Dining large on a smaller budget
With new strategies, your next bites of the Big Apple won't strain your wallet or day planner.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published December 10, 2006
NEW YORK
I missed Mario Batali by two hours when I sat down at one of his tables. The man himself had just been in Otto to pump up the staff, and his taste for lusty Italian permeated the place like fresh anchovies in the bagna cauda.
The salami was handcrafted; pizza crust was perfect; toppings of fennel, mullet roe and pecorino were unprecedented. On the side, fresh corn was tossed with nutty fregola kernels; my gelato was flavored with olive oil.
Yet those pizzas were only $7 to $14, penne with peas, mint and ricotta just $9 and a sampler of three rare cheeses only $10.
Batali's Otto Enoteca Pizzeria is just one spinoff from New York's best and priciest chefs. Both TV celebrity cooks and polished Frenchmen now serve affordable versions of their signature styles.
This new accent on fine dining at all prices and all hours is great news for foodies like me: We don't go to New York for shows or shopping; we go to eat.
If you set your heart on the most famous or expensive restaurant - $200 or more at Alain Ducasse, Per Se or Masa - you might be disappointed either by the food or stuffy diners with Zagats at the ready.
The maroon guidebook is fine for geographic planning in your hotel room, but I get my smartest steers from Time Out New York and www.menupages.com.
To save the most money, be flexible, splurge at lunch, eat pushcart meals before the show, dine early (or late) and remember:
GREAT CHEFS CAN BE CHEAP. Though Batali's Del Posto, Babbo, Esca and Po command big prices and long waits, the lion of shorts and colorful clogs on the Food Network also serves rustic $8 to $15 tapas at Casa Mono, a publike Spanish hideaway. His Lupa is a robust Roman trattoria with long tables of pastas and cold cuts and a longer wine list with prices that start in the $20s.
Can't wait three months for a reservation or pop $200 a head for Thomas Keller's exquisite cooking at Per Se? One flight down and more than $150 cheaper, at Bouchon Bakery you still taste the service and perfectionism that Keller made famous at Napa Valley's French Laundry.
I had the world's most refined bean soup (flageolet, haricot vert and yellow wax beans), and an open sandwich of perfect pork in a lush tonnato sauce. A $30 bill included an unbeatable view of Columbus Circle, eye to eye with the admiral.
Can't get a table in Union Square Cafe? No matter. Danny Meyer refitted a forgotten concession stand in Madison Square Park as the Shake Shack with cordon bleu burgers and frozen custard "concretes."
Burgers are more rarefied at BLT Burger, Laurent Tourondel's newest place. The show-off Kobe burger is $62, but turkey, tuna, veggie and beef are $7 to $10, trimmed with olives, green peppercorn sauce and harissa mayo.
LET THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUPERSTARS COOK FOR YOU. French Culinary Institute in Soho cooks more than French at L'Ecole, its sophisticated demonstration restaurant, worth twice the price. In a big-window dining room, full-course lunches ($26.50) and dinners ($39.95) are fresh and classic, from poached pear and braised pork to duck with jicama fondant or bass with a parsnip Parmesan puree, or flounder with mussels in cider cream.
Sauces are as polished as the service. Why not? Teachers include Jaques Pepin, Lutece's Andre Soltner, Andrea Robinson and mad genius Wylie Dufresne. Former Le Cirque chef Alain Sailhac inspects every plate. Lucky students, lucky diners.
BELLY UP TO THE BAR. Bar menus all around the city are big, from small plates tapas and sushi to heartier fare, many from top-chef kitchens.
The new paisley of color and spice in the Indian cooking of Floyd Cardoz at Tabla in Madison Square Park often costs $50 a head. The first floor Bread Bar serves curried monkfish, tandoori black pepper shrimp, and chaat-style munchies and naan from $4 to $18.
Gordon Ramsay, the wild Scotsman of food television on both sides of the Atlantic (and luxe dining in Tokyo and Dubai), opened at the London Hotel with a lower-priced bar.
A five-course menu is $55, but you can graze a la carte for less than $20 on the likes of bream with lobster risotto or char, pork belly, choucroute and raisin sauce.
Eat French almost anywhere. If the bistro is dying in Paris, dozens of practitioners of unfussy Gallic now feed New York mussels, steak frites, cassoulets and Provencal fish stews for less than $20. They have been sincerely flattered with imitations from hip Pastis in the Meatpacking district to the Tour de France string of regional French bistros on the West Side.
EAT SMALL, EAT SWEET. Inside the bread bakery boom is a creamy surprise: Look everywhere for tiny shops with sweetly retro comforts like Milk & Cookies, Cones and PB&J. Rice to Riches is all rice puddings. Babycakes and a dozen others bake updated cupcakes. Two Japanese chains, Papa Beards and Choux Factory, specialize in the lovely mess of cream puffs.
- EAT LIKE THE NATIVES. The true modern bistro is not French but more often Greek. The corner diner/deli/coffee shop is crowded day and night, with old-hand waiters. And smart cooks can make bruschetta and stir fries as well as burgers, omelets and an egg cream.
Chris Sherman can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or e-mail csherman@sptimes.com.
.IF YOU GO
Restaurant guide
Restaurants in Chris Sherman's and Colette Bancroft's stories are all in Manhattan.
- Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, 1 Fifth Ave.; (212) 995-9559.
- Casa Mono, 52 Irving Place; (212) 253-2773.
- Lupa, 170 Thompson St.; (212) 982-5089.
- Bouchon Bakery, 10 Columbus Circle; (212) 823-9366.
- Shake Shack, 23rd Street and Madison Avenue; (212) 889-6600.
- BLT Burger, 470 Sixth Ave.; (212) 243-8226.
- L'Ecole, 462 Broadway; (212) 219-3300.
- Bread Bar at Tabla, 11 Madison Ave.; (212) 889-0667.
- Gordon Ramsay at the London Bar, 151 W 54th St.; (212) 468-8888.
- BG Restaurant, Bergdorf Goodman (seventh floor), 754 Fifth Ave., New York; (212) 872-8977.
- Cucina Market, Macy's Herald Square (the Cellar), 151 W 34th St.; (212) 695-4400.
- Rock Center Cafe, Rockefeller Center (lower level), 20 W 50th St.; (212) 332-7620.
- Pastis, 9 Ninth Ave.; (212) 929-4844.
- Tour de France locations, see www.tourde francenyc.com.
For French bistros, brasseries and cafes with inexpensive and moderate prices go to www.nymag.com.