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Amuse
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Amuse is the new venture of former Aureole executive chef Gerry Hayden. Snapping to diners' desires to keep evenings as open as possible, Amuse offers a mix-and-match selection of small plate choices. Order a quick snack of marinated calamari, freshened by celery leaves, with a glass of Talley's "Bishop's Peak" Chardonnay; meet some friends pre-show to share citrus-marinated fluke and a sautéed rouget salad, or order a bottle off general manager and wine buyer Jean-Luc Lemetrie's well-chosen, affordable list - a 2000 Mas de Daumas Gassac for $38 will do nicely - and settle in for as long as you want, grazing through the open-ended options. But whatever else you do, order the deep-dish vanilla crème brûlée to end with, or your life will fade into misery and darkness. Trust us.
- Ray Isle
Amuse, 108 W. 18th St., NYC; 212-929-9755
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Appellation / Le Dû Wines / Wine Therapy
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At press time, the city was restlessly awaiting the late-autumn onslaught of big-name, big-wine-list openings. The Bastianich-Batali crew (Babbo, Lupa, Esca, and so on) is busily compiling Italian bottles for the list at Del Posto in the Meatpacking District, while a few blocks away Zak Pelaccio is assembling Austrian and German whites for the Malaysian food at his new Fatty Crab. Bill Telepan (JUdson Grill) is working out cellar space at the new Telepan on the Upper West Side, while the guys at Five Points are working on opening a west side branch called Cookshop. And Olivier Flosse from Café Boulud has been assembling a deep, French-skewed list for Andrew Carmellini's yet-to-be-named place on 26th Street. But thanks to a slew of new wine stores, New Yorkers aren't lacking for wine and people to help them find it: There's Le Dû Wines in the West Village, opened by Jean-Luc Le Dû, the former sommelier at Daniel; Appellation, a Chelsea space devoted to organic and biodynamic wines from Scott Pactor; and Wine Therapy, a hip store focusing on small-production and organic wines, run by Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Humbert.
- T.Q.T.
Appellation, 156 10th Ave., 212-741-9474; Le Dû Wines, 600 Washington St., 212-924-6999; Wine Therapy, 171 Elizabeth St., 212-695-2999
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Aroma
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Aroma rewards the patient with a seat in its miniscule space, and thus the chance to plumb the wine list of affordable gems. Vito Polosa, who owns the space with Alexandra Degiorgio, scoured Italy for the obscure and delightful, like a palate-piquing pigato from Colle dei Bardellini in Liguria; a nutty, smooth nuragus from Sardinia's Argiolas; and a funky, spicy gaglioppo from Odoardi in Calabria. To eat-as these wines are the Italian high-acid sort that make the mouth water-dive into chef Christopher Daly's vibrant, Mediterranean-accented menu, with dishes like a "paella" of seafood, sausage and chicken nested in fregola, or the tramezzini of silky house-smoked salmon on the bar menu. Just be sure to leave room for the truffles that sweeten the arrival of the bill.
