Gramercy Tavern 2007

[ulterior epicure]

Coconut tapioca soup with cilantro syrup and passion-fruit sorbet has been a signature Gramercy Tavern dessert for many years. You can find the recipe on Page 109 of Claudia Fleming's 2001 book, "The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern," and I have notes from a meal at Gramercy Tavern in July of 1998 indicating that the dessert was a signature at that time. I mention this because, while I agree this is one of the best pastry items in town, thus far I have been overall disappointed with the new desserts at Gramercy Tavern under the Anthony-Olson regime.

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Thanks for letting me know, FG. I didn't know (as this was my first visit and I don't owns said cookbook) that the Coconut Tapioca is a signature dessert. It is wonderful.

The bonus, of course, is that now I can *try* to recreate it at home.

[ulterior epicure]

I would be curious to know, FG, what you think is particularly weak about the desserts at Gramercy Tavern now (under Olson)?

I'll have to say that nothing we got was particularly innovative - all pretty much standard favorites given slight tweaks - chocolate bread pudding, financier with strawberries (recalling strawberry shortcake), and a fruit tart... but they were all very well-made and satisfying - and somewhat interesting (e.g. I especially like the blackberry lime ice cream and the mint ice cream taken together with a slightly warm blackberry and nectarine tartlet.

Edited: Correction on the spelling of Ms. Olson's name.

Edited September 27, 2007 by ulterior epicure (log)

[Fat Guy]

Too many of the desserts just haven't done it for me. What I said above was "Nancy Olson's desserts are good, but she hasn't come out swinging the way Michael Anthony has. Many of the desserts I've tried still need work. It's a question of the combinations and overall compositions, not the components. Everything I've tried has been technically excellent, especially the ice creams, however the overall effect of, for example, the chocolate peanut butter cake with frozen milk, which I've now tried twice, is too sticky and dry."

[ulterior epicure]

Too many of the desserts just haven't done it for me. What I said above was "Nancy Olson's desserts are good, but she hasn't come out swinging the way Michael Anthony has. Many of the desserts I've tried still need work. It's a question of the combinations and overall compositions, not the components. Everything I've tried has been technically excellent, especially the ice creams, however the overall effect of, for example, the chocolate peanut butter cake with frozen milk, which I've now tried twice, is too sticky and dry."

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From the four I sampled on this one visit, I would disagree. I actually liked the combinations and compositions of all four. Again, nothing terribly groundbreaking - ice creams tended to mirror the main item - but I thought everything melded together nicely. If anything, some of the pairings were predictable. But, it's just the slight tweaking of each - like the rhubarb financier with slivered almonds, slightly sweetened strawberries and strawberry ice cream (a gussied-up strawberry shortcake) - which made them truly enjoyable for me.

We weren't served the chocolate peanut butter cake that you mention.

Edited September 27, 2007 by ulterior epicure (log)

[SobaAddict70]

Dinner at GT last night with friends.

Baby Japanese eggplant amuse with horseradish

Calamari and carrot salad with toasted pine nuts and Meyer lemon viniagrette

Lobster ravioli, lobster roe, scallions

Smoked trout, celery root puree and pickled onion viniagrette

Quail, caramelized corn and house-cured bacon

Rack of veal, warm Sungold tomatoes and lima beans

Baby romaine lettuce, string bean salad, pickled Swiss chard and bacon

Corn soup, oyster mushrooms and lobster

Risotto with heirloom tomatoes and tomato jam

Warm salad of autumn vegetables and farro

Mushroom ravioli, trumpet royale mushrooms and aged balsamic

Coconut tapioca, passion fruit sorbet, tuile, cilantro syrup

Shushan Snow, Mont St. Francis and one other cheese whose name escapes me

Chocolate semifreddo

Apple cranberry nut tart, cinnamon ice cream

Standouts for me were the corn soup, the lobster ravioli, the trout and the quail, the tomato risotto and the mushroom ravioli. We drank a 2003 Colin Puligny. Cocktails are varied and interesting. Much better than my last visit a year ago and farther along than in 2002. Salt was, interestingly enough, on the table. The decor has changed for the better.

