperature.

The room is one of the city’s unheralded romantic spots, and service is spot-on. The space was nearly empty when we arrived at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday evening, but just about full when we left over two hours later. I don’t know how many of the patrons were there, as we were, expressly for the cassoulet, but it certainly seemed popular.

Savoy (70 Prince Street at Crosby Street, SoHo)

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

The Year of the One-Star Restaurant

Is this the year of the one-star restaurant? Frank Bruni has reviewed nine new restaurants so far this year, and only one, The John Dory, got two stars. None received three or four, except the re-reviewed Daniel. This is the critic who once gave the deuce so often that Eater’s Ben Leventhal dubbed him “Frankie two-stars.”

Here’s the list of Bruni’s reviews this year—all one star, except for Daniel and The John Dory:

Rouge Tomate (January 7)
The West Branch & Bar Bao (January 14)
Daniel (January 21)
Cabrito (January 28)
The Oak Room (February 4)
The John Dory (February 11)
Shang (February 18)
Buttermilk Channel (February 25)
L’Artusi (March 4)

The Payoff: L'Artusi

Today, as expected, Frank Bruni “awarded” — we use the term loosely — one star to L’Artusi, a restaurant that no doubt considered itself worthy of two:

At L’Artusi, named for a renowned Italian cookbook writer, Mr. Thompson and his business partner, Joe Campanale, have moved well beyond the bruschetta. They have gone not only bigger — with nearly 115 seats, L’Artusi is more than twice the size of dell’Anima — but also bolder, and the uneven results are a lesson in overextension.

If they turned a more skeptical eye to some of Mr. Thompson’s inventions, edited the menu to about two-thirds its current length and focused harder on the execution of what remained, they’d have an excellent restaurant. As it is, they have a fitfully enjoyable one.

We and Eater both took the one-star odds, and earn $3 on our hypothetical one-dollar bets.

	Eater		NYJ
Bankroll	$109.50		$130.67
Gain/Loss	+3.00		+3.00
Total	$112.50		$133.67
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Won–Lost	52–25		54–23

Greenwich Grill & Sushi Azabu

If the owners of Greenwich Grill had asked my advice about their two-headed restaurant concept, I probably would have said, “Don’t bother.” The main dining room offers a mash-up of “Californian, Italian, and traditional French cuisines” refocused through a Japanese lens. You would guess none of this from the name, nor would you likely stumble upon the lightly-trafficked block on which it resides. And if you did walk by, you’d never guess there is a sushi bar downstairs.

Improbably enough, Greenwich Grill is actually worthwhile. A salad of 18-month cured Prosciutto di San Daniele ($12) was cloaked with parmesan and paired with beefy slices of bufola mozzarella. A lunch-sized portion of tilefish ($18) was beautifully done. Blueberry cobbler ($8) took fifteen minutes to cook, but paid off handsomely.

I tried the downstairs sushi bar, Sushi Azabu, several months ago. There is a variety of prix fixe offerings. I had the humblest of these, which set me back all of $50, including tax and tip. At that price, I was obviously not getting their most expensive stuff, but it all seemed carefully prepared. The majority of the patrons that night were Japanese-speaking, so somehow they had found this weirdly inaccessible place.

I was a bit worried when a colleague and I walked in at noon for lunch today, and we had the place to ourselves. By the time we left, they had filled all of six tables. Whatever business they have is due to word of mouth, as critics paid very little attention when it opened last year. Time Out New York awarded four of six stars to the dining room and five of six to the sushi bar. Frank Bruni in the Times was less impressed, awarding just one of four to the sushi bar and ignoring the dining room entirely.

Despite the odd collision of cuisines and concepts, the owners are Japanese, and this is their first New York restaurant. Perhaps this is why they had the folly to try something so strange, which nevertheless is surprisingly enjoyable. It is a quiet, comfortable place, and service is first-rate.

