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“Sugarcane”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	Flatiron	Moderate	Good

y too, but I can’t afford to be in a relationship with Per Se.)

And, finally, in dining as with dating, there is heartbreak. Restaurants like Quilty's, Cello, and La Caravelle—places that leave you when you aren’t ready for them to go.

I thought about this analogy while I was considering my recent dinner at Sugarcane, the creation of the team behind Sushi Samba, and concluded that on my dating-as-dining scale, this restaurant lies somewhere between Fling and Friend with Benefits. This is a fun spot. You’ll like it. The food is fine, but it is not going to win over your heart and mind. The place is cool though. And you will want to come back and get some when you feel like a fizzy, frivolous, and sexy evening.

When we were there last week—Susie, Cori, Paula and I—we were gearing up for a night of Super Diamond at Irving Plaza, and Sugarcane is the perfect place for a night of such silly guilty pleasures. It has the same lustful and loud energy as Sushi Samba, but on a smaller, more low-lit scale. The lean, rectangular space has low ceilings lined with carved wrought iron, clubby circular banquettes with amber lighting, and a snug, Zen-styled back room for large parties. It has a super swanky bar car feel to it—perhaps like the one on The Orient Express if it traveled by way of Brazil. The restaurant was filled with clans of lithe women wearing little clothing and a lots of lip gloss, standing like prey in front of hunter packs of well-groomed men who clearly spent more time primping for dinner than I did.

Like Sushi Samba, Sugarcane is a tribute to both Brazilian-Asian fare, but this spot highlights the spirits of these regions—caçhaca, rum, shochu and sake. Truthfully, the cocktails I can do without—they were too sweet for me. I like my cocktails like I like my men—quite strong. The menu is modest in size, and quite nicely edited to the essentials. (Some menus lately are getting way too long.) There’s a selection of ceviches under Raw, followed by Castirons, Greens, Skewers, Crisps (fried items), and Sushi.

We started with a round ceviches—all spectacular but one. The lone dud was a Cachaca Cured Kanpachi ($12) that had a very powerful stink of fish gone bad, and tasted not much better. But the others in the ceviche trio ($16)—the tiger shrimp, the red snapper and the lobster, were terrific—fresh, bright, and sparkly on ... [more, click below]

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Posted: February 20, 2005

Other restaurants in Flatiron :
+ Suenos   + Amuse-- Closed   + Dos Caminos   + Lucy-- Closed   + Gramercy Taver   + Veritas   + Fleur De Sel   + Bolo -- CLosed   + City Bakery   + Shake Shack   + Kalustyan's Cafe   + Devi   + BLT Fish   + Sugarcane   + BLT Prime   + Barca 18-- CLOSED   + Beppe   + Barbounia   + Boqueria   + Eleven Madison   + Lonesome Dove-- CLOSED   + Hill Country   + Olana   + Wildwood   + Primehouse   + Allegretti   + Bar Breton   + Aldea   + SD26 by Bao Ong   + ABC Kitchen   + Ciano   + The NoMad   

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