Friday was a perfect fall day, with a clear blue sky and temperatures near sixty. To many, the great outdoors means hiking in the mountains or along quite babbling brooks. For us, it's hiking the busy streets of Manhattan, complete with horns, sirens and auto exhaust. You either love it or you hate it. We love it. Our lunch reservation was at Empellón Taqueria in the West Village. We had lunched there in June and looked forward to returning.
We were seated at the same wooden table and ordered the same mezcal margaritas; they were still potent and still excellent.
Mezcal Margarita — Fidencio Clasico, with fresh lime and smoked salt Before moving on to Empellón Taqueria's inventive tacos, we decided to try one of the four ceviches on the menu. Our waitress recommended the hamachi.
Hamachi Ceviche — fennel, tomatillo water The ceviche was beautifully presented in a large bowl. The hamachi was plentiful, tender and sushi grade delicious. There were nine varieties of tacos to choose from this time around. We selected the fish tempura, the shortrib pastrami and the lamb barbacoa.
Fish Tempura Tacos — cabbage, lime mayonnaise
Shortrib Pastrami Tacos — pickled cabbage, mustard seed salsa
Lamb Barbacoa Tacos — cucumber, salsa borracha The wheat tortillas were thin and unobtrusive, the perfect wrapper for the stuffed tacos. The delicately fried fish and lime mayonnaise were yummy. The shortrib and mustard seed salsa were a deliciously deconstructed pastrami sandwich. We had ordered the lamb with its spicy borracha salsa on our last visit; it didn't disappoint. We've put Empellón Taqueria on our must-go-every-time lunch list. Their tacos and ceviches are the best we've had. The last dinner reservation and last meal of our fall stay in Manhattan was at Contra, on the Lower East Side.
Contra offers a set six-course menu, moderately priced at $67, which changes every two weeks. It's the creation of chefs Jeremiah Stone and Fabian von Hauske. Mr. von Hauske makes the desserts and the bread; Mr. Stone does the rest. The space is long and narrow, with banquet tables lining the walls. It's not the most inviting of venues, but once the food starts coming out, it doesn't matter. Contra's wine list offered some unusual bottles, most of them moderately priced. Our waitress recommended the Julien Courtois Ancestral, a Gamay from the Loire Valley. It was delicious.
The bread service is an extra $3, but worth it for the soft creamy butter alone. We attacked the warm loaf, pulling off piece after piece.
Since the menu was preplanned, our first course arrived fairly quickly — beautifully presented fluke and tomatoes.
tomato, fluke, herbs It didn't take long to figure out Mr. Stone's modus operandi; he chooses quality ingredients, cooks them to perfection and lets them shine, with accompanying flavors that don't steal the show. The yellow tomatoes were the star of this dish; they far surpassed any tomato we'd had all summer. The tender sushi grade fluke was a delicious bonus. A great first course. Next came a second visually appealing dish, although it wasn't obvious what we were being served.
shrimp, collard greens, matsutake This was the shrimp dish. Pieces of poached shrimp were served warm, wrapped in a tube of collard greens, and surrounded by matsutake mushrooms. This delicate shrimp tamale was excellent. Our third course was monkfish. Mr. Stone's monkfish preparations receive rave reviews, and after one bite, we knew why.
monkfish, shell beans, clam The fish was tender and perfectly prepared, bathed in a frothy clam broth, with a variety of shell beans. Again, the monkfish was the star; the mild clam broth complimented without detracting, although it was good enough to slurp up with a spoon. A wonderful dish. Next came the one one and only meat course — pork tenderloin.
pork, cucumber, cabbage The medium rare pork cut like butter; it was tender and delicious. The earthy grilled radicchio and cucumber were the perfect unobtrusive compliment. Another great dish. Contra's waitstaff were friendly, knowledgeable and attentive. Makenzie, our waitress, was delightful. She was a disciple of Danny Meyer.
Of course, we were also impressed with Chef Jeremiah Stone, who buses tables in addition to creating magic in his kitchen. After clearing the table behind us, he came over to chat. He told us Gerard Craft, St. Louis' James Beard award winning chef, had been in for dinner the week before.
Our final two courses were pastry chef Fabian von Hauske's creations. Perhaps he creates heavy chocolate dishes on other nights, but on this night these were perfect endings to a perfect meal.
vanilla, kelp, blackberry
caramelized almond ice cream & grape granita
If we lived in
Manhattan, we would dine at Contra every two weeks, or whenever they
updated their menu. As is, we will be there whenever we're in New
York. Saturday, October 24, 2015 American Airlines has a way of intruding on the best laid plans. Our flight back to St. Louis was changed to an earlier time, making it impossible to have a final Saturday lunch. Our next meal was dinner at home from CPK. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Copyright © 2015 TwoForTheTable.com |
