New York Bistros

Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar

2 Park Avenue (32nd Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue

New York, New York 10016

212.725.8585

http://artisanalbistro.com/

The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory – precession of simulacra – it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own. The desert of the real itself.

Baudrillard

At Artisanal we are greeted by the hostess, our coats are checked and we are shown to a table next to the windows with a view across the outside terrace to the street which is now deserted because of the winter and cold and darkness. Artisanal is a Grand Cafe with high ceilings, old rich brown-red mahogany wood, and art deco lighting fixtures on the columns and ceilings. There are red banquettes along the walls and Thonet No. 14 chairs at the tables. They are beat up and old and time has made them well-worn and comfortable. The tables have white tablecloths. The floor has geometric op-art tiles that suggest Victor Vasarely. Palm trees down the center of the room divide the space. At the far end above our table is a grand mural of a country scene. It reminds me of Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette. Vintage French posters are on the side wall. At the back of the restaurant is a fromagerie and a bakery.

The bar is long, the wood is rich, the wood is old, candle light is reflected yellow and soft by the wood and the Thonet bar stools wait for their customers. Behind the bar is an antique clock and rainbow bottles of liquors. One of the bartenders told me that, in the center of the bar beneath the clock, is a 100 year old bottle of cognac by Remy Martin Louis XIII Le Jeroboam. “It’s one century in a glass,” Louis XIII cellar master Pierrette Trichet once said, holding a crystal glass filled with amber liquid. “The idea is to be very humble in front of this glass and pay respect because it represents the effort and the know-how of one century.” The cost of the “decanters” is around $16,000 and a glass is $2400.

Artisanal is  owned by Sarid Drory (who also owns Spitzer’s Corner, Fat Baby, Los Feliz and The Derby). Artisanal is about upmarket French bistro cooking, and has 250 cheeses and a wine cellar with over 600 bottles.  Every Monday night there is jazz.

This Fall, Artisanal will be moving to 387 Park Avenue South. The new Artisanal will be a huge restaurant with11,000 square feet. (The current restaurant is 3,000 square feet). It will have a cheese store, bakery, and lounge in addition to the restaurant.

My first impression of the Artisanal was that it met most of the elements of the Archetype. It has the Thonet chairs, the tiled mosaic floors, the brass railing at the bottom of the bar, the French country mural, the waiters in white and black, the French posters on the wall, the Musee d’Orsay clock on over the bar,  and the art deco lighting fixtures.

However, it does not quite ring true. The map is too perfect. Artisanal is a simulacra of a bistro. In his work Simulacra and Simulation,  Baudrillard wrote about the relationship among reality, symbols and society.  Artisanal may be a collection of signs that point to an authentic bistro but have no inherent bistro reality itself. The map of the territory of the bistro is perfect. But the map is not the territory. Magritte considered the problem of reality and the representation of reality in his famous painting of a pipe in which he wrote: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe (“This is not a pipe.”).

If we make the bistro map more and more perfect, as we increase the resolution to greater and greater levels of acuity, do we get closer to the reality of the territory as described by the map? The map itself becomes more and more unreal, perhaps surreal. Baudrillard would call it hyperreal or pure simulation. The more of the territory that the map shows, the less it reflects the reality of the territory.

Although the design of Artisanal is beautiful, it feels just a little bit too beautiful and perfect. It is the imperfections that make something truly beautiful.

The waiters are dressed in white shirts and white aprons. The male waiters wore suspenders and black flat caps that remind me of London cab drivers or old guys that hang out in the pubs arguing about their football teams.

Our waiter was happy to oblige my request to exchange my seat for a vintage Thonet 14 chair from a nearby table. The traditional bistro uses a chalk board for a menu so that it can easily be changed as dishes are sold or ingredients change. Rather than a chalkboard the waiter used an iPad to show us photos of the specials. This is an American innovation to the bistro Archetype.

I prefer the chalkboard.  The words are more descriptive of a dish because they stir the imagination rather than a photograph which reduces the attractiveness of the dish to the skill of the photographer and the display device.

Our service was good; it was timely, friendly and professional.

While we were considering our wine the sommelier visited our table. He spent time with us talking about his search for a 100% French grenache wine. Apparently, most grenache wines are blended with syrah and he wanted pure grenache. He brought us a taste of pure grenache which was extraordinary. It had red fruit flavors (raspberry and strawberry) and a subtle, white pepper spice note.