Out of 10? For those of you playing along, I would say a solid 8 based on one meal though that rating is subject to change. Summer's long reach is fading, though we're hanging by a hair's breadth. It'll be interesting to see how the menu evolves as autumn progresses into winter.

Well worth a return visit -- and soon.

Edited October 2, 2007 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[ulterior epicure]

I just received the November issue of Food + Wine and there's an article about Nancy Olson (pg. 139) and her North Dakota roots. The article includes five recipes - including a "Gingerbread with Quark Cheesecake" that actually sounds good to me, a generally cheesecake-avoidant person.

[Fat Guy]

The private dining room ("PDR" in the restaurant's vernacular) at Gramercy Tavern is one of the most enjoyable dining spaces in town. It's a room off to the side of the Tavern grill area with a long wooden table that seats about 20 people (though I think it's possible to cram 24 in there, if I remember correctly). The decor is a microcosm of the larger restaurant, but it all seems more elegant in the PDR, and the centerpiece on the PDR table, incorporating seasonal produce, is always beautiful. Over the years I've had five or six occasions to attend PDR functions, however a couple of days ago I had my first PDR experience under the Michael Anthony regime.

The occasion for this meal was that ViniPortugal, in combination with a couple of other Portuguese groups, is putting on a series of media wine tastings in various US cities as part of a new marketing effort. I was lucky enough to be invited to the New York event, and luckier still that it involved a meal in the PDR at Gramercy Tavern.

Before lunch we tasted 12 Portuguese wines, mostly reds, with the guidance of Portuguese winemaker and consultant Rui Reguinga. While I wasn't terribly impressed by the wines overall, there was one that I thought was fantastic and another that was close. Actually, there were several good wines but most of the good wines were not interesting -- they were technically correct wines in the international style with too-high price tags. It's good to know that Portugal can make wines at that level, but I think the world is already overpopulated with them and it's not like Portugal is competing on price -- you'd have to give me a really good reason to buy a $50+ bottle of Portuguese wine when I can get wines in that style for less money from several other countries.

The one wine I tasted where I was eager to run out and spend my own money was the 2005 Touriga Nacional from Quinta Dos Roques. It retails for $30 and it's well worth it. This was a unique, unusual, varietal wine (100% Touriga Nacional) with plentiful but not absurd fruit, deep structure, and a finish that was surprisingly long, then even more surprising as it went on and on. I must really like this grape variety, because the one other wine I thought was a true standout when taking price into consideration also turns out to be made from Touriga Nacional: a $13 rose from Quinta Da Alorna. Strawberry and other berry flavors dominated, great acidity, a rose for drinking year-round.

We vacated the PDR for a few minutes while the Gramercy Tavern team took down the projection equipment and reset the table for the meal, and we had cocktails at the bar. We were served a "Portonic" made with white port. I don't like white port, and I don't like anything made with it, so that's that. Some other people loved the cocktail.

The meal started with marinated calamari with preserved Meyer lemon and toasted pine nuts. I've had this dish once before, or at least one almost exactly like it, and I loved it again. The calamari is cut into julienne strips and lightly coated with the dressing. It's very tender, and happens to go very well with Portuguese white wines.

Then we had "lightly smoked lobster" with cauliflower puree and scallion sauce. As I understand it, what Mike Anthony does with this dish is he creates a smoked beurre blanc then seals that in a sous-vide bag with the lobster. The smoke flavor penetrates the lobster that way -- the lobster itself doesn't see the inside of a smoker. This was a great dish, not least because it was one of the handful of not-overcooked lobster dishes I've had in New York in the past few years. For me, lobster (and shrimp and other crustaceans) are properly cooked when they're still just a little bit translucent at the center. Almost nobody does lobster this way, but this dish nailed it. And for 20 people at once -- that's the beauty of sous-vide cookery for you right there. This is the second time I've had a dish along these lines at Gramercy. Last time it was with a fennel puree and pomegranate sauce. I wouldn't choose one over the other.

