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New Restaurant Opening: Marta

13 Oct

A few years ago, when I worked in the slightly no man’s land neighborhood of midtown-ish, just north of Gramercy but not quite Murray Hill, there were very few food options.  Dos Caminos was basically all we had, and sometimes Houston’s (now Hillstone, which appears to be mostly the same but under a new name).  In the last few years since I have returned, it is a whole new world. Cannibal and Resto, Ai Fiori, The Nomad and The Nomad Bar, and the Breslin (to name just a few off the top of my head) are all within a 5-7 minute walk from my office.

And now, a new Danny Meyer’s pizza restaurant, Marta, has opened in the Martha Washington Hotel on 29th Street between Madison and Park.

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(In the picture above, you can see a giant door-looking object. Do not be deceived. This is not a door.  Do not tug on it while hapless diners stare at you in fear and curiosity from the inside.  The entrance is all the way to the eastern side of the restaurant where you enter the hotel.  This recommendation is from both personal tugging experience and from the insider-looking-out POV where many a frustrated diner-to-be tugged while we ate and looked on.)

Inside is a soaring space with two giant pizza ovens and a large marble bar.  There are many tables around the room and the dining room feels big, but surprisingly never loud. I have now had two lunch meals here and both times I was surprised at how easy it was to have conversation with my fellow diners.

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The bar for drinks (rather than pizza) is cheerful.

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The tables are beautiful wood with a casual paper placemat and nice dishes. It gives the place a very laid back vibe but still polished. Perfect for a nicer pizza place.

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The wine menu is quite extensive.

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While Chef Nick Anderer certainly has a great pizza menu, there are also a number of other delicious sounding dishes on the menu, especially from the grill (which I did not yet try, but after seeing the lamb chops on a fellow diner’s table, I will need to go back soon!)

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We started our first meal with the Radicchio salad, which came with treviso, quinoa, peaches, almonds, and ricotta salata.  This was very, very tasty and I especially liked the peaches mixed in.

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For the pizzas, we tried the (stunning) Fiori di Zucca (with mozzarella, zucchini flowers, and anchovies) and the Capricciosa (mozzarella, artichokes, prosciutto, olives, and egg).

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The combination of the all the flavors on the Capricciosa won my heart (and tongue), as did the nicely crispy crust that had some sections that were perfectly charred.

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The Fiori di Zucca was the stunner, however, and also very tasty.  I felt a little like the anchovy flavor took away from the delicate flavor of the squash, so it wasn’t as great as the Capricciosa, but still very tasty.

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And so pretty I made it my model for the moment and even added it as the main graphic on the NYCNomNom Facebook page.

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On my second visit, I had to get the Capricciosa again and it was even better the second time around.  Those charred, super crispy bits of crust really thrilled my palette.

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And this time we also tried the Patate alla Carbonara, which was new to the menu since my first visit.  This new gem came with potatoes, guanciale, black pepper, pecorino, and egg.

It was a tough call to decide which I liked more. I LOVED the potato on pizza. It’s such a great flavor.  And the seasoning was perfect.  Great depth of flavor and texture.

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And this time we packed up half our pizza (and I shared with Mike later that night… lucky boy) and saved room for dessert.

We chose the Ice Cream Panino with salted chocolate biscotto, pistachios, and mascarpone gelato. This was like a bumped up ice cream cookie sandwich made with super gourmet ingredients. The salt and chocolate and ice cream and pistachio all came together beautifully for a great dessert.  Great way to end the meal.

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I really enjoyed Marta on both visits.  The pizzas are very, very good and the space is a great place for a work lunch (and I’m sure breakfast and dinner as well).  I still slightly prefer the truffle and egg pizza from Otto, which changed my truffle life, because the truffle is just so damn good, but the crust on these Marta pies win out a little bit (though the center was definitely a fork and knife only enterprise).

