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“Gaia in Greenwich CT”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Suburbs	Break the Bank	Off the Charts

Before you read what I have to say in the next paragraph, I must make one point very clear. I am a city rat. (I mean this in the nicest way.) I was born and raised in New York City. I was on the subway before I could walk. I was mugged by the time I was 13. (Those were the good old days.) My Dad, who lived on the Upper East Side and could not cook anything but Stouffer’s Spinach Souffle, used to take us to Maxwell’s Plum for dinner several times a week (I am dating myself, I know.) My Mom who lived in Queens used to pile my brother and I onto the subway and let us run free at the Museum of Natural History and then climb the jungle gym in Central Park before dinner at the Museum Café. I love this town, and I don’t believe in leaving it unless it is for transcontinental travel (read: a meal in Barcelona, Madrid, or Paris.) I understand that there are other cities, like San Fran, San Diego, Phoenix, Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Boston, Denver, and the like, that have redeeming qualities and nice restaurants and all that (and I have visited them for work on various occasions), but I am in love with my city and I travel only to get the story and come home to my chaotic streets.

So, if you had told me last week that I would have driven out to Greenwich, CT (a place I have only read about only in back issues of Town & Country while waiting to see my dentist), for a dinner and that I would enjoy more than I have enjoyed many a meal in New York City, I would have quite clearly told you that you were obviously deranged and deluded and that you should seek immediate psychiatric care.

But alas that is precisely what happened to me last week. I traveled to Greenwich, CT and had a mind-blowing meal at a place called Gaia.

Gaia (the Goddess of Mother Earth) is the stateside debut of restaurateur Marlon Abela, of London’s MARC restaurant corporation (he recently re-opened the private club, Morton’s of Berkley Square). For his first US project, Abela (a smart fellow indeed) hired Chris Palikuca, formerly director of operations for Daniel, and Sign of the Dove) to run the front of the house, and plucked a young, creative, fiercely gifted (and hot) chef, Bjorn van der Horst, from his post as chef de cuisine at Picholine (with training at multiple Michelin-starred spots like Les Jardins de Opera, Robuchon, Louis XV and at all of Ducasse’s restaurants in Paris), and snagged the underrated Micha ... [more, click below]

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Posted: March 11, 2004

Other restaurants in Suburbs :
+ Gaia in Greenwich CT   + North Fork Table and Inn   + Izakaya and the New Water Club in Atlantic City   + La Estacion (Fajardo, Puerto Rico) by special guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + The Lunch Truck at the North Fork Table and Inn   

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