The main course was lamb cooked two ways: braised shoulder and roasted rack, with butternut squash and Swiss chard. Neither of the two preparations was exactly what you might expect. The piece of rack was a slice of a cylinder of just meat that had been removed from the bone. Mike Anthony's argument for doing it this way is that it allows them to cook it evenly all around the cylinder, and that's true. While I have a general preference for meat on the bone, this was one instance where off the bone works better. Pieces of the braised shoulder meat (along with a nice amount of fat) were formed into a larger cylinder. It was hard to decide which was better. I can't say I think butternut squash was the best choice for a veg here -- it sent the dish overall too much in the sweet direction for my tastes -- but the Swiss chard brought it back a little bit and it was, overall, a winning dish.

If you're keeping count, there were four additional wines served with those three courses (a white with each of the seafood courses, and two reds with the lamb).

Then we had a tasting of four Ports with three Portuguese cheeses. I suppose because this presentation was marketing-oriented, the Ports we tried were all ones that are available at retail. So, no older stuff. By far the best Port of the tasting was the 2003 Quinta Do Noval. Even though it's young, and even though it's ferociously strong in every way, it's still entirely drinkable.

For dessert, chocolate praline mousse with mocha ice cream. A subtle dessert, but one of the better ones I've had at Gramercy lately.

All in all, an excellent meal. I had been wondering how Mike Anthony's food would translate into the PDR format, and it made the transition without a hitch. It's nice to know that you can get food in a banquet setting that's fully as good as what Gramercy serves in the main room. In general, when I heard Mike Anthony was coming to Gramercy, my main concern was that the size of the operation wouldn't be suited to his style, but more and more it seems clear that he's managed to pull it off. When I see the plates come out, it's hard to believe I'm at a restaurant that's doing 300 covers, or at a 20-person banquet.

[ulterior epicure]

Then we had "lightly smoked lobster" with cauliflower puree and scallion sauce. As I understand it, what Mike Anthony does with this dish is he creates a smoked beurre blanc then seals that in a sous-vide bag with the lobster. The smoke flavor penetrates the lobster that way -- the lobster itself doesn't see the inside of a smoker. This was a great dish, not least because it was one of the handful of not-overcooked lobster dishes I've had in New York in the past few years. For me, lobster (and shrimp and other crustaceans) are properly cooked when they're still just a little bit translucent at the center. Almost nobody does lobster this way, but this dish nailed it. And for 20 people at once -- that's the beauty of sous-vide cookery for you right there. This is the second time I've had a dish along these lines at Gramercy. Last time it was with a fennel puree and pomegranate sauce. I wouldn't choose one over the other.

Great report, FG. Thanks.

So that's how they do it...

[Bueno]

In my view, Chef Anthony is one of the true maestros cooking in NYC. I suppose the decor/service aren't quite Michelin 2*, but I feel the food certainly is.

[Fat Guy]

We had a world-class, category-beating meal at Gramercy Tavern this evening: the best meal I've had at the restaurant, and one of the best meals in the New American style that I've had anywhere.

We were a party of eight, and as several of our group were from overseas (Scotland) I asked for a meal that reflected New York, the region and the country. While this is the default state for Gramercy Tavern anyway, the meal we had was more specifically calibrated to the request than a randomly ordered meal would have been.

Mike Anthony did two menus, each with five savory courses, and they were served to alternating people around the table -- so we all shared and got to taste ten dishes (in addition to various amuses, cheeses and desserts). This was a special meal, arranged in advance, however I believe most every dish we had came from one or another of the regular Gramercy Tavern menus, be it the main dinner menu, a tasting menu or, I think in one case, the lunch menu. There may have been some minor tweaks, but you should be able to walk in and order this stuff.

With our amuses and first courses our captain, Steven Solomon, offered the Lieb sparkling Pinot Blanc, 2003, from the North Fork of Long Island. It was an eye opener not only for our Scottish friends, but also for a couple of the American doubters in the group. One of the amuses was a Fishers Island oyster topped with a touch of mustard-seed vinaigrette, and I can't imagine it could have gone better with any other bubbly from anywhere at any price.

