New York City Review: Gramercy Tavern

Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th Street
212-477-0777

I had been reading Danny Meyer's "Setting the Table" so I was curious to see whether the service at Gramercy Tavern would live up to his ideals.  This dinner was a birthday present (October 2010) from my friend Robert.  To be honest I never had a desire to eat at Gramercy Tavern and I didn't know what to expect.  I went there with Mike and Robert, who are arguably two of my favorite eating buddies.


Having friends who work at restaurants like Per Se and Del Posto makes eating out in NYC that much better because you get special treatment.  Our server informed us that the Chef wanted to cook a special course dinner for us so how could we say no! Each of us got a different dish and wine for each course so we ate a third of each and passed it around so we could try everything.  It was truly an enjoyable dining experience.

Amuse bouche

Fried oyster: the vegetables were perfect!

First course 

 Scallop carpaccio with a lemon vinaigrette

 If I remember correctly it was a fluke tartar

Curried butternut squash soup

Fish course:

 Ruby Red Shrimp on a bed of polenta: absolutely divine!

 Cod: cooked to perfection

Halibut with raita

Pasta course:

 The rabbit was yummmmmy

Meat course:

Dessert:

Loved the corn ice cream!

Embarrassingly, all that wine made me sleepy and I was nodding off during dinner! Even when Chef Anthony came to greet us! We had a 20(?) year old beer with our dessert.  Our server was great and I really appreciated his detailed presentation of each wine.  I must say that Danny Meyer definitely isn't all talk and preaching.  I definitely want to go back there again.