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“Quality Meats”

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

MY DINNER AT QUALITY MEATS
About a dozen years ago, as many of you know by now, I was a hopeful young lawyer at a law firm called Shearman and Sterling. It was a time in my life I often think back to with some wonderfully rich combination of misery and dread. At the same time I was in hell as a junior Mergers & Acquisitions associate (a fancy title for someone who proofreads term sheets, assembles corporate profiles and writes due diligence memos), a restaurant called the Manhattan Ocean Club was thriving. It was one of those places that lawyers took clients (and sometimes their young associates) for many martinis (read: lunch). For 22 years, the Manhattan Ocean Club stood and served, but toward the end of its second decade, its luster faded.

About two years ago, to give it new life, the owners hired Lespinasse veteran, chef Craig Koketsu. While Craig gave good food, his menu alone was not enough to rescue the sinking ship. And so the Stillmans (who also own Smith and Wollensky and the Post House) started from scratch. They shuttered the place, tearing down concepts and ideas, along with walls, and hired the fierce design firm of AvroKO (Stanton Social, Public) to help them reinvent the restaurant. When AvroKO went to work, they stripped the walls, and under layers of paint and sheetrock, discovered the inner beauty of the building: original pillars of raw brick and steel, and rough and sturdy walls of mortar and iron. After three months of work, the seafood haven known as the Manhattan Ocean Club was reborn as a sleek urban steakhouse with a sort of gangs of New York butcher vibe—elements like meat hooks as lamps (think the meat locker in Rocky), butcher scales, and heavy old cleavers smacked on distressed exposed brick walls. The effect is slightly dangerous and very steak ‘n sexy.

As fate would have it, I had dinner at Quality Meats with an old friend—a guy I knew a decade ago, back in the day when we were both lawyers, he in Boston. When we reconnected recently, and decided to have dinner at QM, I thought it was fitting to visit a place that had also gone through a major change of identity. As you know, I no longer write due diligence memos or corporate profiles.

My old friend and I met at the bar, where we settled in for a drink and some of the housemade waffle potato chips (the salt and vinegar are spectacular) in the front lounge, a chic space grounded in wood floors, lined in butch ... [more, click below]

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Posted: May 7, 2006

Other restaurants in Midtown :
+ Lever House   + Aquavit   + RM   + Joseph's (formerly Citarella The Restaurant)   + Town   + Artisanal   + The Oyster Bar   + Geisha   + David Burke and Donatella Restaurant   + Riingo   + Amma   + Cafe Sabarsky   + The Stone Rose Lounge   + BLT Steak   + V, The Steakhouse-- Closed   + Bar Masa   + Cafe Gray   + The Bar Room at The Modern   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + Bistro du Vent-- Closed   + Shaburi   + Xing   + The Modern   + Bar Americain   + Alto   + Park Blue   + Mainland-- Closed   + Nobu 57   + Quality Meats   + Dona-- CLOSED   + Daisy May's   + 7Square-- CLOSED   + Amalia   + Fireside   + Anthos   + Patroon   + BLT Market   + Toloache   + Mia Dona   + Park Avenue Summer   + Convivio   + The Oak Room by guest reviewer Julie Besonen   + At Vermilion by guest reviewer Elaine Weiner   + Lunching at Inakaya, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Marea, by Guest Reviewer Susan Kane Walkush   + Le Bernardin   + New York Central -- A Reason To Eat at the Grand Hyatt Again   + Pampano Botaneria by Dara Pollak   

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