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“Where To Ask The Four Questions...Your Guide to Passover Seders Around the City ”

A Progressive Pre-Passover Seder at JoeDoe, 45 E. 1st Street between First and Second Aves, 212-780-0262

Chef Joe Dobias may not be Jewish, but his wife is, and their Progressive Seder, served the night before Passover (Tuesday, April 7th at sundown) includes four-courses ($45) cooked by an Irishman for his Jewish wife including “The Seder Sampler”—maror, charoset, liver, matzoh, Stuffed Matzoh Ball Soup (with foie gras, dill and carrots), Dr. Rita's Brisket (with parsley salad and horseradish cream), and Mensch's Matzoh Brei for dessert, with chocolate, cinnamon quark, and golden raisins. While you might want four cups of wine with dinner, start off with “The Drunken Pharaoh,” a Manischewitz cocktail ($10) mixed with Old Pogue Bourbon, fresh lemon, and served with sugared matzo. It’ll have you reclining in no time.

A Syrian Passover Seder at Savoy, 70 Prince Street (at Crosby Street), 212-219-8570.

Every year, Savoy Executive Chef-Owner Peter Hoffman leads a Sephardic Passover Seder at his SoHo restaurant, Savoy. This year's four-course menu ($95 per person (includes wine, but excludes tax and gratuity) will feature the cuisine of Syrian Jews (read: very yummy). As part of the Seder ritual, Hoffman conducts a 20-minute non-religious reading from the Haggadah, a Seder plate is placed on every table (including eggs roasted in the ashes of Savoy's fireplace), and a four-course menu is served.

You’ll feast on a Mezze Platter
stocked with servings of chickpea hummus with Aleppo pepper and pine nuts,
chicken and pistachio "mortadella,"
beef kibbe with spring onions and fresh herbs,
smokey eggplant with mint and cumin seed,
artichokes in lemon, and olive oil
potato salad with anise seed and sumac. Your first course is a
beet and cucumber salad with tamarind dressing and pickled shad; your entrée is a roasted redfish with cilantro–green chile broth, carrots and fresh fava beans
and for dessert,
a honeyed rice pudding with candied orange peel.

The Syrian Seder will be held on Wednesday, April 8th with two seatings (upstairs at 6 PM and downstairs at 6:45pm), and April 9th with just one seating at 6pm.

A Moroccan Seder at Barbounia, 250 Park Avenue South, 212-995-0242

Barbounia’s Israeli chef Efraim Naon will honor Passover with a $45 three-course Moroccan meal, with a menu of appetizers that includes Matzoh Ball Soup, Haroset, Matbucha, Matzoh Brie stuffed with ground meat spiced with ras el hannot, Cured Salmon with potato latkes, Stuffed Artichoke Button with snapper tartar and more.

Entrees include Braised Lamb Shank with celery root puree and dried fruit sauce, Organic Chicken with Jerusalem artichokes, cremini mushrooms and chestnuts, Heryme—halibut poached in flavorful fish stock, paprika, garlic and cumin with garbanzo beans, sweet peppers and cilantro, Whole Branzino baked in the brick oven with rosemary & olive oil, broccoli rabe, zesty lemon potato, and Beef Cheek Steffado served with homemade couscous, haricots vert and cipollini.

A Sephardic Seder at Capsouto Freres, 451 Washington Street, at Watts Street, 212.966.4900

For over 22 years, Capsouto Freres has hosted a very special Sephardic Seder for Passover. This year, the $150 communal Seder, which begins at 6:30pm (both April 8th and April 9th) and includes services conducted by a Cantor with a reading of the Haggadah ,will benefit the Joint Distribution Committee, a Jewish worldwide charity organization helping people in need.

The Capsouto Freres Seder follows family tradition of the three brothers—Jacques, Samuel and Albert—who have worked together to create a menu showcasing the symbolic foods served according to the traditions from generation to generation as passed on by their mother, Eva.

The communal meal will consist of dairy and fish only. Dinner starts off with Three Frittatas (spinach, leek and zucchini), Artichoke Hearts, and a Boiled Brown Egg. The second course will be Poached Salmon with Herb Vinaigrette with Stewed Okra, String Beans and Matza Mina (layers of matzo and cheese). For dessert, Macaroons will be served with Fresh Fruit Sorbets. To accompany the meal, white and red Israeli wines, from labels such as Dalton and Galilee will be offered, as well as a traditional sacramental grape wine (read: Manischewitz) used for the service.

A Kosher Seder at Prime Grill, 60 East 49th Street, 
212-692-9292

While the Seders listed above may be inventive and delicious, they are not kosher, so if you’re looking for something a bit more by the book, make plans to have your Seder at Prime Grill held April 8 at 8:30pm and April 9 at 8:45pm. Their three-course prix fixe Seder ($125 per person) will be led by a Rabbi of the Chabad Lubavitch of Midtown and includes choice of appetizers like the Prime Grill salad (romaine lettuce, red and yellow tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon cumin citronette), Chilean sea bass gefilte fish with fresh dill and chive salad, horseradish aioli, and chicken and vegetable soup with sherry wine and fresh herbs. For dinner, you can opt for potato crusted wild king salmon with cucumber, tomatoes, red onions, lemon and dill emulsion, pan seared herb marinated chicken breast with basil whipped potatoes, roasted baby carrots and zucchini, pan juices, or braised short Ribs with mushrooms, spring vegetables, horseradish whipped potatoes. For dessert, choose between a Tahitian Vanilla Crème Caramel with tropical fruit compote or a chocolate roulade—flourless chocolate cake and dark chocolate mousse.

Happy Passover!

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Posted: March 29, 2009

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