Wow is the word for Brasserie. No similar establishment in France or elsewhere ever looked like this. Diners enter a space-age catwalk straight out of "Star Trek," and their photographs are beamed up to a row of video screens above the bar. Plush leather booths, indirect lighting and a room of stylish, shiny brown and green hard surfaces make for one of the most hip, ultramodern dining rooms in Manhattan.
But Brasserie is more than just a pretty face. The Brooklyn-born Executive Chef, Franklin Becker, is equally at home with robust and subtle preparations. He cooks with both gusto and gentility.
Traditional French Brasseries are beer-centered, pub-like places that offer homey, hearty food. Brasserie has the beer and conventional fare like onion soup, escargot, shellfish, omelets, and the mandatory steak frites, but it has much more, too. Innovative creations like Chef Becker’s All Tomato three course menu are serious alternatives to the more traditional dishes, as is a pillbox of East Coast halibut set on a contrasting bed of ratatouille and an heirloom tomato salad that delivered a balance of sweetness and acidity. Desserts, under the stewardship of Pastry Chef Kenneth Larson, included an imaginative sundried tomato olive oil torte accompanied by a contrasting lemon-basil ice cream and a tomato crisp.
Recommended is the exquisitely grilled octopus, made more delectable by its frizzy greens and delicate radish slices; the glittering tuna tartare stuffed with avocado; and the no-bread lump crab cake, dense with shards of crab. Main events included a gargantuan steakhouse-quality filet mignon that was buttery tender and served with three different sauces and crisp fries; a moist, soft Berkshire pork loin with a side of spaetzle in a skillet of its own; and sweet sea scallops festooned with artichokes and sprinkled with black olive oil. Side dishes also included sauteed mushrooms and a rich truffle creamed spinach.
Pleasant servers, who displayed unusual poise, gave us some good advice when ordering sweets at meal’s end. Everything they recommended was swooningly rich: airy beignets, promptly split and doused with chocolate sauce; praline ganache and cashew brittle ice cream; and the chocolate trio of pot de crème, sorbet and a torte that were very chocolatey, more chocolatey, and most chocolatey.
The Seagram Building, 100 E. 53rd St. btw. Park & Lexington Aves., 212-751-4840; www.rapatina.com/brasserie/ 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.
