BID [ 1/2]
1334 YORK AVE. (AT 71ST STREET) (212) 988-7730
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BID, the pricey new restaurant inside Sotheby’s auction house, lights your fire on a cold winter night. Its crack kitchen makes the splendors of the American seasonal bounty new all over again. And its booths and banquettes are comfy as a down pillow.
Alas, pillows can bring on a snooze, and on recent evenings Bid was, shall we say, quiet. Blame the obscure location on a block of hospitals – and the Timing From Hell.
Bid opened on Sept. 10, 2001. A few weeks later, Sotheby’s – it does not run Bid, but you must pass through the auction house’s lobby to enter the restaurant – was staggered by the price-fixing conviction of former chairman Al Taubman.
And blame the witless, plushly upholstered dining space. Weirdly, for a place that traffics in art, it exactingly replicates the gloom of office-park Sheratons, with “taupe” and “mauve” fabrics and chain-metal curtains. Speakers pipe loud Sinatra and “The Sounds of Silence” into the void.
Bid’s pleasures are all on the table. They start with drinks like a citrus margarita so masterfully mixed, you’re tempted to skip the terrific wine list.
The menu by executive chef Matthew Seeber, a collaboration with Gramercy Tavern/Craft wizard Tom Colicchio, reflects Colicchio’s gift for mining the essence of exquisite raw materials.
This is bold, seasonally themed cooking without fear of fat – a three-star kitchen for the one-star setting. Main elements possess elemental power. And execution is so precise, they could print the menu in French and not mislead you.
The way a real garden tomato mocks one from a hothouse, sweet roast sea scallops ($15) remind you how scallops are supposed to taste. They come with crosnes, a crunchy tuber with a flavor between artichoke and mushroom – an oddity that for once is actually worth eating.
Immaculate yellowfin tuna tartare ($16), drizzled with sea urchin vinaigrette, was upstaged by shavings of intense curled bottarga, or tuna roe. Seeberg’s 2-for-1 fancy turned up again in hot and cold foie gras ($17), the seared number given the sweet-and-spiced treatment from apple chutney, cider vinegar and cardamom, the cold torchon as simple – and rich – as liver can be.
Multi-element entrées enjoy a sauce-wedded unity. Monkfish wrapped in pancetta ($25) brimmed with the species’ elusive lobster-like essence. The same pancetta wrapped spools of boneless roast guinea hen ($27), heartened with extra virgin olive oil and accented with sage.
The composed look of venison ($32), neatly sliced and set off from sublime wild huckleberries and butternut squash, belied a daisy-cutter payload of foresty flavor. The only letdown was braised lobster “chowder” ($30). It was wanting for kick and contrast – both amply supplied in Chika Tillman’s sparkling desserts, like tart tatin with crystalline Granny Smith granite ($12).
Is Bid worth the trip? Consider us sold.
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