Savoy

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

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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)

Top Chef Season 5 Finale

I haven’t blogged Top Chef during the season, as there seem to be enough people who chronicle every episode. Now that the season is over, I thought I’d share a few thoughts.

Almost everyone agrees that Hosea Rosenberg is an extremely underwhelming winner. His food never seemed electrifying, but it was always “good enough.” Until the final episode, he had no wins after the first half of the season. In 3 of the last 6 episodes before the finale, he was in the bottom three for the elimination challenge, but survived because someone else was always worse. That’s the rub in Top Chef. Until the last episode, you don’t need to be good; you only need to avoid being worst.

Even Hosea admits that Stefan Richter was the best chef of the season, but Stefan didn’t deliver when it counted. In 3 of the last 4 episodes before the finale, he was in the bottom three. You got the distinct feeling that he was coasting, and Colicchio figured that out too. Not much gets by Tom Colicchio.

Carla Hall was clearly a fan favorite, but I always thought that she was in over her head. She showed her lack of self-confidence by allowing her sous-chef to alter significantly two of the dishes, both of which turned out poorly. Neither Hosea nor Stefan acted as though they considered her a threat.

As Tom Colicchio has endlessly stated, there is no cumulative scoring on Top Chef. You could win 5 challenges in a row, but if you are the worst on any given day, you’re going home. Under that rule, Hosea simply had to win. It was abundantly clear that he cooked the best meal in the final challenge. Obviously I didn’t taste the food, but I noted that the editors weren’t even able make it seem close. Going into the final commercial break, it was just overwhelmingly obvious that Hosea had won.

I really don’t see how cumulative scoring can work in a finale. You could have a season where one contestant has built up such a huge lead that the finale is essentially meaningless. I do think that they should use cumulative scoring earlier in the season, so that obviously superior chefs aren’t sent home for one mistake.

Some of this season’s challenges seemed unusually contrived. Especially in the finale, the chefs ought to be allowed to “do their thing.” Why were Stefan and Hosea fighting over a limited supply of caviar? Give them a budget and let them go shopping, as they did in earlier episodes. And why the artificial 2-hour prep limit and the extra surprise tossed in on the final day? If the goal is really to identify the top chef, then the producers should get out of their way, and let them cook the way they want to cook.

So Hosea is this season’s winner. He says he wants to open a restaurant, although the $100,000 prize is probably only 10% of the nest-egg he’d need. I suspect that some of the more glamorous contestants will be able to milk more out of their Top Chef appearances than Hosea will.

The Payoff: Buttermilk Channel

As expected, Frank Bruni awarded one star to Buttermilk Channel today, finding it…

a restaurant of real standards, noteworthy ambition and uncommon slavishness to trends. It’s laudable and predictable in equal measures. And it was packed every time I went.

Unfortunately:

Although one in three dishes widely misses its mark and the restaurant’s reach frequently exceeds its grasp, there’s the possibility of a terrific meal. There’s the probability of a pleasant one.

Among the charcuterie items, a few “are like earnest but clumsy culinary-school first attempts.” And how, exactly, would Frank know that?

No matter. Both Eater and I win $1 at even money on our hypothetical one-dollar bets.

	Eater		NYJ
Bankroll	$108.50		$129.67
Gain/Loss	+1.00		+1.00
Total	$109.50		$130.67
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Won–Lost	51–25		53–23