-Tara Q. Thomas
Aroma, 36 E. 4th St., New York, NY; 212-375-0100; aromanyc.com
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Bar Boulud
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If things go as planned, wine lovers will be awash in new places to enjoy an excellent glass of
wine this year. As of press time, we were waiting for doors to open on Bar Boulud, an upscale wine
bar from chef Daniel Boulud and sommelier Daniel Johnnes; Adour Alain Ducasse, where high-tech
gadgetry beams an interactive wine list onto the bar; Terroir, a wine bar from the obsessive
sommelier Paul Grieco and chef Marco Canora of Hearth and Insieme; Solex, a French wine bar from
Frederick Twomey, who's already done Italian with Bar Veloce and Spanish with Bar Carrera; and Bar
Blanc, a West Village boîte from three Bouley alums. Meanwhile, sate your thirst at El Quinto Pino,
a shoebox-sized space from Mani Dawes, Alexandra Raij and Heather Belz of the quintessential tapas
bar Tia Pol. The ever-changing, smartly selected wine list is as intriguing as the food, which runs
from the traditional boquerones to sea urchin sandwiches.- Tara Q. Thomas
Adour Alain Ducasse, 2 E. 55th; 212-753-4500
Bar Blanc, 142 W. 10th St.; 212-255-2330
Bar Boulud, 1900 Broadway; 212-595-0303
El Quinto Pino, 401 West 24th St.; 212-206-6900
Solex, 103 First Ave.; 212-777-6677
Terroir, 413 E. 12th St.; no phone yet (reviewed W&S 2/08)
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Barbuto
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Barbuto offers some of the best dining in NY's West Village - not so surprising, given it's run by Jonathan Waxman, chef behind '80s sensation Jams and the recently-shuttered Washington Park. What's startling is the prices: Everything on the menu runs less than $20, save for a bread-salad-stuffed, wood oven-roasted chicken for two that will have you rethinking Thanksgiving turkey. The choices read like the index of a Marcella Hazan cookbook, with Italian classics like fritto misto, fontina fonduta, pesce al forno and gelato to finish - and, like Hazan's recipes, they'd be dull if they weren't done so well. More challenging is the wine selection, a candidate for Most Obscure Italian Wine List In Manhattan, but no worries. Even if you can't tell a verduzzo from a cerasuolo from a St. Bernard, the selection is so well chosen you can't go wrong.
- T.Q.T.
Barbuto, 775 Washington St., NYC; 212-924-9700; barbutonyc.com
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Café Katja
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The menu is limited at this 25-seat Austrian nook, but the homemade wursts and Emmentaler spaetzle are delicious and satisfying.
As you'd expect, Cypriot sommelier Georgios Hadjistylianou's list offers mostly Austrian options like a piercing Nigl GrŸner
Veltliner Kremser Freiheit and melony Zierfandler from Stadlmann. There's also a lineup of eaux de vie from Hans Reisetbauer,
including his intensely fragrant Blue Gin crafted from 20 different botanicals. Or finish with the foresty flavors of
Zirbenz's stone pine liqueur.
- Nicole Drummer
79 Orchard St.; 212-219-9545 (reviewed W&S 4/08)
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Della Rovere
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Della Rovere stands out from the other 6,972 or so Italian restaurants in New York City with its wine list, a fascinating collection of lesser-known, underappreciated and offbeat bottlings, nearly 100 of which are available by the glass or quartino. Most are Italian, although in- between intriguing selections like a piquant erbaluce from Antoniolo, or the herbal, black Lacrima di Morro d'Alba from Luciano Landi, sommelier Aaron VonRock has snuck in delicious curiosities like Westerly's W, a Santa Barbara roussanne-viognier blend, and Spaniard Joan d'Anguera's deeply juicy Montsant. Come hungry: You could make a meal of the papardelle with crispy sweetbreads and sausage ragú, but that would mean missing out on the brick oven-roasted sardines, the seared branzino, the honey-scented roast game hen, the cheeses...you get the idea.
-T.Q.T.
Della Rovere, 250 W. Broadway, New York, NY; 212-334-3470
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Falai
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showcases the sweet and savory talents of Iacopo Falai, former pastry chef of Le Cirque, in a serene white space on a hip stretch of Manhattan's Lower East Side. His pastry connections may have you eyeing the pork with cocoa beans-and it is good-but the pastas star, tender and rich in combinations like gnudi melting into sage-butter sauce or chewy pici spiked with crisp, porky musetto. To drink, start with a flute of the delicate, peachy Col Vetoraz Prosecco ($7), then call over Alberto Taddei, a former sommelier at Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, who's jammed his small list with Italian gems rarely seen here. And when he suggests something unusual, like a frapatto from Sicilia or a grüner veltliner from Alto Adige, just say yes. He wouldn't steer you wrong.
- T.Q.T.
