If the shoe fits
Penny, favorite cobblers, Per Se, Nōksu, CTBF, The Sporkful, Sendo, Flyfish Club, 4-day workweeks, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Pretty Penny
The Ice Box arrived not a few minutes after we ordered it at Penny, the new seafood bar directly upstairs from the East Village wine bar Claud. The tray of ice set in front of us held pairs of East Coast oysters, shrimp, clams, and mussels, a bowl of scallop tartare, and three classic sauces (mignonette, cocktail, and garlic aioli). A minimalist’s delight, maybe, but the soft, buttery texture of the shrimp blew us away, to say nothing of a beautifully seasoned, tender scallop tartare.
And that was before we tried the beggar’s purse, the tuna carpaccio — pounded flat, a vibrant and electric red — or the oyster pan roast, the shucked oysters floating in a broth with sea lettuce, beneath a house-made brioche, a borderline nouveau riche pot pie.
Penny is the seafood bar New York City has been missing. We’ve never quite had our version of San Francisco’s Swan Oyster Depot (although, of course, there’s Grand Central Oyster Bar — fantastic vibes, the food, less so). Penny is fancier than the off-the-boat bustle of Swan. The best comp might be the departed John Dory Oyster Bar, which married super fresh seafood with chef April Bloomfield’s skills in memorable dishes like her ridiculous version of squid stuffed with chorizo.
At Penny, there’s a very good stuffed squid (filled with tuna and swiss chard) on offer, here floating in a harissa-like sauce. And, in suiting the current moment in NYC dining, there’s lots of caviar, including an upgraded version of the Ice Box (with caviar, scallop, periwinkles, and crab for $98, versus $36 for the version we enjoyed). Where we chose to indulge was with that aforementioned beggar’s purse, an obvious tribute to the version served at Barry and Susan Wine’s 1980s-era NYC restaurant, the Quilted Giraffe. The small crepe is filled with crème fraîche, the large dollop of caviar escaping out the top that’s tied off with a chive. At $49 per, two for our twosome cost $98. Worth it.
Also not to be missed: Penny’s house-made sesame brioche, which arrives warm with whipped butter (and for $6 more, anchovies). It pulls apart like a cumulus cloud. You may need two over the course of your meal to sop up what sauces you’ll encounter.
As at sister restaurant Claud downstairs, the Penny team took an unappealing space and upleveled it. The most genius design decision is the fact that there are no tables: A smooth marble-topped bar runs the entire length of the restaurant. Seated right in the middle of its length, we could watch the live lobsters in the ice basins across from us, and cast our eyes down the bar to the big windows looking out onto the flowering fruit trees on East 10th Street. It feels like Lisbon by way of the East Village. (To clinch this comparison, start as we did with the effervescent sherry cobbler cocktail.)
The cast of characters on both sides of us turned over in the span of our relatively short (90 minute) dinner, and walk-ins were being seated. (The Penny website describes the place as “a walk-in seafood spot,” although there are reservations to be had. For now, it’s a weeknight-only affair.) Had we wanted, we could’ve been in and out even faster. At one point during the meal, my companion said, “Is it weird that I’m standing up?” It wasn’t. Penny is delicious, casual, fancy, and unassuming all at once — just what we’ve been missing. –Lockhart Steele
→ Penny (East Village) • 90 E 10th St • Mon-Fri 5p-10p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Fine Dining Report
UNDERGROUND GOURMET: After an excellent first meal at Nōksu (Herald Square) just after it opened last fall off a stairwell in the 34th Street subway station, I returned last month, and found giant steps forward in service and execution. Japanese mackerel with celtuce and a sauce from Atlas Farm carrot, brown butter, and ginger was perfected with the addition of a bright and acidic sake gelée. Red mullet from Korea showcases the restaurant’s capacity for complex preparations with an accompanying rock shrimp and chanterelle ragu, preserved Meyer lemon, saffron foam, and finally, a sausage made from the fish’s heads. Nōksu is pushing the boundaries of creativity and presentation without sacrificing flavor. Reserve.