Very happy to have them in the neighborhood.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

New Restaurant Opening: Dirty French

30 Sep

The same fun foodie friends that tried (the absolutely awesome) Root & Bone with us made another reservation for us at a new restaurant within a few days of opening, Dirty French.  (I love having foodie couple friends!)

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Dirty French is the first French restaurant from Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi, and Jeff Zalaznick, who brought us Carbone, Torrisi Italian Specialties, and Parm (the latter 2 I still need to visit!)

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They definitely paid attention to the details, with some awesome personalization of their knives.

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And I noticed lots of pink roosters hanging around.

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And some super creepy heads (dead clowns maybe?) up on the wall.

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I had just had a great work meeting and was in a great mood when we sat down for dinner.  The high continued when they served us their table bread, which was a warm herbed flat bread of some kind with a cheese spread.

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It was good enough to have been a menu item.  We all loved it. And boy did it smell like heaven.

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A gentleman came by with a tray of oysters to show off.

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This is the first time I’ve seen that, and it was a winning move.  I wasn’t really considering ordering oysters prior to his visit, trying to jump right to the prepared foods, but with these pretty babies staring back at me, I just had to have some.

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We were then served a bowl that was shaped like another rooster.

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Which contained some little sides for the chicken (I believe).

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And then out came the chicken, which is “Presented in 2 Services.”  First service was the white meat, which was in a mustard sauce.

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They served it with tortilla like bread (which was unlimited and we got more of when we finished the first round) and sauces so you can kind of add sauces and ingredients to make it your own, similar to how peking duck is served.

The meat on this was so juicy and tender, with perfectly crisp skin. I can’t say it was as good as The NoMad chicken, but we all really enjoyed it. Especially the sauce (which surprised me as a non-mustard lover).

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We also ordered the veal, which I couldn’t have due to peppers, but everyone else really enjoyed it.

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My choice was the pork chop with apples.  Another mustard sauce that I actually really loved (am I becoming a convert?) and the pork was incredibly flavorful.

 

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I loved the apples with it.

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For the second service of the chicken, they served the dark meat… feet and all.

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The boys had some fun with being chicken models.

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Everyone also loved the legs. Sadly, I couldn’t have those either due to the peppers allergy.

Foot models?

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We got a side of the Bacon d’Hotel, which was meaty and thick and juicy and everything we wanted it to be.

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And a side of Pomme Frites which were unique and really fantastic.

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And a side of champignons (mushrooms) were a really great compliment to the rest of the meal.

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For dessert… we just couldn’t decide between the four options… so we went with all of them!

This is what took the meal from very good to great.  We all went around trying to decide which dessert was our favorite.

First was a coconut creme brulee which I thought tasted like vacation but some people thought tasted like sunscreen (though they claimed that wasn’t a bad thing).  I really enjoyed it.

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Next up was a pineapple… something.  I wish I remember what this was called because this was hands down my favorite.  The pineapple was caramelized and it was sensational.  I was deliriously happy when I was eating this. I was shocked at how good it tasted. Really took me (and the entire table) by surprise.

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Then a citrus tarte with meringue on top.  I thought this was really fantastic and loved the slightly browned meringue (I’m a meringue sucker!)

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And lastly, beignets with caramel sauce.  These were perfectly cooked, extra warm, and amazingly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. And that caramel sauce was over the top.  We all dipped a spoon in for one last bite before we finished.

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I’ve heard rumor that service has been an issue for some people, however, our service was fine (though not remarkable by any means). The man who appeared to be a sommelier seemed confused when we asked him where our waiter was and then he took our order… so I’m not sure if that was our assumption gone wrong or if he was filling in. But after that speed bump, we were just fine.

 

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Overall, I really enjoyed our meal.

I can’t say it was one of the best meals of the year, nor can I say “Go! Run! Now!” but it was definitely enjoyable.  I’m glad we tried it earlier but I do not have the urge to go back. I’d rather try other places.

Though I could do a run through for that pineapple dessert!

