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bellastraniera
a.k.a. Marcy Swingle - obsessed with food and fashion.View my photography website.
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Tag Archives: French food
Fedora
As much as we hate to see old icons of the New York dining scene disappear, let’s face it: not every place is worth saving. Take Fedora, the gay bar on West 4th Street that’s been around since before gay bars were even legal. The atmosphere: fabulously decrepit, as was much of the clientele. The food: questionable. Fedora was a restaurant in the vein of the bygone bohemian Greenwich Village depicted in Mad Men, a style that only lives on in such stalwarts as Gene’s on West 11th Street.
Fast forward to 2010, when new owner Gabriel Stulman of Joseph Leonard took over the Fedora space and reopened it this January. He kept the name and the iconic neon sign outside. A long wooden bar spanning one side of the spare, black and white room looks antique, but it’s actually a new, custom-made bar that incorporates parts of the old Fedora bar. It feels as if it’s been here forever, as does the impressive collection of black and white photos on the opposite wall. Even some of the original Fedora’s regulars are now regulars here. Though Stulman’s following is pretty straight, the original regulars can’t be displeased by the eye candy in this good-looking, stylish crowd. (more…)
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Tagged American food, bars, French food, Gabriel Stulman, New York, restaurants
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Dressler
Feeling overwhelmed by the number of new restaurants opening these days? As New York gets caught up in a vicious cycle of newness – diners relentlessly pursuing the latest trends, chefs quickly moving on from one restaurant to cash in on the next, and dining rooms that feel like pop-up shops – the thing we crave is not the latest It food item, but consistently good cuisine and genuine warmth.
To be able to return to a place year after year and still find the chef in place and the atmosphere reliably charming is a European dining standard, so it’s no wonder that the Michelin guide reviewers have taken to Dressler, making it one of three places in Brooklyn to get starred. But it’s also a reminder that more New York restaurants used to be this way too until we got so incurably faddish. The turn-of-the-last-century craftsmanship of the metalwork in Dressler’s Viennese-style bar and dining room – exquisite latticework over panels of light and ornate chandeliers, both made by artisan sculptors in Brooklyn – indicates that this place was never intended to be some flash in the pan. (more…)
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Tagged Austrian food, bars, Brooklyn, French food, New York, restaurants
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The National
What’s in a name? The National – not the indie café on the Lower East Side, but the latest endeavor by Geoffrey Zakarian in Midtown – is one of about five places now named “the National” in New York. And in that way, the name says it all: This restaurant seeks to capitalize on the comfortable tiled American bistro trend started by smaller restaurants, package it and remarket it to the Midtown crowd.
The space is pleasant enough. Tile floors plus wood-paneled walls plus flattering lighting create a nice environment for an after-work dinner or a quick bite if you’re staying in the Benjamin hotel above. The National is definitely an improvement on existing options in the area. But about halfway through the meal you might notice a certain emptiness – there’s no art on the walls, no sense of a singular personality behind the design or food, and a focus-grouped feel to the final product. (more…)
Ca Va
While the number of new restaurants opening this fall is exciting, it’s also a little worrisome. Can top chefs and restauranteurs still maintain a hands-on, personal approach while building out more and more new places? Unfortunately, one of the most notorious examples in the negative has been Todd English, the chef who had all of Boston swooning with his enchanting Mediterranean place Olives in the ’90s, then fell flat with the bland W hotel version of the same in 2000s New York.
The latest addition to his cadre of projects does little to rectify that situation. While the French-Mediterranean food at Ça Va is solid and the atmosphere an improvement on almost everything else in the theater district, as a whole the restaurant comes off as slick and corporate, like a fragrance that’s been focus-grouped into the generic. Even the name betrays a certain tone-deafness: “ça va” can be loosely translated as “it’s okay,” versus “ça va bien”: “it’s going well.” (more…)
Almond
Tell someone the address of Almond restaurant, and they’re liable to say: “Wasn’t that Borough/Rocco’s/Caviar and Banana/Commune?” The answer is yes, yes, yes and yes. Walking into the space may also make you experience déjà vu all over again, because interior has many of the same elements of its predecessor Borough – the same tables and chairs, the same posh billiards room in back, the same rough-hewn wood lining the walls, the same popular bar scene – with a prettified face lift of coral wallpaper and gilt-framed mirrors.
