When Patrick back at Chez Panisse heard that I was going to New York, he encouraged me to eat at Gramercy Tavern. He had cooked there a couple years ago and had me email Howard, the chef de cuisine, and Michael Anthony, the executive chef, to let them know in advance that I wanted to come in. Good advice.
When we arrived, they had two questions for us. The first was whether any of us had any dietary restrictions. The second was a harbinger of what was to come: “do you have any time constraints this evening?”
We ordered a few things from the menu, but our first round of plates did not resemble anything we had expected. This was not a mistake. Just extra thanks to Patrick.
Here are pictures of just a few of the things we ate that evening. Everything was splendid.
Full to the gills, we ordered two desserts to share. We didn’t think we could each handle our own. We weren’t given a choice, though. Each of us got a dessert. We weren’t upset. They were all stunning. Here’s one of them:
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| I felt like my stomach was about to explode |
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| Before I knew what was going on the entire kitchen staff crowded to the front and then I was shoved into the middle of them for a picture. I felt pretty silly. |