We chose the 2012 Merlot from Oberon in Napa Valley. This wine tasted of black currant, cherry, plum, and blackberry. It was round and full-bodied, and the finish lingered with a note of cassis.

Philosophy aside, the food was not a simulacra it was quite real and quite well done.  The menu is a mixture of traditional bistro dishes, cheese oriented dishes and some experiments. I had the Dover sole which was perfectly cooked and was served with asparagus and morels. The French onion soup was good, although not up to Odeon’s standards.

The current menu has a $42 prix fixe. Interesting dishes are soupoe au pistou (with basil, sheep cheese and croutons), sea bass (with fennel, tomatoe, and provencale sauce) and sorbet (yuzu, orange chai and raspberry).

After our dinner we visited the cheese shop. There was a vast collection of cheeses. You can also order cheese online. The staff at the fromogerie was friendly and helpful and we sampled several cheeses.

We bought a robiola; it was  irresistible. Robiola is an unusual cheese in that it is made by mixing three milks: cow sheep and goat. Here is some history:

Robiola is an Italian soft-ripened cheese hailing from the Langhe region, situated in the provinces of Cuneo and Asti, in the southern part of Piedmont, an area particularly popoular among the lovers of specialty food.

Although we do not know exactly when the production of Robiola cheese in the Langhe region began, we have documents that prove its existence already in the fifteenth century. There, each producer of Robiola cheese has his own recipe and production methods. In fact, Robiola can be made of one milk, two milks or three milks, meaning that it is produced by mixing cow’s milk, sheep’s milk and goat’s milk.

The current space is gorgeous and I look forward to visiting Artisinal after they move to their new space. I will publish and update to this review then!

Ratings:

Service: 8. Professional, good timing and friendly.

Archetype: 10 or 5. Depending upon how you feel about Baudrillaud.

Food: 7 Good but not inspired.

Energy: 8. Big bustling bistro-like restaurant. In-house bakery and fromagerie support the Parisian vibes. Note too noisy or croweded; the scale of the space helps.  Watch Midnight in Paris before you go.

Resources

Reviews of Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar

http://bellanyc.com/artisanal-fromagerie-bistro-wine-bar-under-new-ownership/

http://ny.eater.com/2015/11/3/9666020/artisanal-move

http://resident.com/artisanal-fromagerie-bistro-wine-bar-under-new-ownership/

Artisanal Fromagerie

http://www.artisanalcheese.com/

Baudrillard

http://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html

Riobiola Cheese

https://www.sensibus.com/deli/flavor-journeys/robiola-cheese-and-medieval-piedmont

Architect

Decorated in Art Deco style by renowned architect Adam Tihany.

http://www.tihanydesign.com/

Bloom through the bardoor saw a shell held at their ears. He heard more faintly than that they heard, each for herself alone, then each for other, hearing the plash of waves, loudly, a silent roar.

Bronze by a weary gold, anear, afar, they listened….

The sea they think they hear. Singing. A roar. The blood is it. Souse in the ear sometimes. Well, it’s a sea. Corpuscle islands.

James Joyce (Ulysses-The Sirens)

La Sirene

558 Broome Street

New York, New York 10013

212-925-3061

http://lasirenenyc.com/

La Sirene creates a bad impression from the street. At the entrance of the restaurant is an old, grey and ugly ATM. The menu stand is next to the ATM, and harsh lights from the restaurant expose the scratches, cracks and dirt of the plastic window panes of the temporary winter entrance. There seem to be two restaurants sharing the same space, and we were not sure that we had found La Sirene when we entered. We never did find the entrance to the other restaurant. Research reveals that it is Taureau which specializes in fondues.

The website also creates a bad impression. On the home page there is a garish banner in orange with black type that says: “BYOB allowed Sunday through Thursday…Subject to change anytime without warning  $10 corkage fee within limit of 1 bottle (750ml) per 2 guests no hard liquor. Want more ? Buy from us).”

Why would you put this ugly banner above photographs of your dishes which are designed to make them attractive?

The atmosphere is strange for a French bistro. There are mosaics of Aztec gods and Spanish conquistadors on the walls. There is cheap wood paneling like you see in trailer homes, and the lighting fixtures look like they were found on the street. There is a black metal grille that separates the dining room. A Happy New Year banner hung over the kitchen opening, even though it was almost two weeks after New Year’s Eve when we were there.

