fresh.

[cabrales]

Below are materials forward by a friend whom I have been attempting to recruit to the board (unsuccessfully, so far) and who follows new restaurant openings more closely:

"When Eric Tevrow lured Martin Burge from the chef de cuisine post at Gotham Bar & Grill to sign on at Fresh, his elegant new seafood restaurant, Tevrow sweetened the deal with something even better than prime Tribeca real estate: first dibs on the daily Eastern-seaboard catch, courtesy of Early Morning Seafood, Tevrow's wholesale purveyor to star chefs like Alain Ducasse and Gray Kunz. Burge makes the most of his inside sources with rillettes of gaspy cod and finnan haddie, Ipswich fried clams, 'Kobe beef' of bluefin toro, and an array of whimsically named 'prime cuts,' like baby-back halibut ribs steamed in kelp. Fellow Gotham alum Joseph Murphy dishes up seasonal desserts like wild-strawberry shortcake and warm blueberry financier.

105 Reade Street (between W Broadway and Church?)

212-406-1900"

[Bux]

Although an array of whimsically named 'prime cuts seems quite in keeping with current post nouvelle cuisine labeling trends I'd be curious to get some insight into what makes the bluefin tuna belly "Kobe" beef, as opposed to any other beef. Is this restaurant open already? I've not heard anything about it.

[cabrales]

Bux -- I'm uncertain whether Fresh has begun operations. I wonder if the use of the "Kobe beef" analogy to market tuna is merely a fancy way of referring to O Toro-grade fish.

[Bux]

I suspect it is, and I suspect some people will find it appropriately creative while others will see it as hype. My jury is still out on this. In fact, I will forgive almost all abuse if the food is good, although I had hoped to hear about salmon that were fed beer and massaged.

[cabrales]

Bux -- An interesting comparison, I imagine, might be Fresh versus Citarella, the Restaurant. Both presumably have access to first-rate fish and shellfish. Both chefs came from well-known restaurants (Gotham and, in the case of B Bistrong, Bouley, among other facilities).

[Rail Paul]

I walked down that block last Saturday, and didn't notice an open, new restaurant.

There was a place on the south side of the street with the windows soaped, and obvious work taking place. Almost on the corner of Church, diagonally opposite City Hall?

[cabrales]

Rail Paul -- I'm not sure. I believe my friend who forwarded the information to me heard it through some sort of update service regarding NYC developments. I'm inclined to sample Citarella The Restaurant before Fresh in any event, given a greater interest in Bouley than in Gotham.

[jordyn]

I had dinner at the new restaurant Fresh in TriBeCa this evening. The restaurant opened about two weeks ago, and is so new they still do not have a permanent sign, so this is obviously a preliminary look at the place, but I generally felt the meal was quite promising.

The chef at Fresh is Martin Burge, formerly the chef de cuisine at Gotham Bar and Grill. Burge is credited as a co-owner on the menu, although wait staff referred to Eric Tevrow as "the owner". Mr. Tevrow apparently also owns Early Morning Seafood, a wholesaler to a number of other high end restaurants. According to the menu, the goal of Fresh is "serving the finest seafood from the most pristine waters of the world."

The room at Fresh is modern and clearly intended to evoke the sea. The walls are painted in various tones of blue, and the chairs are a translucent white through which the light shines like water. The right wall curves inwards at the top, like an undersea grotto.

According to our waitress, the menu is intended to be "poetic" and is arranged somewhat unusually. Appetizers are divided into four categories, "absence of refinement" (raw dishes), "panacea" (cured), "freshet" (for seafood that lives in waters between the ocean and fresh water), and "new england classics". Main courses are described as being one of "prime cuts", "summer", "classics" or "lobster". Descriptions of several of the mains use language usually reserved for cuts of beef, such as "prime rib" or swordfish and "baby back" halibut ribs.

We sampled two appetizers: cod tongue and halibut cheeks with frisee, smoked bacon, figs and onion confit; and vittorio of big eye tuna with cucumber, radish, seaweed and citrus soy vinaigrette. Although both of these dishes were listed in the "absence of refinement" section of the menu, the tongue and cheek appetizer was served fried. This dish was very good--the tongue was slightly salty and had a flavor that reminded me somewhat of lamb, while the cheeks were very soft with a more typical light white fish flavor. The figs that accompanied this dish were small but exceptionally good, and proved a good match to the saltiness of the tongue and the batter. The tuna was an excellent piece of fish, rich and velvety on the palate. Unfortunately, the fish was easily overwhelmed by its accompaniments, which left me feeling that the dish was slightly out of balance.

