It's known as Bill's, Bill's Gay Nineties, and Bill's 1890's Restaurant & Café -- and is New York's finest example of a 1920-1930 speakeasy. This time-warp restaurant is a piece of NY's past: Those who walk down a few steps into the brownstone at 57 East 54th Street and push open the saloon swinging doors enter a world of dark wood, checkered table cloths, antique wrought-iron chandeliers and bar lights, stained glass, creaking bare wood floorboards, mirrors, and old photographs of boxers, baseball players, and babes from another era-and, no surprise here, great steaks and burgers. Above the bar is a dining room with wood beams, a cathedral ceiling from the Vanderbilt mansion, fittings from the old Waldorf Hotel, a piano, fireplace, and a gallery of yesteryear's leading ladies of showbiz.
The third-floor private room sports a magnificent mahogany bar that came (depending on who tells the story) from either the Rockefeller mansion or Delmonico's restaurant. The eating place in this 140-year-old building is run by Barbara Bart Olmsted, whose father, O.B. Bart, loved Bill's. In 1965, when it looked as though it might close, he purchased it and, in 1979, Olmsted took over.
All this history might make Bill's seem like a museum. It isn't. It's a vibrant, hopping spot with piano music (Mon.-Sat. starting at 8pm). Unlike most Midtown restaurants, weekends -- especially Saturday nights -- are slower.
The menu is straightforward, familiar, uncomplicated: shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, crab cakes, chicken, steaks, cheese cake, and key lime pie. It's also heavily tilted toward seafood: The two most memorable dishes sampled at a recent dinner both came from the briny side of the menu. A New England clam chowder served in an oversize bowl was not the often-encountered thickened, gloppy brew-it was delicate, sprinkled with potatoes and heavy on clams and flavor. Also in this class was a Saturday night special of sushi-rare, fresh, sesame-crusted yellowfin tuna with an interesting soy ginger glaze. Other noteworthy selections were a mountain of crispy calamari rings with a slightly spicy dipping sauce and mild, tasty, thin-sliced Irish smoked salmon. The filet of salmon passed muster and crab cakes were tasty.
Desserts are housemade and delicious. The tangy key lime pie served with whipped cream is the star here. The warm apple-and-pear strudel with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the intense chocolate mousse pie are also recommended.
57 E. 54th St. (Park-Madison Aves.), 212-355-0243
Richard Jay Scholem was a restaurant critic for the New York Times Long Island Section for 14 years. His A La Carte Column appeared from 1990 to 2004. For more “Taste of the Town” reviews, click here.
