August 26-September 1, 2004

food

Changing Its Stripes

IN THE SCALES: the line cooks at Striped Bass work under scrutiny from their dinner audience, beneath the gleaming, wall-mounted metal fish. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

Striped Bass returns from the deep.

by Maxine Keyser

First of all, let's dismiss the complaint that has been going around about Striped Bass (and many other places in town for that matter): "The portions are too small and the prices are too high." Who is it who actually decides the value of things? Are 30 grams of Iranian Osetra caviar really worth $140? Is a small Fabergé egg worth as much as a large house? The size clearly doesn't dictate the price — the quality of the ingredient is the first part of the fraction, and that old rule of supply and demand makes up the rest. If people want it badly enough, and are willing to pay for it, they will come.

That taken care of, we can proceed to the real story about Striped Bass. It's gorgeous in many ways. The renovations have disposed of the palm trees and peacock chairs, and you can really see those magnificent marble columns piercing the carved wooden ceiling. Dining chairs, upholstered in a pinstripe velvet, are slightly winged at the top for a certain amount of privacy, and get my vote for the most comfortable dining chairs ever. The napery is white, the stemware is graceful and the streamlined flatware is displayed with the knife poised on its blade (a homage to Neil Stein perhaps, who did this at Avenue B). Gray-suited waiters throng about to do your bidding. The sculpture of a bass still hangs over the open kitchen, which is very bright and busy, but occasionally, a silhouette of a waiter appears before it, as in a Lautrec painting.

This is Stephen Starr's 10th restaurant, but there is no sign of him here. None of the tongue-in-cheek humor that brightens his other places — no reclining nude over the bar as at Angelina's, no Buddha, no fiber-optic booths lighting up as at Morimoto. If this is theatrical, it is only that it resembles a New York restaurant with its air of worldly chic. Alfred Portale, the great chef of the Gotham Bar & Grill, is in evidence here, having consulted with chef Christopher Lee, and his stamp appears everywhere. It is in the amuse-bouche of a tender seviche of striped bass, marinated in sesame oil, lime juice and a kick of wasabi. It is in the tartare of hamachi which starts the tasting menu, with a dollop of American caviar on top. Nothing is as vertical as it used to be, and obviously there are Asian seasonings used widely, but there are unexpected flavors as well. A crisp soft-shell crab comes with sugar snap peas and an onion confit, but there is the whisper of cinnamon in the sweet meat.

A word about the wine list as we pause in the parade of small dishes that compose the tasting menu. It is diversified, interesting and expensive. We are hard-pressed to find a wine under $50, but we settle happily with a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc at $42 that complements all of our dishes with its fruity, mineral tang.

Next on the tasting comes crispy black sea bass done with a miniscule pipérade of chorizo and some shellfish. What there is of it is delicious. Best of all is the black cod, a sublime fish, marinated in miso, and served with sticky rice, shiitakes and a sake yuzu emulsion that cuts its fattiness.

We also play around with the a la carte menu, and find many things to our liking. We have a light dish of peeky toe crab mixed with avocado, a bit of mango and a clever sour lime sorbet. We have the requisite foie gras, this tronchon crusted with gingersnap crumbs. I had this somewhere in Paris and loved the spice with the unctuous liver. I still love it, especially the caramelized apricots and cherries in a reduction redolent of lemon grass. Our only problem is, we want more. We are comforted by a chilled English pea soup, tasting intensely of peas, and a bright jade green, streaked with slashes of créme fraîche. A wonderful morel custard floats in its depths, and a sprinkle of truffle oil enhances the morel's earthiness. How could we resist a salad of heirloom tomatoes: bright yellow, green and red, tossed with goat cheese and basil oil?

Many years ago, at Portale's restaurant in New York, I had my first taste of a rare tuna steak, and adored it. Since then, of course, it has become a menu standard, mangled and crusted and sauced with all manner of strange things, but here it is just as I remember it (albeit smaller), and brilliantly paired with braised short ribs. The veggies and Pinot Noir sauce are incidental to the deep flavor of the fatty meat with the austere tuna. Too bad, though, that the wild king salmon, though it comes with wild asparagus, tomato confit and a lemon and basil pistou, is strangely bland, despite the complex flavors. I eye the halibut, the lobster and even peanut-crusted Hawaiian ono, but they must wait for another time.

Desserts seem an afterthought — a warm chocolate cake with raspberry-Earl Grey sorbet is redundant, but the panna cotta is light and delicate. Yes, the portions are not large, but believe me, I have had enough to eat and so have my companions.

A meal in this exquisite room can be an experience. You have to love seafood in all its various forms, and be open to new tastes and exotic flavors. (They do have a steak and duck breast for those who deplore sea creatures.) I noted not only Asian influences but Spanish and French as well, and they were used judiciously. The flavors sneak up on you, and some burst pleasurably in your mouth. Some don't, but they will be corrected I'm sure, as the restaurant is still fairly new. Actually, for so new a place, the service is flawless, so it seems that Portale, Lee and Starr are on top of everything. The prices, I fear, will make it more of a special-occasion restaurant than your neighborhood spot, but it is what it is — like a ravishing woman who is slightly beyond your reach.

Striped Bass 1500 Walnut St., 215-732-4444 Sun.-Thu., 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m. Appetizers, $13-$22; entrees, $32-$39; tasting menu, $75 Wheelchair accessible. Reservations necessary. All major credit cards.