Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
John F. Kennedy International (15
miles/24km); Newark Liberty International
(16 miles/27km); LaGuardia (8 miles/13km).
L
$$$
Carlton Hotel on Madison
Avenue,
88 Madison Ave. (
&
212/532-
4100;
www.carltonhotelny.com). $$
Washington Square Hotel,
103 Waverly
Place (
&
800/222-0418
or 212/777-9515;
www.washingtonsquarehotel.com).
it's got lots of other things on the menu—
pastas, antipasti, salads, a great cheese
selection—and the salami is superb here
as well. For all his jet-setting, Mario fre-
quently pops into both Lupa and OTTO to
make sure everybody's happy. Just look
for the red ponytail.
170 Thompson St. (
&
212/982-5089
).
Where Star Chefs Go Casual
173
DB Bistro Moderne
Where Boulud Goes Mod
New York, New York
There's no question that Daniel Boulud is
one of the world's most admired French
chefs, even though he rose to culinary
fame in New York. But let's say, just for the
sake of argument, that you don't want to
dine at his extraordinary haute cuisine
palace
Restaurant Daniel
(60 E. 65th St.;
&
212/288-0033
) in the toniest part of
Manhattan's Upper East Side. If it's just the
price tag that's stopping you ($100- plus
for a three-course prix fixe), you could
always slip uptown to its more casual sis-
ter
Café Boulud
(20 E. 76th St.;
&
212/
772-2600
). But what if you just don't want
fancy French cuisine?
As it happens, Daniel Boulud knows
where you're coming from—he hasn't
been living in New York for over 25 years
without picking up a few American tastes
himself. That's why in 2001 he opened DB
Bistro Moderne, his New York spin on the
contemporary bistros that his Parisian
peers had begun to open at the same
time. Located in the nerve center of Mid-
town, just a couple of doors down from
the Algonquin Hotel, it's a stunning,
sophisticated space with deep-red walls,
patterned stone floors, and huge riveting
oil paintings. Cheap it's not, and there are
still plenty of French items on the menu—
old-school bistro classics such as foie gras
torchon,
tomato
tarte tatin,
hanger steak,
and
coq au vin.
But there's also a globe-
hopping sensibility at work here—his
escargot and chicken oyster fricassee
comes with hazelnut spaetzle, the
orrechette pasta with a Colorado lamb
ragout, the
blanquette de veau
with bas-
mati rice and a Riesling velouté. Hopping
to North Africa, there's also a Moroccan
tuna tartare and a completely traditional
lamb couscous. Deeply familiar by now
with American local ingredients, Boulud
has sprinkled the menu with New Ameri-
can dishes like the refreshing peekytoe
crab with frisée salad and green apple,
while the dry-aged steak is a classic Amer-
ican steak house item, creamed spinach
and all; the chicken breast with lettuce
pomme puree and baby carrot is a far cry
from your usual brasserie roast chicken.
Which brings us to the most famous
thing on DB's menu—Boulud's over-the-
top gourmet hamburger, a designer spe-
cial of minced prime sirloin stuffed with
foie gras,
preserved black truffle, and
braised short ribs, served on a Parmesan
onion roll. It's the most expensive ham-
burger in the city, possibly in the world,
and while some diners scoff at it as preten-
tious and extravagant, others rave about
how delicious it tastes. One thing you've
