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“BLT Market”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Midtown	Break the Bank	Great

MY DINNER AT BLT MARKET
Much is made these days of local cuisine. Every chef worth his or her weight in heirloom green beans has a Greenmarket-driven menu, or sources produce within the locavore’s 100-mile radius. Manny Howard, in this week’s New York Magazine, chronicled his own (hilarious, must-read) story of trying to sustain his family (well, really as it turned out, just himself and an aspiring yet unskilled farmhand named Caleb) on a diet of fruits, vegetables and livestock (rabbits, ducks and chickens) grown and raised in his 55th of an acre Brooklyn backyard. I myself have an allegiance to local food. I shop at the Greenmarket (and, to be honest, at stores that are near the Greenmarket, like Trader Joe’s.) I tend to frequent restaurants where chefs shop seasonally and locally, places like Spotted Pig, Five Points, Cookshop, Tia Pol, Savoy, EU, Hearth, August, et al. (I also tend to eat at restaurants in my local rectangle. Eating on the UWS or in Jersey is not local to me. If I can’t walk there, I really don’t eat there. This, to be honest is more a factor of laziness than any lofty environmental or agricultural goals.)

In any case, the point is, there are a heck of a lot of chefs in this town who are going a long way to protect the family farm and promote regional, local eating, and for this I am grateful and proud. All these men and women are doing their part to cut down on diesel fuels and maintain and support a community of family farms. It’s making a difference to the world, even in a small way. And for those of us who eat at their restaurants, it’s nice to be able to feel virtuous while sometimes spending upwards of $30 on an entrée.

But while I am so proud of all that these locavore chefs do, I must admit that not one of them is doing what Chef Laurent Tourondel is doing at BLT Market. At Market, the latest in his line of urban chic emporium eateries, Laurent is shopping as local as you can get. Specifically, at a street cart peddling honey-roasted nuts outside his Central Park South restaurant. Yes, the nuts on his chocolate feuilletine are what he calls a “New York Street Praline”—a cluster fashioned from the honey-roasted peanuts that fill the city’s corners with a humid wave of roasted sweetness, and in winter give the city an air of Christmas all season long. When you can walk ... [more, click below]

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Posted: September 17, 2007

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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