Lately I have been slightly obsessed with the idea of eating locally and seasonally. When I read
Frank Bruni’s review of what was at the time
Park Avenue Autumn, it sounded like just my thing. The restaurant undergoes a complete makeover every season, from the decor to the menu. Although the food is not necessarily local, the idea is that they feature exclusively seasonal products. By the time my birthday rolled around, it was
Park Avenue Spring. I was very excited about our meal there, and had some high expectations. Luckily, my expectations were not just met, but exceeded.
Our server was very helpful, and, even though it wasn’t listed on the menu, she told me that the kitchen could prepare a vegetable sample for me as a main course, comprised of several of the vegetable sides together on one plate (pictured below, more on that later). To begin with we were given a plate of several different breads and some steamed edamame with salt and lime, all of which was good, and my friend picked out a delicious Riesling to go with everything.
My appetizer, goat cheese tortellini with roasted beet “pomodoro,” was the best thing I had all night. In fact, it may be the best food I’ve had all year. The mix of salty cheese and sweet beets is not a new one, but somehow the depth of flavor, I assume because of the quality of the ingredients, elevated the dish into another realm. Every bite was a surprise, it was truly a masterpiece. The perfectly formed pasta rested on top of the beets, almost hiding them, so that when you scooped everything into one bite the flavors seemed to come from nowhere, but they exploded all over my mouth in a wonderful harmony. Even the micro-greens on top played into the taste and texture of the dish, they weren’t merely garnish.
One of the sides on on my sampler was a “baked potato” covered in morels and asparagus. This was wonderful as well, even if the wonderfully earthy morels overpowered the delicate asparagus. It is also indicative of the playfulness of the menu; as you can see, it’s not truly a baked potato, but a bed of potato and goat cheese baked and topped with the aforementioned mushrooms and asparagus.
And as for my main, the sampler platter… Well, it was a little underwhelming. From left to right: potato latkes (far too salty for me), rhinoceros broccoli (aka
romanesco broccoli, very plainly steamed, “playfully” matched with a middling romesco sauce and macadamia nuts), orange glazed carrots (pretty good, fresh and sweet and just slightly cooked), whipped sweet peas (the best of the plate, a light and herbacious pea puree over nicely cooked peas), and crispy artichokes (nicely battered if slightly mealy, well-matched with a malt vinegar aoli). The main attraction of this plate (and actually, of the whole meal) was the care and the skill put into every bite of food.
For dessert I got the spicy pineapple tart, with basil ice cream and a basil gelee topped with a pineapple foam. As she put it in front of me, our server explained that it was supposed to represent the end of winter. Indeed, there was a disk of ice perched on top of the ice cream (you can see it on the left there). Yes, it was simply a disk of ice. So when I removed it to eat the ice cream, it slowly melted all over the plate, leaving a watery mess. What was the point of that? Otherwise, the dessert was very good, though the tart, which was decidedly
not spicy, was merely so-so. The basil gelee was great, which was a relief since I’ve never had a gelee before and wasn’t sure how the texture would strike me. The basil ice cream was also great, though the tuile “cone” was there only for texture, I assume, since it was all but tasteless. Again, the level of technique that went into making it was the true star of the show.
So yeah, I loved the meal, loved the place. Donny pointed out that we have a built-in excuse to return four times a year; in fact, they should be converting to Park Avenue Summer any day now. It’s rare to see a restaurant truly embrace seasonality, even in these days when seasonality is a culinary buzzword. It also served to remind me, after a disappointing meal at Babbo a few months ago, that New York really does have the best restaurants in the world.
Posted by Howard
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