New York Restaurants by Area – Page 29 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Public House

140 East 41st Street between Lexington and Third
212/682.3710
if we paid, about $150 for two, with two drinks, with tip
â™¥

I was invited by the Public House to a tasting this week. I don’t usually hang out in the midtown area but I was curious to taste what bar food could mean to chef Robert Dziekonski, a native New Yorker who has cooked with Tom Valenti and Danny Meyer. A very large American flag drapes the wall near the bar and sets the tone for the rest of the space. Booths are for small groups, while a lounge off the side is available for bigger parties. I’d equate the interior to a steakhouse more than a pub. The clientele falls in that range as well: suits who come in for business meetings and for after-work drinks.

There really isn’t a good phrase to describe the Public House menu but “bar food.” And it’s not the gastro-pub type either; it’s straightforward, all-American bar food. I’ve been on a meat-eating binge lately so I was quite excited to eat some burgers and barbeque ribs. With a request to serve everything in smaller portions so I don’t have to be wheeled out of the restaurant after eating, my companion and I started with the famous hot spinach and artichoke dip and grilled pita triangles. The Public House version was roasted in a baking dish with four kinds of cheeses. This made the top a little burnt and crispy. If the manager didn’t push for it, I would have ignored it. Thank god for outspoken restaurant managers.

The mussels were one of my favorites. Cooked with shallots and garlic but steamed in Brooklyn lager rather than wine, they also came with slivers of jalapeÃ±os which added a nice kick to them. I was good enough not to dip the bread in the broth lest I get too full too early. The scallops were a hit. They were perfectly seared and meaty, drizzled with vinaigrette of bacon and whole-grain mustard.

Public House is probably not the first place I would go to for crab cakes and barbeque ribs. Their St. Louis ribs had great texture but I could have done without the sweet sauce on them. The crab cakes were more delicious without the avocado aioli which was too creamy and salty. They came with a good combination of watercress and caramelized onions, however.

The other main courses fared better: our Angus burger didn’t come with the bacon we ordered but the sautÃ©ed onions were excellent with it. I appreciated that English muffins were used which made the burger less heavy. The filet mignon sliders shouldn’t be missed. The onion brioche were small, light and toasty and brought out the beefy taste of the medium-rare filet mignon. The onions and blue cheese were good touches. The fries that came with both dishes were addictingly crispy.

The “bar” in bar food is supported by specially-concocted drinks like a martini with olives stuffed with blue cheese and a summery spiked lemonade. Decadent dessert choices included chocolate cake and cookie dough servings. We opted for the blueberry-peach crisp topped with vanilla ice cream instead of the espresso martini. They did end up wheeling me out of Public House after all.

Ditch Plains

29 Bedford Street corner of Downing
212/633.0202
about $100 for 5 people, with drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥

It’s appropriate that Landmarc’s owners named Ditch Plains after the famous stretch of beach in Montauk, Long Island. While the Hamptons-style crowd mingles at Blue Ribbon and at Mas across the street, the laid-back type is inside the sleek and cozy Ditch Plains. They may look like they haven’t changed their looks since graduating from college, but at least you know they’re just there to eat a low-key meal.

The menu is straightforward: mussels and oysters, burgers and mac and cheese. The choices are unexciting, but there is nothing plain about the taste. The burger was cooked after my own heart: chunks of bacon sandwiched with perfectly medium-rare meat and melted cheese. The mac and cheese was addictive with burnt cheese clinging to dear life against the ramekin. The mussels in wine with onions and parsley were perfect with a piece of toasted baguette.

Ditch Plains gets crowded for dinner, but the service never falters. Our waitress brought us an appetizer portion of calamares to let us know she was taking care of us despite the wait.

Hill Country BBQ

30 West 26th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway
212/255.4544
$75 for two people, with two drinks, with a small tip
â™¥

Updated, 2007: Added a photo of the salty beef ribs

It was the perfect day for barbeque. We spent the better part of our Sunday sitting on a blanket under the trees in Central Park with our paper and a couple of fresh peaches. I just had barbeque pork ribs the day before, bought from one of those metal drum-turned-grills uptown but my appetite was unsatiated.

After a few drinks at Red Cat, we walked over to Sixth Avenue to the new Hill Country BBQ restaurant. The smell of smoked meat hit us as soon as we stepped foot in the warehouse space. Because New York City can’t have open pits in its restaurants, Hill Country makes up for the decor: wooden tables, concrete floors and corded wooden logs in the back next to barbeque trophies. The finishing pits are behind the counter, though, and my mouth watered every time they opened it. The maitre d’ gave us our meal tickets and explained the Texas way of eating: go up to the counter and pick what and how much you want to eat. Each meal ticket was marked by the staff. Our order was tallied at the end of our visit. Lose that meal ticket and you’ll be charged $50.

I ordered half a pound of the moist brisket and half a pound of the beef shoulder. At $18 a pound, the shoulder was the most expensive item on the menu when we visited. It was lean and juicy. Two out of my four companions liked it over everything else. Hill Country doesn’t kid about how moist their brisket is. My share was almost all fat. They were also so salty that I didn’t finish them. Beef ribs were disappointingly unavailable, so we settled for the pork ribs instead. They were smoked longer which made them drier, but they fell off the bone easier. The sausage, from the famous Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, was tasty with a spicy kick to it.

You can keep your bill at a minimum if you order by piece instead of by weight. One person in our party ordered two kinds of meat and both totaled $6 and change. The sides are the guaranteed culprits. They come in different sizes with the smallest starting at $4. Among my favorites were the red cabbage slaw and the potato salad. The black-eyed peas, or Texas “caviar”, were undercooked and undersalted, but they ended up being a good side for my oversalted brisket. I loved the cold potato salad, as well as the green bean casserole. The sweet potato and the mac and cheese earned similar raves.