There is a partial view of the kitchen from the dining room and the kitchen light casts a harsh glare into the dining room. There is little awareness of light, atmosphere or design. Some writers have said that the decor loosely supports the Sirens theme, but I did not see it, although there is a vaguely nautical feeling.

The music was a dissonant mix of jazz, Euro pop and alternative rock. It was at varying levels of loudness and sometimes there was no music at all. It sounded like someone was randomly playing with a radio dial.

In Chapter 10 of the Odyssey,  Ulysses and his crew have to sail by the Sirens. The Sirens are deadly because they sing so beautifully that sailors have to go to them but when they get to the Sirens they are killed and the Sirens use their bones for instruments. Ulysses made his crew put wax in their ears so they would not be enticed by the Sirens. At times during the dinner, I could have put some of the wax to good use.

La Sirene is located on Broome Street between Sixth Avenue and Varick. It is a charmless no-man’s land between Soho and the West Village and streams of cars enter the Holland Tunnel.

La Sirene opened in 2007, and its Website says that Didier Pawlicki, the owner, had a restaurant in Paris for thirteen years. According to the New York Times, Mr. Pawlicki named the restaurant after the siren of classical mythology. He decorated the restaurant with a ship’s wheel, an anchor and French travel posters. The Times calls the restaurant “scrappy.”

La Sirene does not seem to care about design, lighting, art or atmosphere. But it does care about high quality food. La Sirene offers cuisine from the South of France and it specializes in steamed mussels in different combinations depending upon the season.

The menu has many creative dishes. There was seared wild Alaskan pollock with mixed peppercorn and brandy sauce, Rohan duck breast, topped with sweet and tart cherry sauce and filet mignon topped with foie gras.

I asked our waiter if the restaurant had a signature dish and we were told it was the “Cassaulet Toulousain de la Maison.” I quote from the Website:

Cassoulet Toulouse’s Style ( My personal recipe: Cannellini Beans, Carrots, Tomato, Garlic Duck Confit, Slab Bacon and Pork Sausage all Braised with Noble Duck fat, White Stock and Foie Gras Jus ) This is a Very Rich Dish which was served for Warriors to defend their Village ! Don’t take it if you can’t bear it 🙂

Evidently, you should only order this dish if you are looking for very rich food on a very cold day and are contemplating very important battles after dinner! Although it was intriguing, we were not able to meet any of the conditions necessary to order the dish.

The waiter told us that they sourced the bread from Grandaisy Bakery on West Broadway in Tribeca. It was served with olive oil.

The staff was casual, friendly and French speaking. They do not wear white aprons or starched shirts. They wore blue jeans. We enjoyed our conversations with the staff about the food and the bread. They were confident in their explanations.

We had onion soup, and the cod and mussels which were the daily special.

The onion soup was hot and in the traditional brown pottery bowls. Cheese ran down the side of the bowls and the broth was a light brown. It was of average quality but onions quickly lost their character, the croutons became soggy and the elements disintegrated into a brown mush.

Onion soup was eaten by ancient Romans and Greeks. French onion soup (with the bread and cheese topping) arose during the Middle Ages. The recipe we know today is a descendant of modern French bouillon which originated in the 17th century.

The gold standard of onion soup is at Odeon. The broth is almost black, the onions retain their flavor, the crouton on top of the soup is crispy and the cheese is of the highest quality. (Note that Julia Child’s recipe for French soup uses a combination of Swiss and parmesan cheeses.)

The cod and mussels were excellent. They were served in a reddish-brown broth with hints of saffron. They came with a plate of vegetables on the side. They were carrots, spinach, Mexican squash and sweet potatoes. They were perfectly cooked and crunchy. They were a perfect compliment to the mussels.

For dessert we split a bowl of chocolate ice cream. It was rich and creamy, almost black in color. It was very good. We finished with an espresso.

We really liked the staff. They were friendly, conversational and they knew the food.