Falai, 68 Clinton St., NYC, NY; 212-253-1960
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Fresh
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Fresh may be the only place we know of where you can wash down fried cod's tongues with a crisp, minerally sip of bianchetta genovese from Liguria, but then it's also one of the few restaurants we know of that's co-owned by a top New York seafood purveyor. Eric Tevrow of Early Morning Seafood has partnered with chef Martin Burge to open this temple to all things oceanic. While cod's tongues definitely take the esoterica prize (who knew cod had tongues?), everything here is artful and elegantly prepared, and as the name suggests, as fresh as fresh gets. The well-chosen wine list is stocked with finds like Yves Cuilleron's Les Chaillets Vielles Vignes Condrieu, ideal with warm Maine sea urchins in a fennel broth, or a '99 Bernard Amiot Chambolle-Musigny, a great match for Burge's sautéed British Guyana shrimp risotto.
- Ray Isle
Fresh, 105 Reade St., NYC; 212-406-1900.
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Hearth
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Hearth was warm and cozy during its first NY winter, offering deep plates of braised veal, tender lamb and melting pillow-like gnocchi on a lonely corner of First Avenue and 12th Street in the NYC's East Village. But owners Paul Grieco (former wine director of Gramercy Tavern) and Marco Canora (former chef of Craft and Craftbar) don't let you get too comfy - while Canora nestles veal next to its sweetbreads, and sets lamb on a ragu of lamb tongues, each plate holding echoes of flavor that ring long after each bite, wine guru Grieco presents a wine list that's at once simple and intimidating. Chock full of peculiar varieties like freisa and limited to Grieco's idea of seasonal wines (the selection will change completely every four months), the idea is to inspire diners to ask questions and draw on the knowledge of the highly trained staff to find matches as delicious as they are intriguing.
- T.Q.T.
Hearth, 403 E. 12th St., NYC; 646-602-1300
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Industria Argentina
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Industria Argentina presents a far more chic version of Argentine cuisine and fashion to NYC than the typical circuslike churrascaria. It's run by Stefano Villa and Fernando Dallorso, of the downtown boîtes Novecento and Azul, who have partnered with star chef Fernando Trocca of Sucre in Buenos Aires. Where Sucre is Franco-Argentine, Industria is all-Argentine, from the high-style smocks on the waitstaff to the wines on the extensive list. Unusual among Argentine restaurants in NYC, the seafood is as good as the blood-rare steaks and tender sweetbreads, with sea bass mounted on a fruity salsa punctuated with fresh palm shoots and arctic char falling apart at the sight of a fork. Whatever you order, don't miss the empanadas, tender pastry crescents filled with chunks of juicy beef and baked in a live-fire oven. There's no better excuse for a glass of malbec.
- T.Q.T.
Industria Argentina, 329 Greenwich St., New York, NY; 212-965-8560
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Landmarc
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Landmarc goes the unpretentious route: exposed ducts overhead, exposed bricks to either side, and underneath a planked floor that feels farmhouse-casual. The menu plays up the vibe: a pocket-size folded square of paper, it unfolds to reveal chef-owner Marc Murphy's robust bistro fare - roasted marrow bones with onion marmalade, warm goat cheese profiteroles with roasted red pepper salad, crispy sweetbreads with horseradish and green beans. Beverage director David Lombardo's adventurous wine list may be printed on regular-size paper, but the prices are in no way familiar, since Landmarc charges a fraction of the usual restaurant markup. '98 Château Leoville Barton for $65? A half-bottle of 2002 Ridge Lytton Springs for $18? With 225 bottles and 50 half-bottles priced similarly, you'll plan your next visit before you even leave the table.
- Ray Isle
Landmarc, 179 W. Broadway, NYC; 212-343-3883; landmarc-restaurant.com
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Morrells Restaurant
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Morrells Restaurant adds another wine option to the Flatiron District. Among eno-centric neighbors like Gramercy Tavern, Craft Bar and Veritas, this branch of the uptown store and restaurant stands out for its downtown vibe, the cavernous space made ultra-mod with white walls illuminated with glowing LED lights in garish orange. The bar seats plenty of people, which makes it a great place to stop in for a glass of one of the 150 wines on offer, from $6 deals like Ramos-Pinto Duas Quintas from Portugal's Douro, to a $58 splurge on five ounces of '97 Mouton-Rothschild. Should you want to order a bottle, however, make yourself comfortable at a table and order some of chef Michael Haimowitz's wine-conscious food: with a 2,000 bottle selection (over 500 under $50), there's a lot to check out.
