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Travel

Walking upan appetite

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published December 10, 2006

NEW YORK

Holiday window gazing in Manhattan is hard work.

The marvelous department store windows are designed to be viewed by pedestrians, and that means you'll do enough hiking to work up an appetite.

During our window walks, we sampled restaurants at several shopping venues that boast fabulous holiday displays.

Bergdorf Goodman has the most extravagant and artful windows, and the same adjectives could be applied to BG, its sit-down restaurant.

BG is the natural habitat of the fabled ladies who lunch and the sophisticated menu proves why. A deviled egg appetizer is four egg halves, their creamy yolks given an earthy touch of saffron, served with watercress and rosy heaps of shaved Parma ham. Braised endive is subtly dressed with blood orange and a touch of Roquefort.

Meal-sized salads are featured on the menu, including a chopped salad called the Gotham that seemed to be ordered by every other person in the room (despite, or maybe because of, its $25 price tag).

BG is not for the timid of wallet. Lunch for two - two appetizers, two main-dish salads, a shared dessert (delicate elderberry panna cotta) and a couple of glasses of wine - neared $200 before tax and tip, although both food and service were exquisite.

At the opposite end of the department store dining scale is Cucina Market, in the Cellar at Macy's flagship store.

Cucina is a combination gourmet market, offering everything from cookies to caviar, and prepared food cafe. There is a hot bar with soups and main dishes, gorgeous salad and fruit bars, a bakery, ready-made sandwiches, sushi and more.

We chose a couple of sandwiches - ham and Brie on a baguette, rare roast beef with roasted peppers and onions on flatbread - plus bottled water.

The dining room is clamorous and casual - concrete floors, white tile walls, long and bare wood tables - and the service ends at the cashier counter.

But the sandwiches were generous and delicious, and the price tag was a thrifty $17.73.

For a king-sized dose of holiday cheer, try breakfast at the Rock Center Cafe. One of two restaurants on the lower level of Rockefeller Center (the other is the Sea Grill), Rock Center Cafe boasts handsome, modern design and a wall of windows looking onto the ice skating rink.

We scored a window table with a full view of the rink and the huge lighted tree. The breakfast menu offers a range of favorites; I had strawberry-ricotta stuffed French toast, and my husband chose smoked salmon with cream cheese-filled crepes. Both were terrific, but the portions were, even by today's ludicrous standards, gargantuan. Unless you've been out on the rink for an hour or two, you may want to ask about the shared plate option. Breakfast for two, with juice and coffee, came to $53.

Over at Time Warner Center, you can spend a fortune at Per Se or Masa, but you won't get much of a view of the dazzling light display in the atrium.

One of the best views, though, is from Bouchon, the casual cafe (also run by Per Se maestro Thomas Keller) in the center of the third floor gallery.

The menu at Bouchon is what your grandma might have made if she were a world-class chef: classic sandwiches, soups and salads elevated to swoon-inducing deliciousness.

The menu even offered a $7 treat for our family members who didn't get to come to New York. We left with a Bouchon Bakery doggie bag: fois gras dog biscuits.

[Last modified December 8, 2006, 10:05:26]