Friday, March 13, 2009

Cheap eats at Atria



March 13

I sure wish people would tell me when my collar’s sticking up. This would be such a good picture of me if someone had just tucked my collar back down, and I so rarely take a good picture.
With me is my new friend Sandra Fowler, a multi-talented woman with a background in the type of foodservice that most people find not so romantic but that I find fascinating. She’s a Yum! veteran and has also worked for Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. But at the moment she’s doing documentaries on sustainable food-and-drink production for PBS.
Sandra’s new to town, and my boss, Ellen Koteff, is one of her mentors, so obviously I agreed to meet her for drinks.
I suggested Atria.
Did you know that the bar at Atria, formerly know as Grayz, in the space that once was Aquavit, is a gin bar? That’s how they’re promoting it, at any rate, and they are fairly committed to expanding the horizons of vodka drinkers. Their key weapon: a gin, blackberry and mint number called The Bramble.
But there is other news coming out of Atria, too. This week they introduced a lunch menu and everything on it is less than $10.
Some examples:
Bratwurst and sauerkraut $7
Hummus, babaganoush and okra stew $8
Potato-leek soup with chervil $5
Hanger steak salad with peanut, radish and sesame-ginger vinaigrette $9
You can even get a can of Pablst Blue ribbon for $3

Eric Hara’s Oak Room dinner menu to debut next Wednesday


March 13

I’ll be continuing with tales of my adventures in dining soon, but the work is piling up here at NRN and it takes time to compose a thoughtful blog entry about the dining world in which I live.
But I don’t want to leave you hanging, so I have some news items for you.
People obsessed with the New York food scene already know that David Burke veteran Eric Hara is the new chef at The Oak Room, replacing Joël Antunes. (That picture, above, is of Eric).
I spoke with him today about his new dinner menu, which will be introduced next Wednesday.
“I think we’re going with more of an American style,“ he said, adding that he wanted to “keep it approachable.”
That’s not to say simple, or boring.
Among the menu items debuting Wednesday is a bone-marrow crusted scallop with cippolini purée, tomato marmalade and a bone marrow crouton.
He’ll also be doing veal cheek stuffed shells with chanterelles, a pecorino emulsion and sour cherries.
Also: brioche-crusted striped bass.
"It’s going to be a take on cioppino,” he says of the bass dish. It will include cherry tomatoes, fennel, mussls, clams and a cioppino broth poured at tableside.
Served with it will be a quenelle of crushed fingerling potatoes with rouille aïoli.
Appetizers will range from $12 to $18. Main courses will be $20 to $33, "and then Dover sole will be Dover sole."