Two mains were sampled as well. From the "prime cuts" section of the menu, grilled tournedo of majestic atlantic salmon and Japanese fugu (yep!) with Asian eggplant and carmelized trevisano. Although we ordered this dish due to the presence of the fugu, each of the components was excellent. The fugu had a slightly burnt flavor, but this appeared to be a characeristic of the fish as opposed to overcooking, as there was no evidence of burning and the texture seemed slightly firm, but yielding in the mouth. Also sampled was the seared bluefin "kobe" toro, with traditional kobe beef accompaniments: grated daikon radish, lemon, bitter greens, and buttered garlic rice. Well, that's what the menu said in any case; it turned out they were out of toro, so this was regular bluefin. Unfortunately, as a result, the fish, while excellent quality, was a bit boring and did not stand up to the rest of the plate. Interestingly, the chef apparently reccomends that the toro be cooked medium to medium-well in order to carmelize some of the marbled fat; my dish was served medium rare.

Desserts were credited to Joseph Murphy, also formerly of Gotham Bar and Grill, and also listed as a co-owner. Unfortunately, the two we sampled were unexceptional. The "black and white" creme brulee, apparently Mr. Murphy's standout dessert in his Gotham days, layered tahitian vanilla custard on top of chocolate pudding, did not feature particularly effective contrast between the flavors nor the same depth of creaminess that I prefer in creme brulee. A blueberry financier featured a compote of yuzu that brought out the sweet/acid balance of the fruit, and a refreshingly light thai basil sorbet. However, neither of these seemed like the right counterpoint for the blueberries, which were somewhat limp in comparison.

Service was good and fairly knowledgeable despite the recent opening. Appetizers and desserts came out from the kitchen very quickly, but the timing of the main course was more typical of the slightly slower dinner pacing that I would prefer. One service glitch: our meager plate of two mini biscotti and a single small piece of chocolate and hazelnut with sea salt was whisked away, untouched, at the same time as our dessert plates. (On a related note, no amuses were served.)

Wine service was only average; I felt that this was the area that our server demonstrated the least familiarity with the restaurant's food, although we did end up with a bottle of 2000 Brander Sauvignon Blanc that accompanied the food well. The wine list is fairly short and predominantly white, probably about 50-70 bottles, and about 10 wines by the glass. Wines are characterized by the environment in which they were grown, such as "coastal" or "hillside". Interestingly, although there were about fifteen dessert wine options by the half bottle, there appeared to be nothing by the glass (although port and grappa were available by the glass).

Overall, the fish tend to be of uniformly excellent quality. Some fine-tuning of the menu would probably help to move the fish into the starring role. A promising start, and I'm hoping to return in a while to see how the restaurant develops.

If anyone is interested, I have the entire menu and could type it in.

[cabrales]

jordyn -- When you have a chance, could you discuss whether "baby back halibut ribs" steamed in kelp are on the menu at Fresh? I like the "tongue in cheek" nature of some of the dish at this place already.

Also, what information did the restaurant provide regarding the fugu and what assurances (if any) were available that the fish served would not be poisonous? For example, where did the fugu comes from and what experience does the chef have preparing it? Did the fugu sting your tongue a bit? I have never sampled fugu, and will visit the restaurant when I have a chance.

[jordyn]

Cabrales: Regarding the fugu, our server indicated that the restaurant had to be specifically licensed to cut and serve fugu. I did not get into details of what the licensing or training process entailed. Fortunately, I did not die. I did perhaps notice some slight tingling on the tongue, but the effect was not very pronounced and may have been psychological.

The menu was indeed quite whimsical, and the "baby back ribs" of halibut were available, as were several other dishes that made analogies to beef dishes.

[cabrales]

Fortunately, I did not die.

jordyn -- That is indeed fortunate for you. Did your knowledge of fugu's poisonous nature appeal to you intellectually while you were sampling the item?

[jordyn]

Cabrales: I'm not sure "appeal" is the right word, but it did make me think quite a bit more about what I was eating than usual.

[grillboy]

After having read some good reviews of Fresh on this site I was very surprised at the mostly negative, slamming 1 star review the resatuarant was given in todays NY Post (pg. 39). Just curious if anyone who has eaten there has read today's review and agrees or disagrees with what was written.

