Union Square Café

[mikec]

The 2002 New York City Zagat Guide came out this past October.  Once again Union Square Café received a favorable review and as of September 1999, William Grimes of the New York Times gave USC three stars.  I have eaten at USC several times and last night got invited to a business dinner there.  I have a slightly differing view of USC, and thus I was looking forward to eating there.

We started out with a couple orders of the hot garlic potato chips.  They were great.  I’d love to put these in a Ruffles bag and eat them on my couch while watching football.  I struggled with my choice of appetizers.  There were a number that looked appealing to me, but the ones that I really wanted leaned towards the heavy side and I was planning on a heavy entrée.  I figured what the heck and ordered the porcini gnocchi.  The gnocchi came in a small copper pan with some sautéed mushrooms and a crème sauce.  I liked this dish, but would try something else for variety next time I’m there.

The special entrée was the arctic char.  I’m a big fan of arctic char.  It has a similar taste to salmon, yet it’s somehow a bit more silky textured and has a drop more flavor.  However I was craving red meat this night and I ordered the grilled strip steak.  It came perfectly cooked to medium rare and had a mound of fluffy mashed potatoes topped with frizzled leeks on the side.  It was a technically perfect dish.

We ordered two more side dishes to share.  The broccoli rabe looked good, but I passed since I was already getting full.  However I couldn’t say no to the creamy polenta with mascarpone cheese.  I think there may have been a drop of blue cheese in there too.  It was topped with walnuts and was wonderful.

Dessert was one of the meals high points for me.  I was torn between the warm pumpkin bread pudding and the banana tart.  I went with the tart.  It was a like piece of pastry topped with bananas and then some sugar that was sort of burnt on in a crème brulee fashion.  This was then topped with a scoop of ice cream.  It was delicious.

I started the meal with two glasses of German Riesling.  I can’t recall the specifics, but it went very well with the chips.  I’ll try to call USC today to get the specifics since it was a wine that I would order again.  I was given the wine list and asked to pick a bottle of red for the table.  As usual I was torn between ordering what I thought would be a crowd pleaser or what I would enjoy.  This time I ordered what I wanted to drink.  We had the 97 Felsina Chianti Classico Rancia Riserva.  It was dark with dusty cherry fruit.  It needs a good deal of time to open in the glass, but I found that it went very well with my porcini and steak.  Felsina is a reliable producer year in and year out.  The USC list always features a good selection of wines at fair prices.  Not too many restaurants in NYC can say the same.

Service at Danny Meyer restaurants is usually beyond reproach.  However there were a series of small mishaps last night that thankfully didn’t affect the meal, but were atypical of the service that I have come to expect form Danny Meyer’s places.  Many dishes were placed in front of the wrong person during all three courses and one of us had to wait for their entrée to come out a minute or two after the rest of us had been served.  I realize that two minutes isn’t a long time, but it does make for an awkward moment.  I have no doubt that any service issues were an anomaly.

While I had a technically correct meal, my opinion of USC hasn’t changed and if anything has gone down a drop.  To put it in simple terms, USC is ordinary.  They just don’t seem to be cooking with any heart or spirit.  The best dishes that I tasted were the side dishes including the garlic chips and the creamy polenta.  I will say that the dessert was outstanding and the pastry chef there stands out.  I have yet to walk out of USC or Eleven Madison Park and say wow that was a wonderful meal.  I’ve never had a bad meal, just never an inspired meal.  Given the price point there are other places where I would rather eat.

[Fat Guy]

Union Square Cafe illustrates a lot of things, but two of them are most significant: 1) It illustrates the importance of service in creating the illusion -- nay, the conviction -- that a meal is better than it is; and 2) It illustrates that there are foodie restaurants and non-foodie restaurants, and that very few restaurants have ever succeeded at being both. Gramercy Tavern comes close, but has abandoned a certain hard-core foodie clientele in favor of popularity. But USC is a total non-foodie place. Does that distinction make sense to people, or does it need elaboration?

[Charles Smith]

I'm a fan on USC, but only eating at the bar- it's the only place where there's a good vibe in the restaurant.  As Mike says, the wine list is great and well priced and I completely agree with his views on the food-  

Despite any of this, I go there for one reason- comfort.  I know what I'm getting.  I know the steak will be good and the people will be friendly and I won't be challenged.  Sometimes everyone needs that and it provides it very well.  

Cheers,

Charles

[Bux]

Shaw, I think I undersand you, which as I've noted before is something I find a bit scary. Of course I'm not sure I want to be a foodie any more than I want to be a gourmet. I assume the latter is one of those people who buy the stuff in the gourmet aisles of the supermarket. Whatever I am, USC didn't draw me back and the Grimes three star review was a turn off. I think even foodies have a need for good satisfying food that desn't thrill, but I suspect you are saying that even the most old fashioned traditional cooking either has an edge to it, or it doesn't. That's probably the case, but even the most diehard foodies must have some weaknesses for the comfort of good, if dull, food in a pleasant place.