Ratings:

Service: 7 (The service was friendly and knowledgeable and made the evening special)

Archetype: 3 (La Sirene is not inspired by the bistro Archetype)

Food: 6 (Ranges from average to quite good; recommend trying one of the mussels dishes)

Energy: 5 (Strange space, odd art and decoration and unpleasant light but the staff bought a positive energy to the evening)

Resources:

Reviews of La Sirene

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/dining/reviews/19rest.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/03/la-sirene

http://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/reviews/la-sirene

Grandaisy Bakery

http://www.grandaisybakery.com/

James Joyce

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ulysses/11/

Emerging in the 15th century as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering authenticity above all. I

Broadly, wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses.

Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly.

DB Bistro Moderne

55 West 44th Street

New York, NY 10036

(212) 391-240

http://www.dbbistro.com/nyc/

Daniel Bouloud has provided some of the most memorable dinners of my life. How often do you remember a dinner that you had over ten years ago? I remember my daughter’s ten year old birthday dinner at Daniel’s flagship restaurant on East 65th Street. The chef made a special chicken dish perfect for a little girl and baked her a small birthday cake.

The service was perfect, the atmosphere was perfect and the food was perfect. We felt each member of the staff had a personal interest in making sure that we had the very best possible experience. The staff treated us as if they were owners, rather than employees, of the restaurant. We left full of gratitude to Daniel for the artistry of the food, elegant comfort of the restaurant and the performance of the staff.

Daniel is one of the great food artists of our time. He has set the highest standards in creativity, service and atmosphere. However, I am sorry to report that none of these qualities were on display at DB Bistro Moderne.

The evening failed when we entered the restaurant. The hostess was dismissive and unwelcoming, and ignored my friendly comment about the weather. For the high prices that DB Bistro charges for its seemingly casual fare, we should at least receive a pleasant greeting. This was in spite of the fact that we arrived around 5:15 for a pre-theater dinner and the restaurant was almost empty.

The atmosphere has the look and feel of an American diner, albeit a rather expensive one. It does not have the look and feel of a modern bistro.

The bar is at the front of the restaurant and there is a community table and booths on each side. The bar has a grey metallic counter. There are glass shelves stocked with wines and champagnes both behind the bar and lining the walls of the restaurant. The walls have wood panels and artsy black and white photographs. Globe lights encased in metallic cages suggest traditional bistro lighting. The color scheme is off brown with salmon accents.

The main dining room at the back of the restaurant has mirrors with photographs suspended over the mirrors. Chandeliers made of globe lights provide the lighting. The restaurant feels clean, sleek, hard and cold. The pre-theater crowd was mostly at the front in the bar area and suited executives were in the main dining room.

We were given a table in a transitional corridor between the bar area and front and the main dining room in back. Our table was next to the coat-check room and we were constantly annoyed by people standing next to our table taking off their coats, retrieving their coats and putting their coats back on. There was a lot of traffic walking back to the main dining room.

DB offers a pre-theatre prix fixed menu. It is three courses for $50. The mains in the prix fix menu were veal, rabbit and stuffed calamari. I don’t eat veal, my wife does not eat rabbit and neither of us like calamari.

From the website:

Chef Daniel Boulud’s db bistro moderne is a contemporary French restaurant, known for chic bistro cuisine. The menu features updated bistro classics with a modern twist and market-driven French-American cuisine, alongside traditional French specialties and seasonal dishes showcasing the Greenmarket’s finest produce.

Some of the traditional bistro dishes are dover sole meuniere (with lemon capers and parsley), a grilled swordfish (with asparagus, potatoes and tomato confit), and the loup de mer (Mediterranean sea bass with potato gnocchi, garbanzo beans and ramps). There are also scallops, amish chicken and hanger steak with frites. The deserts included raspberry mousse, opera parfait, ice creams and cheese.

I ordered the coq au vin (with bacon, mushrooms, pearl onions and farfalle pasta).  I imagined that DB would prepare the definitive coq au vin that I could use as a standard to evaluate the dish as I explore New York bistros.  My wife had the halibut grand mere (with root vegetables, cipollini onion and bacon).

The bread was presented in a funnel of olive baguette, dinner rolls and a miniature baguette. The olive bread was excellent: flavors of earth and nuts. The miniature baguette was arid and tasteless. Daniel should be embarrassed.

My coq au vin was not the traditional dish. It was a failed departure.The first bites of the chicken were rich and flavorful in a deep brown stock but it lacked any subtlety of flavor. The stock soon became dense and heavy.  The delicate flavor of the onions was lost in the heaviness of the sauce. The flavor of the chicken was lost in the heaviness of the sauce.  It became boring and I saw no reason to finish eating it.

