Pretty Penny
Penny, East Village
RESTAURANTS • First Person
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.