New Yorker, The
60 W. Market St. (350 South), Salt Lake City ; 801-363-0166
(see
map)
The food is first-rate at this exclusive, yet inviting, downtown restaurant. The service is some of the best around.
| Overall |
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| Food |
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| Mood |
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| Service |
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| Kid-friendly |
NO |
| Noise |
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Cuisine: American
Price: $$$$
Hours: Call for cafe and dining room hours.
Liquor: Full Service
Corkage: $ 0
Reservations: --
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.gastronomyinc.com
Recommended Dishes: Oysters on the half-shell, Caesar salad, Grand Marnier soufflé.
December 2, 2009
Classic tastes at The New Yorker, Log Haven, revisited
By Lesli J. Neilson
To get to the entrance of The New Yorker, you must first walk down a long flight of stairs -- and, depending on the weather, brave the elements. Those stairs lend an aura of exclusivity to the place, which was once the case for the former members-only restaurant. But since the state law changed July 1, The New Yorker has been open to all, without charging a membership fee.
The décor is soothing, with touches of styles past -- polished brass railings, a green-hued stained glass ceiling over the less formal café. Yet nothing about the service is passé. Our server was gracious, courteous, knowledgeable and well trained in the finer points of service, nothing like what The Tribune encountered on our last review visits in 2006. The food, under the watchful eye of Chef Will Pliler, is stellar as well.
Gastronomy Inc., the folks behind this venture, as well as Market Street Grills, Oyster Bars and Broiler, brought fresh seafood to Utah decades ago, so my dining companion and I started with six oysters on the half shell ($16). The clean-tasting, plump kusshis came from Cortes Island, B.C. Thinking of every way you may take your oysters, the kitchen accompanies the bivalves with vinegary mignonette, tangy cocktail sauce, threads of kicky horseradish, lemon wedges and Tabasco from a Barbie doll-sized bottle.
Caesar salad ($10) was spot-on and continued our umami high. Glistening Spanish anchovies garnished well-dressed romaine squares while croutons added lots of crunch. We should have asked for more toast points to sop up the rest of the piquant Roquefort-garlic butter that bathed a plate of tender, curlicued escargots ($12).
We chose a half bottle (375 ml, $26) of 2001 Trimbach Gewürstraminer, with its orange and honeysuckle notes, which went well with our first courses as the by-the-glass offerings are glaringly lacking.
Our entrées of wild sockeye salmon and filet mignon medallions (from the late summer menu; the winter menu features, among other dishes, bouillabaisse and roasted rack of lamb) were well-crafted. The coral-colored salmon ($35) was served with pesto, while each rosy, tender three-ounce beef medallion ($39) had its own sauce: crab-topped béarnaise, Madeira-truffle, and green peppercorn-brandy cream. Summer's bounty, in the form of corn, snap peas, chanterelle mushrooms, arugula, green and yellow wax beans, and zucchini, rounded out the dishes.
To end, a flourless raspberry almond tart ($7) with mango, raspberry purees and crème anglaise was lovely but what really left us in awe was the seven-dollar Grand Marnier soufflé. Only seven dollars! What arrives looks like a browned chef's hat: You break a small hole in the center and fill it with the Grand Marnier crème anglaise that's served in a tureen. The taste is out of this world; so are the three-course dinners ($28) and two-course lunches ($14) that are currently being offered. Exclusive and retro -- I like it.
Log Haven, located four miles up scenic Mill Creek Canyon, has a natural, more grandiose entrance than The New Yorker. Regardless of the season, there's something calming about Log Haven. Could it be its rustic setting, the cozy furnishings, the seasonal New American cuisine? Previous Log Haven chef Dave Jones is back behind the stoves at the restaurant owned by Margo Provost since 1994, and the food has gotten better since The Tribune last visited in 2006. And, from the beginning to the end of our meal, service was professional, cordial and unobtrusive.
A cube of juicy, sweet watermelon topped with tangy goat cheese, baby arugula and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar was impressive as an amuse-bouche. I would rethink the herb-roasted olives and almonds ($11.50), which were fresh-from-the-oven and unappetizingly, well, hot. Squares of jalapeño cheddar from local Beehive Cheese Co. and irresistible salami from Utah's own Creminelli Fine Meats added heft, but the price for the starter wasn't justified.
Other appetizers come in portion-friendly sizes. My lamb "lollipop" (taste, $7.50; full portion, $11.50) arrived expertly grilled, juicy and pink in the center alongside truffled potato salad (which sadly didn't elevate it to anything other than well-executed potato salad), arugula and tarragon aioli.
I wish the wine list were portion friendly. The selections by the glass are few on the extensive list, which has won numerous awards. But many of the wines seem austere and don't seem to complement Jones' seasonal menu.
Salads, such as arugula, pine nuts and ricotta salata ($5.50; $8.50) tossed in lemon vinaigrette, were crafted with precision. A more complex salad with disparate ingredients of chopped egg, parmesan, chilled shiitakes, grilled sourdough and chives ($6; $9.50) wasn't as successful.
The grill station shows off its expertise with dishes such as a textbook grill-marked pork loin chop ($26.50) with candied pancetta, Gorgonzola-spiked potatoes, a grilled peach and cherry-balsamic reduction; and grilled bison ($37.50) -- rib-eye on our visits; a New York striploin is on the current menu -- which was seared to a lovely medium-rare. Crispy garlic- and parsley-speckled French fries completed the dish.