The two first courses were, for one group, tuna and beet tartare with radish and hazelnuts and, for the other group, foie gras torchon with roasted pear and pear chutney. Gramercy Tavern has always had a great tuna tartare of one kind or another, but this preparation really blew me away. It's a counterintuitive move: the tuna and beets are cut to the same size dice, their colors (especially in low restaurant lighting) are virtually indistinguishable, and their textures are both yielding. It's an anti-contrast -- very interesting in the mouth. The hazelnuts and radishes add counterpoint in the way of crunch. The foie gras torchon would have been the highlight of many meals I've had in my life, but here it was just a palate cleanser. The torchon was correct, and the two pear preparations were spot on, especially the slightly spicy chutney.

Next, cod with zucchini puree and avocado squash; and Spanish mackerel with Brussels sprouts and chestnut sauce. Avocado squash is a type of squash the slices of which actually look, to me, more like Granny Smith apple slices than either squash or avocado. Paired with zucchini puree and a piece of uncommonly moist cod, it made for a buttery-textured but very light-seeming dish. The Spanish mackerel was quite mildly flavored, but had just the right amount of mackerel character to support the mini Brussels sprouts and chestnut sauce. With those two dishes we had, again at our captain's suggestion (he wound up choosing all our beverages, so I won't repeat it), the Rkatsiteli (that's a type of grape) from the inimitable house of Dr. Konstantin Frank, 2006, from the Finger Lakes upstate. Spice isn't an adjective I typically associate with whites, but this one had plenty. It also had overt pineapple notes and good acidity. A special, interesting, different wine. Not at all rustic, either -- this was a clean, modern wine, just not in the generic sense.

For the third savory course: smoked trout with sunchoke puree and pickled onion vinaigrette; and blackfish with pumpkin seeds, spaghetti squash and Sherry sauce. The lightly smoked trout being served at Gramercy Tavern is one of the best pieces of fish being served anywhere. (As I've mentioned in other posts, you can get this same trout at the Union Square Greenmarket, albeit not smoked.) It is simplicity itself, just slightly improved by a brief sojourn with applewood smoke, the creamy sunchoke puree and the acidity of pickled onion vinaigrette. The blackfish, too, was a triumph of texture -- this is a fish that deserves a wider audience -- and the pumpkin seeds and Sherry added significant complexity to the dish (the spaghetti squash didn't add much of anything). This course was paired with one of the most unusual wines I've tasted since visiting the Jura in France almost a decade ago. If you've had Vin Jaune, you know where this is going, but this wine was in a much milder -- yet equally intriguing -- style. From the Channing Daughters in Bridgehampton, on Long Island, I believe this wine was called "Mosaico." It's a Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc/Tocai Friulano/Pinot Grigio mix from the 2005 vintage. It flattered each dish in a different way: the smokiness of the trout and the acidity of the pickled onion vinaigrette braided themselves around this slightly (intentionally) oxidized wine to create surprising harmony, while the pumpkin seed bite from the blackfish dish pulled out different flavors from the same wine (the Sherry notes also meshed well with this wine, which was a bit Sherry-like). This was one of those meal moments when you don't want to talk to anybody, listen to anybody or have anything else happen to distract you from savoring the experience.

Next, lightly smoked lobster with cauliflower puree and scallion sauce; and veal cappellacci with cauliflower and sage. I suppose if you actually know something about pasta-making technique you'll say there's a difference between cappellacci and tortellini. As a simplified way of understanding this dish, though, think tortellini stuffed with shredded braised veal, plus cauliflower and sage. I've spoken about the lobster before -- it's great. With this course we had little glasses of beer -- a great move as there would have been no way to follow the Channing Daughters with any other white wine, and red would not have worked with the lobster. The beer, Post Road Brooklyn Pumpkin Ale, was a great transition and reacted particularly well with the smoke aromatics of the lobster. Of course it was delicious with the veal tortellini, um, cappellacci, but what wouldn't be?