[jordyn]

I think many of the critcisms are accurate, but considering that the restaurant opened about a month ago, a little unfair. I found our server to be reasonably knowledgeable about the menu, although in a fairly scripted sort of way. Still, she was able to answer all of the questions that we posed to her. I think we may have had the same server that Cuozzo describes having difficulty opening the bottle of wine--ours also struggled, briefly, with the cork.

The format of the menu, and meat-based descriptions of some of the dishes is certainly unusual; I did not find this particularly troublesome, although the categorization was perhaps slightly cuter than it needed to be.

Finally, regarding the food, I think that Cuozzo is correct that some of the accompaniments are a little off. Like him, I found the garlic rice to overpower the toro dish, for example. However, no one forces you to eat that stuff. I mostly just ignored it and enjoyed some excellent fish. Apparently the other factors described made it difficult for Cuozzo to do so; I suspect he would have had better luck if he waited a little longer for the restaurant to settle into its groove.

[jordyn]

I might disagree with Jordyn about being forced to eat the garnish. The level of any dish set before  me cannot rise much above the level of the lowest element on the plate. I'll frequently make my choice between pigeon and lamb, or cod and sea bass, on the basis of the accompaniments.

As a general concept, I absolutely agree with you--accompinaments often make or break a dish. However, in the case of Fresh, the fish seemed to me, and Cuozzo seemed to agree, of excellent quality and suitably prepared. It was enjoyable without the garnish; in fact, more enjoyable without the garnish than with. Does this mean the dish wouldn't have been improved if differently presented? No. But, if you ignore the rice, you still have a lovely piece of fish.

Indeed, in my notes on Fresh, I wrote: "Some fine-tuning of the menu would probably help to move the fish into the starring role." So, the criticism is not off base, but not as important in this case as it might be in some others.

[cabrales]

FG - I also have been enjoying Asimov's reviews the past few weeks, and agree with you about the lack of pretense.  A comment - The restaurant he reviewed this week (Fresh) has only been open for 6 weeks - do you think it is fair to review it so soon.  A couple of the dishes he mentioned - have since been removed from the menu or have been changed completely - He also had problems with the service.  Both of these seem like common occurrences with new restaurants, and could be corrected over time.

Fresh received two stars in an overall rather favorable review from E Asimov (with a little line "William Grimes is on leave"). After describing the fish cheeks appetizer and a change in the presentation format of the menu, Asimov notes "Fresh rises and falls on Mr. Burge's more personally expressive dishes". He observes that Burge "treats pieces of fish like meat", citing a "roasted prime rib of swordfish dish and Kobe toro. Overall, Asimov liked the food, although he did, as johnjohn noted, critize the service.

Interestingly, both Burge and fellow Gotham alum, pastry chef Joseph Murphy, are indicated to be part owners of Fresh.

[robert brown]

I have a table at Fresh ("We serve fish with attitude") on Duane Street for dinner tonight (8/31). Has anyone who has been there offer any advice, recommendations, or anti-recommendations?

[rozrapp]

Though I have not been there myself, I received this preview e-mail of the review by Adam Platt which will appear in the upcoming New York Magazine:

Review of Fresh

[robert brown]

Roz,

Thanks so much for posting the review. How do you get in advance? Maybe I will post something after my dinner.

[Fat Guy]

Robert, just go to:

http://nymetro.com/newsletters/ri-subscribe.htm

and subscribe to the free e-mail newsletter.

The New York Times does something similar, the difference being that New York Magazine sends out its e-mail newsletter a couple of days early and the New York Times sends its a day or two late.

Also here's what the Times said about Fresh:

http://www.nytimes.com/guests/nytoday/bin/...d=1029258343795

[Steve Plotnicki]

The fall dining season officially started last night when a group of eGulleters descended on one of the seasons hot new entries. Fresh is a large attractive room and features a glassed in kitchen at the back of the restaurant where you can watch the chefs perform. Upon entering, my "serious restaurant anntenae" went up as the place seemed to be too large to be able to serve discriminating food. And the clientele looked far too trendy and attractive as well. Never a good sign for hardcore foodies. But I said what the hell, it's only fish, maybe they will pull it off.

After a table switch (my specialty), we attacked a menu that was deep in choices for both appetizers and entrees. But it only took a quick glance to divide the menu into interesting selections and ordinary ones. Within moments I put together a tasting menu and summoned our waitress. After a little toing and froing, where the waitress put up some slight resistance to the concept of a tasting menu based on our choices, we finally coaxed her to have a pow wow with the chef and as I suspected, she returned to tell us no problem.