SPECIAL SEAFOOD: My second visit to the post-Cesar Ramirez era of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare was also better than the first. Proteins remain the star of the show; two unforgettable dishes are still lingering in my head. One, Maine diver scallop, lightly grilled on the binchotan, is surrounded by an otherworldly vin jaune sauce with fig leaf oil, a massive dollop of Kaluga Queen caviar, and crispy potato. It checks all the boxes. So does the other, turbot from Holland, swimming in a sauce made from its bones, with buttermilk, chive, hearts of palm, razor clams, more Kaluga Queen caviar, and hyper-seasonal hotaru-ika (also known as firefly squid). CTBF is firing on all cylinders. Reserve.
SPRING THINGS: My 55th dinner at Per Se featured brand new spring ingredients and daylight saving’s natural light, the ideal accompaniments to the stunning post-renovation dining room. My first white asparagus of the season shared a plate with butter-poached Maine lobster with Parmesan "Tuile," arugula sprouts and lobster "Alfredo" sauce. Later, a manager captured the attention of the entire dining room as he prepared sauce Diane tableside, to be drizzled over a Snake River Farms calotte de bœuf with morel and black trumpet mushrooms, glazed Kyoto carrots and pearl onions. Never a dull moment at Thomas Keller’s haute dining temple, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in February with an epic party (above). Reserve. –Lee Pitofsky
RESTAURANTS • Intel
FULL SENDO: The forthcoming sushi counter Sendo (Koreatown) is welcoming Tokyo sushi master Hidefumi Namba for five nights of serious omakase next month. Namba, who operates Sushi Namba — the seventh-ranked sushi counter in Japan per Tabelog — is known for his obsessive temperature control of each piece served. He’ll be serving guests in the U.S. for the first time, May 2-6, in advance of his opening a new member’s only sushi counter and listening room in Miami this fall. Tickets are $1000 per. Reserve.
FRESH BAIT: Members-only Flyfish Club (Lower East Side), the VCR Group project which is expected to open this summer and quickly sold $14 million in memberships on the blockchain in 2022, is now selling more traditional memberships. The standard tier goes for $3,500/year, plus a $1,500 initiation fee. Add a spouse for $500 more. Both levels require an online application, in which a membership referral is encouraged but not required. Neither includes NFT ownership, as in the original offering, which traded for about $8K in ETH at the base tier and $14K at the “Flyfish Omakase” level and still hovers around similar levels.
Q1 RESTAURANT REPORT: Our look back at the quarter’s openings, including recommendations on where to eat right now.
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: FOUND’s Q1 Restaurant Report: Where to eat right now • Dan Kluger’s Chef’s Counter at Greywind will pay tribute to Floyd Cardoz in April and May • On the LES, Sammy’s Roumanian announces two-night return April 22-23, then May weekends • Why one of natural wine’s biggest advocates isn’t into natural wine anymore • The who’s who of beer cool.
FOUNDLISTING • The Tower at Gramercy Square
BRING THE FAM: Here’s a light and modern four-bedroom stunner, including a redesigned primary suite, with a walk-in dressing room and soaking tub, and a fourth bedroom that doubles as a media room, with steel and glass sliding doors and blackout shades. The white-glove Tower at Gramercy Square features a 75’ saltwater lap pool and full suite of amenities — fitness center, sauna/steam rooms, yoga studio, golf simulator, children’s playroom, screening room, resident’s lounge, resident club room, bike room, private storage, and the potential to purchase private parking.
→ 215 East 19th Street, 12C (Gramercy), 4BR/4.5BA, 2539 SF condo, $6.495M • Clocktower, Chrysler Building, and Empire State Building views • Common charges: $3871; Monthly taxes: $3777 • Listing broker: Jeremy Stein, Sotheby’s • partner.