Last savory course: hanger steak and braised short rib with Tuscan bean puree, Brussels sprouts and black olives; and rack of pork and braised belly with baby turnips and Adirondack blue potatoes. These dishes were as good as they sound. They were paired faultlessly with the Paumanok Grand Vintage 2000, a Cabernet Sauvignon from the North Fork of Long Island that is fully as good as, and just as uninteresting as, a typical $40 (retail) California Cabernet Sauvignon. The only thing interesting about the experience was seeing that this uninteresting style of wine can be made on Long Island. Compared to the full-of-character wines we'd had up until this point, though, it seemed so ordinary.

We had a selection of seven North American cheeses, no I don't remember what they all were, with two vintage beers: the Brooklyn Monster Ale from 2001, and the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout from 2003-4 (made during the winter that lies between those years). The Moster Ale was a triumph: a great cheese wine. The chocolate stout was a bit much.

The signature tapioca with cilantro syrup was our pre-dessert, and then we had two superb desserts. This was the first time under the new regime that I've had desserts that I felt were on par with what Claudia Fleming was doing back in the day. Different style, but at that level. The two desserts we had were, first, pumpkin cheesecake with spiced Cranberries and lime sherbet and, second, warm chocolate bread pudding with cacao nib ice cream. I had my doubts when I heard pumpkin cheesecake -- it's not a dessert that I'd have thought capable of refinement to Gramercy Tavern standards -- but it worked completely. Not at all leaden -- fluffy, almost -- and the cranberries kept the cheesecake from feeling too overwhelmingly creamy. Lime sherbert was a nice, unexpected touch. The bread pudding had deep chocolate flavor and the exact right bread-pudding texture -- soft and pliable without being mush -- and the cacao nib ice cream at Gramercy Tavern may be the ultimate expression of vanilla chocolate chip ice cream I've seen to date. All this went quite well with a Paumanok late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc, which was a much more interesting wine than the other Paumanok. Still, what I think I learned from this tasting is that Paumanok wines, while technically correct, aren't my first choice among New York wine options.

Finally, in the history of Gramercy Tavern I've never until tonight been impressed by the bread service. Tonight, for the first time in my experience, the rolls arrived warm. There were three superb choices of bread, including a salty green-olive roll with huge chunks of olive in it. Aside from an aesthetically unpleasant butter presentation (the pieces look like they were cut from supermarket butter quarters), the bread service was at long last worthy of the Gramercy Tavern name.

[Fat Guy]

I misidentified the Channing Daughters wine as "Mosaico." The wine we had was actually their "Meditazione." Here's a link to the producer's description. Mike Anthony provided the following details in an email earlier today:

It is a blend of Tocai Friulano, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio,

Muscat Ottonel, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier...with small amounts of

Semillion and Malvasia Blanca.  This blend mimics the blended wines of

Friuli-Venezia Giulia and spends 13 months in large Slovenian Oak casks

called "Hogsheads".  Its ironic that Christopher Tracy feels strongly

that the aromatics in this wine can stand up to many pork dishes.  You

may get a sense of bias in my support for his wines...he is my

brother-in-law.  Having said that, they are experiencing an impressive

learning curve and really contributing to the overall, increasing

interest in LI wines.

[Fat Guy]

I now have the pumpkin cheesecake recipe and am going to experiment with it for Thanksgiving. If I can make it work at home (definitely in a simplified version) I'll share the instructions.

[kathryn]

I've written up a report on a Greenmarket tour and lunch, lead by Michael Anthony, here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=109765

[Fat Guy]

We were back at Gramercy Tavern last night with some friends who were in from Nashville, and as luck would have it we were at a corner table where I didn't feel the use of flash would disturb anyone (especially since the restaurant was pretty raucous already, this being holiday season and all). Not that the flash resulted in good photos, but at least for informational purposes you can see a lot of the dishes I've talked about in my last few posts.

