Dinner @ 21--No Silver Spoon Award

Restaurant Week in NYC stretches for more than a week now, and many places offer both lunch and, for $38, dinner. Sis and I went to 21 for a three-course dinner tonight and we head to The Russian Tea Room next Tuesday. [Our sitter, Elaine, gets Punch from the bus Tuesdays and watches her.]

I don't like to talk darkly about an institution like the 21 Club. I want the review to be a shower of fat, fragrant yellow roses. It's a favorite of mine, a landmark, important. At my first job, we were all invited via paper in-box memo to lunch there to honor the outgoing editor in chief of Woman's Day--but I think I had just started working, and was clueless. While on staff at Good Housekeeping, I walked over to parties and holiday toasts there, and once booked a a large round table for lunch when my dear friend/boss Ruth Arnstein retired. I took H. there for dinner to celebrate a writing success. I saw Barbara Walters and Vernon Jordan eating quite cozily at a small table in the corner that night.

The caesar salad was always tops; the signature "21" burger, too. But tonight, Sis and I were disappointed, and felt rushed. The caesar was still garlicky and good and my main course of prime beef short rib with parsnip purée and rainbow baby carrots was tasty--but the sides were doll-sized. The crème brûlée was not up to par. I like to spoon into slightly chilled, creamy custard, the perfect foil for a crackling brûlée top. This custard was too soft, like nursery food but in a disappointing way. The chocolate ganache cake was small and dry.

The drinks seem to rock, though I stuck to ice water. Sis had a fine Manhattan--our parents' favorite cocktail, and I joked they'd be happy, looking down from heaven. To my left and right, shapely, elegant flutes of [very] bubbly.

I recognized at least one white-coated waiter from all those decades ago....and I like that. Tradition.

Good night.

TCOY

1. Walked from restaurant to Port.
2. Good skin care and dental care.

*Per Wikipedia: The walls and ceiling of the Bar Room are covered with antique toys and sports memorabilia donated by famous patrons. Perhaps the most famous feature of 21 is the line of painted cast iron lawn jockey statues which adorns the balcony above the entrance. In the 1930s, some of the affluent customers of the bar began to show their appreciation by presenting 21 with jockeys painted to represent the racing colors of the stables they owned. There are a total of 33 jockeys on the exterior of the building, and 2 more inside the doors.