#8 – ROASTED VEGETABLES at TENPENNY

For the third year in a row, I’m going to attempt to eat every single item on Time Out New York’s annual 100 Best Dishes list. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100. Let the gluttony continue…

Chris Cipollone, the chef at Tenpenny left the restaurant just days before we visited. I had read about the departure on Eater, but thought maybe the cooks in the back would still be upholding the chef’s culinary offerings until a new Chef was hired. It was a quiet Friday evening at Tenpenny when we made our way through the Gotham Hotel to a surprisingly empty small, red dining room in the back. I don’t know if this is a reflection on the strange location of the restaurant or because other’s knew about the Chef’s absence.

We sat at the bar (even though there were plenty of tables) and had a very enjoyable meal. The bartender was great, giving recommendations and sticking around just as long as we wanted him to. I had read good things about the food and atmosphere and almost everything I read (and tasted) was right on.

The complimentary pretzel bread hinted at how great the food was going to be. It was tender and warm with a fantastic duo of sauces: apple butter and horseradish mustard.

We had limited time before the theater so we only ordered a few dishes. In addition to the TONY list item, we got an appetizer of crispy artichokes which were on top of a nice smoky lemon aioli with trout roe (simple, flavorful, good textures) and the entrée of smoked organic salmon, which was cooked nicely (perhaps a little undercooked) with a rich egg-yolk emulsion and bacon and brussels sprouts.

The roasted vegetables that TONY raved about were actually my least favorite thing on the table. The presentation was beautiful reminiscent of modern art. And I really loved the idea of this plate of seasonal vegetables gussied up with dehydrated ranch powder. The seasoning was a little too intense for my tastes and made the entire dish taste like a bag of sour cream and onion chips. I suppose the vegetables were healthier for you, but the strong flavoring got in the way of the natural vegetable flavors.

I was also a bit disappointed to not see the autumn (which was the season we were in when we came here) fully represented. I was hoping for more root vegetables, like butternut squash and parsnips. We got a lot of onions, potatoes, and carrots. But in the end, it was definitely interesting and playful with nice textures. And unfortunately, it cost quite a bit more than ten pennies, as the restaurant name suggests. Perhaps that’s why the Chef left.

Would Tenpenny’s Roasted Vegetables make my Top 100 of the year? These could have been fantastic (I wonder if they were before the chef left), but I had a few quibbles which brings it down to a 7 out of 10.