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“Telepan”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Upper West Side	Moderate	Great

MY DINNER AT TELEPAN

There is a dewy summer garden vibe to Telepan, the debut restaurant of Judson Grill's Greenmarket-driven chef Bill Telepan. The room is painted a lush sage green, and larger than life photos of fruit trees and vegetables canvass the far walls of its dining rooms. The welcoming bar, a large rectangle of pecan wood, straddles the restaurant's twin dining rooms that are simply done with banquettes in soft fabrics, light wood accents, and sanded wood floors. It is an almost prosaic setting-a dressed up Ikea dining room in designer Larry Bogdanow's minimalist style-which makes the white table clothes, stunning flatware and elegant stemware almost seem out of place. But the juxtaposition of earthy design with such sophistication is also mirrored on the plate, where the food is at once magnificent and yet deeply elemental and incredibly approachable. (Read: this is food you want to eat.) This union of opposites is Bill's hallmark approach, and it is in evidence all over his new menu at Telepan.

Bill conceptualized his menu in the style of an Italian eatery with three courses: he offers appetizers of salads and smoked fish, midcourses of pasta, vegetables and eggs, and entrees of larger beasts and fishes. His vision was to offer people enough choice so that they could dine at Telepan whatever their appetite-tiny, medium, ample, or extra hungry woman (that would be me).

Jamie, Alison and I started our feast at Telepan with a few cocktails (I loved the Orange Fizz), and a selection of appetizers. We had to have Bill's house-smoked brook trout-a signature from his days at Judson. He folds flaky pieces of smoked trout with black radish sour cream and mounds the smoked fish salad onto a silver dollar sized buckwheat pancake ($12.50). Add a nice shot of cold vodka, and this is what smoked fish is about people. Bill's yellowtail sashimi ($15) is a welcome twist on the now ubiquitous crudo. He lays silvery slices of shimmery yellowtail tuna onto small hills of chewy farro tossed with mint, citrus, and cured tuna. The farro salad gives the fish both the right amount of lemony zip and a nutty earthy note of contrast.

I wasn't so crazy about the beet salad though ($11). While I loved the beets, which were of all sorts of brilliant colors and marinated and lively, they were tossed with pieces of fresh guanciale and fried pig's feet. I am all about pig, but this dish does not make any sense. Why were the pi ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 3, 2006

Other restaurants in Upper West Side :
+ 'Cesca   + Asiate   + Blue Hill Stone Barns   + Per Se   + The Neptune Room   + Spigolo   + Telepan   + Aix Brasserie   + 'Cesca   + Bar Boulud   + Dovetail   + BarBao   + Dinosaur Bar-be-Que   + Kefi   + Bar Luna   + Ed's Chowder House   + Red Rooster, by Rachel Barbarotta   + Loi by Dara Pollak   

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