Joseph's (fka Citarella the Restaurant)

[jogoode]

I had a fine lunch at Citarella yesterday. My buddy and I chose to order pre fixe, which at $35 was a great value. I ordered oysters, which were large an very tasty. My friend ordered the calamari; it was lightly breaded and mixed up with chopped pickled hot peppers, cubes of serrano ham and frisee. The squid was tender but the breading could have been crisper and a few of the pieces of ham were tough. The flavor of the dish, however, was well balanced and addictive.

I had redfish in "hot and sour" broth. Since I was expecting hot and sour, I was upset when it was neither hot nor sour. But the more I slurped it, the more I liked its complexity. I tried to guess what was in it, but coriander was all I could come up with. It came with skinned cherry tomatoes, which were surprisingly very flavorful (isn't summer tomato season?), water spinach and hon shimeji mushrooms. The water spinach and the mushrooms were both limp and lacking a bit in flavor, but I still enjoyed the dish overall.

My friend's skate was awesome, though the "grain mustard sauce" tasted only a little of mustard -- chervil (or tarragon) dominated. The thin, but not skimpy, piece of skate was very fresh and cooked well. The mussels, artichokes and shitakes scattered around the skate were welcome additions.

I had a warm chocolate cake that must have used seriously high quality chocolate, because it was far from the one-dimensional chocolate sludge the warm chocolate cake usually brings. The other dessert was a warm vanilla cake (a cakier cake ) with good vanilla ice cream and vanilla gelee flavored with citrus. Interesting textures, temperatures, flavors.

Comfortable place, too. It all felt very casual.

[slkinsey]

According to the NY Times, Citarella The Restaurant has been renamed Joseph's.

JOE GURRERA, the owner of the Citarella stores, has changed the name of his restaurant, CITARELLA, 1240 Avenue of the Americas (49th Street), to JOSEPHS, after his own first name.

[Fat Guy]

Was also in NY Magazine on Monday.

http://nymetro.com/nymetro/food/openings/n_10195//index.html

I'm sure I posted somewhere here about the contest they were having to rename the place, but it must have been on another thread.

[slkinsey]

I'm sure I posted somewhere here about the contest they were having to rename the place, but it must have been on another thread.

Right here. Apparently we were thinking WAY too far outside the box.