NY sets industry's trends

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 27, 1993 by Florence Fabricant

There may be more salads in California, more spice in the Southwest and lower prices in Chicago. But trend-watchers keep one eye trained on New York. And this fall is no exception.

In a year when it seemed like nothing beside Daniel was happening except for the demise of some significant operations, like Sam's and Ariel & Michael, there is plenty going on this fall. And those trend-watchers might care to note that Daniel, a French operation that turned out to be more formal than any voyeurs anticipated, looks like the exception. American informal, both in food and style, is on the rise.

Consider, for example, the restaurant Fifty Seven Fifty Seven in the Four Seasons, a major new hotel. The last few flagship hotel operations that opened in New York were decidedly French: Adrienne, Lespinasse, Mark's, Les Celebrites.

Colors, the first review under Ruth Reichl's byline in the New York Times, is contemporary American.

And as for what is freshly minted or coming soon, the roster includes Mad.61, an American "market restaurant" with John Schenk at the helm; The Markham created by Clark Wolf and Ansell Hawkins to emphasize fresh seasonal ingredients; Dish, which purports to be Mediterranean but will serve food like charred salmon with black-bean ragout, indistinguishable from what comes out of the kitchen in a host of American operations; and Harley Davidson Cafe, determined to serve "great American food" under the direction of Drew Nieporent.

Even Christer Larsson, who was the chef at the Scandinavian Aquavit until July and is opening Christer's next month, plans an American seafood menu emphasizing salmon with just some Scandinavian touches. But international touches are what American food is all about.

Just as John Schenk offers osso buco at Mad.61, Larsson will serve salmon with polenta, and at Iridium, chef Rick Laakkonen, whose talent was honed at the River Cafe under Charles Palmer and David Burke and who went on to shine at Luxe, will serve risotto with savoy cabbage as easily as he will turn out grilled yellow-fin tuna with couscous.

An evolution has definitely taken place, with the category "American" coming to mean everything that is not fiercely loyal to another national cuisine. Indeed, there was a time when The Coach House, with its corn sticks, pecan pie, black-bean soup and roast beef was considered the best representative of American cooking in New York. But today the best American chefs are drawing on a vast repertory and storehouse of experience that reflects many nationalities. American is the true fusion cuisine. And it's becoming a very mature one at that.

One of the distinctive turns it has taken in the past couple of years is the emphasis on the quality of the ingredients and the fact that chefs now buy local whenever they can. It was, in some respects, what Larry Forgione pioneered at the River Cafe. Naysayers sneered that all he was doing was French food with American ingredients. Today it's French-Italian-Moroccan-Thai-Spanish-Mexican-etc. food with American ingredients. Accent on the American, please.

And can we talk about meat? Suddenly steak-house mania seems to be grabbing New York. The new Opus II, which opened in the spring, was an early indication. But this operation, which rebuts tradition by offering a price-fixed menu, does not deliver the juicy, charred "wow" of preposterous portions the way The Palm, Smith & Wollensky, Peter Luger and Spark's have been doing for decades.

Morton's should have the "wow," and Ruth's Chris will have sizzle to spare. Big, family-size, Carmine's-style portions of sides like hash browns and onion rings should give "wow" to Charlton's, also opening next month.

And as if to say, "Hey, what is this all about," there appears to be plenty of fish swimming into town as well. Seafood interests are represented not only by Eastern Seafood Co., a classic fish house that has its roots firmly planted in the East Hampton of baymen, as the local fishermen are called, not business tycoons and media stars, and Christer's, but also by Andrew Silverman's City Crab & Seafood Co., going into the space originally occupied by Cafe Iguana.

Relatively few French operations are on the horizon. Jean deNoyer is recycling his popular belle epoque La Goulue on Madison Avenue and 65th Street and creating Le Colonial to evoke an earlier era in places like Southeast Asia. Italian? Gilda, Sette Moma (in the Museum of Modern Art), Osteria al Doge and Pino Luongo's ambitious Amarcord opening in what was Mondrian, head the list.