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“10 Downing”


  Occasion: Cuisine: Area: Cost: Rating:
  Night Out New American West Village Moderate Great

visit last week with Craig, we had a crock of crisped flash-fried head on shrimp, quite Spanish in style, served with wedges of lemon ($12), an ideal finger food for a glass of crisp white wine (maybe an Albarino?) at the bar. A jamon Serrano and duck egg “sandwich” ($10) was brilliant: wide smoky slices of jamon Serrano serve as an envelope for a pan-fried duck egg and then gets topped off with bracing, fat-cutting tapenade of capers, olives, and pickled onions. It’s a tour de force of flavor.

Craig and I also gobbled up the duck meatball cassoulet ($12), which on my first visit was an entrée, but has since been trimmed down to a neat appetizer, served in a cute crock-pot that houses not only the fork-tender duck meatballs (I’d eat these daily) but a sherry-spiked stew of flageolets beans. (Save a bit of your soft rosemary roll for dunking.) On a cold winter night, this dish is essential eating, but so are the braised beef cheeks served like an Austrian dinner with braised cabbage and wonderful toasted mustard spaetzle that was so shamelessly mustardy that I might have piled some on a pastrami sandwich thereby eliminating the need for condiments.

The crowd at 10 Downing—a mix of artsy folks (lots of wide black framed glasses, skinny jeans, air kissing, and the like), neighborhood couples and friends, and seems to be as happy to be there as I was. Their joy can mean the noise level gets loud, so if you’re looking for cozy conversation, sit close or eat early.

But even with the high noise level, the room is very comfortable with great cushy banquettes, and a fun atmosphere, so it’s very easy to linger on and on. And as you linger be sure to add dessert ($8) to your evening, specifically the Meyer lemon pound cake with lemon curd (as my friend Susie said, TDF—To Die For), and if you’re a peanut butter fiend (as I am) have the peanut butter and jelly—creamy peanut butter gelato with homemade preserves that can be spooned over slices of toasty buttery challah. I could not have been happier. In fact, let me be clear. From start to finish, at every visit to 10 Downing, Miss Piggy would have been proud. Maybe even Virginia Woolf, too. 

10 Downing is located at 10 Downing Street, corner of Sixth Avenue, 212-255-0300


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