BARS & RESTAURANTS • First Round
There’s a reason Smith & Mills on N. Moore St. has lasted 16 years. It’s a small, carefully conceived space serving excellent drinks and a tight, appealing menu. In the summertime, the oversize front doors of the converted carriage house swing open onto a classic Tribeca block. “Perfection,” a friend recently said of the place.
So it was with anticipation that I booked a weekday table for two at the new midtown outpost, located (these days, of course) at Rockefeller Center. Like its downtown sibling, the restaurant is elegantly outfitted with a gorgeous bar at center with banquettes framing the room.
The drink list is lovely. The answer to the Leading Question (above) — gin, Mazzuro Aperitivo, Cocchi Americano, grapefruit bitters — is yes. The dinner menu is expertly edited: raw bar, snacks and toasts (an excellent smoked trout), greens (a bracing little gem salad), a few pastas (a more-please twirl of tagliatelle puttanesca), and a handful of mains (a clever roast chicken with sunchokes).
But here’s the thing: This version of Smith & Mills is underground (“rink level”) in a mall in midtown. Which, tried as we might, was hard to shake on a January weekday. But maybe that’s the point. Grab a drink after a long day of work upstairs, enjoy a post-skate bite, plan ahead for your holiday in the city (the downtown location doesn’t take reservations). Close your eyes, and you might even be able to see Tribeca. –Josh Albertson
→ Smith & Mills Rockefeller • 30 Rockefeller Plaza • Reserve.
→ Smith & Mills Tribeca • 71 N. Moore St. • No reservations.