There were several beer choices, from a Spaten to the ubiquitous Pabst, but I stuck with a good ol’ Coke bottle and ice cold water with lemons. Because I didn’t finish my brisket, I had room for dessert. The banana pudding wasn’t as good as Buttercup’s or Magnolia’s but it was still a good choice to end our meal. We scored a free slice of the interesting ancho chili with dried cherries brownie and a cup of Texas’ own Blue Bell vanilla ice cream from the cheery young man at the pies and pudding counter.

I didn’t tip too much because there wasn’t any table service except to bring us water. Now I realize that I should have. I’ll be back, though, to try the beef ribs and the game hen stuffed with a beer can. I’ll make sure to tip extra, order by piece and skip the salty brisket at my next visit. And oh, bring my camera.

Society Cafe

2104 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 114th Street
212/222.3323
about $30 for two egg meals with iced coffee, with tip
â™¥

I’m always trying to support my neighborhood, so when the bus drove by Society after one of my bootcamp sessions in Central Park, I took note to visit. There were diners eating outside under large umbrellas marked with a certain beer brand. There were young black and white people hanging out. Some people may hate that condo buildings are sprouting up so fast in the neighborhood, pushing the original settlers out, but at least there are more options for places to eat.

Society reminds me of a small cafe-restaurant somewhere in Brooklyn. The white-tiled open kitchen makes the place inviting. The two large wooden tables in the center are meant to be shared, while smaller tables, some with leather sofas, are perfect for couples. There is free wi-fi except on weekends when the brunch crowd comes in. Even though I first saw Society at night, it looked to me like a comfortable space for brunch. When I visited, it was so bright and cozy inside that I couldn’t wait to get my iced coffee and my scrambled eggs.

So I waited. And then I waited. We waited for a while before we got our iced coffees. We also waited for a long time before our eggs were served. The place was busy enough on a Sunday early afternoon, but the kitchen was swamped even with three servers on the floor.

When my conquistador eggs came–what I would call their version of huevos rancheros–I was greatly disappointed. Scrambled eggs are scrambled eggs, but mine was missing oomph. The turkey sausages I ordered were the size of two pinkie fingers and looked like they came from the supermarket freezer. I opted for a salad and the greens were so limp, I set them aside. The house potatoes fared a little better, although they could have used some more spice.

The cafe encourages diners to enjoy “life in sips”. The staff is really friendly and they give off the right vibe. The crowd seems to be enjoying their time, too, but I wondered what they thought about their food. Society needs to take a look at egg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and learn what a civilized brunch needs. The neighborhood is definitely changing, but the question that still remains is how good Harlem restaurants should be in order for them to stay in business.

Knife + Fork Restaurant & Wine Bar

108 East 4th Street between First and Second Avenues
212/228.4885
about $170 for two tasting menus with wine pairings, without tip
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

It’s almost unheard of in New York City to pay $45 for a six-course tasting menu. At Knife + Fork, chef and owner Damien Brassel pulls it off without sacrificing taste and creativity. When I called two weeks before we planned to eat there, they couldn’t accommodate four people. So two of us went and insisted we sit at the bar. Apparently, they don’t allow diners to sit at the bar unless the chef says it’s okay. The waitress asked the chef, who was only three feet away from us, and relented. The space has a romantic feel to it: heavy wood and dim lighting. There are a couple of tables which can accommodate more than two diners, but most of the guests around us came in pairs. As our night wiled away, we realized why the bar is off-limits. Chef Brassel just doesn’t want people in the way, lest it turns into a loud restaurant like Mercat.

If I have to pick a word to describe the food at Knife + Fork, I would have to say “thoughtful.” Each dish served tasted like chef Brassel put a lot of work into testing to see if his inventive
combinations would work out. Most of them do. I can imagine him working in the kitchen like a mad scientist replacing ingredients with whatever’s in the market that day.

Our first course was the salmon sashimi with pickled radish and seaweed salad. Salmon sashimi is salmon sashimi especially if it’s fresh, but chef Brassel added a dollop of homemade wasabi creme fraiche to this dish. We all know how delightful and painful at the same time wasabi can be through your nostrils. Knife + Fork just happens to make it all delightful. This was paired with a Francois Crochet Sancerre, one of my favorite white wines, which was fresh and lightly fruity.

In between courses, we picked on the dense and creamy homemade bread with salt and butter. I knew the bread was extra special after a man came in to buy a loaf before leaving again. The waitress told us that a lot of the people in the neighborhood stop by just to buy their bread.

The second course was a small dish of frog’s legs covered in sauce. The watermelon chunks and micro-greens were a good addition to them because the sauce was a little undersalted. I actually liked the wine more than the dish itself: a more citrusy and toastier Paul Cluver Chardonnay.

The third course was barbequed eel with risotto and sun-dried tomato tapenade. It sounded better on print because I thought this dish needed a little bit more of a spike. Chardonnay’s main contender, an Aligote, made the dish more interesting. I loved the firm skate with apples in Thai green curry as our fourth course. An “Innocent” Viognier from Shinas Estate was the perfect match for this spicy dish. I liked this dish so much I could have eaten one more serving.

We were prepared for more seafood with our white wines, but then the lamb with the mashed black bean-licorice reduction was served as our fifth course with a glass of Burgundy. I thought the meat was a great way to end our meal. I didn’t quite understand the black bean and licorice combination, but I was more than happy to ignore it for the medium-rare lamb.

I’m not a big fan of port but it came with our last course of cheeses and honey. The port tasted a little bit like jam and was even more decadent with the spoonful of honey. Our experience so far was a gradual presentation of chef Brassel’s cooking skills–this was the perfect end to it.