Patriotic Menu
too many celebrity chefs end up spreading themselves too thinly, opening restaurant after restaurant, often all over the country, so that the very qualities that brought them to national attention are diminished. if you're serious about restaurant dining, you know exactly to whom i'm referring. and you also know that bobby flay is not among them. for although flay is owner and executive chef of 10 restaurants located everywhere from new york to the bahamas, author of nine cookbooks and host of five food network cooking shows, his commitment to quality control is conspicuous, and it's not unusual to see him on the premises of his restaurants.
opened in 2005, bar americain is flay's largest and, in some ways, most ambitious restaurant venture in new york. seating 200 people in a soaring space, as the name suggests,
flay's regional american menu is served with a certain brasserie brio. the space was once home to sam's, owned by ernest hemingway's granddaughter; after it was sold in 1992, the space housed judson grill, where the great bill telepan honed his considerable skills before moving uptown to telepan.
like all of flay's restaurants, bar americain is perpetually busy, but because the space is so large and the ceilings so high, the sound levels remain relatively manageable. if noise is a problem for you, though, ask to be seated upstairs in the mezzanine. service throughout is highly focused and theater-district swift. our charming primary server, mark, remained remarkably calm despite the occasional burst of mayhem from the crowd.
flay is all about bold flavors, right down to the warm corn sticks in the bread basket, which are really corny, buttermilky and tangy.
a "ramos fizz" combines plymouth gin, lemon juice, milk, foamy egg whites and orange flower water. the cocktail goes down like a lemon-vanilla egg cream; you can barely taste the gin.
a raw bar extends the entire width of the enormous restaurant, just outside the huge kitchen. a tasting of three "shellfish cocktails" is an excellent way to get your meal underway. "shrimp-tomatillo" is a zesty, citric, soupy concoction with layers of flavor seldom found in shrimp dishes. "crab-coconut" features pineapple cubes and mango notes amidst the luscious crabmeat. and "lobster-avocado" is quite saucy and creamy, but it remains true to its crustacean origins.
grilled pizza with double-smoked bacon, caramelized onions and toasted garlic is pissaladière on flay's terms. the thin bottom crust flaunts its grill marks, and the topping literally bubbles with flavor.
the daily special on tuesdays is whole steamed two-pound lobster with roasted lemon butter. it is available with the meat in the shell or taken out for you, which is what we opted for. the buttery tail and claw meat is gracefully arranged around the lobster's body, and a zesty pepper-cream sauce is on hand.
rich, ruby slices of grilled venison strip loin beg to be devoured with a side of griddled wild mushrooms and pearl onions.
fries americain arrive in a paper cone with smoky red-pepper-infused mayonnaise for addictive dipping.
granny smith apple tart features perfectly fanned-out razor-thin slices of tart granny smiths. a scoop of maple-walnut ice cream makes a most welcome partner.
deep-dish chocolate cream pie comes in three decadent layers: the bottom is thick chocolate cream, middle is whipped cream, and on top is a fried chocolate disc dusted with powdered sugar.
portions are quite ample throughout the meal, and while the menu is a bit pricey, you do get what you pay for, and that's not always the case in that particular area. in fact, of all the places to dine in the northern theater district, bar americain is the best in every way. and clearly, plenty of people have figured that out.
-- bar americain 152 w. 52nd st. between sixth and seventh avenues 212-265-9700 entrées: $28 to $39