Sometimes everything at a restaurant feels right. Take a drink of water and notice that the glass is slim and stylish. The carpet is thick and plush. There are huge, striking bouquets scattered about. The maître ’d/manager achieves the perfect balance between familiarity and professionalism, and a bite or two of the bread reveals it’s made on the premises (as are desserts -- even ice creams). These attributes accurately describe the new, impressive Montenapo Ristorante Della Moda in the courtyard of the New York Times Building.
Facing a stand of tall birch trees that reach many stories high, the restaurant -- designed by Renzo Piano and named for Milan’s fashion street -- is instantly one of the city’s most uncommonly lovely spaces. More than that, it and other high-profile tenants in the New York Times Building are transforming the rather tawdry area around the Port Authority Terminal into a shopping and dining destination for theatergoers and the fashion-conscious.
Montenapo certainly has the credentials to power the transformation. Jozef Juck, its co-owner and manager (along with Henry Kallan, the president and owner of HK Hotels), is a veteran of the restaurant wars who has cooked and managed at the Plaza Hotel, the Black Orchid in Honolulu, Stonehenge Inn in Connecticut and Bice in New York. Executive Chef German Lucarelli also has a Bice background as its kitchen commander in Paris, London and New York. His current menu was created by Italian master chef Giacomo Gallina. That menu ranges from the simple to the sophisticated, from the traditional to the cutting-edge. It features grass-fed beef, organic vegetables, and wild fish, and a serious Italian wine list as well.
An amuse of ambrosial sunchoke puree topped by a tender mussel gave a preview of the refined fare to come, which included gnocchi given a creamy twist by its silken Gorgonzola sauce, a slow-cooked boneless lamb shoulder wrapped in pancetta that breaks apart in your mouth, and a tender, juicy, hockey-puck-sized aged prime New York strip steak full of robust, minerally flavor. Two sautéed jumbo soft shell crabs, part of a best-buy three-course $41 theatre prix-fixe dinner were a fresh, meticulously prepared maritime fantasy. They were preceded by grilled asparagus wrapped in pancetta in a taleggio cheese sauce crowned by an organic poached egg with a yolk that begs to be broken and followed by a flaky peach tart in white wine with Amaretto ice cream. Other noteworthy sweets were a smooth crème brûlée, a flourless chocolate volcano-style cake and an array of homemade ice creams.
250 W. 41st St., 212-764-7663; www.montenaporestaurant.com
Richard Jay Scholem was a restaurant critic for the New York Times Long Island Section for 14 years. His A La Carte Column appeared from 1990 to 2004. For more “Taste of the Town” reviews, click here.
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