Neighborhood Stars

In a city of villages, we pick nine local heroes

Laura Stanley
Posted: April 16, 2001

		Manhattan Map
		Neighborhood Stars
		Blue Hill The Dining Room Five Points Lupa Red Cat Roc 71 Clinton Fresh Food Tocqueville Wallsé
		The New New York
		Wine Shops Six new shops emphasize regional specialties, wine tastings and informed, friendly service
		Hotels Cutting-edge design makes seven new boutique hotels places to party as well as to sleep
		Luxury Wine Cellars In this web-exclusive feature, Mathew Debord examines how stellar cellars have become status symbols in Manhattan's luxury apartment buildings
		New for Thursday, April 12 Tracking the Trends A web-exclusive analysis of menus and wine lists at New York's new restaurants reveals the latest developments in dining

Neighborhood Stars

In a city of villages, we pick nine local heroes

By Laura Stanley

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See also:
World Class
Steak Houses
Trendsetters

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To an out-of-towner taking in Manhattan's skyscraper canyons, the cityscape can seem monolithic. But to residents, this 13-mile-long island is a patchwork of dozens of distinct neighborhoods. Many have evocative names -- Chelsea, Nolita, Murray Hill -- and all have restaurants that reflect the character of the streets around them.

Manhattan's neighborhood restaurants are places where people go when they wish to eat out but also want to feel at home. This is true for cities the world over, of course. What's different here is that the little joint around the corner may just happen to have a world-class chef behind the stoves, someone who prefers to cook for a familiar but discriminating crowd. And though the wine list will likely be on the small side, it's still expertly assembled, with plenty of hand-picked finds that are beautifully suited to the food.

In the past two years, most of the best new neighborhood restaurants that have opened are below 23rd Street, in the areas where the artier types live, work and play. The new economy boom has rejuvenated once utilitarian or gritty areas like the Flatiron District and the East Village. In TriBeCa, where homeowners have seen their property values skyrocket, Roc is turning out bright southern Italian fare in what used to be an eerily quiet Chinese takeout place. "No one ever¸came to eat here," marveled a longtime TriBeCa resident on a recent visit, her first since the place changed hands. As she sipped a fruity Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, the sleek white dining room filled to capacity with well-heeled downtowners, including two stylish young parents with a little girl in pajamas.

While nighties aren't advised for grown-ups, the destinations listed below are casual. Be aware that you may find yourself eating off brown butcher paper instead of white linen, and your server may say "hi" in lieu of "good evening." At Lupa, Mario Batali's boisterous Thompson Street trattoria, lusty offerings were slapped down on the table with genial abandon by an overworked waitress who said "whoops" a lot. It's rather more formal at the Viennese Wallsé, in the West Village, and plush little Tocqueville, just off Union Square. They plate dishes artfully and use very good stemware there, but you can still leave the tie behind. Five Points falls somewhere in between -- the service, like the bistro cooking, is both polished and down-to-earth, very NoHo in style.

So if you don't want to dress up and ride a taxi to Midtown, relax. Go as you are, preferably on foot. Just get a reservation first. This is Manhattan, after all, where apartment kitchens are tiny and dining rooms all over town are packed with "locals" who just happen to come from all over the world.

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For the complete article, please see the April 30, 2001, issue of Wine Spectator magazine, page 77. (Subscribe today)

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Blue Hill
75 Washington Place, bet. Sixth and Washington Sq. Park W.
Telephone (212) 539-1776
Open Dinner, daily
Cost Entrées $18-$26
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club

Blue Hill would be a lovely addition to any neighborhood, but it seems especially well-suited to the historic heart of Greenwich Village. Steps away from Washington Square, and set below the street in a 19th century town-house, this understated little restaurant wears its excellence lightly. The narrow dining room is plain but warm, loud but congenial.

