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“Provence”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	French	Soho	Moderate	Great

freshly salted fries with aoili took center stage ($6). We picked at them in between bites, first pulling them out one by one and then in more ample bunches. The only dud was a promising vegetable and seafood stew (that was curiously bland and tasted almost watered down.

I took some time to return to Provence, wanting to give Lynn and his crew some time to find a rhythm and work out the kinks. Craig and I went back last week to celebrate my father’s 65th birthday. Again the setting was magical—that lovely light, the banquettes filled up, the bottles of rosé perspiring in corner wine buckets, the sheet of marble bar topped with cool cocktails and elbows of couples leaning in. We sat at a round table in the rear enclosed garden, a room marked by original mosaic tiled floors, a tented ceiling draped in cream fabric, and walls climbing with garden vines and twisted lengths of tree limbs that give the illusion of outdoors without the risk of rain or summer swelter.

Since we were celebrating (and honestly even if we weren’t), we started with a bottle of sparkling wine and an icy shelf of oysters ($2.50-3.50 each), some brilliant and brackish, some sweet and creamy, all cold and plump, minerally and saline. I slurped back my share without even a squeeze of lemon. We moved onto a bottle of—you guessed it—rosé—and our first courses. A big steamy bowl of beautiful Bouchot mussels ($17) was my favorite. The mussels were almost chubby they were so plump, perfectly steamed in a deeply spicy broth of chili, chorizo, green onion, and garlic that brought beads of sweat to my nose. These were amazing. My dad went for the calamari ($12), which made me recall the first time I tried calamari. I was as a little girl, maybe 8 or 9 years old. My brother and I were with my Dad for the weekend in the city and we were at one of our usual spots, The Metropolitan Café on Second Avenue in the 50s. My Dad ordered an appetizer for us all to share, and told us it was chicken. It arrived, and I was skeptical. It didn’t look like chicken to me. But my dad said it was chicken and told me to have some. Let’s just say I knew better than to argue. And yes, that was my first taste of fried calamari. When I found out I had been tricked, I was not happy. After I got over it, I realized I liked it. I hoped we’d have it again the next weekend. We did.

The calamari at Provence is quite diff ... [more, click below]

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Posted: July 9, 2007

Other restaurants in Soho :
+ Balthazar   + Savoy   + Blue Ribbon   + Lupa   + Public   + Kittichai   + Lure Fishbar   + Barmarche   + Porcupine-- CLOSED   + Ama   + La Esquina   + Jerry's- Closed Now   + The Tasting Room   + Papatzul   + Shorty's.32   + The Monday Room   + Ed's Lobster Bar   + Aurora   + Provence   + Tailor   + Hundred Acres   + Delicatessen, By Guest Reviewer Julie Besonen   + The Mott   + The Dutch   + Cherrywood, by Guest Reviewer Dara Pollak   

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