Time and Again, Minetta Tavern
That faint smile suggests Keith McNally is pleased with scrubbed-up Minetta Lane. Photo: Steven Richter
Forks clashed, egos were mashed. A committee mulled the list of reservation hopefuls that afternoon, and by seven the chosen began to claim their tables at the new old Minetta Tavern, redundant us surprisingly among them. Second night at a table with a view of the back room drama and into the bar. Though I’ve forty years as a restaurant critic and a decade of passionate eating before that, it’s my first look at the seven decade-old village cubby, hangout of prize fighters, Beat writers, serious drinkers, the sentimental and now, Keith McNally loyalists.
Out of the past comes Minetta’s creamy Billi Bi soup. Photo: Steven Richter
Table games: You know who you are, even if I don’t. Photo:Steven Richter
French nonchalance improvised pasta Za Za with its fried egg on top. Photo: Steven Richter
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| Stuffed calamari. Photo: Steven Richter |
There’s laid back French attitude in the sunny side up fried egg you smash to sauce the pasta Za Za, fresh fettuccine with pancetta, sage and parmesan named for the French concierge who improvised it for Nasr’s sister (Daily Candy testifies). Filet mignon with its smear of salty Roquefort is no more than it should be. But the roasted chicken is remarkable – skin-crisped, flesh moist, if not faintly pink, with splendid spinach and cheesy aligote potatoes alongside. Choose your burger: the Minetta, with cheddar and caramelized onions at $16, or the Black Label, a prime, dry-aged, hand-cut beauty at $26. No wonder The Road Food Warrior, my resident burgermeister seems slow to share. The prestige patty is a supremely juicy chunk of meat slathered with caramelized onions and the same legendary fries we know from Balthazar. The $9 glass of Malbec from Cahors is good enough.
Great burger, glorious fries are worth the $26 splurge. Photo: Steven Richter
Minetta Tavern is not cheap. It doesn’t need to be, after all, but it’s not expensive. Hors d’oeuvres start at $10, with lobster salade at $26; entrees offer Za Za pasta at $16 and run up to $90 for a côte de boeuf for two with roasted marrow bones and a “Little Gem lettuce salad.”
I suppose it’s just as well I cannot read minds. I sleep better.
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