My wife’s halibut was perfectly cooked: moist, firm and flavorful. The vegetables were parsnips and onions and were a compliment to the fish. All of the elements of the dish were white, whereas all of mine were brown.

The service was professional and pleasant. The timing was spot on.

For desert we shared the dark chocolate-almond dacquoise (with jivara mousse, espresso cremeux, and amaretto ice cream). The ice cream was delicate, subtle and flavorful. A dacquoise is a desert cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue. It takes its name from the feminine form of the French word dacquois meaning “of Dax” which is a town in southwestern France. It was sugary and bland and we did not finish it.

We were disappointed in the dinner. I struggle to put my finger on the reason. It was something more subtle than its failure to meet Daniel’s high standards.

Restaurants offer an exchange of value. The patron exchanges money and time for a dining experience. The experience is atmosphere, service and food. Great restaurants have an element of theater. Dining is an art form and an entertainment. 

Why is this not the same transaction as purchasing a blender? I go to Crate and Barrel and exchange a blender for money. Yet, I am not bringing the blender into my body nor am I looking for an interaction with the Crate and Barrel staff to nourish my body, mind or soul. I am not looking for Crate and Barrel to provide me with an artistic experience. I want the best price and quality, and I want to complete the transaction as efficiently as possible. Crate and Barrel seeks to maximize its profits, and it cares very little about what it sells as long as it meets its corporate its purposes. My goal is to purchase the blender with the least cost and inconvenience.

DB Bistro is providing a Crate and Barrel experience. It feels as if it is selling blenders to maximize its profit. I was interacting with a corporation as soulless and monochromatic as Crate and Barrel. There was no art in the experience. There was no joy from the staff, and no personal investment in my experience. There were no little touches from the staff that often make the difference between a banal restaurant experience and a good one.

The staff were employees rather than owners or artists who were co-creating an artistic experience. They were simply executing their business plan of efficiently converting food and alcohol into profit. Daniel has built a restaurant empire. He has eight in New York and eighteen total including Singapore, London, Montreal, Las Vegas and Palm Beach.Recently, I noticed that Daniel has partnered with Air France to provide food for its airline.  I wonder if Daniel is having problems with management and quality control? Has he traded art for money?

The other problem is that a traditional bistro must have an authentic, warm and welcoming atmosphere. You feel that life is good when you are in the warm embrace of an authentic bistro. You want to linger over your dinner and extend the experience. At DB Bistro Moderne we just wanted to complete the “transaction” as quickly as possible so we could be on our way.

This restaurant is expensive. For $35 mains, am I not entitled to a bit of art rather than a cold exchange of food for money to increase the marginal utility of a soulless corporation? At this price point am I not entitled to receive excellence rather than mediocrity?

Next time, we go to Broadway we will dine elsewhere. I will be happy to buy my next blender from Crate and Barrel.

Because I have been such an enthusiastic patron of Daniel’s restaurants for a very long time, I suggest he consider the principles of wabi-sabi in running his empire. He should consider such notions as simplicity, earthiness, intimacy, and naturalness. Authenticity, imperfection, and the beauty of a single rose would go a long way.

Ratings

Service- 5 (Professional but robotic and unengaged. The snotty hostess and bad table did not help.)

Archetype- 2 (Has none of the elements of the bistro Archetype. It is a designed contemporary space but feels consciously designed rather than natural and authentic.  Noise level is high.)

Food- 4  (Some dishes were quite good, others failed. Daniel should not fail)

Energy- 2  (The food may be “chic bistro cuisine” but the atmosphere, design and overall experience were not. )

Reviews of DB Modern Bistro

http://events.nytimes.com/mem/nycreview.html?res=9D01E4DF1631F931A1575BC0A9679C8B63

http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/db-bistro-moderne/

http://www.viamichelin.com/web/Restaurant/New_York-10036-db_Bistro_Moderne-69453-41102

Wabi-Sabi

Leonard Koren, Wabi-Sabi For Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers (Imperfect Publishing 1994)

Robyn Griggs Lawrence

http://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/wabi-sabi.aspx

Dacquoise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacquoise

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7213-chocolate-espresso-dacquoise