NYC Dining Challenge Update: Maialino at Gramercy Park Hotel

A great way to start off your day is to have breakfast at Danny Meyer’s Maialino at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Order an olive oil muffin, the ricotta pancakes ($12) with cranberry compote and maple syrup, enjoy the view of the park from your table and you’ll be ready to tackle the day. Bar Maialino at the front of the restaurant is a coffee bar in the morning and serves the complete menu throughout the day. The trattoria at the back of restaurant, which is where I was seated, has blue-and-white-checked tablecloths and views of Gramercy Park. It is the preferable area for a business meal or quiet conversation with a friend.

Maialino means “little pig” and if you dine there for lunch or dinner, order the Malfatti al Maialino, which is malfatti pasta, braised suckling pig and arugula. Executive Chef Nick Anderer was formerly at Babbo and Gramercy Tavern.

The restaurant was designed by the New York-based Rockwell Group, which was the team behind the newly renovated Hotel Bel-Air, Trump SoHo, Nobu, The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas, two recent Academy Awards shows and Catch Me if You Can on Broadway. At Maialino, Rockwell successfully created a warm and comfortable Roman-style trattoria environment with contemporary flair by using wood flooring, reclaimed ceiling beams and modern pendant fixtures.

When you finish your meal, be sure to stroll into the lobby of GPH and enjoy a libation in the lounge. Ian Schrager brought the artist Julian Schnabel on board to design the interior of the hotel. Prior to the opening of GPH in 2006, Schnabel said, “I built a place that I’d like to be in.” In fact, it reminded me of his home which I visited with a group of young art collectors in the early '90s. Works by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly and, of course, Schnabel have been featured at GPH. The hotel rotates the pieces and most of them are on loan.

Maialino

Gramercy Park Hotel

2 Lexington Avenue

New York, NY 10010

1.212.777.2410

http://www.maialinonyc.com/
http://www.gramercyparkhotel.com/

Rockwell Group: http://www.rockwellgroup.com/

NYC Dining Challenge Update: Lincoln Ristorante

If you have a passion for contemporary architecture and fine dining, I have a perfect recommendation for you. Make a reservation at Lincoln Ristorante at Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Chef Jonathan Benno, who was the chef de cuisine at Per Se for six years, opened his modern Italian restaurant in September, 2010. Lincoln is located underneath the dramatically sloping Illumination Lawn, which was designed by Diller Scofidio + Refro and FXFOWLE Architects, and is situated between the reflecting pool on one side and West 65^th Street on the other. Diller Scofidio’s pavilion is steps away from the symphony, theater, opera, ballet and Fashion Week shows. The Lincoln Center Film Center is located downstairs from the restaurant. But, it is not imperative that you combine a dining experience at Lincoln with a cultural excursion. The restaurant is its own destination.

Dining at Lincoln during the day is a different aesthetic experience than at night. For lunch, the transparency of the floor to ceiling windows allows daylight to flood the interior and enhances the striking contrast between the serenity of the reflecting pool and monumental Henry Moore sculpture on one side and the cacophony of the kitchen on the other. I arrived early and the host offered to seat me right away. If you are an architecture buff, I highly recommend requesting a table in the middle of the restaurant between the reflecting pool and kitchen. This part of the restaurant allows you to truly appreciate the dynamism of the sloping roof. Seating areas on either end of the restaurant are still dramatic but in the middle area, you feel that you are completely subsumed in the space.  In the evening, Lincoln is cool and sleek. Neither visit will disappoint. 

The cuisine will not blow you away as much as the design, but Chef Benno’s interpretation of modern Italian cuisine is impressive. The Restaurant Week 3-course menu was very good and the portions and presentation were perfect. The staff was professional, attentive and friendly.  I started with the grilled calamari, braised potatoes, castelvetrano olives and caperberries. It was spicy but I enjoyed the different textures and flavors. My main course was the rigatoni with heritage pork, sage, cremini mushrooms and pecorino romano. This course hit the mark. The bosc pear and cranberry crisp with almond cream was good but not memorable.

I recommend Lincoln because of its synthesis of striking architecture and fine dining. The severely modern design makes Lincoln a unique dining destination.

Next up in the Dining Challenge: Maialino.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro: http://www.dsrny.com/

FXFOWLE Architects: http://www.fxfowle.com/

Lincoln Ristorante

142 W. 65^th St.

New York, NY 10023

212.359.6500

http://www.lincolnristorante.com/