Chefs Dan Barber and Alex Urena, both young Bouley Bakery alumni, have created a conservative-looking menu that's rife with nifty modern touches: a dollop of cucumber frozen yogurt dropped into a bright green summer cucumber soup, a green tomato ìmarmaladeî over sautéed foie gras, snow-white cod in a fascinating crËme fraiche reduction. Sommelier John Slover works the tables with infectious enthusiasm, recommending wines from his eclectic, mostly mid-priced list of some 80 labels. Ask for something a little different and he'll really brighten up, pointing you toward a hard-to-find Fiano de Avellino from southern Italy or an up-and-coming new red from Alois Lageder of Italy's Alto Adige region.

Don't skip dessert here. If there's a fruit soup on the menu, order it -- these are a high point at Blue Hill, and are a marvelous vehicle for bright, focused seasonal flavor. The silky chocolate bread pudding and vanilla-bean rice pudding (fashionably dressed in a passion-fruit foam) have lots of admirers, too.

The Dining Room
154 E. 79th St., bet. Lexington and Third
Telephone (212) 327-2500
Open Lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner, daily; brunch, Sunday
Cost Entrées $19-$32
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover

After a day of shopping or museum-hopping on the Upper East Side, here's a relaxing place to stop. Don't be misled by the fact that the downstairs section of the Dining Room looks rather like an airport lounge, with back-lit photos of food hung over each little booth. The food is warm and earthy. The service is gracious. And it's prettier upstairs -- a kind of gilded satin and crushed velvet boudoir of a space, small and intimate.

And if you order the nut-brown pan-fried artichokes, one of chef Mark Spangenthal's specialties, and the lip-smackingly rich grilled and braised duck, you'll forget about decor anyway. For something even heartier, go for the stewed lamb shoulder with meaty mushroom bread-pudding. Desserts, such as the chocolate-caramel icebox cake or pistachio soufflé, are equally full of character and definitely worth a splurge.

The 50-label wine list suits the menu well, with a nice spread of full-flavored reds and whites from all over the world. To complement the raw-bar items and the few lighter seafood offerings, there's a respectable selection of sparkling wines and French whites. Most are quite affordable, in keeping with the spirit of this place. In a neighborhood where showing off is expected, this is a refuge where you can just be yourself.

Five Points
31 Great Jones St., bet. Lafayette and Bowery
Telephone (212) 253-5700
Open Dinner, daily; brunch, Sunday
Cost Entrées $12.50-$27
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club

The first thing one notices upon entering Five Points' dining room is a 24-foot-long split log, hollow and alive with running water, smack in the center. It's a fitting fashion statement for this convivial, 140-seat bistro. The food and decor are rustic in style, but underneath it all, this is one polished NoHo newcomer.

Chef and co-owner Marc Meyer, like his mentor Larry Forgione, is a champion of smart, Mediterranean-influenced American cooking. His whole-wheat cavatelli with rapini, black olives, pecorino and bread crumbs is a peppery, forward dish, and his fire-charred squid comes stuffed with a warmly spicy shrimp and vegetable puree. Don't leave without ordering something cooked in the wood-burning oven, like the lightly smoky, garnet-red duck magret. Short ribs are fatty and satisfying, and salads are bright and tempting. Desserts -- apple cruller, banana tart and the like -- are suitably unpretentious.

There's a respectable range of 14 wines by the glass, including four sparklers to go with raw oysters, another specialty of the house. The 100-bottle list offers a balanced, mostly mid-priced selection of recent vintages from all over Europe and the Americas, along with a few older wines and some finds from Argentina, Austria and Switzerland.

Lupa
170 Thompson St., bet. Houston and Bleecker
Telephone (212) 982-5089
Open Lunch and dinner, daily
Cost Entrées $14-$17
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express

The address says Manhattan, but the food and wine say Rome. Once again, Mario Batali and partners Joe Bastianich and Jason Denton have created a venue for authentic Italian fare that is packing in hundreds of fans nightly -- no small feat, since the place is tiny. It's inexpensive, too: Main courses are just $14 to $17, and more than half of the 150 wines (all Italian) are less than $40 each. Lupa is priced and casually decorated like a neighborhood joint, but it's attracting people from all over town.

