It just got easier to sneak in a dinner, a real one, before a performance in New York at three of the city’s major cultural venues. The reason: these new restaurants are inside the building-or at least the complex.
Weill Café at Carnegie Hall, which opened last month, is mere seconds away from the concert hall’s Stern Auditorium; it’s at the other end of an internal doorway and was previously used for intermission snacks. Now, though, the grand European style café with high ceilings, gilded accents and chandeliers with lighted globes sets the scene for a classical evening with a three course prix fixe pre-performance dinner including wine and cocktails open to ticket holders of any performance space within the Hall.
The menu changes frequently but features dishes such as Crème de Morel Bisque with truffle essence, toasted Marcona almonds and fresh thyme or Grilled Pear Salad with pearl mozzarella, root vegetable caponata, frisee salad and balsamic syrup as a first course; Mediterranean Branzino with artichoke, fennel, sumac, rosemary, Tuscan kale and citrus olive tapenade, Braised Short Rib with arugula whipped potatoes or Herbed Green Vegetable Risotto with white bean filled baby bell pepper, ratatouille salad, grilled artichoke and charred tomato coulis as main course choices. Dessert currently features a bite sized assortment of sweets such as Limoncello Shortbread and Homemade Kit Kat Bites but may be changing to full sized, plated desserts by mid March. (And in a completely different service: between 10 AM to 3 PM on weekdays, the café is open to the public serving salads, sandwiches, Stumptown coffee and a delicious array of pastries such as mixed berry scones, chocolate chip cookies and brownies from New York’s popular Amy’s bakery. Anyone looking for a quiet, civilized spot in midtown during those hours should consider stopping in.)
A few blocks north at Lincoln Center, in David Geffen Hall, the Afro-Caribbean/New York ethnic mix Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi, named the best restaurant in New York by the New York Times, is, as a result, a top choice for diners but a tough reservation to get. There are six seats for walk-ins at the bar, though, for those willing to take their chances to sample dishes such as Sofrito Roasted Chicken and Oxtail and Crab Rangoon.
An easier but no less satisfying reservation to get is at the expansive, glassed-in Lincoln Ristorante located between David Geffen Hall and Lincoln Center Theater which houses the Beaumont and Mitzi E. Newhouse Theaters. The restaurant has been open for 13 years, helmed by a succession of chefs, but new Executive Chef Artem Orlovskyy and pastry chef Kara Blitz may be turning out the best food of all.
Blitz’s buttery focaccia with potato and onion accompanied by a broccoli rabe pesto is so good that it’s impossible to stop eating it but you won’t want to dent your appetite for the dishes that follow which should include a salad of little gem, Castelfranco radicchio, parmigiano crema and crispy sopressata; Hamachi with winter citrus, avocado crema and Regiis Ova Caviar; Rigatoni with guanciale, tomato estratto (concentrated tomato paste), red onions and pecorino romano; Spaghetti alla Chittara with little neck clams, Calabrian chili, lemon and green onions and Seafood Saffron Brodo with branzino, mussels, clams, rock shrimp and fennel. Even a dessert that sounds very simple: Boffoli of Tuscan baked apples with raisins, pine nuts, mascarpone and a crunchy topping of honeyed fritelle is an absolutely luscious apple tart. And for those in a real hurry to get to the theater: the Negroni bar serves a quick pre-curtain pasta and aperitivo.
Downtown near the World Trade Center, the striking marble cube that is Perelman Performing Arts Center containing three flexible performance spaces for musical and theatrical productions opened last fall. On the lobby level is a space open to the public for free performances and next to it the restaurant Metropolis By Marcus Samuelsson, the latest project of the noted, James Beard Award winning chef. The room, designed by star designer David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group is as vivid as any of the performances with curved, lighted wood ribbons on the ceiling and burgundy banquettes. The dishes, however, can sometimes be a little too vivid, with too many clashing ingredients. Best to order simply: dishes like the straightforward, well prepared short rib and a delectable sticky toffee cake for dessert.