I was struck, last Novemeber, by how much I loved dining in a rather elegant one star restaurant in Lille, France. I've alway held that I hated restaurants where the service or atmosphere was better than the food. Don't get me wrong the food was very good, but it was the ambience I found captivating in Lille. The food was at best correct and it was a good place to order raw oysters. That's not what I'd think of ordering at Ducasse. Anyway, I've finally come to have some more insight as to why other people go to restaurants.

[Sandra Levine]

But USC is a total non-foodie place. Does that distinction make sense to people, or does it need elaboration?

I could use some clarification here.

[Fat Guy]

I think it's a way of saying the food is neither interesting nor minimalist, and that most foodie-types prefer one or the other. It's safe cuisine, targeted at the tastes of the general public. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's very good food. But for people who dine out fanatically, it's not how they choose to expend their dining budgets. There's a time and place for a piece of tuna cooked right and garnished with some nicely prepared vegetables. But when I'm in the mood for something like that, I'm a lot more likely to go to a place like Craft where minimalism is done aggressively and with the highest level of artisanal ingredients. USC is too expensive to use as an everyday restaurant, which would be the category I'd place it in if it cost half as much and if dining there wasn't such a production. And when I want interesting food I certainly don't go to USC. Basically, it's a very good restaurant for which I almost never find time.

[mikec]

Charles,

You should start a thread on eating at the bar in restaurants around the country.  The best meal that I've had at USC was at the bar with you, Michael, and Allison.  Granted it may have had something to do with the company and a wonderful bottle of wine.  

Charles & Bux,

FWIW, I agree that there is something to be said for comfort and familiarity.  However I believe that the comfort factor can be found elsewhere for cheaper.

Also, I ate at a one-star in Provence called Le Croque Chou.  The name of the town escapes me at this moment.  While I had a very good meal, it was more in the homey comfortable way than the dazzle me with brilliance style of Michelin.  I recall truly enjoying the meal.  But then the farmhouse setting and the fact that the husband was in the back cooking while his wife and daughter ran the front room made it special.

Steve,

I think you said what I feel in a much more eloquent manner.

Mike

[Steve Plotnicki]

Bux & Steven - You're both right. How can that be in the same thread? Well it's almost an accident because Steven's point about the service segueways into Bux's point about the lack of edge at a place. I eat a fair share of meals at the original Palm and if anything the place has an edge. And the edge comes from a few things. One, the place has characcter. Second, the place is full of characters. Third, the food is cooked to a crisp. No matter whether rare, medium or well done, the steak always has an "edgy" crust. And the lobsters are singed to a turn as well. Finally the waiters, mostly Italian, Yugoslavian, etc. immigrants are edgy too! If you aren't a fan of The Palm, pick another place like it like Lugar's or the Grand Central Oyster Bar, they all have an edge. But the USC is in reality just a cleaned up version of those places that has added some contemporary dishes into the mix like the tuna. It also has replaced a surly waitstaff with a polite one.  So you sort of get a scrubbed down version of NYC complete with big flower arramgement. I wish it had 10% more fire in it's belly and the goal was to burn the steak at the edge instead of serving it perfectly. Bux is also right about Gramercy. But you can get Tom to cook with fire. You just need to get him to the table for the ordering.

(Edited by Steve Plotnicki at 5:27 am on Jan. 10, 2002)

[robert brown]

Mikec,

The restaurant in Provence sounds like a few hundred in Italy. Have you given it a whirl?

[mikec]

Robert,

Do you mean, have I given Italy a whirl?  If so, then the answer is yes.  Two of my most memorable meals in Italy we eaten at small trattorias in Florence.  The first was called Osteria de Caffe Italiano.  It was located behind the Bargello.  We had a wonderful meal there with a pretty good bottle of Brunello for such a reasonable price.  Actually the closest thing I've found to that restaurant outside of Italy is Lupa right here in NYC.  

We also ate at Rugero which was way past the Pitti Palace.  We wlked there from our hotel not realizing how far it was.  When we walked in my wife wanted to turn around.  The place reminded me of a New Jersey dinner.  We were the only Americans there.  Actually I'm sure we were the only people there who weren't Florentine natives.  Luckily the son who was our waiter, (Mom was the cook and Dad ran the front room) spoke very good English since our Italian wasn't up to the task. We were seated at a communal table.  Wine choices were red or white, 1/2 liter or liter.  We proceeded to eat one of the best home cooked meals that I've ever had with wild boar ragu, and all sorts of other Tuscan delicacies.  I still have a copy of the bill, since it was so shocking.  We ate and drank enough to put a lesser person into a food coma.  The bill ened up coming out to ะ including everything.

