[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 5, 2015]
So how often do you get to Yorkville? Assuming you don't live there, of course--although the neighborhood is acquiring new, young residents hand over fist as it becomes evidently less expensive than Williamsburg, and even Bushwick.
Maybe you drop by Schaller & Weber occasionally for some liverwurst? Anyway, next time your up that way, and need to eat, you have Flight in your back pocket.
I do spend time on the Upper East Side--but usually not east of Lexington. There's the New York Society Library, the museums and galleries, and the palatial French book store, Albertine. But I admit I never walked over to York Avenue to try Dresner's, an old Irish-American bar, even though I'd heard of the place. I don't know how long Dresner's was open, but it's in old age it had become a curiosity--a place to get a Romanian skirt steak or an Irish breakfast in atmosphere out of John McNulty. For a taste of what I mean, there's still Donohue's on Lex.
Okay, I'm getting to it. Meantime, have some butternut squash and apple soup.
Last year, Dresner's got some new owners--Dermot Kelly and Taukiv Azam--but pumping life back into the old saloon was a tall order. They put it out of its misery, and (lo!) a gastropub arose where Dresner's had been: Flight. Sleek, modern, comfortable, and with a radically different approach to bar food: as I discovered when I sampled the menu as a guest of the restaurant just before the holidays.
Speaking of comfortable, I really wish the bar was nearer to me than Yorkville. Plush bar-stools, discreet but large (if that's possible) TVs, nearly twenty wines by the glass (there are flights), and an interesting, if not avant garde, beer list.
Some of the food by chef Golam (just Golam, apparently) was solid and correct. The PEI mussels with a light Thai curry sauce, for example, and the lump crab cake with a mango-papaya-pineapple-onion salsa. Other dishes were more clearly better than gastropub food needs to be. The meatball, for example; for once, not just one of those bland, bready Italian-style meatballs which attract much more attention than they deserve.
This was densely meaty meatball, basking in the glow of a rich, orange citrus-jalapeño sauce which served as a glaze; fresh cilantro on top, little shards of crispy shallot garnishing the plate. I could eat a lot of these, and they're on the happy hour bar menu.
I know some fine-beaks who snoot at any use of truffle oil, but it's a surefire way to lift a wild mushroom and asparagus risotto at gastropub prices ($12 for a full serving of this dish). Less obvious, but very successful, was the incorporation of mascarpone, raising the silkiness stakes.
Two themes returned with the lobster raviolo ($25); the butternut squash, now as a sauce rather than a soup, and some more of that truffle accent. This was a smooth operation, topped with a butterflied shrimp.
And then full-on Thai with the curry chicken: lemongrass and cilantro, scallions and peppers, and some light basmati rice.
But before you despair, Dresner's fans, there's a full menu of trad pub food too (which I didn't try): shepherd's pie, fish and chips, steak, chicken and quesadillas. Maybe better to follow the chef's instincts, though. And the brown bread ice cream is very good.
Some of the portions shown here are tasting size, of course. From the regular menu, appetizers are in single figures, mains range from the teens to mid-twenties, and wines BTG start encouragingly at under ten dollars.
Here's the website.
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