<< previous review   next review >>

reviews

“Perry Street”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	West Village	Break the Bank	Off the Charts

MY DINNER AT PERRY STREET

Perry Street, Jean Georges Vongerichten’s latest restaurant is a marked departure from his lemongrass and ginger-tinged hipster playground known as Spice Market. Where Spice Market is dark, sexy, loud, fiercely sceney, and frantic with youthful energy, Perry Street is light, airy, refined, elegant, serene, and mature. If Perry Street is Gucci, Spice Market is Diesel. If Perry Street is Grace Kelly, Spice Market is Brittany Murphy. Both have style, both possess much talent, they are just different in their approach and appeal.

The restaurant is an oasis of calm—a stunning, sophisticated room filled with sleek Scandinavian furniture and a long lean bar matched with deep, soft leather bar stools. Perry Street was designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen, a young architect and designer who used to work with Richard Meir, and who was the designer assigned to head up 66 on Church Street. He parted with Meier, and JGV hired him to do Perry Street, and his handy work is in evidence all over the magnificent minimalist room smoothed with neutral earth tones—cream, chocolate, espresso, taupe, and every conceivable soothing shade in between. Juul-Hansen didn’t just design the space, he designed every piece of furniture, including the wood-wrapped oversized circular banquets, the carpeting, and the smooth and sturdy couches. He is one to watch.

When I walked in last week, on a blistering Tuesday afternoon to inquire about getting a reservation for Katy (Sparks) and I to have dinner later in the week, the room was quiet and the air inside was fresh and cool. While I was hot and sweaty (I was walking around the West Village with my boyfriend, doing a bit of a lunch crawl), the manager who greeted us was not. He was dry and perfectly coiffed, in an immaculate suit, with a perfect smile, perfectly tanned skin, and the perfect amount of salt in his pepper colored hair. Indeed, Perry Street is not the sort of place where one sweats. It is a restaurant where nothing is out of place, where decorum is paramount. You feel like you are an adult here, and you actually don’t mind acting like one. It is not oppressive in its civility; it is inviting and catchy.

And so I felt a bit out of place, asking for a table here, with my frizzy mop of hair, in a tank top and skirt, with sweat trickling down the back of my neck, but the manager was quite welcoming, even as we were told that there were no tables available for dinner fo ... [more, click below]

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  

 Make a reservation

<< previous review   next review >>

Posted: August 14, 2005

Other restaurants in West Village :
+ Jefferson-- Closed   + La Palapa Rockola   + Sumile   + Babbo   + Tasca   + AOC Bedford   + Home   + The Spotted Pig   + Barbuto   + Numero 26   + Mas   + August   + Alta   + Cru   + Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed   + Employees Only   + Lassi   + Metropol--Closed   + Turks and Frogs   + Bellavitae   + Yumcha-- CLOSED   + Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO   + Perry Street   + Home   + Ditch Plains   + The Little Owl   + Cafe Condesa   + Cafe Cluny   + Gusto   + The Waverly Inn   + Morandi   + P*ONG   + Perilla   + Soto   + Market Table   + Centro Vinoteca   + Barfry   + Dell'Anima   + Bar Blanc   + Smith's   + Commerce   + Elettaria   + Bar Q   + Cabrito   + 10 Downing   + Minetta Tavern   + Braeburn   + Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Joseph Leonard   + Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Kin Shop   + Monument Lane   + Wong   + Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak   + Ristorante Rafele   + Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe   

Share ! Post a comment