After Nearly A Century, New York's Pierre Hotel Gets The Restaurant It Deserves
But by the 1950s, the explosion of exciting, free-standing restaurants of individual excellence helped put the kibosh on impersonal hotel dining rooms as dreary alternatives. So, I'm delighted to find so many new hotels are opening so many wonderful restaurants run by top chefs all over town, as I am with the revivification of others that have brought in new chefs and new concepts.
The Pierre Hotel is an exemplar of the latter, with has long been one of the city's most historic and elegant spots, opening in 1930 on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park. For decades its Café Pierre, with its trompe l'oeuil cloudy sky ceiling by Valerian Rybar, was a major watering hole for New York society; Al Pacino's tango scene in the film Scent of a Woman was shot in The Pierre's Cotillion Room.
Since 2005 under the control of the Taj Group, the space that is now Perrine has had what seems like a shift of focus every few years or so, none successful: at one point it was a snooty offshoot of London's Le Caprice, then an Italian trattoria named Sirio managed by the Maccioni family, who hired Vincent Garofalo as executive chef. There was a brief tilt towards modern Indian cuisine. Now, with Garofalo back in the kitchen, the menu reflects a balance of contemporary American, French and Italian dishes.
You enter through shining brass doors into a long dining room as sleek as ever, with a classy bar up front, and done in tones of gray, black, white and silver to give it a sophisticated ambiance that is very much New York in spirit, like the white bow on a Tiffany box. The fine lighting, thick tablecloths, settings and stemware are first class, and the waitstaff, since my last visit a few years back, is now measurably improved in its amiable professionalism. The wine list, which is quite modest, has not.
Lobster bisque at Perrine
Perrine
Perrine's clientele ranges widely, from Upper East Siders, hotel guests and tourists who include stylish young Japanese women toting designer bags from the high-fashion shops along the nexus of Madison, 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Chef Garofalo's menu is clearly composed to please all of them, full of classic dishes like French onion soup and salade Niçoise along with American favorites like lobster rolls as well as steak au poivre and the Pierre burger. Given his background, the chef also makes four main course pastas.
I
was especially pleased by two appetizers found in abundance around Manhattan, because Garofalo's lobster bisque has the deep, briny flavor of the shellfish, enriched with a citrus-laced crème fraîche and a pretty green swirl of tarragon oil; tuna tartare is impeccably balanced between very flavorful, dark red tuna chunks and the subtlety of many seasonings and Dijon mustard, along with thin haricot verts, olives and basil-scented pistou.
'Coronation Chicken' takes its name from a retro dish created in 1952 for the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II, made of tender poached chicken with a curry mayonnaise, raisins, apple, cilantro and a dash of chili oil. It was unexpectedly delicious and deserves a wider audience. The warm lobster roll came with plenty of butter-poached meat in am equally buttery brioche roll with crisp French fries, and at $34 it's a refined match for lobster rolls sold for an equal price out of seafood shacks up and down Long Island.
Among the pastas I tried, I thoroughly enjoyed the ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach dressed with a creamy Alfredo-style sauce. House-made tagliatelle with some of that lobster bisque and fava beans livened with tarragon is as sumptuous as it sounds.
The Pierre Burger
Perrine
The 'Pierre Burger' toes the current line of overstuffed, overwrought, adequate burgers in fine dining rooms in New York, but the roasted half chicken with baby potatoes, mushrooms and salsa verde was a textbook example of how this bird can be ennobled with finesse. Half a dozen fat scallops are arrayed with a highly complementary sweet and sour puree sweet corn springtime's asparagus and a lemon-saffron sauce.
Hotels, which must cater to weddings and anniversaries, usually excel at desserts, and at the Perrine they most certainly do with items like Pavlova (now having something of its own renaissance), the pretty pink meringue confection made to honor the prima Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, as well as a peach Melba similarly honoring Dame Nellie Melba, and a rum-soaked baba with citrus cream.
For nearly a century now The Pierre has never lost its cosmopolitan luster, and Perrine, now re-incarnated with Chef Garofalo, matches that appeal as a restaurant of convincing posh and good taste. And a good lunch spot in which to show off your shopping bags.
Perrine
2 East 61st Street
212-940-8195
Open for breakfast daily, lunch Mon.-Sat., Brunch Sun., dinner nightly.
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