Quite A Stir: The French Mojito with champagne from Mix In New York.   (Photo: Kenneth Chen)

Spinoff Mania

In case you missed it, the trendy new tapas joint BAR JAMÓN is the latest addition to the ever-expanding Batali-Bastianich universe. In the beginning, however, there was BABBO, which in turn begat LUPA, which then, in a sideways manner, gave birth to OTTO ENOTECA PIZZERIA, where the faux-Italianate train-station bar drew throngs of adoring, Barolo-swigging customers from the night it opened, and the specialty pizza crust, when I first sampled it, tasted like aged, desiccated old taco shells. Happily, however, after much experimentation, Batali has made his pizza work. I like to visit at lunchtime, when the crowds are thinner and you can ponder a slice of the pure, sweet, unadorned pie in peace, followed, possibly, by one of the special pizzas (decked with swordfish or crunchy zucchini blossoms in the summer), before topping things off with a cup or two of the famous house gelato, infused with pumpkins or ricotta cheese or, best of all, swirling deposits of olive oil.

If you’re ever in the mood for a $13 martini, the place to find it is at MIX IN NEW YORK, the curiously jumbled stepchild of RESTAURANT ALAIN DUCASSE in midtown. Unlike his spinoff-happy colleague Daniel Boulud at DB BISTRO MODERNE, Ducasse doesn’t serve a great American hamburger, although there’s a decent bison steak on the menu and a fine, sophisticated version of New England clam chowder, incongruously served in a Chinese clay pot. There’s also plenty of cross-cultural incongruity on display at the newest JEAN GEORGES spinoff, 66, where I always seem to find myself shuttled away from the famously lucent fish tanks and placed, with the rest of the walk-in hoi polloi, at the chilly, communal, postmodern mortician’s table in front of the room. I didn’t have the extreme reaction to the shrimp–and–foie gras dumplings that one of my esteemed British colleagues had (he called them “fishy, liver-filled condoms”), but the best things on Vongerichten’s menu by far are the simple, unassailably Chinese dishes like golden squares of shrimp toast leavened with chestnuts, or shrimp tossed with chili pepper and walnuts, or, if all else fails, plate after plate of the scallion pancakes, which are light as potato chips and stacked one on top of the other, like a tower of butterfly wings.