Winter Restaurant Rush
Santi, Crane Club, Crown Shy, Kiko, Chez Fifi, Zimmi’s, Michael Solomonov, Josh Hall surfboards, RTO, Kolo House Shoes, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Santi gold
When we arrived at our table at Santi this past Saturday night, a handwritten note on crisp restaurant stationery greeted us: HAPPY BIRTHDAY. A couple of hours later, as we were wrapping up our meal, another couple arrived at the table next to us to find a similar card. (We flashed each other our cards and shared a laugh — Capricorns forever!)
I bring this up not to fish for birthday wishes (still, this Thursday is the day), but to note the polish under which three-week-old Santi is operating.
And as the exchange with my birthday-mate at the neighboring table shows, Santi promotes a sense of playfulness and fun that belies its set-back entrance on East 53rd Street, just off Madison, as well as the ghosts of Alto, the rather serious Italian restaurant that presided here throughout the aughts. Santi, like Alto before it, has the blessing of chef Michael White in the kitchen, and in this case also marks his prodigal return to NYC’s dining scene after several years plying his trade in the Caribbean and surrounds. As we made our way through four courses highlighting White’s range, I thought: about damn time.
The first bite, a tuna tartare amuse topped with a tiny dollop of caviar, immediately evoked Marea, the knockout Italian restaurant on Central Park South where White served as the founding chef. There, he conjured crudos on par with his exemplary pastas. At Santi, he’s continuing the raw fish magic, particularly with Montauk red prawns, again with caviar, along with tiny mushrooms and a dusting of pistachio.
If you come to a Michael White restaurant and don’t order at least two pastas, that’s between you and your god. Three graced our table: a deeply oceanic orecchiette with blue crab and sea urchin; a more subtle (but equally delicious) garganelli with prosciutto, radicchio, and truffle butter; and mortadella-filled tortellini topped with black truffles in a brown-butter sage sauce, an absolute triumph of texture and taste.
Who says January can’t be fun? Downside: we were maybe too full for our mains — a fish soup, Adriatic-style (insofar as it contained an enormous amount of seafood in a very small amount of broth), and the roasted guinea hen, a favorite White protein since forever. Nonetheless, both proved worthy.
The vibe in the packed (and in some parts, double-height) downstairs dining room was lively, but never too loud to hear ourselves talk. Following a gut renovation of the space, the restaurant is split into two levels — both are awash in neutral tones, and to my eyes, equally covetable. Service was nearly perfect, down to the tiny passionfruit terrine that arrived at my place, topped with a birthday candle, alongside an insanely good ricotta tartlet and chocolate tartufo. Somehow, we managed to find room.
Exiting the dining room back into the striking horseshoe bar that anchors Santi’s entrance area, lit from behind with a heavenly glow, I couldn’t help but cast my eyes on a stack of cards at the host stand. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY read the one on top. Yes, Santi is tailor-made for celebrations, but you needn’t one to go. –Lockhart Steele
→ Santi (Midtown East) • 520 Madison Ave (entrance on E 53rd St) • Mon-Sat 5-10p • Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Fine Dining Report
Our fine dining correspondent Lee Pitofsky dines at Eleven Madison Park as often as he checks his mail. Here, now, his latest New York City report for FOUND:
→ TAKING FLIGHT: At 85 10th Avenue, in the space that once housed Del Posto and Al Coro, Crane Club (above) exudes sophistication and precise cooking. Its owners at Tao Hospitality Group brought back nearly the whole crew from Al Coro, led by chef Melissa Rodriguez. Despite the Tao brand, Crane Club is no clubstaurant. There are a few ways to play the menu: For the expense-account set, there are caviar, truffles, and large format steaks from the custom-designed Spanish Mibrasa grill. For civilians, there are exceptional pastas — notably, tortellini filled with roasted squash and sweet potato in a parmesan brodo — as well as an excellent Parmigiano-Reggiano-aged NY strip. For dessert, order the tahini chocolate lava cake with butterscotch, sesame, and coconut-oat gelato from pastry genius Georgia Wodder, who’s been on desserts in this building since Del Posto. Cat Fanelli runs the extremely thoughtful and (for NYC) reasonably priced wine program, and Chris Lemperle (most recently of Overstory) mans the bar. Reserve.
→ CROWN TOWN: The cuisine from a recent visit to the late James Kent’s Crown Shy (Wall Street) remains as alluring as ever — and popular, too, as the bar was standing room only. As at Saga upstairs, Crown Shy is currently running a “Legacy Menu” featuring a mix of Kent’s greatest hits and dishes from the opening menu (six years ago, come March). Highlights include ricotta gnocchi, whose accompaniments change with the seasons (currently, matsutske and vin jaune sauce). Also reliably excellent: the pork katsu, crispy on the outside, with an impossibly tender interior. The meal finished in simple, luxurious fashion, with salted Tahitian vanilla ice cream — and the very last of shaved white truffles from Alba. The time to enjoy this menu is now, with major changes in the works: the restaurant plans a cuisine shift towards the Middle Eastern background of culinary director Jassimran Singh. Reserve.
