Every week, it seems, a new restaurant opens in NoMad and the Flatiron District. Vegetarian eatery Planta Queen; Comodo, which offers Latin American cuisine; bistro La Rotisserie; and Sarashina Horii, a Japanese restaurant specializing in soba, are just a few of the latest additions. Add to these newbies numerous tried-and-true favorites as well as nine holders of Michelin stars, including Benno, the Clocktower, and Cote Korean Steakhouse, and you have a neighborhood to delight epicureans.
Since opening in 1994, Gramercy Tavern has become one of the city’s most lauded restaurants. The menu changes seasonally, with most of the ingredients sourced locally. The “tavern” area allows for à la carte orders of elevated comfort food such as grilled corn flatbread, duck meatloaf, and sticky toffee pudding with sour-cream ice cream; in the “dining room” you can enjoy a five-course tasting menu.
The holder of three Michelin stars, among numerous other accolades, Eleven Madison Park made headlines when it reopened in June 2021 as a vegan restaurant. Caviar, duck, and cream are gone from its tasting menu (though not from its private dining room). In its place are tonburi (seeds sometimes dubbed land caviar), house-made sesame tofu wrapped in zucchini, and eggplant that’s been brined, fried, dehydrated, and roasted before being marinated in mushroom stock and kissed with tomato-shiso vinaigrette. One thing that hasn’t changed: the quietly stunning interior, which pays tribute to the building’s Art Deco roots.
Eleven Madison Park alum Bryce Shuman is executive chef at Sweetbriar, which opened in autumn 2021. Seasonal produce and responsibly sourced meats are cooked via “live fire”—over a grill, in a wood-burning oven, in a smoker. Even some salads and desserts, such as the fire-roasted caraflex cabbage with moondrop grapes and hazelnuts and the caramelized apple pizza, take advantage of the live fires. The plush chairs and banquettes and the wood-top tables add to the warm ambience.
A steak-lover’s delight, Hawksmoor also launched in autumn 2021, or at least this New York outpost did. The original Hawksmoor opened in London in 2006. In addition to hormone-free, pasture-reared, dry-aged beef that’s grilled over charcoal, the menu includes sustainably sourced lobster, oysters, and fish, roasted chicken, and even a few vegetarian options such as roasted celeriac and farro. The cocktail menu includes tributes to New York such as the Empire Sour.
This restaurant’s name reflects its physical space (it’s a cozy spot right on Madison Avenue) as well as its sensibility: Korean cuisine with a sprinkling of European sensibility, a dash of New American gusto, and a bit of divine madness. The results are dishes such as barbecued eel with a black-truffle vinaigrette, fried maitake mushrooms with sour cream and onion, and noodles served with crispy duck skin, oksusu, and umami foam.
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