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WORK • Tuesday Routine
Put a spork in it
DAN PASHMAN • host, The Sporkful podcast; cookbook author
Neighborhood you work in: Bryant Park
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
The Sporkful is produced by Stitcher, part of SiriusXM, and today I'm working at our Bryant Park office, where we also have our podcast recording studios. I usually work from home on Mondays, when I have a lot of meetings and set myself up for the week. Tuesdays, the whole Sporkful team usually comes in so we can see each other in person — and get something good to eat! There are usually some other podcast recordings going on, so there are hosts, guests, producers, and engineers coming in and out.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I'm getting ready to release my first cookbook. A little while back I launched a new shape of pasta called cascatelli, which took me three years to invent. It's specially designed to hold tons of sauce and have lots of very satisfying textures in your mouth. It went viral and was named one of Time Magazine's best inventions of 2021. But there was a problem. People were sending me photos of what they were making with it, and it was mostly tomato sauce, meat sauce, mac and cheese. I decided to write a cookbook to show people that there's so much more you can and should be putting on all your pasta shapes, not just cascatelli. The result is Anything's Pastable: 81 Inventive Pasta Recipes for Saucy People.
We've also produced a four-part Sporkful podcast series on the whole process of making the cookbook, from the highs and lows of recipe testing, to my research trip across Italy, to the agonizing decisions over the design of the cover.
What’s for lunch?
I'm going to eat the kung fu shrimp at Café China on West 37th Street. That place is an institution and the kung fu shrimp is my favorite dish on the menu. It's big fried shrimp with cayenne peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, and peanuts. Sometimes I make a jaunt from my office to Shuka, one of my very favorite restaurants in the city. Everything there is excellent, but I especially love the labne and the halloumi salad.
Any plans tonight?
Hoping to check out Café Mars in Gowanus, which everyone is raving about. If I stay home, I'll probably make the vodka sauce with tomato achaar from my cookbook, which my daughter Emily has been asking for.
What store or service do you always recommend?
I love my Amex Business Gold Card. I run my whole business through their business checking platform, and it's a pleasure to use. I used to use a major NYC bank and their business website was like using dialup AOL circa 1997. With Amex everything just works and the customer service is always great.
WORK LINKS: Former CBS home Black Rock nearly 90% leased after amenity-filled transformation • Bob Knackal starting new AI-powered brokerage • The big work lie: being indispensable will save your job • As ‘bleisure’ trips gain in popularity, it’s hard to know where business ends and leisure begins.
WORK • The 19th Hole
4 and 1
The threatened annexation of Fridays by the weekend continued to ripple last week, as powerful people reacted to the acknowledgment that employers are losing their grip on the fifth workday:
Hedge fund manager (and Mets owner) Steve Cohen, who says his teams will always work Fridays as long as the markets are open, is seizing the opportunity to invest into the trend, specifically in golf. “I guess courses will be crowded on Fridays,” he told CNBC.
IAC chairman Barry Diller is willing to cede Fridays to the home office, as long as everyone is still working and they agree that it’s only Fridays! “I think that is going to be the sensible evolution of all this, but it has to be standardized,” he also told CNBC. “You can’t have 17,000 different programs, because how do you deal with all the things around it?”
The Diller interview is worth a watch, mostly for his utter annoyance that this is even a discussion. Why didn’t everyone just go back to the way it was pre-Covid? he asks. Instead, employers made the mistake of surveying their workforces about their preferences. “You ask an employee what do they want, they want total flexibility, to stay home, and get paid more… It’s madness.”
The standardization of WFH Fridays is an interesting concept, and may be a de facto solution for buttoned-up office cultures like IAC. But it also assumes Mondays through Thursdays aren’t in play — an issue that seems far from settled. –Josh Albertson
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Chef René Redzepi bringing his fancy Noma Projects CPG offerings to NYC next week • At 200 Fifth Ave, Yeti opens flagship store • Leica store opens in Meatpacking District • Is there progress at H Mart at 111 Hudson? • The truth about power dressing.
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On this first warm day of spring, where are you drinking outside?
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GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shops
Shoe-ins
Hot on the heels of last week’s roundup of FOUND subscriber tailor recommendations, subscriber responses to the prompt, “Please tell us your favorite NYC cobblers”: