➽“Aegean” cuisine is the
theme of this polished John
Fraser operation, which
opened, somewhat
miraculously, at the bottom of
a mostly empty office building
on 56th and Broadway at a
time when many formerly
bustling midtown restaurants
were either closed down or
s oat.
reek
American household, and the
menu here is filled with dishesinspired by the estimable
kitchens along the Greek and
Turkish coasts. If you’re in the
mood for a lighter meal, go at
lunchtime and call for the
Greek meze platter bolstered
with freshly baked pita made
with sourdough and tear-
shaped Turkish-style
flatbreads, which the kitchen
braids around the edges in the
traditional way and tops with
spinach or squash. The lamb
chops are some of the best inthe neighborhood, provided
your budget covers the $65
they cost, but the real
specialties of the house are the
seafood dishes, like whole red
snapper baked in grape leaves,
grilled octopus sweetened with
candied kumquats, and a
classic boureki pastry stuffed
with Alaskan salmon and
topped, in the hopeful big-
spender mood of this not-
quite post-covidera, with a
spoonful of caviar.➽All the usual tropes of the chophouse
experience are on display at Andrew
Carmellini’s lavish tribute to the
expense-account feasts of pre-covid
New York: the whale-size banquettes;
the giant, elaborately scripted menus;
the downstairs bar crowded, especially
in the early evening, with hordes of
portly, red-faced creatures of Wall
Street hoisting their single malts and
goblets of wine in preparation for the
imminent slab of outrageously priced
beef. But if you found yourself secretly
pining, as we did, for a properly sizzled
New York City steak during the long
lockdown months of dried-out ramen
packets and cans of chili beans, you
won’t find anything better than the
house prime rib, seasoned on its
exterior with the kinds of herbs and
spices usually reserved for the finest
porchetta, or the Wagyu strip loin,
which is ingeniously cured in a coat of
Gorgonzola cheese and arguably worth
its $110 sticker price. The best of the
fish dishes (the swordfish, the salt-
baked sea bass) are done with the kind
of polish you’d expect from a downtown
seaport establishment, and the
12-ounce smoke-roasted beet steak is
garnished with a dollop of melting goat
butter and carved tableside with all the
grandeur of a fine rib roast.This snug little seafood spot down
on Macdougal Street began life during
the depths of the pandemic as a pop-up
serving comfort-starved New Yorkers
an artful version of what is arguably the
greatest of all U.K. comfort creations:
fish and chips. The fish and chips remain
on the small, ever-changing menu, but
depending on the season and the catch in
the market, you can also get grilled oysters
spooned with hollandaise, generous
helpings of tuna tartare and bottarga set
on wedges of country toast, and piles of
that great Anglo-Indian rice dish kedgeree,
which was folded, the last time we checked,with nuggets of curried monkfish. Chef-
partner Ed Szymanski grew up in the
London of Fergus Henderson’s St. John
and Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray’s River
Cafe, and he has a knack for the kind of
stylish, umami-laced gastropub recipes
that have a way of rattling around in your
brain for weeks and even months after
the actual meal. We’re still thinking of
the smoked-whitefish croquettes and
the turbot for two, an occasional special,
that the kitchen smothers in garlic butter
and roasted cockles and serves in proper
London style on an antique hubcap-size
blue-and-white china plate.Dame 87 Macdougal St., nr. Bleecker St.; 929-367-7370
Turbot for
two at Dame.52 new york | january 3–16, 2022Carne Mare
Pier 17 at 89 South St.
212-280-4600Iris
1740 Broadway,
nr. 56th St.; 212-970-1740where to eat