- T.Q.T
Morrells Restaurant, 900 Broadway, NYC, NY; 212-253-0900
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Le Gamin
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Le Gamin on Bedford Street may look like your typical francophile café, serving cheap coffee, crêpes and sandwiches, but it has one of the best wine lists in the city. Credit Winston Kulok, owner of this West Village location (there are five others, which do not share this wine list), with the inspired belief that every meal deserves a fine bottle of wine; and thank John Slover for his skill at finding stellar wines at dirt-cheap prices. Slover scours cellars, auctions and sales for forgotten bottles, obscure names and lots too small for bigger outfits to deal with, making for a list deep in delicious esoterica, like a Pichler '99 Weissburgunder Smaragd for $32 or a '91 D'Angelo Aglianico del Vulture for $34. And when you consider the merguez-stuffed sandwiches, tuna-topped salads, and crêpes as soft as your grandmother's handkerchiefs (and much tastier), there's every reason to become a regular.
- T.Q.T
Le Gamin, 27 Bedford St., NYC; 212-243-2846
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The Harrison
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The Harrison is the creation of hep cats Jimmy Bradley and Danny Abrams, of Chelsea's much-loved Red Cat. The duo's efforts have been lauded as nothing short of heroic for pulling off their opening - only a stone's throw from the former World Trade Center - just five weeks after the attack. With whitewashed barn wood and a hodgepodge of antiques, they've turned the sweeping room into a warm, comforting oasis, a theme carried through in the earthy, lusty flavors and Italian sensibility of the food (think homemade bresaola with fig syrup or cavatelli with braised veal cheeks). Warren Fraser has compiled some 200 esoteric, gently-priced wines, many under $40, including a '99 Vino Gatto Rosso and a 2000 Pio Bianco, both exclusive to the restaurant from Barolo producer Pio Cesare, whose proprietor, Pio Boffa, happens to be Bradley's cousin.
- Anthony Giglio
The Harrison, 355 Greenwich St., NYC; 212-274-9310
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Otto
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Otto means eight in Italian, which is the street to remember when looking for the newest addition to the Batali-Bastianich Italian food empire. Ostensibly, this sprawling space on 5th Ave. and 8th Street is a pizzeria, but the chewy, thin-crust pizzas are only part of the story. Check out the antipasti, like tender beans cooked in fiasco; salsify saturated with saba, a sweet grape must; and the best caponata on earth. Order the fritelle of the day and offset them with salad - fennel brightened with citrus, or earthy scungilli sliced paper-thin. And leave room for homemade charcuterie. What to drink with it all? Babbo-transfer Morgan Rich encourages experimentation by offering two dozen wines by the quartino (about a glass and a half), not to mention more than half the bottles on his wide-ranging, all-Italian list at less than $50. No reservations taken.
- T.Q.T.
Otto, One Fifth Ave., NYC, NY; 212-995-9559
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Paradou
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Paradou is the latest claim on southern France by New York's Meatpacking District. But unlike neighbors Pastis and Rhone this micro-wine bar and eatery forgoes the maneuver-room required by the sharks of weekend cocktail scene. Behind Paradou's rustic blue barn doors, things are cozy and convivial, as diners share small plates, tartines, sandwiches grillés, crepes and salades, paired with a wine list with a Provençal bent. If it's cold outside, wedge in with a plate of charcuterie and a glass of red from Pic St-Loup or Cairanne; if warm, head to the back garden for a white anchoiade tartine, a glass of Tavel rosé, and even a game of pétanque on the house court.
- Taylor Antrim
Paradou, 8 Little W. 12th St., NYC; 212- 463-8345.
