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BLT Market

Critic's Pick Critics' Pick

The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park
1430 Sixth Ave., New York, NY 10019 40.765072 -73.976603
nr. 58th St.  See Map | Subway Directions Hopstop Popup
212-521-6125 Send to Phone

Photo by Brian Kennedy for New York Magazine

Official Website

bltmarket.com

Nearby Subway Stops

N, Q, R at 57th St.-Seventh Ave.; F at 57th St.

Special Features

  • Breakfast
  • Brunch - Weekend
  • Business Lunch
  • Hot Spot
  • Lunch
  • Notable Chef

Alcohol

  • Full Bar

Reservations

Recommended

Profile

This venue is closed.

Given their talent for replicating dining trends, it was only a matter of time before Tourondel and his team set their sights on the most prevalent trend of all. BLT Market, is an homage to the cult of the artisanal, the farm-raised, and the locally grown. Its venue is the Ritz-Carlton, on 59th Street, a name long associated with what the French once called “haute cuisine.” But that style has passed from the scene, and at Tourondel’s restaurant, you will find all of the totems of the new orthodoxy on display. The walls are hung with photos of the restaurant’s purveyors cuddling dirty truffles and barnyard ducks. An old plow stands by the entrance, and jars of local products (honey, lemon curd, pickled dilly beans) can be purchased at the front desk. Water is served not in carafes but in milk bottles, waiters are dressed not in tuxedos but in kitchen aprons, and on a hot day, the invigorating barnyard smell of horse dung even wafts through the room from the carriages lining Central Park, across the street. In accordance with the doctrine established by seminal Slow Food establishments like Blue Hill and Craft, Tourondel’s menu is stripped-down and seasonal, with the focus not on flowery recipes but on ingredients. To help the uninitiated navigate this newly posh Greenmarket world, “peak season” items are listed on one side of the menu. A few of these even find their way into comical specialty cocktails, like the weirdly bracing Jackrabbit (a carrot-ginger Tom Collins) and the basil-cucumber mojito. Traditionalists will be happy to know that the timeless appetizer-entrée-dessert structure of the old haute cuisine meal remains intact at BLT Market. But instead of carefully wrought foie gras canapés, diners receive a bowl of pickled vegetables before their dinner, along with an ornate version of pigs in a blanket (sprinkled with what I’m guessing is artisanal sauerkraut) and a baguette of fresh garlic bread in a paper bag, delivered to the table with a flourish by a waiter wielding silver tongs.

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