***  

Tatou Had a Moment  

       Our town was in one of its periodic financial meltdowns in October 1990 when seasoned entrepreneur-about-town Mark Fleishman chose that moment to open a supper club with the feel of 1850 New Orleans, a disco, a private enclave and blues king Sammy Price and his trio swinging. Fleishman had never even been to New Orleans. Everything the chef knew about Creole food, he piled onto a pizza - okra, black-eyed peas, chilies, gumbo seasoning, celeriac, onions, endive, tomatoes, olives, and small patches of Cheddar and chèvre. Even the appetizer size, splendid on its crisp whole-wheat-rye crust, was big enough for two or three.

       Architect David Rockwell, then a partner at Haverson-Rockwell, gave Tatou an old fashioned stage set, vintage swags of fabric, painted cherubs, cast iron satyrs and bronzesque Amazons hoisting fringed lamps flanking the stage.

       "If you're not too jaded, you can easily just go with it," I wrote in my review. Read how it went by clicking here. 

***   

Tulsi Again     

      My niece Pamela is a vegan. Her sister Dana might just as well be, except that she loves goat cheese too much. Their brother Adam just loves food, like me. Tulsi, with Hemant Mather, a favorite Indian chef in charge of the kitchen, turns out to be perfect for astonishing everyone's taste buds.

       Dana's Aveda Lemon Drop cocktail definitely had alcohol. About my Kamasutra I'm not so sure. But it's the chaats I love here, and the little crab cakes, the complex dal. The chef sends out lentil dumplings with chickpeas in a yum-provoking swirl of yogurt, tamarind and mint.

       Tandoori mushroom caps are piled with garlicky yogurt and spices.

  

***  

 

Summer at ABC Kitchen

 

        I've been a raving sycophant of ABC Kitchen and Jean-George's infatuation with the market since the week it opened in March, 2010. No one devotes as much verve to vegetables as J-G and his gifted chef de cuisine Dan Kluger. (Food and Wine's stuck on Kluger too, naming him one of its Best New Chefs in the July issue.)

 

       Of course I would do the small wedding dinner for Steven's son Nico and his Anne there Monday evening. Nico loves it too. But I couldn't deny the vegetarian sisters their night at ABC Kitchen. We did that on Saturday.

 

       So I got to taste all my favorites twice: beet salad with housemade yogurt, the spicy carrot and avocado salad with crunchy seeds (and tonight, not enough sour cream). The special - just in from the market, heirloom tomato toast - was thrilling, a first taste of vibrant summer tomato. (I meant to add that to the wedding menu and forgot).  

 

       Kluger sent out a new dish - a strawberry ricotta mash with grilled country bread that I just don't get at all. (I was outvoted.)

 

       For the wedding party - just three sets of parents and the couple -radiant of course, head over heels, married in Central Park between thunderstorms - I added three different pizzas, crab toasts, ditto the voluptuous chicken liver version, fluke sashimi and fried calamari.

 

       Everyone ordered an entrée. I had to cancel mine after finishing off the crudities and all those toasts. Instead I shared Steven's cavatelli with morels, leaving room to taste MakeMyCake Bakery's carrot cake with pink roses, and more than my share of the salted caramel ice cream sundae with popcorn, peanuts and chocolate sauce, an excess I never regret. 35 East 18th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South. 212 475 5020.  

***