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“Apiary”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	East Village	Moderate	Good

and steamy in a broth of wine, citrus and herbs, generously adorned with coins of my favorite sausages from Spain, fuet ($10).

Now that sounds better, doesn’t it? Wait, there’s more. Skate gets dusted in almond flour and pan-fried, then fanned out on a plate with spicy eggplant caponata, tiny heads of roasted cauliflower, and a super vivid anchovy-caper vinaigrette ($23) that makes sure that no taste bud is left untouched. Manacle’s Long Island Peking Duck ($27) was my favorite of the entrees. It should be considered required eating. It includes a confited leg and a sliced loin, served over brown butter spaetzle and wild mushrooms in a honey-thyme just. I felt like it was Thanksgiving in some ways, because I spent a good deal of time picking succulent pieces of leg meat from the bone with my fingers and snacking on all the wonderful bits of meat and spaetzle left over even after the loin was eaten. I only wish I had tried Manacle’s Brussels sprouts before I wrote my Required Eating piece on them last week, because these too deserve to be on that list. They are served split in half, roasted with a fine mess of sticky smoky caramelized shallots and bacon ($5).

Apiary’s desserts (most $8) are all good news, no bad. Cashews finally get their due in a spectacular cashew chocolate brownie tart. This dessert is dangerous for anyone with a weakness for chocolate or cashews as it snuggles a gooey chocolate and cashew brownie into a pastry shell and tops it off with a scoop of cashew ice cream. Kathy had to force me to take it from her. (It wasn’t much of a fight.) A warm and buttery toasted almond pound cake is served like a little cupcake, split in half and filled with a dollop of crème fraiche. It was pretty simple but pretty good, too.

Being your own boss has its perks, and I am sure Manacle is thrilled about finally having a place to call his own. Clearly, he’s learned a lot from his mentor, but, as I am sure his mentor would tell him, whether you’re cooking with plantains and habanero peppers or pistachios and couscous, it takes time to get it right. The good news is that Manacle is a chef with a lot of passion who’s turning out food that hits the mark most of the time and that’s appealing to a neighborhood eager for a place that’s a bit more elegant than the maddening local NYU joints. And when you look at it that way, there’s really no bad ... [more, click below]

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Posted: November 14, 2008

Other restaurants in East Village :
+ Yujin-- Closed   + Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar   + Mermaid Inn   + Five Points   + Lavagna   + Five Points   + Bond Street   + Jewel Bako   + Alphabet Kitchen   + In Vino   + Bao 111   + Chikalicious   + Il Buco   + Hearth   + Lima's Taste   + Mercadito   + Hedeh   + Momofuku   + Una Pizza Napoletana   + Winebar   + Uovo-- CLOSED   + Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction   + Gotham Bar & Grill   + Colors   + Chinatown Brasserie   + Knife and Fork   + European Union-- NEW CHEF; SEE APRIL 2007 Review   + Aroma Kitchen and Winebar   + Stand   + European Union   + Mercat   + Gemma   + Back Forty   + The Smith   + Seymour Burton   + Belcourt   + Graffiti   + The Redhead   + Double Crown    + Apiary   + Joe Doe   + Apiary by guest reviewer Kiri Tannenbaum   + DBGB   + Northern Spy   + Goat Town   + Saxon + Parole   + Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria   + Acme   + Calliope   + Nicoletta   + JEPPNEY by Claire Jaffe   + Feast   

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