FWIW, its somehow sad that this type of restaurant is almost impossible to find in America.

Mike

[Bux]

Bux is also right about Gramercy. But you can get Tom to cook with fire.

I think that was Shaw who said something about GT, but I suspect it was about the menu at GT and not at all about the extent of Tom's talents.

I won't hold it against you that you confused us. We agree all the time, even if it's only to agree to disagree.

;)

[Wilfrid]

Quote: from Bux on 1:08 pm on Jan. 9, 2002

I was struck, last Novemeber, by how much I loved dining in a rather elegant one star restaurant in Lille, France.

Bux, I could probably work out which restaurant this was if I went back and re-read the Lille thread, but in the interests of time, I wonder if you would mind posting the name.  I do get to Lille occasionally, and I am a sucker for elegant French ambience.

Thanks :)

(Edited by Wilfrid at 4:16 pm on Jan. 10, 2002)

[Steve Plotnicki]

Robert - Is it Le Huitiere where you ate in Lille? In the back of the fish shop? I had a great lunch there one day about 6 years ago.

(Edited by Steve Plotnicki at 7:37 pm on Jan. 10, 2002)

[Wilfrid]

I know La Huitiere, but that doesn't sound like a place where the elegant ambience was more interesting than the food.  Now, where is Bux when you need him?

[Bux]

Steve and Wilfrid, it was l'Huitière. There are other restaurants in Lille, but l'Huitière seems to be "the" restaurant in town. In terms of food, I had the turbotin wrapped in a potato crust and served with a cream and truffle sauce. It was not the most elegantly packaged fish in potato I've had, but it was magnificent comfort food. It was the sort of place where I had no compunctions about forgoing the kitchen's talents and just ordering oysters for a starter and the sort of place where I knew the oysters would be good. My wife ordered the rougets. She expected maybe two or three and out came five. She's a light eater and was disappointed. They were also, as I recall, a tad overdone. The carrot and caraway seed garnish was not to her taste although I liked it. The wild mushroom melange was room temperature and I would have expected it to be hot. For a first course she had crayfish and sweetbreads. That was probably very good. She wouldn't let me near it to taste. The cheese tray looked good, but the portions of food were too large for me to try the cheese. We had one dessert, an exceptional (and large) raspberry soufflee with a glass of raspberry sorbet on the side.

Overall it gave the impression of a very good institution rather than a chef driven restaurant. Our waiter was an older professional and terrific. I loved the way he asked if we preferred to speak French or English, but starting in English and switching to French as he read our minds. His patience with my French was wonderful as the evening went on. Eventually the conversation came around to the WTC attack and I found his expressions of sympathy and concern to be sincere.

When I speak of the elegance of the place, I should note that it's not Parisian. To my senses it's a more democratic business men's elegance rather than one of pseudo royalty. I found it an atmosphere that encourages conversation with your waiter. It's sort of the best of a fine restaurant and a classy brasserie, if I'm at all making myself clear. I found it very Flemish though I have little perception of what I should have expected from Flanders.

As further explanation, all I can say is that I've had better food before and I've had that kind of food before, but the restaurant seemed unique, although maybe evocative of something I couldn't quite place. Wilfrid, that may not be what you needed to hear, but it was nice to be needed.

;)

[Fat Guy]

This past weekend I had lunch at Union Square Cafe (hereafter USC) for the first time in a couple of years. It was delightful, as it always is.

Damn Zagat for putting USC in an untenable context that colors every meal I have there. I always go in there with an axe to grind, because it so irritates me that when you open up Zagat to that first list of restaurants you always see USC listed as number 1. Sure, it's the "favorite" or "most popular" list as opposed to the top food ranking, but only us geeks know that and everybody just thinks it's the top-ranked New York restaurant in Zagat (which I'm sure is intentional, otherwise the first list would be top food). And the food ranking is too high anyway.

It all comes back to me pretty quickly every time I eat there: The service is astounding. It's engaging in an American way but it's not intrusive at all. Our server, a woman who I think has been there for at least the past five or so years and maybe longer, was a harmonious cross between a sassy diner waitress and a seasoned veteran fine-dining captain. She took control of the situation without any of us really noticing.

Then, when the garlic potato chips hit the table, I continue to remember why I like the place: Nobody deep fries like USC. Potato chips are one of my favorite foods, and no potato chip in a bag can in my opinion compete with a fresh specimen. The fresh herbs and garlic gussy up the chips just enough that they don't seem out of place at all in an upscale restaurant. The fried calamari is similarly definitive. I don't think I've ever had better.

