The Bloomberg Wire Weighs in on 42 and BLT
-
- February
- 4
Here’s the story, from Ryan Sutton:
BLT Steak, $20 Million Views at White Plains Ritz: Food Buzz
By Ryan Sutton
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg)—Occasionally, people leave Manhattan. Some brave souls do it every day. They commute. The lucky ones reside in a brand-new White Plains housing complex in Westchester County. It’s called the Ritz-Carlton. It has a casual BLT Steak on the ground floor, a fancy American restaurant on the 42nd floor. The latter cost almost $20 million. How about that? One of our most expensive dining destinations isn’t in the city. It’s in the suburbs.
White Plains, a 30-minute train ride from Grand Central, has a deluxe new addition to its ever-expanding skyline. The hotel’s twin towers soar 44 stories into the sky. The restaurant, 42, sits two floors below the summit. It offers $125 tasting menus and “panoramic views of Manhattan.’’ What you’re not told is that you need binoculars to get a good look. No matter. The surrounding suburbs sparkle like the sprawling lights of Los Angeles. Beautiful.
Just want a $17 drink? Try the Violette (gin, creme de violette, lime). Only call ahead. Reservations are necessary for both the bar and restaurant. I phoned a few days ahead for a Tuesday repast. No problem. Then I phoned a few hours in advance for a Friday cocktail. No good—fully booked. You won’t be allowed in as a walk-in. I tried.
The barber-shop red and white dining room sports an electronic fireplace. Think Lite-Brite. Flames are reflected onto the windows—it looks as if devilish embers are dancing outside. Tim Burton would be proud.
Truffles, Truffles
Anthony Goncalves’s cuisine isn’t revelatory, just well- executed fancy-pants food. We tried crisp truffled cauliflower (very good), tagliarini with black truffles and bitter truffled sauce (breathtaking) and moist grouper with truffled chive broth (outstanding). Foie gras? Seared and served with figs. It’s nothing new, nothing bad.
Elevated restaurants mean elevated prices. You pay for the view. That’s why the venison costs $56, the steak, $75. At least we get Chevy Suburban-sized entrees.
Our plate of rare, underseasoned deer could have fed three. A serving of tender duck breast also needed a doggy bag. Advice to restaurant: halve your portions. Advice to patrons: Share dinner and skip dessert; instead enjoy the free postprandial treats. We got a Baileys pot de creme. How’s that for a nightcap?
Dinner for two cost $298. Information: +1-914-761-4242; http://www.42therestaurant.com .
BLT Casual
BLT Steak is on the ground floor of the Ritz. It serves $130 Japanese Kobe just down the block from Wal-Mart, where people shop to save money.
Can White Plains afford Laurent Tourondel’s chain of casually expensive steakhouses? Apparently so. The earliest Friday table I could book was for 10 p.m. Even then, the place was packed. City slickers aren’t the only ones who eat late.
BLT’s giant windows overlook Target, Starbucks and Legal Sea Foods. The venue’s cappuccino-and-khaki color scheme evokes a dimly lit Banana Republic. The design is corporate but pretty. The sleek brown woods, bare tabletops and soaring ceiling are a departure from steakhouse stuffy.
Unlike Morton’s or Ruth’s Chris, BLT serves high-quality beef without tablecloth fuss. This is a high-end Outback with a value-conscious sommelier. We asked for a bottle under $65; he picked out an earthy Cotes du Rhone for $48.
There’s free food too! Hot popovers and silky duck liver pate precede every meal. Sometimes. Our waiters forgot the goodies. (This is a problem I’ve encountered at the original BLT.)
Fish Is King
Tourondel is known for his steaks, respected for his sides, exalted for his fish. The beef is very good, not great. Expect an expert char, a perfect temperature, a mildly beefy tang on the $42 strip. Our $24 hanger was everything it should be—gamy, rare and chewy. Both cuts needed salt.
A side of butter-sauteed spaetzle—brown, greasy and tasty—was paired with funky black trumpet mushrooms. Parmesan gnocchi bathed in nutmeg-spiked garlic cream. Whew. Get three giant slices of chewy, smoky bacon for more whew. Need something heftier? Mac and cheese was perfumed with armor-piercing white truffle oil. No thanks.
Fish just might be the king at BLT Steak. Go figure. Raw hamachi gets spicy butter pickle, silky avocado, fragrant cilantro. Cumin, tumeric, harissa spice up an impossibly moist swordfish.
Dinner for three cost $255. Information: +1-914-467-5710; http://www.bltsteak.com .
BLT Steak and 42 are at the Ritz-Carlton, 3 Renaissance Square, White Plains, New York.
(Ryan Sutton is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 2:58 pm by Liz Johnson.
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