Rockefeller Center: The famed oyster dish, "deconstructed" at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar.   (Photo: Kenneth Chen)

Casual Gourmet

Four years ago, when Wylie Dufresne began producing his own brand of clean, high-level cooking downtown in the wilds of Clinton Street, he was considered a pioneer. These days, however, he’s just one of the crowd. Gourmet chefs are popping up in formerly abandoned tenements; tiny, crumbling brownstones; and even in the wilds of Red Hook, Brooklyn. Meanwhile, chef Dufresne’s newest Clinton Street venture, WD-50, has all the trappings of a polished, uptown establishment, complete with shiny new unisex toilets and fat-cat limousines idling outside by the bodegas. The menu is almost too worldly and experimental, but if you order just one meal, start with the white anchovies (dusted with unsweetened cocoa and served over a smooth tile of foie gras), followed by the pork belly (flavored with an eccentric sauce made with soybeans and star anise).

Similarly ornate dishes are available at small, out-of-the-way establishments like JACK’S LUXURY OYSTER BAR, on 4th Street in the East Village, and SNACK TAVERNA, on Bedford Street. Jack’s (run by the proprietors of the equally fine sushi restaurant JEWEL BAKO) is located in a narrow brownstone, and on the evening I visited, the chef herself was serving guests pots of pig cheeks steamed in vinegar and a delicious “deconstructed” version of oysters Rockefeller. At Snack Taverna, the menu might be described as “High Greek,” which means bowls of creamy tzatziki to go with your exceptionally tender helping of lamb’s tongues, platters of braised pulled goat, or savory country sausages called loukaniko and a supreme, royal version of stuffed grape leaves resting on a bed of saffron and crushed almonds.

Lamb’s tongues weren’t readily available in Brooklyn the last time I checked, but if it’s fresh-made pâté or a perfect steak tartare you crave, there’s no more satisfying place in the city than 360, on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. I tacked around the Brooklyn waterfront for an hour or more before finding Arnaud Erhart’s small storefront bistro, which is located next to the neighborhood cremation consultant. All the confusion melted away, however, after a taste of the chef’s addictive composition of chopped beets, apples, and sweet bits of herring, followed by a smooth, cooling saffron soup loaded with mussels. The main course was a choice of onglet (French for hanger steak) or butter-sautéed monkfish, which you can enjoy (together with an appetizer and dessert) for the felicitous price of $20.