Gramercy Tavern
I ran off last weekend to spend some time with my sister in New York City which means what it usually means when I make the trip: some great food, fantastic beverages, fun company, and unique shopping. On Saturday evening she was able to get us a table at Gramercy Tavern – the restaurant Danny Meyer made famous for its style, service and cuisine. This is also where Tom Colicchio broke out and earned the prestige that led to his ultimate opening of Craft.
In a city that certainly has its own unspoken caste system, pretense can easily creep into how a restaurant imagines itself and how it delivers its product. Among what makes Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern interesting is that he consistently manages to hold some of the highest ratings of the culinary establishment, yet his restaurant is approachable, with an understated elegance. Much of this is likely the result of his emphasis on service (he literally wrote the book on service – Setting the Table: the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business).
The food was unquestionably amazing (my sister did the vegetarian tasting menu; I did what they call the “Winter Tasting Menu”). Certain dishes simply exploded in their flavors: her carrot soup with spiced cashews was one such incredible dish. The back notes of ginger and lemongrass coupled to the use (likely repeatedly) of a chinoise made this soup velvety and rich. My first dish was snow crab with radishes, all in a Myer lemon vinaigrette; its citrus flavors almost made one ache for winter to finally end. Two other dishes deserve to be singled out: the smoked trout with sunchoke puree (hat tip to Harold from Top Chef who has made this technique popular) and with pickled cippolini onions – my one complaint was I thought a few more of the onions would have been appropriate (too few to get a taste of each in every bite). Second dish that I thought stood out was the quail with cinderella squash and house-cured bacon: on the edge of the dish was a poached quail egg, meant to broken and incorporated as a sauce into the squash. It was phenomenal – simple, quiet, but incredibly satisfying. What made it more interesting was that the waiter paired it with a Scottish Ale instead of wine. For me, it was the most satisfying dish of the evening.
It is easy to get lost in the world of loving food, but for me the art of good food – even a simple braised ox tail soup (which happens to be what I am working on as I write this) – is utterly unique. Food can embody so many memories, but it can also express the same level of creativity, passion and technical mastery that we look for and appreciate in art, literature or cinema. The intimacy of food as art – that you consume what someone else creates – is many times sought for by artists in other mediums (the Argentinean artist who builds her phallic structures of edible components has just this in mind, albeit hers has other dimensions). These artists recognize that food will always spark something particularly deep in the souls of most people. This immediate access, this ability to probe, evoke and lure someone in, is an enviable gift that food has above many other artistic endeavors.
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“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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