Before you consider the place doomed, know that while this is still El Chod’s space, the owners of the very successful Almond restaurant from the Hamptons are much of the time, making sure things run smoothly. The crowd has gotten a polish too. Gone are those grubby locavores that patronized Borough, now the crowd includes stick-thin women in wrap dresses and big jewelry, men with winter tans and cashmere V-necks. (“They’re not on our team, ladies,” our waitress whispered.) Chelsea Clinton dined there on a recent night. Celebrities, gays, emaciated women, face lifts: Almond is a Hamptons away from the Hamptons, and I mean that in the best possible way. (more…)
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Tagged American food, bars, Flatiron District, French food, New York, restaurants
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Bar Henry
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. (more…)
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Tagged bars, French food, Greenwich Village, New York, restaurants, wine bars
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Lunch: Cafe Boulud
The rules for restaurants are different on the Upper East Side. Take ho hum Italian spot Via Quadronno on East 73rd, which charges $10 for tomatoes on toast, and no one so much as bats an eye—especially not that Real Housewife of New York in the corner. But there’s an upside to this kind of disposable income when it’s applied wisely: the presence of a captive wealthy audience also means that expensive but exquisite restaurants have a place to thrive and prosper.
Café Boulud, the Daniel Boulud restaurant on East 76th, closed for renovations and just reopened last month. It’s already packed at the prime ladies-who-lunch hour, 1pm on a recent weekday. (more…)
Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
“It’s like the Ray’s Pizza of Paris,” I said to Marie Fromage, trying to describe the complicated history of L’Entrecôte. “There are several of them, and each one claims to be ‘the original.’”
Unlike New York’s various “original” Ray’s Pizza shops, however, all of the L’Entrecôtes of Paris dish out steak frites with a delicious mystery sauce from the same grandfather’s recipe—they are just owned by different branches of the same Gineste de Saurs family. They all have a rabid following in Paris, though there is some debate as to which one is “the best.” Now L’Entrecôte is finally in New York.
The one off note that kept us from going until now was the location. The Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte, with locations in Paris and Barcelona, landed on the bottom floor of a brutish Midtown office building, a far cry from its charming centuries-old building in the 17th arrondissement. Inside, New York’s L’Entrecôte is cheerful, with bright lighting, as in Paris, a mural of Venice on the wall, as in Paris, banquettes, glass partitions, and no bar, also as in Paris. Once you’re inside, the most jarring difference is the absence of a thick haze of cigarette smoke floating above the tables – that and the fact that there are no lines or hour-long waits. We walked right in with a party of five and were seated immediately. (more…)
Pasta with Wild Mushroom Sauce
There are so many different varieties of mushrooms arriving at the market right now, like these at Dean & Deluca, below, that it’s hard to choose just one. How can you settle for just cremini when chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, and hen o woods are right nearby? Usually the answer comes down to price: the fanciest mushrooms can cost $45 a pound, so many cooks stick to the basics. But keep in mind that just an ounce of mushrooms can go a long way flavor-wise, so cooking with exotic mushrooms can be done with little pain to your wallet. Just use a higher proportion of less-expensive mushrooms (cremini) and a smaller proportion of the pricier ones (chanterelles).
One of the best recipes that uses wild mushrooms is one by Melissa Clark for the Times in the spring of 2007, for creamed morels on toast. But what about fall, when morels aren’t in season? All the mushrooms I found at Dean & Deluca would be excellent with cream and white wine on toast, but I wanted to feature them in a main dish. The creamed mushrooms became an unorthodox French pasta sauce served on linguine – though for a really stellar effect, serve the mushroom sauce over fresh, homemade fettuccine. (more…)
Bar Artisanal
The chain-ification of upscale restaurants has its good points: you can now sample Daniel Boulud’s sausage at several places, one of which is near my apartment. But expanding a haute brand downward can be a slippery slope. Take the NYT slam of Michael Psilakis’ Gus & Gabriel Gastropub for instance: sub par food is even more maddening when served by someone who knows how to cook.
Such was the case when we visited Terrance Brennan’s Bar Artisanal recently: the hits on the menu served as a nagging reminder of the bliss to be found at Picholine, whereas the not-so-great items never would have made it out the kitchen door at that three-star place. The gougères ($8.50) were sublime as usual, made with a mix of Brennan’s signature artisanal cheeses. (more…)
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