the Corner Store in Soho<\/a>, which Taylor Swift put on the map almost from day one. That place, where Vignola is also in charge of the kitchen, seems less about his food than about the scene.<\/p>\nSo my hopes for The Eighty Six\u2019s menu were restrained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The restaurant occupies the old Chumley\u2019s space. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
They shouldn\u2019t have been. While I was cranky that no\u00a0bread was served at the start of a meal, two meaty, horseradish-drizzled dill pickles offered instead got me over it.<\/p>\n
There was also brown butter-toasted sourdough to scoop\u00a0bluefin tuna tartare ($29). A gleaming round of wonderfully fresh fish was centered atop a ring of shaved Persian cucumber, crowned with Osetra caviar and drizzled with aged soy and cold-pressed Sicilian olive oil. It was a perfectly calibrated dish\u00a0\u2014 from the soy to the sourdough \u2014 with each flavor at once distinct and complementary.<\/p>\n
The 8-ounce filet mignon \u201cRossini\u201d ($65) \u2014 sourced from the Jeffrey Huss family in Mitchell, South Dakota \u2014 is far from the usual lean, diet-friendly filet you find around town. The crust was perfectly seared. The meat, cooked to a precise medium-rare, was\u00a0enhanced\u00a0with a two-ounce mound of Hudson Valley foie gras and\u00a0butter whipped from white Alba and black Burgundy truffles. Barolo-scented bordelaise sauce tied it all together for maximum, gut-busting thrills.<\/p>\n
Steaks are sourced from obscure family farms. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the most seductive, neo-speakeasy shtick in town. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Wagyu cheesesteak ($39) laughed at even the fanciest takes on the\u00a0Philadelphia warhorse.\u00a0Westholme Australian Wagyu ribeye was thinly sliced and\u00a0slow-roasted to a marvelously\u00a0tender state, sparked with pickled peppers and chiles, and cloaked in\u00a0a creamy blend of Hornbacher and Comt\u00e9 cheeses.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t only about beef.<\/p>\n
The Cresta di Gallo caviar pasta was a multi-layered flavor bonanza starring saffron-shallot sofrito, cream, robiola cheese, egg yolk, Calabrian chili oil and Osetra caviar. It was as unique as it was delicious.<\/p>\n
Chocolate \u201cflying saucers\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 malted milk ice cream between chocolate waffle cone pieces and presented on a bed of chocolate crunch to roll the sweet sandwich in \u2014 topped the fun desserts list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pastas are more than an afterthought. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
An elaborate whole duck begs for a second visit. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
The setting is plush and then some. Large,\u00a0upholstered booths all but hug you. Light glows from Art Deco fixtures and gleams across lacquered dark woods and marbled floors. It\u2019s the most seductive, neo-speakeasy shtick in town.<\/p>\n
My 30-odd fellow diners looked dressed to party (no boldfaces among them), but I heard just\u00a0discreet moans-and-groans of pleasure. Only a merry quartet of young women, consuming more\u00a0cocktails than food,\u00a0broke the spell.<\/p>\n
For those who can get in, a meal at the Eighty Six is a truly wonderful experience. The Eighty Six<\/p>\n
Sadly, I had\u00a0no time or room for seafood entrees ($37 to $110) or a giant, whole duck that\u2019s aged for 10 days and served under an orange-blossom glaze with foie gras sausage.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to try the\u00a0wondrous-sounding waterfowl another time. All I need is another friend to wave the magic wand and get me in.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eighty Six on Bedford Street is the city\u2019s hardest-to-penetrate new restaurant. I expected to hate everything about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":457469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,8364,1165,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,75526,988,62457,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-457468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-food-drink","10":"tag-lifestyle","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-restaurant-review","18":"tag-restaurants","19":"tag-steakhouses","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115745508867779704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}