The menu (executed by Mark Ladner, formerly of Batali's flagship restaurant Babbo) is hearty and soulful, and served with more warmth than ceremony. A typical dinner might open with baked green olives or citrus-cured sardines over cracked-wheat salad. One could proceed to pasta from there and stop, but that would be a mistake, since secondi, like tuna belly with mussels, guanciale (rendered pig jowl) and hot mustard greens, are refreshingly different. Finish with a Piedmontese Birbet and a cardamom panna cotta, if you can manage it.

Many diners opt to get wine by the caraffini -- there are nine choices, plus Prosecco by the glass. Italian-wine aficionados will love this place: Virtually every region is represented, including rising stars from Sicily, Puglia and Calabria.

Red Cat
227 10th Ave., bet. 23rd and 24th
Telephone (212) 242-1122
Open Lunch, Tuesday to Saturday; dinner, daily
Cost Entrées $17-$28
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express

People don't just enter the Red Cat. They're embraced by the place, swept up into an oasis of warmth and good taste on a desolate block in west Chelsea. This American-style bistro is the right choice for a cold night when what you need most is good, sturdy cooking, sincerely friendly service, a lovely bottle of wine and a comfy red banquette from which to enjoy it all with a friend.

Chef and owner Jimmy Bradley specializes in stylish comfort food. There's lots of fish on the menu -- pan-crisped skate, grilled and roasted Arctic char, mustard-crusted trout -- plus heartier items like shell steak, char-grilled pork chop and calves' liver au poivre. Even vegetables are warming and substantial here, especially when roasted, braised or rendered into confit. As for wine, there's plenty on the 130-label list to complement the fare. It features a nice balance of mid-priced reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines from California, France and Italy, plus a smattering of pricier entries. Also, 14 wines are available in half-bottles, and the by-the-glass choices are diverse.

For dessert, there's a predictably rich and homey selection of goodies, and a nice range of nightcaps and teas. You may be tempted to linger. And since no one's rushing you out, why not?

Roc
190-A Duane St., bet. Greenwich and Hudson
Telephone (212) 625-3333
Open Lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner, daily; brunch, Saturday and Sunday
Cost Entrées $17-$32
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club

TriBeCa is chic these days, home to some of downtown's coolest restaurants. This regional Italian (Sorrento) newcomer is plenty stylish, too. But sleek as this high-ceilinged white dining room looks, it retains a down-to-earth character that leaves you free to tuck into your dinner unselfconsciously.

The menu, executed by chef Roberto Aita and owner Rocco Cadolini, is generous. There are 13 appetizers and 14 entrées to choose from, plus an array of exotically shaped pastas. The strozzapreti (they're twisty) with shrimp, mussels and braised baby artichokes is a good one, but listen for the specials. There will be more than you can possibly remember and all are worth trying.

Quality is high, despite the abbondanza: Every pasta is made fresh daily, and the salads and antipasti come to the table in peak condition. Seafood is a specialty here, and it's spectacular when it's fresh. Lamb fans should request the succulent chop in a potato-rosemary crust. The desserts lack finesse, so it's better to finish off with just vin santo.

Cadolini stocks about 120 labels in his stone wine cellar, half of them Italian. There are some admirable mid-priced selections from the southern regions of Campagna, Sicily and Abruzzi. There's a Gaja Barbaresco 1996 ($345), plus some heavyweight Bordeaux (ranging from $70 to $800) and California Meritages. But most of the list is far more affordable, in keeping with Roc's casual style.

71 Clinton Fresh Food
71 Clinton St., bet. Rivington and Stanton
Telephone (212) 614-6960
Open Dinner, daily
Cost Entrées $19-$25
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express

It takes a lot of effort to get dinner here. You must reserve weeks in advance. You've got to travel to the nether reaches of the Lower East Side, shoehorn yourself into a packed, teeny storefront and sit practically in the lap of your neighbor at the next table. It will be loud -- you will need to shout. But it will be worth the effort.

