Gramercy Tavern

Gramercy Tavern is a New York institution. Opened in 1994 by Danny Meyer and Tom Colicchio (long before Top Chef made him a household name), now helmed by Michael Anthony, Gramercy Tavern comes out near the top of Zagat's popularity contest every year --- in part because it specializes in really accessible fine dining (far easier to promise than to actually deliver). Yes, the prices are steep and a gaggle of waitstaff attends to each diner, but it also exudes warmth: it's OK to put your elbows on the table and dig in to the hearty, seasonal dishes.

We were greeted with an amuse bouche of potato and shaved parmigiano reggiano. We quickly dispatched this delightful little tater tot as we began our bottle of Albariño.


As starters, we sampled a rich and slightly spicy lamb papardelle with Swiss chard and a citrusy shrimp salad with grapefruit and celery. We like to share when we can, so the mix of a hearty dish like the paperdelle and a light one like the shrimp salad was a great choice for the tail end of winter.



Our main courses were a perfectly cooked fillet of halibut on red cabbage and hazelnut yogurt and a duo of pork, tender rack meat and sensational braised belly, which tasted like the world's most concentrated bacon. Both were terrific dishes, fairly bursting with flavor; as Colicchio would say, each dish had an extraordinary flavor profile.



And then we were given a palate cleanser that was one of the most delightful parts of the meal, a pomegranate sorbet atop a creamy, slightly fruity panna cotta. For dessert, we had the pumpkin spice upside-down cake with cranberries and the peanut butter semifreddo with a chocolate macaroon. The cake was good, but perhaps a questionable ordering decision, as it was so autumnal that it was hard not to think about Thanksgiving. The semifreddo, on the other hand, was exactly what we needed, and more than a few times our spoons clacked as we tried to gather up every bit.




One of our favorite parts of eating at restaurants of this caliber is the parting gift, and after our plate of petits fours, which included a chocolate lemon ball we wish they sold in bags, we were given the next day's breakfast, two dense and moist coffee cakes. If only all of our Sunday mornings could begin the same way.