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

 

Aldo Sohm Wine Bar – New Opening from Le Bernardin

22 Sep

We had a truly special meal at Le Bernardin a few years ago,  so when I heard that they were opening up a more casual spin-off, Aldo Sohm Wine Bar, helmed by their sommelier, Aldo Sohm, it was high on our “must try soon” list.

We popped in last weekend, when they were open for just about a week, and I instantly felt at ease. We were a bit worried that by not planning ahead, our jeans were going to be out of place, however, all the waiters were actually in jeans and the fun, casual nature of the place was apparent from the colorful, fun art on the walls to the friendly, unpretentiousness of the wait staff.

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But casual does not mean unprofessional. The bar was beautiful and big, with some couches in front and high tables around the perimeter of the room.

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The wine list is extensive, thorough, and spans the gaps of many different price points and options.

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The menu is like high end bar snacks, with a heavy weighting towards charcuterie.

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We started with the Whole Baked Cauliflower with “Roasted Chicken Salt.”

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The “salt” was crispy roasted chicken skin, which added a very rich flavor that made this already great vegetable really pop.  The only problem was that to get the whole head of cauliflower fully cooked, it lost all its bite.  It was a bit mushy and overcooked in the middle, which was a shame. If it had some toothiness left, this would have been a killer ish.

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We also ordered the Short Rib Skewer which came with fried shallot and red wine reduction.  The short ribs were just kind of ehhh.  At $12 per skewer, the portion is pretty small, and the meat itself didn’t taste much different from other so-so short rib dishes I’ve had. It was well cooked and tasted like short ribs, but it really wasn’t much more than that.  The mashed potatoes on the other hand… WOW. Those were GREAT! They should offer them alone as a side.  Best part of the dish.

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One thing on the menu that caught our eye was the Tibetan Yak Cheese. This was on the menu as a separate dish for $10/ounce with the following description: “Imported from the Tibetan Plateau, Yak cheese is considered a rare delicacy with great health benefits.” I was very excited to get to try a new cheese.  So when I noticed that it was also included on a pasta dish, we opted for that.  The dish was Truffle Pasta with Grated yak cheese.

I wish this was great. But it just wasn’t.  It didn’t taste all that much of truffles, and the cheese really didn’t add much to it.

It was good… don’t get me wrong. But it just wasn’t all that truffle-y nor did the cheese taste much different than any regular cheese.

A few days later, I came across this article that says that the yak cheese hasn’t come through customs yet, however, so now I’m not even sure if we had the yak cheese at all! (And if we didn’t… someone should have let us know!)

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We were still a bit hungry after those snacks, so we went back to the menu and decided to order some charcuterie. We got the speck and the fireplace smoked pork loin.  Both of these meats were absolutely incredibly, inching out the mashed potatoes as our favorite part of the meal. We especially liked the speck, and it paired perfectly with our Vouvray (which was easily polished off a bottle of).

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For dessert, we ordered the Red Wine Dark Chocolate Ganache Mendiant, which was listed as $12 for four pieces. We also asked our waiter to advise on a wine to pair well with it, and they suggested a really great port (though I can’t recall the name).

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I was a bit… surprised… by how they served the dessert.

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The filled chocolate disks were wrapped in little plastic envelopes and labeled with the same type of labels we put on our file folders at work.  Hmmm…  While I dig casual, I felt like this really degraded the dessert.  Especially at $12 for 4 very thin candies, I thought it should have been served with a bit more care.

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Once I got over my judge-iness, however, the actual candy was beautifully done and had great flavor.  The chocolate was very high quality and the thin ribbon in the middle was rich and not too sweet.  Very good.

I just wish they found another way to serve it.

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Overall, I can’t say I was thrilled with our meal.  I wanted it to be great.  This has all the makings of a great place.  But with Le Bernardin as the foundation, the food is expected to be phenomenal and perfectly executed.  Perhaps they are still getting their sea legs, but I have to hope this is not their best foot.  I will go back, because it’s a great place to grab a glass of wine and some bites, but it is not destination dining and I can’t say “You MUST try the food!”  I expected more.

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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