Heady times
La Tête d'Or, Trove, Carrie Lindsey Beauty, Fredericks and Mae, best holiday homewares shopping, Eater's cuts, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Golden swirl
The entrance to Daniel Boulud’s brand new La Tête d'Or feels less like the fine dining restaurant it is, and more like the lobby of a Park Avenue South office building (which, as part of a redesigned office tower, it also very much is). When we arrived early Wednesday evening, the greeters spit out paper slips from a machine below their stand, as if we ordered ice cream to be picked up at the counter.
It was a lowbrow start to what would be a very highbrow evening.
Coats checked and reservation confirmed, we were escorted past an opulent, mirrored, darkly lit bar into the restaurant’s gorgeous, double-height dining room dotted with plush banquettes and formally dressed servers already in midseason form. A massive open kitchen lines one side of the space. It’s the most impressive new dining room in Manhattan since Café Carmellini, another double-height with generous banquettes.
The room shrinks at the table; the acoustics are good, the plateware and glassware impressive, set atop white linens and framed by lush curtains on the windowless walls. Even the font is beautiful (and evocative of the lettering at the other terrific d’Or of the season — Le Veau d’Or, where a stylized wordmark also rims elegant plates.)
The menu is steakhouse and French, with about a dozen cuts and another dozen sauces or butters. Our server’s recitation of the options was like a graduate-level meat course, which may have annoyed us if it wasn’t delivered with such precision and evident enjoyment.
There are many options to push a meal at La Tête d'Or into a realm only appropriate for finance expense accounts — a $50 sauce here, a $600 steak special there — but we kept it on the simpler side: steak tartare, tableside Caesar, mussels gratinées, and the prime rib trolley.
The result was spectacular, from those sauces (the bordelaise and béarnaise accompanying the prime rib) to the sides (pommes purée and creamy spinach) to the meat itself, a crusted, buttery, deep pink American wagyu. The tartare was impeccable; the mussels, elite, served on the half shell with a chorizo-saffron crust. Only the Caesar missed, wan in comparison to its theatrical production.
Before dessert, we lingered for a moment over a glass of wine, taking in the room, which had since filled with a well-dressed mix of holiday revelers, work groups, and ambitious dates. A couple of smaller two tops had been placed awkwardly between banquettes, suggesting that maybe not all experiences would be equal at La Tête d'Or.
But that dessert alone is enough to make even those P&L-stuffers worth booking: the pécan joconde, oui, and especially the soft serve sundae. It sounds like a gimmick too far — Daniel Boulud does Dairy Queen — but god was it good. Ours was a vanilla and berry-cassis swirl, with chocolate sauce and housemade toppings (sprinkles, passionfruit marshmallow, brownies), presented like tartare accompaniments in delicate scoops on a plate with six semi-circle cutouts. It’s the kind of delight you might get served in a plastic dish over an ice cream counter after handing in your paper slip — if a chef who worked for a decade at Daniel happened to be behind it. –Josh Albertson
→ La Tête d’Or (Flatiron) • 318 Park Ave S • Tues-Sat 5-11p • Reserve (N.B. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve availability).
RESTAURANTS • The Ticket
Sonoko Sakai x Lolas • 4-course collaborative dinner to celebrate Sonoko Sakai’s new cookbook • Lola’s (Nomad) • Thurs 12/12 @ 5-830p, $135 per
Feast of the Seven Fishes 2024 • holiday feast with local fish-based courses • Roman’s (Fort Greene) • Mon-Tue 12/23-24 @ 430-945p, $150 per
Feast of the Seven Fishes 2024 • holiday feast by chef Amelia Kirk • Il Buco Alimentari (Noho) • Tue 12/24 @ 4-930p, $125 per (under age 12, $50 per)
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Croak: this Saturday will be Frog Club’s final night of service • As nonprofit group pushes out longtime Bryant Park Grill operators, Jean-Georges lurks • Top Chef’s Kristen Kish to oversee new restaurant at The Ned • Behind the scenes at Sushi Sho: ‘nearby was a bowl of gizzard shad on ice’ • Outdoor dining shed civil disobedience ends at Il Posto Accanto in Alphabet City • Oral history of Employees Only as it turns 20 • Are cocktail bars leaving craft spirits behind?
WORK • Tuesday Routine
Playing tourist
CARRIE LINDSEY • owner • Carrie Lindsey Beauty
Neighborhood you work in: Fort Greene and Nolita
Neighborhood you live in: Lower East Side
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Because it’s my first day back after the weekend, there’s a mix of slow ease and excitement. There are five of us working at CLB on Tuesdays. We love to sort the music vibe for the day to start, followed by an always hot topic — “what’s for lunch?”
What’s on the agenda for today?
