Today in news that seems pretty unfair to all other New York City hotels, both Tom Colicchio and Keith McNally are opening restaurants at the Beekman.
Augustine, McNally’s spot, opens tomorrow, and we’ll have everything about that next week.
So today we’ll focus on Colicchio’s, dubbed Temple Court, an old-school New York atmosphere where old-school meals will be had. It’s open now for dinner.
The first thing to know here is that this entire hotel is beautiful; it’s in a landmark 1883 Gothic Revival building. And this particular restaurant follows that theme (look around here).
Here are all the other things to know:
—There will be much traditional luxe—sautéed foie gras, oysters Rockefeller, a dry-aged steak dish concocted by a legendary turn-of-the-century chef and a vegetable pot-au-feu, to name a few (check out the menu).
—There’ll also be some things you’d expect from the master of farm/sea-to-table—warm lobster salad with marinated hen-of-the-woods mushrooms and arugula, rabbit schnitzel with pistachios and chanterelles. That kind of thing.
—When we say old-school, we mean a barroom with oriental rugs, a library, iron railings stretching up the hotel atrium. In general, things that make you think of the word “plush.”
—There’s a “phrenological cabinet” portion of the menu. Fowler and Wells were two guys who practiced the bullshit “science” in the building back when bullshit science abounded.
—Keep it on your list of milestone restaurants—big birthdays, anniversaries, promotions and being selected as the first human to go to Mars all seem like appropriate justifications.
