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“Park Avenue Summer”

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

Every season on Bravo’s Top Chef, the weary remaining contenders face off in an Olympic feat known as Restaurant Wars. In a matter of 24 hours they must conceive of and decorate a restaurant, from chairs to wall hangings, to appetizers and desserts. It’s a Herculean challenge, and one that relies as much on management, patience, and vision as it does on the ability to sear a scallop and season a filet of beef. It’s usually the most heated and surprising of episodes. Two years in a row, leading contestants have been asked to pack their knives and go in rather shocking twists of fate. It’s come to be one of my favorite episodes.

I was reminded of the Restaurant Wars challenge last week while having dinner at Park Avenue Summer, a restaurant located on a tree-lined street on the Upper East Side where a similarly formidable challenge takes place in line with the seasons, as fall becomes winter, and spring turns to summer, and so on.

You’ve probably heard all about Park Avenue Fill-In-the-Current-Season. It’s a restaurant that takes seasonality to the extreme, not only making over a few dishes on the menu to correspond with the change in nature’s bounty, but revamping the entire restaurant, from floor to ceiling, banquette to light fixtures, and the complete menu from breadbasket to dessert. Indeed, last week, in a matter of two days, the dining room, designed and built for Garanimals-styled change by AvroKo, was completely transformed. Wall hangings were switched to canary yellow, banquettes and chairs were snapped in with white leather panels, a drop ceiling was removed revealing a weathered roof made from wooden planks salvaged from a century’s old barn, and new light fixtures fashioned from fishing wire and lit with bare bulbs were hung from the barnyard ceiling. Tall flowers the shape of pipecleaners (they’re called Eremuris) were lined up in a row down the center of the dining room, splitting the room a willowy wall of sunny yellow. At the bar, bottles of rose were chilled and pitchers of sangria made from white and rose wines were set out, bobbing with ice cubes and summer fruits.

And in the kitchen, a cadre of cooks under executive chef Craig Koketsu began learning to cook the completely new menu. In a matter or two days, every dish—salads, crudo, soups, mains and sides—would come to life from a f ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 1, 2008

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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