• Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar

  246 East 5th Street, 212-673-0338

  On the off chance you don’t have $500 to fork over for the august privilege of tasting chef Masa Takayama’s omakase dinner at Masa, here’s another option. Travel to Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar, in the East Village, where $75 buys a taste of almost everything on the menu. Begin with chef Allison Vines-Rushing’s “deconstructed” oysters Rockefeller (oysters with pancetta, spinach, and beurre fondue), followed by a button of poached lobster poured over a country biscuit. Sample a single pig’s cheek after that, or a crawfish casserole folded with cheese. Finally, there’s the house dessert: a dense, spongy piece of baba au rhum, touched with butterscotch and whipped cream, which the chef serves herself, from a blue-and-white china bowl. And you’ve still got $425 left over.

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine