(Photo: Carina Salvi)

BLT Steak (the initials stand for Bistro Laurent Tourondel) may be the best restaurant name since Pig Heaven. It name-checks two of America’s favorite meals, eliciting a Pavlovian, even Simpsonian, response. It’s also a nice match for Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Fish, opening this December in the space recently vacated by AZ. Don’t expect a rerun of his bull-market days at Cello—this place is about crowd-pleasers, like fried oysters and calamari. (For research, he ate at eighteen Boston-area restaurants in two days.) The third-floor dining room will aspire to the same comfortable elegance perfected at BLT Steak. He’ll even serve a burger—a move that, despite appearances, is a sign of savvy. That burger, after all, will go for $17, and customers are sure to go for it hook, line, and sinker.

BLT Fish, 21 West 17th Street; opens December.

Related:

• Archive: “Cover Story”
• Table of Contents: September 13, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!