→ IN THE FAMILY: Husband and wife and chef and sommelier team Alex Chang and Lina Gouijane opened Kiko (Hudson Square) in November. It’s upscale, but not stuffy, with wood accents, exposed brick and dim lighting, and an a la carte menu influenced by the couple’s travels, heritage, and experience working in fine dining kitchens. The Dungeness crab is quickly becoming a signature, served in its shell, accompanied by sushi rice, crab fat mayonnaise, and sheets of crispy nori for DIY hand rolls. Thrice-fried chicken wings with makrut lime powder, Sansho, and green peppercorns was among the best fried bird in recent memory. Tableside “half duck nabe,” certainly meant to share, comes with hand torn noodles and spicy sesame and soy milk broth. It’s Asian-fusion revival, in the best possible way. Reserve. –Lee Pitofsky
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Longtime NYC restaurant critic Robert Sietsema launches his own Substack • Could 2025 really be Lure’s last year? • Long tasting menu at Per Se now tops $1k per • There would be no progress without places like Frog Club • Closings: Sushi Azabu in Tribeca (as of 1/21), Catch Steak in MePa, As You Are at Bk Ace • Stissing House chef Clare de Boer’s favorite NYC restaurants.
WORK • Tuesday Routine
House special
MICHAEL SOLOMONOV • chef/restaurateur and cookbook author • CookNSolo Restaurants
Neighborhood you work in: Williamsburg
Neighborhood you live in: Philadelphia, PA
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Our culinary team at K’Far in Brooklyn — Sam Levenfeld and Shaul Armony — are pulling fresh baked bourekas with potato or feta right out of the oven. Sam recently debuted this new kubaneh toast topped with burrata and an apricot amba that I’m obsessed with. Delightful dishes like this with the fireplace going make the ground floor at The Hoxton one of my favorite places to be.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I’m going to be eating and getting inspired by the mixed grill that we now serve at dinner at K’Far. It’s housemade merguez, brisket, and pomegranate honey-harif chicken over house made laffa that Chef Sam created, and feels like the culmination of years of devotion to the craft.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
L’Industrie!
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
A beautiful Josh Hall Yellow Fish Simmons 8-foot surfboard, because there’s nothing like surfing down the shore with my family.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
Anything and everything at Misipasta.
WORK • RTO
Mixed messages
We’re back at the (home) office in this first full week of 2024, surveying data from a busy Q4 in the field of a FOUND Work obsession — return to office. Here’s what we’ve got:
43% of US companies offered hybrid policies in Q4 2024, up from 29% a year ago
32% require full-time in office, down from 38% a year ago
That leaves 25% with fully flexible policies, down from 33% last year
Feels like a winner is emerging! And yet, brokerage firm tracking concludes Q4 was the best office leasing quarter in Manhattan in five years. For the full 2024, leasing was up 22% over 2023. Activity was particularly strong at the high end: 28 new leases were signed above $200 per square foot and 212 above $100, both records.
Zooming in, finance firms accounted for 64% of those priciest square feet and 40% of 2024’s total, per JLL. And brand name, class-A buildings, like One Vanderbilt, The Seagram Building, and Lever House were particularly in demand.
What’s this all add up to? Maybe 2025 will be a big year for returning to the office — as long as it's a really nice one. –Josh Albertson
WORK LINKS: Port Authority hikes tolls same day congestion pricing starts • CBRE and Industrious take 64K SF at Lever House • Semafor launches invite-only membership, The CEO Signal • Easterlin, ‘father of happiness economics’ dies at 98 • Middle managers are getting squeezed.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shops
Inside shoes
I first visited the Cambridge, MA, location of Topdrawer in search of Japanese notebooks and pens to sate my stationery obsession. But instead of leaving with paper goods, I walked out with a pair of color-blocked corduroy house shoes.
With a plush, cloudlike lining, these shoes are designed for the Japanese tradition of removing outdoor shoes before entering the home and replacing them with clean, comfortable indoor footwear. Topdrawer, which also has NYC outposts in Soho, Flatiron, and Williamsburg, carries a wide range of house shoes, produced by their in-house brand, Kolo, in materials like linen, suede, wool, and corduroy — all with the same modern, minimalistic aesthetic. For frequent travelers, the house shoes fold flat for easy packing, in accordance with Topdrawer’s “Tools for Nomads” ethos. They’ll make you feel at home wherever you are. –Phoebe Fry
→ Shop: Kolo Japanese House Shoes (Topdrawer), $95.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Inside Albertine on the Upper East Side, NYC’s most charming French bookstore • Japanese grocer Garden of Eden set to open on UWS • Why the cannabis system is still a mess in NYC • Don’t call it a gym — it’s a sporting club… but at least canceling your NYC gym membership is easier in 2025 • The rise of ultra-premium whiskey.
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RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Restaurant Rush, Winter 2025
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of NYC's best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundny.com. See also our 2024 Restaurant Tracker.
Chez Fifi (Upper East Side), knockout Spanish-French cooking in UES townhouse from Sushi Noz team, early contender for reservation of the season, reserve