We started with the Halibut Cheeks with Sauteed Foie Gras, a preparation I had interest in as one of my great fish experiences of all time is the Goujonettes of Sole with Foie Gras at Pont Alma in Paris. Not surprisingly this was reminiscent of that dish with the exception being the consistancy of the stringy, skate-like halibut cheeks. The flavor of the dish was pleasant, especially the quality of the foie which was teriific. But the flavors lacked harmony. There was some missing element that the morning after I am realizing is the fish not being dressed with the reduction from the foie. This just tasted like fish stacked on foie. Good idea, mediocre follow through. We continued on with Cod Tongues and Duck Breast. The cod tongues were much less controversial then I thought they were going to be. Had I not known, I wouldn't have known . But the dish suffered from the same problems the first dish suffered from. The various ingredients didn't seem to be bound together into one unifying fish. They were just piled atop each other. With these courses we drank a 1983 Trimbach Riesling Cuvee Frederich Emile which was a little long in the tooth. Other bottles I've had over the last 6 months were drinking at their peak. But this one had lost a significant amount of fruit and was drying out.

We continued with what is becoming the restaurants signature dish, a block of Kobe Tuna served over Garlic Rice with grated Daikon (mixed with a little horseradish) on top. Now here was a dish you could make a name for yourself with in this town if you could pull it off. But unfortunately it suffered from the same lack of harmony that I found in the first two dishes. The gently flavored daikon was too watery and completed coated the small block of toro to the point where it couldn't be seen. And then the toro (which I thought was a bit overcooked) sat on a mound of glorious, satiny and buttery garlic rice. But there wasn't any consistancy from top to bottom. It just tasted like three different flavors piled atop each other. We finished with a simple Roasted Nova Scotia Lobster served with Chanterelles, Fingerlings and Corn. I thought this was the best dish of the evening, disappointingly so because it was so obvious. However the lobster was cooked perfectly and the flavors all blended together and it actually tasted like a complete dish, not just a great concept on paper that had less then perfect execution. With these dishes we drank 1989 Raveneau Chablis Montee de Tonnerre and it was a pleasure to drink. Surely at the peak of its powers. I had the Roasted Peaches with a Peach Cheescake for dessert which was perfectly fine but really just another dessert to add to my list of perectly fine but less then wowing desserts.

So I found Fresh to be a big disappointment. From reading Adam Platt's review on the New York Today site, I thought they were going to offer serious food and make a run at being one of the cities best fish restaurants. In fact when you look at the menu, it has all the indicia that it could possibly be the case. But in my opinion the owners made a choice about who their customers were going to be and they decided to make the place hip and trendy instead of making it a serious food place for lovers of fine food. And that's fine for the hip and trendy because this is top quality food for that type of place. But truly serious eaters need not bother trying Fresh. Unless they happen to be dating a model.

[LaNiña]

Also wanted to add that I had the fig tart, which was undercooked - the fruit wasn't soft enough, and the flavors did not have a chance to come together.

And there were a couple of tables of people who were dressed so inappropriately (I know, I know) I of course had to comment.

[macrosan]

Had I not known, I wouldn't have known

OK Steve, either you use that as your signature line, or I will

I enjoyed the review. Is "Kobe tuna" simply a marketing attempt to rank their tuna alongside "Kobe beef" in terms of exclusivity and price ? I've never heard of it before.

Your comments on creating a "unified" dish out of separate ingredients (or rather Fresh's failure to do so) are interesting. There are times when I want this, but other times when I enjoy a variety of contrasting textures and flavors in the elements of a dish. I suppose the classic example of contrast is the marriage of beef with English mustard or horseradish.

But you're obviously right in that when an accompaniment (say a vegetable) doesn't "match" a main ingredient, it certainly shows up, but I wonder if that is one of those "acquired taste" issues. I remember having squab with beetroot at Babbo, and at first taste reacted strongly against it; but after a couple of mouthfuls, I found it to be an excellent match.

I'll have to ponder that....

[LaNiña]

Whoever the frig that is.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Macrosan - I wasn't commenting on contrasting flavors. The flavor combinations were all fine. In fact, they were exceptionally well thought out. I was commenting more on the follow through like the halibut cheeks being sort of dryish while the foie was buttery and juicy. If you are going to pair the two, especially pile one on the other, you need to get the consistancy right. And the dish would have worked better if they cooked the halibut cheeks, or dressed them afterwards, with something that made the surface of the cheeks have the same fatty glaze that the foie had.