There were four of us and we had a split tasting. For one tasting I'd made a request in advance for a pesce-vegetarian tasting with no mollusks, and for the other tasting (the omnivore tasting) we left it to the chef's discretion. These are all dishes from the various Gramercy Tavern menus -- some are from the tasting menus and some are split portions of regular menu items. The only items from this menu that you couldn't get if you walked into Gramercy Tavern today as a stranger to the restaurant would be the two soigne amuse platters, which you kind of have to work up to over multiple visits (though if you asked for them the kitchen would probably be so amused that they'd pull something together).

So, about those two amuses. For the omnivores, a Fishers Island oyster with pickled mustard seeds, a slice of foie gras torchon topped with pears, and a slice of duck terrine with onion and pistachio marmalade (the duck terrine is a miniature representation of a regular menu item) :

For the pesce-vegetarians, an amuse of Thumbalina carrot with house-made lemon ricotta, beet-and-radish skewers, and cauliflower soup:

For the first course, smoked trout with sunchoke puree and pickled onions. I've already raved about this product and preparation, and I was really glad our friend -- who was new to Mike Anthony's cooking -- was very impressed by it. I really think this is one of the best dishes in town right now:

And the tuna-and-beet tartare with hazelnuts:

Next, Nantucket bay scallops with lentils, pickled mushrooms and salsify. The pickled mushrooms really elevated the dish:

Poached lobster with cauliflower puree and ginger-leek sauce:

Then, grouper with trumpet royale mushrooms. I thought this was a beautiful preparation, the only problem being that the next dish down (the blackfish) was on the table at the same time and if you tried to migrate from that one to this one it overwhelmed the grouper!

The blackfish with spaghetti squash, pumpkin seeds and Sherry sauce, also described in earlier posts:

Then a pasta course. Veal cappellacci with cauliflower and sage:

And mushroom ravioli with chanterelles and aged balsamico:

I've been noticing that Mike Anthony has been putting out a lot of pastas, and his kitchen is very good at it. If you take all the menus together, there are four house-made pastas coming off the line each day (the two above plus a black tagliatelle with calamari, chorizo and mussels; and a pappardelle with beef ragu and scallions), as well as a risotto, plus there's the calamari salad that looks like pasta. I think we're almost at the point where I'm going to go in there one day and try to talk my way into a pasta tasting menu.

For the last savory course, we had a second split in the tasting. So the pesce-vegetarians got striped bass with cauliflower, matsutake mushrooms and heirloom beans:

And one of us omnivores got caramelized duck breast and leg confit, braised fennel, Swiss chard and parsnip puree:

While the other got lamb with cranberry beans and broccoli puree:

Cheese service included two types of lightly toasted bread, and two excellent condiments: borage honey (I think that's what they said) and preserved cherries.

Dessert amuse of "hot fudge sundaes," aka vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and cherries:

This is the pumpkin cheesecake with spiced cranberries and lime sorbet that I've been raving about. I have the recipe now but it's in kitchen-speak and I need to fool around with it for about a year before I can post a home version:

This was my favorite dessert of the evening, a pineapple upside-down cake with yogurt sorbet:

A correct chocolate tart with poached pears and pear sorbet, not terribly exciting but tasty:

We were divided on this Earl Gray creme caramel with Satsuma oranges, two of us loved it and thought it was wonderfully subtle, two of us thought it was bland. I was one of the favorable votes.

Really strong petits-fours including pumpkin marshmallows, lemon pastries and peanut-butter chocolates:

The food was outstanding and error-free last night, which was especially an accomplishment given that the restaurant was totally slammed. At the end of the evening (we closed the place) Mike Anthony told us they'd done 210 in the dining room and more than 100 in the Tavern, with a lot of tastings, celebrations, etc., and he was beaming as he described how the kitchen team pulled together. He's been there just about a year now, so that's a very respectable accomplishment. The service team, unfortunately, didn't hold up as well under the pressure. I felt that the service, which is usually rock-solid reliable, was disjointed and that communication was awkward.

In terms of wine, we asked our captain to do by-the-glass pairings and he came up with some good choices on a very reasonable budget, but I didn't record all the wines so I can't go into all that much detail on that aspect of the evening -- it was a social occasion and I was already geeking out too much with the camera so I wasn't about to start writing down wines.