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Scarpetta
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"Very few people ever turn down the second bread basket," said the waiter as he brought another. One reason is the caponata, a meltingly tender mix of eggplant and tomato that trades out the typical sweet touches for a subtle note of anchovies. Then there's the butter, which is whipped with marscarpone and sprinkled with crunchy flakes of salt. Both are indicative of Scott Conant's cooking: seemingly simple but brilliantly tweaked. Sommelier Jeffrey Tascarella's wine list is similar: Among the usual suspects for an upscale Italian restaurant (many vintages of Aldo Conterno Barolo) hide unusual gems, like a rosé Prosecco from Collabrigo or an '03 Trebbiano d'Abruzzo from Emidio Pepe. A perfect meal here could consist of a glass of wine and the fresh burrata with pickled eggplant eaten at the bar in the front room, or the full-on Italian treatment with a pasta course in the sleek dining room with the retractable roof. Either way, accept the bread: you'll want it to fare la scarpetta, sop up the sauce left on the plate.
—Tara Q. Thomas
Scarpetta, 355 W. 14th St., (btw 8th & 9th Ave.) NYC; 212-691-0555; scarpettanyc.com
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Telepan
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Telepan supports the rumors of an Upper West Side restaurant renaissance. Chef Bill Telepan, late of Judson Grill, draws on his French training for dishes like a mushroom-and-frisée salad dressed with a perfect poached egg, and telegraphs his Hungarian heritage in truffle-scented pierogi and monkfish paprikas. Sommelier Aaron von Rock gathered deliciously affordable obscurities to balance the aged rarities ('89 de Vogüé Musigny; Barolo back to the '70s) If this is a neighborhood restaurant, the UWS is moving up.
- T.Q. Thomas
Telepan, 72 W. 69th St., New York;
212-580-4300
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Terroir
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Paul Greico has never been one to make "easy" wine lists. Ever since his days at Gramercy Tavern, he's delighted in turning people
on to the obscure (say, Canadian gamay) and underappreciated (German riesling). At Insieme, his newest full-scale restaurant with chef
Marc Canora, the hotel setting means he can't go too wild. Not so at Terroir, the shoebox-sized wine bar he and Canora have opened up
a few doors down from Hearth, their East Village restaurant. At first glance, the scene looks like a bunch of high schoolers had a party
and left their three-ring notebooks behind. The notebooks–covers scrawled with graffiti such as "Riesling rules" or "Amo, Amas, Amaro"–turn
out to be the wine lists. If you show up before 6 pm, you can order off the special $5-a-glass menu, or dive right in to explore lovely,
high-acid gems like a sparking Vértice Bruto from the Douro, a golden asprinio from Giu-seppe Cicala in Campania, or a Long Island cabernet
franc from Schneider. Acid sparks the appetite, so order food, particularly anything under "fried stuff," which includes lamb sausage-stuffed
sage leaves, a dish Canora made famous at Craftbar.
- Tara Q. Thomas
Terroir, 413 E. 12th St., NYC;
646-602-1300, wineisterroir.com (reviewed W&S 6/08)
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Trestle on Tenth
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Trestle on Tenth proves that there's far more to Swiss cuisine than fondue and kirsch. Order Chef Ralf Kuettel's pork shoulder wrapped in caul fat and served with earthy nettles with a glass of potent, acidic petite arvine from the Valais; move on to roast lamb with spicy mustard greens and a side of the addictively chewy, cheesy little dumplings called pizokel with the grapey gamaret from Caves Cidis in Switzerland. And that's only a few of the highlights on the deepest Swiss list this side of the Atlantic.- Tara Q. Thomas
Trestle on Tenth, 242 10th Ave., NY, 212-645-5659
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Washington Park
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Washington Park has the best bar for dining in the city. Slide onto a stool with a direct view of the open kitchen and choose a glass from the bottles chilling in the silver bowl on the bar; for those unsure about the unusual offerings, the bartender is glad to pour a taste. Thus prepared, dive into the menu. Ravenous diners will want to go straight for roast chicken and fries, with a bottle plucked off wine director Patrick Bickford's "short" list (80 bottles under $100) printed on the menu's reverse. Wine fanatics may prefer to make do with macadamia nuts while pouring over the tome of old, unusual and hard-to-find wines. That way they can afford to indulge in the treasures dug from owner Jonathan Waxman's Burgundy-loving partner's cellar, which tempt at remarkably fair prices.
- T.Q.T.
Washington Park, 24 Fifth Ave., NYC, NY; 212-529-4400
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