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“Irving Mill”

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

isappearing act after our apps were dropped). The wait times between courses were too long both at brunch (over thirty minutes, but note that I was with a large party) and at dinner (about twenty minutes, Friday night dinner service).
At dinner, while we waited and waited after our spinach salad with roasted tomatoes, shitake mushrooms and Pecorino ($11, fine, but nothing special) was cleared for our entrees, Adrienne amused us with a story of a recent subway commute to work. She was on a packed number 4 train that was moments from Grand Central when a frantic woman started pushing her way through the crowds toward the train’s red pulley emergency brake. She was about to pull it when a fellow straphanger noticed, stopped her, and asked her what in God’s name she thought she was doing. “I was standing there and a man showed me his penis!” she cried in a French accent, pointing to the culprit in the middle of the car. “Well then don’t look lady!” he replied, matter of factly (duh). “We gotta get to work.” His bravery kept the train moving. Soon he’ll have his own Facebook page. You gotta love our town.

Just then, our entrees arrived: a loup de mer, a chicken, a plate of angolotti, and a bowl of (now cold) tagliatelle Bolognese. We returned the frigid pasta it to the kitchen and were rewarded about ten minutes later with a brand new bowl, much hotter and this time quite worthy of praise. The cold temperature didn’t do that Bolognese ($18) justice, because when hot, it was luxuriously rich and boldly seasoned so it was almost tangy. The remains of the sauce went particularly well scooped up onto a crusty heel of country bread that I happily discovered I had not finished on my bread plate.

The grilled whole loup de mer ($50) served on a bed of nutty quinoa was, well, odd. Some bites were overly salted and quite fishy, but others were delightfully sweet and moist. How odd. Well, I uniformly loved the agnolotti—rectangular pasta envelopes plumped up with kale, chili, and Robiola cheese ($18). I’d never had anything quite like it. Terrific. But I was rather disappointed that Skeen had changed his roasted chicken preparation, turning it from a gorgeous roasted bird for two, with mac and cheese and sautéed collard greens ($55 for two), which I devoured with Craig’s help on a previous visit, to a pale flavorless roulade with truffles ($30) that was way ... [more, click below]

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Posted: February 8, 2009

Other restaurants in Gramercy :
+ Casa Mono/Bar Jamon   + Pure Food & Wine   + Parea   + Gramercy Tavern (Lunch)   + 15 East   + Tocqueville   + Irving Mill   + Bar Milano   + Irving Mill   + Maialino   + Asellina   + Corkbuzz Wine Studio   + Breads, by guest reviewer Tracy Weiss   

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