One bite of chef Wylie Dufresne's lamb-shank dumplings in dusky black-cumin consommé will tell you that you haven't struggled in vain. The cooking, clean, light and modern in style, is brilliant. Tender white monkfish comes bathed in a heady hamhock broth. A cauliflower-almond puree is eye-poppingly vivid, a beautiful foil for sweet red snapper. Sliced loin of lamb is complemented by a Swiss chard dressing that's lightly studded with spiced dried fruits. None of these touches are gimmicks, for the point is harmony. Presentation is suave, keeping in with the feel of this hip, emerging neighborhood.

There is a fledgling quality to 71 Clinton Fresh Food, but this is part of the fun. Dufresne is just 29. Servers, bright young acolytes all, seem thrilled to be in on the start of something great. The 34-label wine list (assembled by the chef's dad, Dewey Dufresne) is smart and eclectic, and every entry has enthusiastic notes and suggestions for pairing with food. When this team moves to tonier quarters someday, no doubt some fans will mourn.

Tocqueville
15 E. 15th St., bet. Union Square W. and Fifth
Telephone (212) 647-1515
Open Lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner, Monday to Saturday
Cost Entrées $17.50-$25.50
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express

Here is a place with great, understated class. There's no attitude, no scene, no preciosity. At Tocqueville, all is calm, modern and lightly adorned: The glossy, tiled wine-bar and 40-seat, apricot-hued dining room are warmly lit, and the food, which is Mt times perfect, has a mature, sensual character that matches the ambience.

Chef and owner Marco Moreira, a Bouley Bakery alumnus, presents a small, captivating menu -- just eight appetizers and eight entrées. Sweet, almost impossibly tender mussels come submerged in a briny saffron broth. A risotto made with chanterelles and sweet peas is musky and quietly complex. Seared scallops are paired with foie gras over braised artichokes, wild mushrooms and buttery fava beans. Meat dishes -- herb-marinated Colorado lamb, dry-aged sirloin, venison loin and more -- get similarly artful treatment. Desserts hold up their end, especially the chocolate soufflé cake, which is paired with a mint ice cream that tastes fresh out of the garden.

With cooking this impressive, the wine program should be better. While the 135-label, international collection ($30 to $420, with most in the middle range) has some gems, they're hard to find on the haphazardly organized list. Servers can't always help, not even with by-the-glass offerings. Co-owner Joanne Makovitsky (chef Moreira's wife) knows what's what, however, and will cheerfully dispense advice.

Wallsé
344 W. 11th St., at Washington
Telephone (212) 352-2300
Open Lunch, Monday to Friday; dinner, daily
Cost Entrées $21-$29
Credit cards Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club

Wallsé has a personal quality. It's small -- just 80 seats, in two simple, brick dining rooms -- and is located in a sleepy residential corner of west Greenwich Village. The Viennese cooking, by chef and owner Kurt Gutenbrunner, is most personal of all. After years of attracting significant attention in bigger, flashier kitchens (Monkey Bar and Bouley Bakery, among others), Gutenbrunner is now speaking for himself in a highly polished yet intimate place he's named after his hometown.

Austrian cooking isn't all rosbraten, goulash and strudel. While all these are on the menu (and deeply satisfying), there's also plenty of lighter, slightly modernized fare. Delicate steamed and smoked fish dishes, pillowy herb spaetzle and subtle seasonal soups are available for those who aren't up for stewed meat and cabbage and hearty red-wine sauces. These are authentic, too, and just as good. Desserts aren't overly rich, either, though they are proudly Viennese.

The 60-bottle wine list is dominated by mid-priced Austrian bottlings. The staff, which is well-trained in all respects, has an excellent command of the unusual collection of Grüner Veltliners, Rieslings and Blauburgunders (Pinot Noirs). These wines, like the restaurant, may be off the beaten path, but the adventurous will be rewarded.

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