Restaurants worth visiting again and again
Sometimes I have to remind myself that I don’t eat like everyone else. The average person, maybe even the average New Yorker, might go to the same restaurants over and over again, throwing in a new dining spot every few months.
I am in perpetual pursuit of novelty. And, my dear readers, I’d love to move you in my direction. Outside my comfort zone, I’ve discovered new favorites and developed a far more discerning palate. I’m not so easily impressed anymore, and I’m a better diner for it.
A good place to start your journey to enlightenment? Restaurants where the menu is always changing; it’s like listening to a new album by a band you already love. Here are three spots worth the listen.
The first thing you need to know about Confidant is that it’s in Industry City. The second thing is that it’s a fine-dining restaurant. Industry City is known for many things — furniture outlets, Japan Village, Sahadi’s — but fine dining has never come to mind.
And yet, it works at Confidant, where for the length of your meal, you’ll forget that you’re adjacent to Brooklyn’s only Costco. Since March, the chefs Daniel Grossman and Brendan Kelley have been spinning up a seasonal, date-stamped menu in a space that’s longer than it is wide. Current menu highlights include a slice of sourdough dressed with piped trout mousse, little clumps of trout roe and dill; the chicory salad with wild rice; the sweet and salty beets and boquerones; and the prawn potpie, which is every bit as visually arresting as you might imagine. Confidant also has a dedicated pastry program — thank you — run by Mariah Neston, an alum of Le Rock. Go for the malted mille-feuille.
67 35th Street, Building #5 (Third Avenue)
Borgo
It should come as no surprise that Andrew Tarlow’s first Manhattan restaurant has an ever-changing menu. After all, this is the man who brought us Roman’s, where the menu changes every single day except for the fava bean purée, which will outlive us all. Borgo remains nearly impossible to get into for dinner, but the good news is that you can now stop by for lunch. (I unknowingly showed up for day one of lunch service this week.)
You can already see how the menu has transformed since our own Melissa Clark reviewed the restaurant this winter. The fried delicata squash rings are gone, and a bright green spring pea risotto is on offer. They squeezed as much as they could out of the citrus salad and replaced it with the more meaty and briny Insalata Borgo, flecked with salami, sliced hard-boiled eggs and olives. But the gargantuan fennel sausage in a pool of Umbrian lentils remains unchanged, as does the chocolatey Sachertorte and the impeccable service of a Tarlow joint.
My favorite kind of restaurant is the kind that nobody really talks about anymore. Once upon a time, they were “hot” or “vibey,” but now they’re just well-worn and reliable. A few members of this esteemed club? Locanda Verde, Golden Diner and La Mercerie, which has had the same chef, Marie Aude-Rose, since it opened in 2017 as the restaurant inside the furniture and design store Roman and Williams Guild.
Except unlike, say, the RH restaurant, the food is as well-appointed and as lovely as the environs. Ms. Aude-Rose changes the menu in the same way many stylish people tend to dress: uniform with a few changing details. Currently on the menu (thanks to the restaurant’s ongoing celebration of citrus): cold, snappy haricots topped with bergamot zest; a spartan but attractive arrangement of Montauk shrimp with grapefruit, orange blossom vinaigrette and half an avocado; and the best citrus-pickled beets dish I’ve had in quite some time. All those plus the salmon on a crackly crepe, and the warm chocolate chip-hazelnut cookie with a scoop of ice cream … I might just have to go back tonight.
One Reader Question
Now that we have warmer weather I’m looking forward to walks on the High Line. What casual sit-down restaurants would you recommend at either end or the middle of the High Line? — Jo Anne G.
Your question arrived in my inbox right on time. This past weekend I dropped by the Whitney Museum of American Art, located at the very end of the High Line (or is it the start?), to check out the Amy Sherald exhibit. After about two hours of ogling, nothing is better than grabbing a table at Frenchette Bakery on the ground floor of the museum. Don’t let the bakery part fool you, this is a full-service restaurant. Order the creamy mushroom spaghetti with miso butter and garlic, and a side of fries. Then get a couple of scones and cookies for the road.
99 Gansevoort Street, First Floor (Washington Street)
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