I have my 15-year-old nephews in town from Illinois, so there’s a lot on the agenda. We’ll start at the Met Museum, hop on bikes to ride around Central Park, then end at the Natural History Museum. I also promised them a stop at Rogue, a vintage clothing store in LES.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Last night we went to Doyers Street in Chinatown for dumplings and hand pulled noodles. Today, we’re starting with Russ & Daughters for bagels and ending with pizza at Rubirosa.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
I love doing everyday things when my family’s in town. I sometimes forget how much culture is built into the fiber of New York. A subway ride can offer great music, fashion, and foreign languages.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
My friend Robyn (who owns The Kit Vintage in LA) was just in town doing a pop-up with us. I couldn’t stop thinking about a champagne Jane Brooks slip dress she brought to sell — think ’90s Kate Moss, or Gwyneth Paltrow. I texted her yesterday because it was too good to pass up. Vintage clothing is truly my weakness!
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
I have a few, but my top picks are the following:
Upstate. My friend Kalen Kaminski is the creator of this brand and I want one of everything. Her raw silk tops/pants are a wardrobe staple, and then there’s her glassware. Each is a one-of-a-kind art piece.
Duo. I may regret blowing up my vintage spot, but Duo in the East Village is my absolute hands-down favorite vintage shop in NYC. Great curation. I love finding that one special piece you never knew you needed, and then, wearing it every day. That’s Duo.
Fredericks and Mae. I just realized I have a theme in my shop picks: They all have one-of-a-kind, artful products. Fredericks and Mae in Dimes Square is my go-to for gifts. They feature so many cool local artists and make the best cutting boards around. I also appreciate their price points — you can find a great gift for $50 and then, of course, for $350.
WORK LINKS: Feds approve $10B Port Authority redesign • Sephora and Barcade coming to Century 21 block on lower Broadway • New Calvin Klein flagship coming to Shvo’s 530 Broadway in Soho • Young men are hungry for Kalshi and crypto • Inside two companies test-driving a 4-day work week • Should you put your marathon times on your Linkedin?
WORK • Media
Eat when served
Well, our friends at Vox Media didn’t take us up on our offer to chat about the local Eaters. Instead, per a layoffs memo from CEO Jim Bankoff, they’re “reorganizing [Eater’s] cities coverage into a regional model in order to most efficiently serve its audience's needs.”
It was a good run. But local media is hard (and not a requirement for selling ads to Campbell’s). So we get it. Vox has a lot of mouths to feed and the soup is hot and filling. Still, a moment of nostalgia for the Eater city sites that obsessively covered local dining in a very new way when they launched back in the aughts.
Whatever comes next for Eater, a “regional model” does not portend deeper local coverage. We’ve heard that some of the network’s big city editors will get new jobs running the regions, so hopefully they’ll still find a way to serve readers well in those markets. It’s certainly on-trend with the decline of local lifestyle media writ large.
But we are believers, and — having built those original Eater/Cubed/Racked city sites (profitably!) — we think we can do something similar here at FOUND. As discussed in this space, Paris and London are next for us, but if you’re an affected restaurant reporter in a neglected big to medium-sized U.S. city, you can find us at found@foundny.com. –Josh Albertson
GOODS AND SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Unboxing a Trove
Last month, Melbourne-based jewelry-box maker Trove opened its first U.S. location on a quiet West Village corner. The shop and studio shows off their full line of jewelry boxes and containers, from traditional trunk-style boxes to more unusual forms, like the round Sidekick that functions as a sort of bedside table catch-all, and the We Do!, a double ring box. All their jewelry cases are designed to be seen, available in two-tone palettes, and (in a nod to antique jewelry boxes) decorated with delicate gold detailing.
The store, designed by Tali Roth and Cooper Build, is meant to evoke the feeling of being inside one of the Trove boxes. The ceiling is texturally similar to lacquer, and some walls are covered in velvet-suede wallpaper. The brand’s playful nature is emphasized with soft detailing, like the curved bespoke display shelves.
To fill up their lacquered boxes, Trove also sells selections from jewelers like Alison Lou, Erede, and Natalia Pas. In the front room, there’s a rotating artist residency (currently held by Brazilian artist Fernando Jorge).
Being an adult in Trove feels a little like being a kid in a very grown-up candy shop: An incredibly tactile experience, one where every corner holds something colorful, shiny, or soft, but always yielding delight, and always aching to go home with you. –Sylvie Florman
→ Trove (West Village) • 301 W 4th St • Mon-Tues by appointment only, Wed-Sat 11a-7p, Sun 12-5p.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Curious magic store Art of Play opens in Brooklyn Heights • Brooks Brothers is coming home to Wall Street • The Internet is rigged against great stores (and why Ven.Space doesn’t do ecommerce) • Wineries make it too hard to buy online • How to spot a rich guy? Look for this jacket… or these shoes.
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GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines
Holiday shopping, unique homewares
William-Wayne & Co. (Upper East Side), ‘a tasteful friend’s pleasantly cluttered home,’ for accessories of all sorts