Coasting High on the Restaurant Tides

Michael Batterberry, Ariane Batterberry
Posted: June 8, 2009

Not that we're trying to sugarcoat sour financial tidings, but the media's 24/7 panic-mode rush to be the first with the worst has inflicted needless collateral damage by capitalizing on economic reversals and short-changing success. Particularly heavy-handed has been their relentless vivisection of the sitting duck restaurant industry, witnessed in a steady flow of gloomsday speculations and tabloidy cheap shots like "Is Fine Dining Dead?" to which a flailing lifestyle glossy with a restaurant-going readership recently sank.

It's articles like this, complains matured enfant terrible chef Paul Liebrandt, now 32, that give a distorted picture of recession-cycle restaurant realities, slanted exaggerations that make the public think twice about going out for a soul cheering lift "instead of staying home eating canned soup."

Exaggerations? Liebrandt can speak with authority in his present role as Manhattan co-owner, with indomitable restaurant impresario Drew Nieporent (Nobu, Centrico, Tribeca Grill, etc.) of the five month old, 4-star smash hit Corton, on the site of Nieporent's glowingly transformed Montrachet.

Critics have been unanimous in praising Liebrandt for reining in his once unbridled creativity to reach a new high ground of disciplined, yet consistently arresting, artistry. Two dishes often singled out are "The Garden," a "40 ingredient-plus" vegetal tour de force and a foie gras presentation involving a crimson gelée glaze of beet juice, hibiscus, dried orange, and toasted green peppercorns, plus a poetic scatter of smoked baby beets, red ribbon sorrel, arugula shoots, and borage flowers. No luxe burgers here.

While about 20 percent of the diners order the $125 seven course tasting menu, the majority opt for the three course $79 prix-fixe. Because reservations are taken a month ahead, some cancellations are expected. "But a week and a half out," Liebrandt rejoices with British reserve, "we're full, full, full!"

"There are many establishments, hundreds of them across the country, that continue to flourish against depressing odds," writes Bryan Miller in "Stimuli Packaging," his depth probe of current restaurant successes on page 46. We, too, keep a growing list of bulging new New York operations to cover in later issues, among them Robert Shapiro's urbanely salt sprayed Flex Mussels (22 global variations of the same), Keith McNally's beatifically resurrected Minetta Tavern, and Dirt Candy, chef Amanda Cohen's wee shrine to vegetable transcendence on the gritty Lower East Side.

Clearly there are different ways to buck the naysayers, to sustain success in a ballyhooed down cycle. Neighborhood hot spots usually play the cozy and affordable cards. But what about a new fine dining venture?

"In difficult times," Liebrandt reflects, "people want to get behind an ambitious project. People want quality. That will never go away. We've worked extremely hard to put this restaurant on the map. Drew and I hashed it all out in '07 before the economy did what it did. But corrections happen. You get through it, you keep going, you don't drop your standards. You keep your customer base happy, keep them coming back. It's an important lesson, what's going on. It's a learning curve. I'm going to take that lesson and apply it over the next 30 years."

May all of you prosper.