Greenwich Grill/Sushi Azabu (428 Greenwich Street between Vestry & Laight Streets, TriBeCa)

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

Rolling the Dice: L'Artusi

The Line: Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews L’Artusi, the big-box follow-up to Dell’Anima. The Eater oddsmakers have set the action as follows (√√ denotes the Eater bet):

Zero Stars: 8-1
One Star: 3-1 √√
Two Stars: 5-1
Three Stars: 75-1
Four Stars: 20,000-1

The Skinny: Critics haven’t been impressed with L’Artusi. In New York, Adam Platt said it “underdelivers” and awarded one measly star. In TONY, Jay Cheshes found it “hit-and-miss” while awarding three of six stars. One can never discount the possibility of a two-star rating when Frank Bruni reviews an Italian restaurant, but he seldom praises a restaurant multiple critics have panned.

The Bet: We agree with Eater that Frank Bruni will award one star to L’Artusi.

5 Napkin Burger

5 Napkin Burger is part of the same chain that owns a clutch of mediocre casual French restaurants, such as Nice Matin, Cafe d’Alsace, and so forth. Apparently the menu at Nice Matin offers a “5 napkin burger” that was so popular they decided it deserved its own restaurant.

My advice? Don’t bother. My son and I both had the namesake 5 Napkin Burger ($14.95) on Saturday evening. It was over-cooked, too greasy, and overwhelmed by the taste of caramelized onions. It oozed enough grease to make the poor bun wilt under the pressure.

The space is the size of a small barn, but the décor isn’t bad, featuring white tile walls and a collection of antique scales hung along the back of the room. There are over fifty beers on tap, but the rest of the menu is a mash-up of sushi and miscellaneous comfort food.

Service is designed to get customers in and out in a hurry. We waited around 20 minutes for a table at 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday evening. I am not sure why it is so busy. In a neighborhood that has a dozen restaurants on every block, it’s hard to see the point of this place.

5 Napkin Burger (630 Ninth Avenue between 44th & 45th Streets, Hell’s Kitchen)

The Burger at the Spotted Pig

As time allows, I’ve been eating my way through the city’s iconic burgers. On Friday, it was The Spotted Pig’s turn. No less an authority than Citysearch’s Mr. Cutlets ranks it fourth—not bad in a town where there’s a burger on every street corner.

I eat at the Pig only when I can arrive between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., when dinner service begins. Any later than that, and you’re looking at a long wait. The service puts many two-star restaurants to shame, from the friendly hostess that found a bar stool for me when it appeared there were none, to another hostess that offered without prompting to transfer the bar tab to my table.

But let’s move onto that burger ($17), a hefty monster with a gorgesous beefy taste and a crisp, charred bun. One could argue that the roquefort cheese overpowers the meat (that’s Cutlets’ position), though I would probably order it again as-is. The shoestring fries that come with it are insubstantial.

The burger seems to be the most popular item at the Spotted Pig. I had a great view of the kitchen, and it looked like about 60% of all orders coming out were burgers. I now see why. It is truly a masterpiece of burger science.

The Spotted Pig (314 W. 11 Street at Greenwich Street, West Village)

In Brief: Olana

Note: Olana has closed. Our obituary is here.

I visited Olana again the other night with a friend who was known to the house (earlier report here). We were fed what amounted to two full dinners, of which half was comped. I loved the wild mushroom salad and sausage-wrapped veal. Among pastas, there was one that incorporated chocolate that was fantastic. Less impressive were ricotta meatballs, which were too tough. Among the three desserts we tried, a carrot cake took the palm.

Olana is now a year old. It has survived, despite not receiving a full review from the Times. The front dining room was close to full at prime time on a Thursday evening, and the rear dining room was closed for a private party. That’s not bad for an off-the-radar restaurant in a location without much foot traffic, where all of the entrées are above $25. If you want a less expensive option, a $35 prix fixe will be offered for the rest of the year.

Service glitches that we noted on an earlier visit are no longer an issue, although the sound system was a trifle too loud. The menu skews Italian, and has nothing to do with the Upstate New York estate for which the restaurant is named. That’s no reason to avoid Olana, which offers a comfortable, refined dining experience that is welcome in this neck of the woods.

Olana (72 Madison Avenue between 27th & 28th Streets, Flatiron District)