Photo courtesy of Gayot
When The Oak Room re-opened in the fall of 2008, its timing was hardly propitious. The renovation of the restaurant, along with the entire Plaza Hotel (now mostly condos) was done with care, with the City’s Landmarks Commission looking over the architect’s shoulder. And the renown of this fabled hotel should have insured its success. Since opening in 1907, designed by Henry Hardenbergh, with an addition in 1932 by Warren & Wetmore, the grand hotel combined Edwardian posh with the style of a grand French château, offering rooms at the opening for $2.50 a night. How times have changed.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, short stories, and his own antics while staying at The Plaza gave the stately hotel a Roaring Twenties raffishness, and later the children’s book Eloise at the Plaza (1965) by Kay Thompson bestowed an urban fantasy upon the vast hotel, echoed in the 1990 movie “Home Alone.” Indeed, several movie scenes have been set in the hotel, from Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959) and “The Way We Were” (1973) to “Plaza Suite” (1971) and even “Crocodile Dundee” (1986). Along with the Palace Arms in the Brown Palace in Denver, The Oak Room at the Seelbach in Louisville, and The French Room at The Adolphus in Dallas, The Oak Room at the Plaza is one of the last grande dame restaurants in America.
Still, controversy over the hotel’s condo conversions and the onset of the recession made it difficult for the hotel and The Oak Room to attract the kind of upscale clientele it was built for, and while French chef Joël Antunes’ cuisine was at the start very fine, the meal was also very expensive, with main courses $38-$59. And the room’s historic trappings overwhelmed the food. Some quick re-thinking was necessary; unfortunately, Mr. Antunes was out within months. In his stead, The Oak Room hired a highly talented, well-respected American chef named Eric Hara to take over, put his own stamp on the menu, and try to appeal to a broader audience. The menu was made fixed price, $55 for three courses and $70 for four, which in N.Y.C is really quite a steal, and in the bargain you get the full-tilt glory of The Oak Room.
Photo courtesy of Gayot
I may be wrong, but the lighting, once funereal, seems better, a little brighter, warmer, and the service is more professional and amiable. Sad to say, there seems to be no dress code (the website suggests “smart casual” but many pay no attention to the first word), and in a place so baronial as this, it’s off-putting to see so many people dressed up alongside so many people dressed way down.
The wine list, built up when the restaurant was re-opened, is now well-suited to the current economics.
It was wonderful to be back in the grand space of The Oak Room (though the Oak Room Bar is as dark as a dungeon!), partaking of a real part of Gotham gastronomic history. We began with a Scottish langoustine, meaty and sweet, with Ligurian olives, Marcona almonds and radish, which set up well-conceived textural contrasts. Beef carpaccio with pickled Japanese mushrooms had the lagniappe of rock shrimp tempura and aji amarillo for spice and that nice little edge of fat. Braised veal cheeks, as a starter, was hefty and good, with creamy polenta, sweet white peaches, and micro turnips (these had little flavor). Two winsome ideas involved a foie gras “PB&J” with the fresh foie gras on toasted brioche with a macadamia nut butter and strawberry-vanilla jam—really good—and “Pork ‘n’ Beans,” which was crisp, meaty pork belly with smoky tarbais beans and pearl onions.
For our main courses, we ordered red snapper with plump Dungeness crab ravioli, pearl onions and a crab broth with a confit of raisins to add a sweet touch. Dover sole ($20 supplement) was done simply, with white asparagus on the side, hedgehog mushrooms and the flavoring of sorrel—a pleasant dish, but the sole was none too fatty and the dish needed more butter. Muscovy duck beast with a duck confit-foie gras cabbage roll, beluga lentils and white mulberries carried through the leitmotif of savory and sweet flavors of Hara’s cooking, which is never cloying, only clever. The side dishes of truffled “tater tots” did not, however, need the too sweet peach ketchup, but the tempura artichokes with aji amarillo were delicious.
You may choose from a selection of cheeses for $22, or go with pastry chef Mallory Staley’s lemon-raspberry Pavlova with lemon sorbet and rose syrup—quite a lively dish—of the honest-to-very-goodness caramel apple parfait with warm Milano cookies.
I’m hopeful that the revamping of the menu and the improvement in service will bring people back here for the occasion to bask in the radiance of such a glorious room. The food is certainly worth it at current prices. Now, if they could only urge their make guests to take “smart casual” more seriously, The Oak Room would again be one of N.Y.C’s grandest.
Breakfast daily; Lunch Mon.-Fri.; Dinner nightly; Brunch Sat. & Sun.
Source: Gayot
