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“5 Ninth”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	MeatPacking	Moderate	Great

The black town cars are three deep on Ninth Avenue. The velvet ropes are up outside of Spice Market. Smokers litter the sidewalk outside Pastis. Pencil-thin women in mini-skirts (more a gesture of clothing than any sort of true apparel) are piling into Vento. Welcome to the new Meatpacking, a Bermuda Triangle of sorts, where hipsters disappear into hot spots faster than you can say Blood Orange Mojito.

Down on the Southwest corner of this cobblestone chic zone, you will find 5 Ninth, an oasis of urban serenity set in a restored19th century brownstone, with the twisted spine of old vines crawling up the raw brick walls. The interior, filled with seriously stunning men and whiplash worthy women, is leanly designed with wood planked floors, exposed brick, and centuries-old beamed ceilings, is the sort of place that finds majesty in letting organic elements shine. The food takes a similar track. Chef Zak Pelaccio, who has cooked in Malaysia and at The French Laundry, and who turned a modest spot in Williamsburg into a sensation called Chickenbone Café, is in the kitchen and all the stops are pulled. An appetizer entitled simply “peas and bacon” ($10) is revolutionary. A sweet, bright and creamy pea puree is folded over crisp snap peas and firm round shell peas, then covered with thick slabs of smoky bacon, meaty and marbled with ribbons of fat. Noodles Raja Chulan ($15) is similarly divine. A silky sour coconut broth bobbing with juicy bits of lobster, laced with wide silky rice noodles contains playful layers of heat that rise and fall in crescents and waves in the mouth. Lamb shoulder ($27) is braised so perfectly that it falls apart under the pressure of your steady and drooling gaze, is served with fiddlehead ferns and handmade tick-tack shaped pasta bathed in a creamy sheep’s milk cheese. Black bass ($25), simply and perfectly seared, is perfumed with young ginger, and set in a shallow pool of chile-lime broth. For dessert, the fried caramels must be ordered in bulk. Crispy salty packages of phyllo dough twisted around melting mouthfuls of caramel are possibly the greatest thing since, well, since the peas and bacon.

5 Ninth Avenue, at Little West 12th Street, 212-929-9460.

 

REPRINTED FROM MY REVIEW IN PAPER MAGAZINE 

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Posted: April 5, 2004

Other restaurants in MeatPacking :
+ Paradou   + Florent   + One   + Bivio   + Spice Market   + Ono   + 5 Ninth   + Fatty Crab   + Del Posto   + Morimoto   + Los Dados   + 5 Ninth   + Merkato 55   + Scarpetta   + The John Dory   + The Standard Grill   + Bill's Bar & Burger   

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