Lever House

Instead of a book club, me and my three girlfriends started a once a month lunch.  It is sex and the city for married girls over 40.  It is great.  Our next lunch will be a dinner.  I can hardly wait. 

Today we went to Lever House.  We’re sitting down and I notice a guy standing in the front of the restaurant.  I told everyone that he takes yoga with me all the time.  How funny.  I went up to him and said hello, introduced myself since he recognized me too. How funny to see him here.  It turns out, he owns the place.  I swear, for a big town, it is a very small village.  One degree of separation. 

The place was packed with mostly business types.  We opened the lunch and closed the place down.  We split a delicious bottle of wine.  The wine menu is white on one side, red on the other.  Then broken down into tastings such as rich, crisp, etc.  Red is generally the choice for this crew..big and full-bodied.

Architecturally the Lever House is very modern.  In truth is looks a bit like an airport terminal but it could have easily been built 40 years ago or last week which I did like.  You walk down a ramp coming in and enter the room.  There are large round fixtures across the ceiling for light.  The walls are bare, no pictures but covered with a taupe fabric.  There is a room in the back for private parties that over looks the entire restaurant.  The bar is round with tons of bottles on glass shelves in the front when you walk in.  It truly reminded me of the old TWA terminal.  The chairs are very comfortable and the tables are close enough together to create warmth but not too close to hear everyone’s conversations.  The feeling is very upscale, very uptown.

The food is good.  Some things better than others.  I did two appetizers.  The first being grilled shrimp on a pureed chick peas with cherry tomatoes.  Simple and light and good, not omigod.  I also had the crab gratin over green apples.  Interesting concept but not that good.  The cheese and crab thing just didn’t work.  One person had the lobster salad which had large pieces of lobster in a simple salad.  Nothing fancy but light.  The tuna was beautifully presented.  4 pieces of charred rare tuna over greens with a sauce in the middle.  The raw dish was chopped white tuna with a creme fraiche.  The prices are high.  The food is good not great.  Although, the dessert was quite good.  A chocolate bombe.  Rich chocolate covering a thin crispy cake and a coffee cream with cinnamon cappuccino ice cream on the side.  Delicious!

I am not sure I’d run back but I can hardly wait to have lunch with my friends again.  Our next stop, Esca.