Bar Henry
Posted by bellastraniera - 03/02/10 at 01:02 pm If the underground sliver of space that houses Bar Henry hits you with a wave of nostalgia when you step through the door, it’s because it used to house Zinc Bar. Once jammed with students and aging bohemians, clogged with smoke and a tangle of jazz band equipment that you had to step over to reach the bathroom door (often while the band was playing), Zinc Bar was a quintessential Greenwich Village live music spot. But before you get too nostalgic, note that Zinc Bar hasn’t died, it just moved around the corner, where you can still hear famed jazz guitarist Ron Affif play on Monday nights.
Meanwhile, Bar Henry benefits from the lingering magic of this space, though both the music and the smoke are gone now. In this incarnation, it’s been spiffed up with a black and white marble floor and red plush seating in the back. Yes, there is a sizeable back room, which the Zinc Bar owners inexplicably closed off to the public before. (What was here? A secret poker den? The biggest green room of any Village jazz club?) Now it’s been outfitted with a glinting copper ceiling and turned into a dining room with sex appeal.
Marie Fromage and I agreed that this was the sort of place you’d come for “a nice dinner out.” Bar Henry is versatile enough to be a date spot or the backdrop for a night out with friends—on that night, there was a table of women celebrating in the back and guys nursing their beers in the long bar room in front.
The strengths here are the wine, cheese, and the oysters, which Bar Henry offers for a dollar after 11pm on weekends. The wine selection is sizeable, though we wished they offered more wines at under $50 for a whole bottle—a half bottle for under $50 is no substitute. That said, you can also get a plethora of wines by the glass here, which is ideal for wine afficionadas who want to sample a couple of different wines.
We tried a lovely glass of Diebolt-Vallois Blanc de Blancs NV Champagne ($21) and a very nice Almondo Roero 2006 ($49 for the bottle). I was thrilled to see that Bar Henry actually stores their wines at the correct temperature in several high tech wine refrigerators across from the kitchen. Many places that bill themselves as “wine bars” serve their red wine warm, which is an anathema.
The cheese plate ($10) consisted of two cows and a goat, which were excellent, hard-to-find and nicely assembled (though I can’t remember the names, sorry), with a mild blue contrasting off the sweetness of a another cow’s milk cheese and the tanginess of the goat.
The pork chop ($24) suffered from blandness, something that mystifies me with pork since it can absorb almost any flavor you throw at it. Even basic salt and pepper or a spice rub would have added some pep.
Salmon ($26) arrived cooked perfectly, but served alongside a sauce that seemed vaguely suburban. You know, those restaurants you go to that, in an attempt at sophistication, throw all kinds of random exotic ingredients together in a blender? This was that sauce.
Roasted Brussel sprouts ($7), on the other hand, were earthy and good, just what the doctor ordered. There were only two of us and the menu is pretty extensive, so we may have just ordered the wrong entrees. The dry aged steak ($29), blini with caviar ($14) and other New York bistro classics like shrimp cocktail ($12) look like they’re worth a try.
A strange thing is happening with desserts in New York restaurants now: where they once used to be cloyingly sweet, the sugar has been dramatically downsized, as it was in this lemon tart ($7) that had more cakiness than tang. Pour some sugar on me.
Prices here aren’t cheap, but they’re reasonable, and you are really getting what you pay for here in terms of the cool atmosphere, good service and the quality of the food and wine. It’s hard to have a bad time at Bar Henry—and if you live in the Village, you may consider making this spot your local.
Bar Henry
90 West Houston Street, between West Broadway and Thompson Street
New York, NY
646-448-4559
barhenry.com
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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.
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