One of our party ordered a rather ambitious plate of Indian vegetable preparations: eggplant, chick peas, gingered spinach, and mushroom basmati, with sections of warm potato bread. As I understand it, the recipes for this come from Floyd Cardoz at Tabla. It's certainly a formidable vegetarian plate -- very few restaurants on this level offer even one vegetarian option this good, and USC's menu is actually rife with vegetarian offerings, especially on the pasta side.

I noticed a few other dishes that might have tested the kitchen's mettle, but I was eating purely for social reasons and so I had the steak sandwich -- it's a relatively new preparation served on focaccia spread with remoulade. Too much bread for the amount of steak being offered, but all ingredients were first rate and worked well together.

I also tasted the yellowfin tuna burger, which remains one of the more enjoyable things to eat in New York City (it's served with a ginger-mustard glaze and grilled red onions; the red onions are an essential USC side-order as well). It always looks like it's going to be overcooked, but they nail it every time, with the center just translucent enough to carry the fresh tuna flavor while the exterior gets nicely caramelized. The tuna is as good as yellowfin can be without being bluefin.

USC's half-torus-shaped banana tart with heavily caramelized exterior is likewise about as good a specimen as has ever been engineered, served with honey-vanilla ice cream and macadamia nut brittle.

I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and overall I think there's little question that lunch is the way to go at USC -- it's one of the few good restaurants that actually serves a unique lunch as opposed to just a scaled-down version of dinner plus some salads. It's not the number one restaurant in New York by any stretch of the imagination -- Danny Meyer alone owns three restaurants that serve superior food -- but what USC does it does better than anyone, and that's saying something.

[jaybee]

Steve, your experience, as described, is 180 degrees from the $20.02 lunch I had with a group of EGers recently. The food was disappointing from top to bottom, which, for me was a double disappointment since I have always regarded USC as among my favorites.

Perhaps the promotional lunch menu was given short shrift, but that's not what I would have expected from them. I'm glad of your good meal, since I don't want to leave USC with such a not so good meal as my last there. I'll give it another shot.

[Brian23]

jaybee - what was offered on the 20.02 lunch?

I echo Steven's comments. I happen to live right by USC and frequently eat lunch there. Steven definitely hit on all of the right dishes to order. Also at lunch they usually offer a variety of specials which are generally very good, especially the soups. For many years I have been raving about lunch at USC and many of my friends who have only been for dinner just didn't get why I liked it so much I agree that if you're going for dinner - Gramercy Tavern is a better choice, but when it comes to lunch USC is one of my favorite spots. While it is not the best restauarnt in the city - it may be the best place for lunch.

[cabrales]

USC serves food, at least on Saturdays, even past 2:15 or so. There is a limited menu at least at the bar. Do members have input on the limited, "late late" lunch menu? Note, on the $20.02 poor lunch described by jaybee, that the negative conclusion was the unanimous assessment of many eGulleteers. The link is below:

http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...b1afb372269f600

(consider later entries)

[porkpa]

Fat-Guy,

I'm with you. For lunch USC is a very unique and enjoyable experience. I was last there in early July. Had the garlic fries, a cold soup(forget what kind, but good), Lobster roll(lobster salad good, but the roll hard, difficult to eat as a sandwich) and the banana tart(without equal). Wife had a salad gathered from the Union Square Market that morning(great), the Union Square burger(as good as anywhere, better than most) and skipped desert.

I might add that for the solo diner, having lunch at the bar at USC is as comfortable and enjoyable an experience as solo lunch time dining can present. I'll often do it even for two, when I'm in a hurry or reservations are not available.

Porkpa

[jaybee]

Brian, Please note that the discussion of the USC $20.02 lunches begins on page two of the thread cited by Cabby, around June 24th. It is preceeded by a page and a half, including many short posts that represent John Whiting's reference:

They [eGullet posters] can move into an unlikely topic and keep it ticking over for weeks, batting one-liners back and forth like ping-pong balls.

[Fat Guy]

Jaybee, I have no doubt your meal was as described. And I don't want to get sidetracked by a discussion of what I think we can and cannot conclude from a bad $20.02 meal. Let me just assure you that your experience was anomalous as viewed against the USC whole.

[jaybee]

Let me just assure you that your experience was anomalous as viewed against the USC whole.

Hence my surprise and disappointment--and my comment that I was glad to read yours.

[Fat Guy]

Then what I was doing was reassuring, rather than assuring!

[jaybee]

Then what I was doing was reassuring, rather than assuring!

Well, I would say that you were rescuing USC, at least for me, and ensuring a reprise.