[Edited to correct some errors in dish descriptions]

Edited December 1, 2007 by Fat Guy (log)

[BryanZ]

In search of a festive, pre-Christmas meal with the family last night, Gramercy Tavern immediately came to mind. I had not yet sampled Chef Anthony's cooking here and this night seemed an opportune time make a visit. In the end I came away very impressed with the potential for Chef Anthony's cooking--some dishes were most excellent--but still felt that this is a restaurant with some minor weak spots. With that said, if asked to choose between this meal and, say, a tasting menu at Daniel that I enjoyed several weeks back, I would choose this one. While I recognize that the food at Daniel and other top old guard restaurants may be better and more polished overall, I would rather have a meal like this that hits new and unexpected highs.

Getting into Gramercy Tavern on the Friday before Christmas was easier said than done since I called less than a week ahead of time. Naturally I was relegated to the waiting list but through persistence in calling back to check for cancellations everyday, I eventually scored a great 8:30 reservation. Nestled into a booth in the otherwise bustling restaurant all was well.

Naturally we chose the tasting menu and appreciated the flexibility afforded to us. Our captain was great, very engaging as the restaurant's vibe dictates, and the backwait generally competent and well-meaning. Cocktails were nice--worth ordering, which can't be said of many other restaurants--and I loved the "taste" option for wines by the glass.

By far the weakest parts of the meal were its beginning and end. The amuse was a perfunctory and difficult to eat pork terrine served on a too-hard crouton. This was fine, porky, but I'd expect something of this nature to be served with bread along with the butter. It wasn't really a proper amuse and was much too rich to stimulate the palate. Similarly, desserts were competent but otherwise completely unremarkable. A chocolate encased semifreddo was much too hard in texture and was pretty much ice cream with praline chunks. Fine, but not something I'd ever seek out. A fruit tart was better but not out of the realm of the accomplished home cook. I chose a selection of three cheeses to finish my meal and enjoyed my selections. My only complaint here is that they keep one of the boards--the one I was presumably served from--right near the oven pass. I felt the cheeses were too warm because of this. The highlight of the post-savory portion of the meal was the storied passion fruit-coconut tapioca-cilantro syrup pre-dessert. One of my party considered simply asking for another portion in lieu of a larger dessert.

The savory portion of the meal, especially the first four courses, was really excellent. A rather unassuming calamari and carrot salad was a study in balanced, nearly Jean Georges-esque--sour, sweet--flavors. The Nantucket Bay scallop dish was unequivocally the best of the evening. I loved this dish--the scallops were perfect and the lightly pickled salsify added just enough acid and texture for brightness. One diner asked to try the smoked lobster dish in lieu of the scallops, but we all agreed that the scallop dish absolutely smoked (no pun intended) the lobster one. The latter was quite tasty but not more than the sum of its parts. The smoked trout, too, was a killer dish. I loved the use of pickled onions to balance the creaminess and faint smoke of the fish. The texture was unreal too.

The quail was perhaps not as good as the two dishes that preceded it, but was still an excellent first meat course. The meat itself was perfectly cooked and tender, but it was the cinderella squash puree topped with a poached quail egg that stole the dish. The yolk added such an appealingly subtle unctuousness to the puree that I'm going to start adding egg yolk to my winter purees. The rack of veal and pork loin with pork belly were to be our main courses. One diner subbed out of the veal for the pork, and here I enjoyed the pork more. Both of these dishes, however, were fundamentally great pieces of roasted meat with smart but not uncommon accompaniments. Chanterelles, Asian pear, blue potatoes were all welcome supporting players but failed to lift the dishes.

All in all, a very nice meal that actually exceeded my expectations. It's difficult to come up with a comprehensive rating for a restaurant like this because while I believe the food can be 3+ star quality, there were some lower points. This isn't to say, however, that GTav won't be a restaurant I will recommend heartily and return to.

[Fat Guy]

(This topic continues on the Gramercy Tavern 2008 topic)