Seaport to Cove, A Day in NYC
To celebrate my reaching a retirement savings milestone, Z proposed that we go out to a nice dinner in the city. Although NYC's slew of fine dining restaurants can induce indecision, we quickly decided upon Cove. We'd come across a profile of the restaurant while reading The New Yorker and were intrigued by its seasonal, coastal California culinary ethos.
We had enjoyed their 4-course tasting menu (NB: they no longer offer their longer 8-course menu), although I've heard good things about their a la carte selections, as well. The service was attentive and our particular waitress was quite warm and welcoming. The larger dining room set off to the side of the kitchen is where you really want to sit. The polished wood of the tables, chairs, walls, and floors lend an understated refinement and comfort that transports you from the busy streets of Manhattan. You develop a sense that if you were to open a dining room window, you may just hear the waves breaking over the Mendocino coast.
The homemade sourdough bread was scrumptious and still warm upon serving.
The first course was titled "March in California and the northeast," and it was comprised of: island creek oyster with tangelo, grilled vanilla and passionfruit; tuna with rhubarb, ponzu, wasabi, and chamomile; grilled endive and tardivo with oro blanco and cherry leaf; badger flame beets cooked in rose oil with smoked yogurt and confit citrus. The course was exquisitely plated and definitively set the tone for the meal: fresh, light, the palate driven by citrus notes.
For the main course, we both ordered the whole aged squab cooked over hay with a warm salad of chicories. The squab was tender and flavorful, although we both noted that the bird's talons were a bit unsettling to look at while we ate.
Given that we were enjoying dinner for a special occasion, we selected the additional cheese course.
The dessert was--sadly--my least favorite part of the meal. It contained preserved berries and cream over an elderberry granita, but the granita was so unbelievably tart (even after I mixed the cream throughout the dessert to offset the acidity) that it came across as rather unbalanced.
