Forks clashed, egos were mashed. A committee mulled the list of reservation hopefuls that afternoon, and by seven the chosen began to claim their tables at the new old Minetta Tavern, redundant us surprisingly among them. Second night at a table with a view of the back room drama and into the bar. Though I've forty years as a restaurant critic and a decade of passionate eating before that, it's my first look at the seven decade-old village cubby, hangout of prize fighters, Beat writers, serious drinkers, the sentimental and now, Keith McNally loyalists.
Tattoo parlors and nicotine-stained bars dominate this stretch of MacDougal; around the projection sex shops smirk on Minetta Lane. But McNally likes to pioneer a turf - Balthazar, once a far east outpost of Soho, Pastis, in the Meet store when it still smelled of meat and not yet of Jeffrey's, Schiller's, scruffing right into the Lower East Side. I won't pretend to personally testify as to what's new or what's old here. Just to report: it looks good, this 85-seat bistro. Clean, spiffed up, vintage photos and duration friezes gleaming over the bar, an additional one McNally Time and Again mirage. Himself glad handing familiars en route to the greeting stand, faintly smiling. (As I've written, he's the dour McNally, studied and anxious even now.)
Black Truffles
For the moment, and possibly from now on, this will be the stage to parade your bona fides. Amazingly, even on this second night, with his partners Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson in the kitchen, service flows, tables turn. There's pleasure in everything we're eating: creamy Billi Bi, the ancienne French mussel soup, the sternly bitter crunch of dandelion greens (salade de pissenlit) with sieved egg and anchovy vinaigrette, calamari stuffed with salt cod and wrapped in piquillo peppers with a tang of preserved lemon. A tasting of tartare offers three biggish scoops - veal with black truffle and chervil, lamb with argan oil, olives and mint, and the beef classic with mustard and cornichons - a tasty exercise to share.
Amherst Five Seat Sofa with Center Arm Fabric: Axis - Truffle, Frame Finish: Black Best
Rate This Product :
Amherst Five Seat Sofa with Center Arm Fabric: Axis - Truffle, Frame Finish: Black Overview
K5403G5-G3 Fabric: Axis - Truffle, Frame Finish: Black Shown in Cherry Frame Finish Features: -Five seat sofa.-Environmentally friendly vitafoam soy based foam.-Unlimited selection of fabric.-Crypton and Nano-Tex coverings.-Wallsaver design. Options: -Available in several fabrics.-Available in natural, medium, cherry, mahogany, walnut or black frame finish. Construction: -Healthcare vinyl, solid hardwood and polyurethane construction. Assembly Instructions: -Assembly required. Collection: -Amherst collection. Warranty: -Manufacturer provides limited lifetime warranty and two year warranty on fabric and covering.
Customer Reviews
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 16, 2012 15:34:23
There's laid back French attitude in the sunny side up fried egg you smash to sauce the pasta Za Za, fresh fettuccine with pancetta, sage and parmesan named for the French concierge who improvised it for Nasr's sister (Daily Candy testifies). Filet mignon with its smear of salty Roquefort is no more than it should be. But the roasted chicken is suited - skin-crisped, flesh moist, if not faintly pink, with marvelous spinach and cheesy aligote potatoes alongside. Choose your burger: the Minetta, with cheddar and caramelized onions at , or the Black Label, a prime, dry-aged, hand-cut attractiveness at . No wonder The Road Food Warrior, my resident burgermeister seems slow to share. The reputation patty is a supremely juicy chunk of meat slathered with caramelized onions and the same legendary fries we know from Balthazar. The glass of Malbec from Cahors is good enough.
Minetta Tavern is not cheap. It doesn't need to be, after all, but it's not expensive. Hors d'oeuvres start at , with lobster salade at ; entrees offer Za Za pasta at and run up to for a côte de boeuf for two with roasted marrow bones and a "Little Gem lettuce salad."
Sharing an order of passion fruit and blood orange sorbet lets us linger as latecomers arrive. Famous? possibly in their own mind. But then, we're not Gawker so we may just be behind the times. Watching a late-materializing apparition, brother Brian McNally schmoozing the customers, reminds me of historic moments in Manhattan night life, of long gone Canal Bar and 150 Wooster Street.
I suppose it's just as well I cannot read minds. I sleep better.
113 MacDougal road at Minetta Lane 212-475-3850.
Time and Again, Minetta TavernMarlene's truffle training Tube. Duration : 2.20 Mins.Marlene, a blue blooded bulldog works really well during her training at Truffle Hunters Dog School.
Keywords: Marion, Dean, truffles, truffle, hunting, hunters, dog, school, black, summer, bulldog
No comments:
Post a Comment