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“BLT Prime”

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

We all cried out at the same time, our eyes closing slowly. People around us stared. We did not care. Tourondel’s tots—not shaped alike squat cylindrical nuggets, as those of our Oreda youth, but like fat golden coins, filled with creamy mashed potatoes and a hot, melting blue cheese center—are definitely edible pleasure. (Careful though. I burned my tongue on a squirt of hot cheese. My work is so dangerous.) The tots are among a list of potato sides ($7) that includes potato skins, mashed potatoes (delicious roughly mashed up buttery fingerlings with the skin on), and a skillet of puff ball-sized parmesan gnocchi that are ethereal, melting, light as air, crowned with a pile of finely shredded fresh Parmesan. More edible joy here, Tourondel’s vegetable sides ($8) are also worth exploring in some depth. Take for instance his creamed corn succotash—cream being a key ingredient, balanced with some smoky bacon, and stocked up with snap peas, and firm kernels of corn, popping with sweetness. His creamed spinach is as much of an edible narcotic at Prime as it is up at BLT Steak. This is far to rich to be called a vegetable. It should be called cream, with a good intention of being spinach. The placement of Onion Rings in the “vegetable” category is also hilarious. If you have had the onion rings at BLT Steak, you know what I mean. They arrive in a tall stack, lined up from largest on the base to smallest at the top, battered and golden, like a tower of glazed donuts. These onions may have at one point been vegetables, but that was a long time ago, in their youth in the ground.

As you can tell, BLT Prime is not for those with a desire to eat light. Tourondel’s menu takes pleasure in indulgence, and while you are there, I encourage you to do the same. You can diet another time, say, when you are dead. (That’s been my philosophy most of my life. Not sure you want to emulate this mantra, but it’s worked for me so far.) Nevertheless, if you’d like to take a less hedonistic approach to dinner, appetizers do play to the lighter side.

We started with a few salads because we knew we would be eating several sides of beef for dinner. We began with a classic Caesar Salad ($10), which was correct in every way—fresh ribs of romaine tossed so the crunchy green lettuce limbs were just coated in a perfectly tangy dressing—not too oily, not to cheesy, not too fishy. Score one for BLT Prime. Other salads were also impressive. The Spinach Salad ($12) arrived in ... [more, click below]

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Posted: August 8, 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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