In this week’s New York Times restaurant review, critic Sam Sifton pays one of my favorite restaurants the greatest compliment.
Writing about Gotham Bar and Grill in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, Sifton says:
“At Gotham, there is no recitation of the provenance of the bacon, or explanation of the wild arugula’s journey, before you eat. No one offers the name of the boat whose captain whispered the tuna aboard.
This is refreshing, as it happens. A meal at Gotham is about you and your interests, not of those who made it"
In awarding the restaurant three stars (out of four), Sifton praises chef Alfred Portale who “runs a kitchen that is committed to innovation even as it celebrates the past.” He ticks off a few of Gotham’s beloved signature dishes such as the seafood salad, and the shiny cylinder of precisely diced yellowfin tuna (photo here by Andrew Burton for NYT) with Japanese cucumber, ginger and sweet miso vinaigrette, which the critic calls “a deeply familiar dish, beautifully rendered: the original article, not a knockoff. It hummed with flavor.” He also chronicles Portale’s more “now” offerings such as a shiitake soup with hazelnuts, crème fraiche and aged sherry vinegar that I am dying to try.
But Sifton really nails it when he applauds Portale and the Gotham staff for putting their customers ahead of their own egos. Yes, the furnishings are elegant, the floral arrangements opulent. Yes, the cuisine is exceptionally refined, the prices often exceptionally high. Nevertheless, there’s a focus on comfort here, and a refreshing lack of pretension in Gotham’s service and cuisine that is most welcome in this age of haughty superchefs and self-important temples of gastronomy.
In contrast to the shrines where diners are expected to quietly genuflect in front of each course (you know who they are), Gotham allows us to enjoy our conversations and companions even as we dig with gusto into that chicken “sweet and perfumed, with perfect skin…with layered vegetables, onion confit and preserved lemon…and potato puree.”
Check out the full review in the New York Times, and get ready to drool.
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