Thursday, December 20, 2007

Restaurant: The Four Seasons


99 East 52nd Street
212-754-9494
http://www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com
www.opentable.com

When it is time for a special occasion dinner you cannot go wrong with The Four Seasons restaurant. This is where high powered New Yorkers and industry heads have eaten since 1959. Even the wine list has photographs of socialite Brooke Astor, architect Philip Johnson and President Kennedy mixed in with the Bordeaux offerings. At our dinner last night, to nobody’s surprise seated at the next table was one of the newly crowned kings in financial services.

Our reservation was booked on open table.com, and a nice feature is you can specify what you’re celebrating or special requests for the maitre d’. We asked for the pool room as we did more than ten years ago when we last ate here. Nothing has changed. A wedding reception was going on over in the grill room.

We were graciously escorted to a large corner table looking out to this grand room. A generous bread basket started us off. After the toast with a large glass of champagne ($24) and a delicious rendition of a sidecar ($16), our first courses arrived. Two langoustines ($32) atop a sea urchin risotto, and the other was a couple of in-season Florida Stone Crabs ($38) coleslaw and a horseradish sauce. We both got the Chateaubriand ($110 for two) with a béarnaise sauce and string beans. The classic table side service is a nice show, but can be risky because our beef was kept on the flame a minute too long. We ordered an extra side dish called a salsify gratinee ($9.50) that was delicious.

The birthday surprise was a mound of white cotton candy that looked like a wig worn by Marie Antoinette with a single lit candle on top. Underneath was a scoop of strawberry ice cream. They packed up the cotton candy in a glossy Four Seasons shopping bag that we will proudly reuse on another day.

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