A light and refreshing lemon-rosemary mousse ($9) with a pistachio shortbread crust was the perfect way to end the meal. Whether the occasion is a wedding, anniversary, birthday or just a well-deserved night out, Log Haven still makes for a memorable dining experience.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
December 13, 2006
A few soft spots blemish dining experience at Salt Lake's Big Apple
By Mary Brown Malouf
I've been hearing about The New Yorker since before I moved to Utah. In any conversation about dining out in Salt Lake, this restaurant's name is bound to come up, usually as an example of what the city's restaurants could achieve if there were more local demand for fine dining.
Owned by Gastronomy, Inc., a restaurant group that has done its part in growing Salt Lake's level of taste, The New Yorker has been open for 25 years. It opened to acclaim and has maintained its good reputation and it is still deserving of it.
But only just.
Recent visits to The New Yorker showed a descending scale of quality -- excellent food, mediocre service and dated ambience.
To succeed in the restaurant business, you have emulate Alice's Red Queen: Run as hard as you can to stay in the same place. The professional pantry gets bigger every day -- "season to taste" is no longer an adequate instruction. What kind of salt are you seasoning with? Where was your chicken raised? What did your dinner eat for dinner? Does your wine list have alvarinhos from Portugal and malbecs from Argentina as well as last year's wine du jour, pinot noir?
In other words, there's a fine line between classic and passé and The New Yorker teeters at times.
The speak-easy style outside entrance to the restaurant couldn't be improved -- it's the kind of charmingly quirky design that no designer would ever plan.
But inside, the restaurant has some awkwardness that doesn't come off so serendipitously quaint. Furnishings are still solidly '70s, a decade whose fashions are famous for not aging well. The theoretically more casual café, down a short flight from the main restaurant and separated only by a railing, dominates the view and traffic flow of the dining room proper, the way a dance floor might in a dinner club. But when we sat at a table overlooking the café, it was empty.
It's vaguely dispiriting to have a ringside seat when there is no show going on. The ceiling's inverted pyramids of Tiffany-style stained glass, reminiscent of a '70s fern bar, seemed jarringly out of date and out of sync with the easy elegance of the menu.
Once our plates arrived, though, they stole the show anyway. As a spur-of-the-moment tribute to past happy times in Northern California, we ordered an all-Sonoma dinner, inspired by two of the dinner choices. Sonoma rabbit ($26) was tender and sweet, given a kick with sharp caper berries backed by a mellow olive echo and aromatic Meyer lemon. The sunny Mediterranean flavors livened up the mild meat and leaked into the neighboring mound of steamed spinach as well, making a harmonious plate.
I was particularly eager to try the Sonoma pheasant ($28) because the young hunter in our family had just returned with a brace and I was scheduled to cook one of them.
Maybe I could give The New Yorker kitchen his game bag: This bird, which can be easily cooked to dryness, was pan-roasted -- browned, then cooked with a little liquid, I suspect, so the meat remained beautifully moist. The mouth-watering sweet tartness of red cabbage and apple added more juice, resulting in a super-succulent combination.
We had started by sharing seared Sonoma foie gras ($16). Meltingly crisp edges, supernaturally satin texture, nearly unbearable richness -- maybe my tongue appreciated it more anticipating its imminent absence. Maybe foie gras, well-prepared, is just that marvelous a food. Tart cherries and softened leeks added some balancing sugar and the chef's recommendation of an accompanying glass of Australian semillon would have perfected the dish. But we had committed to a bottle of 2003 Carneros Creek Los Carneros Reserve pinot noir ($52) in keeping with our menu theme.
We finished the meal by sharing a Grand Marnier soufflé ($7) and I want to add an editorial encouragement to kitchens everywhere to rediscover desserts like this -- simple, stunning and sophisticated.
On a no-reservations visit to the café, nothing reached the level of our first dinner -- what a difference three steps down can make. A private party occupied the upper dining room and again the juxtaposition of the two not-quite-separate and not-quite-equal dining rooms clashed. It's odd to eat and watch a party -- complete with balloons -- in the same room.
Service was confusing and confused; we went through several servers. The final one brought a glass of red wine instead of the Bonny Doon Vin de Glaciere ($10) ordered for dessert and then argued about whether or not it was a mistake.
The full dining room menu is available in the café, but you can also choose from a list of lower-priced café specials, including plats du jour ($15), a different one every day. Mondays offer beef tenderloin tips in an excellent twist on stir-fry with bok choy and sugar snap peas, but since our servers kept referring to the selection of steaks as a "New Yorker specialty," I ordered a one-pound prime rib-eye ($38) with balsamic-glazed red onions and mustard sauce and here I found another soft spot on Salt Lake's Big Apple.
Americans have been trained to appreciate beauty rather than character in our foods -- unblemished but watery tomatoes, hyper-red but woody strawberries. So it is with beef which is best when marbled, aged and man-handled on the grill -- near-charred on the outside, bright magenta on the inside. My rib-eye was wimpy. Cooked too slow so the outside toughened while the inside dried, the strip portion was pink inside but the filet portion was gray. Having recently enjoyed a prime, genetically-verified, grass-fed and dry-aged piece of Angus, I was struck by the contrast.
With the new Ruth's Chris breathing down its neck one block over, it's time for The New Yorker to start running.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
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