Recent New York trip

A couple of notes from a recent New York trip about two fairly new and high visibility--one might say touristy--places, and one neighborhood joint.

The first is Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, the "night club" venue at the new Jazz at Lincoln Center complex. I put "night club" in parens because it is more like a small theater with tables and a bar. Rather than a curtain or wall, the backdrop for the stage is a picture window overlooking Central Park. It seats about 150. The sound and sitelines are great.

The bar has a nice selection of bourbons and single malts, not exhaustive but good. Prices are New York high but with no additional premium. Same with the dinner menu. The fare is standard American, but nicely prepared and presented. I had a beef and veal meatloaf that was very moist and flavorful, topped with a brown sauce and both sauteed and fried onions, with mashed potatoes and julienne squash and zucchini on the side. My dining companions had a hamburger and a chopped salad (with shrimp) respectively. The verdict was that the food was better than it had to be.

With the cover charge, drinks, dinner and tip, we got out for about $80 per person. The performer was Marian McPartland with her trio. A very fine evening.

The second place of note is The Modern, the "fine dining" restaurant at the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art. The restaurant actually has two spaces, the dining room and the bar room, with completely different menus. We lunched in the bar room.

Although the resaturant advertises itself as French-American, there is a definite Asian influence too, in the decor as well as the dishes. The room, of course, is a paragon of modern design. I had the lunch special, a duck confit with a hot mustard glaze. It was served with a sweet sauce I would characterize as a chutney (I don't think they called it that) flavored with ginger, and fried potato wedges. The duck and its sauce were quite good, the potatoes pretty ordinary. One of my dining companions had a scallop dish. I don't recall what the other one had, but all seemed to have some Asian inspiration. A nice selection of wines by the glass is available. I had a local (Brooklyn) lager that was very good.

The Modern is on the ground floor and has its own entrance on 53rd Street, as it is open when the museum is not. It's still new and pretty booked up. We did not have reservations but as we were visiting the museum anyway, we were happy to be seated at about 3 PM, which is when a few empty seats finally started to appear.

Last, the people I was visiting are locals and when I visit them we usually eat in neighborhood places, just like we do here in Chicago, not the fancy famous places downtown. One that deserves a mention is their favorite neighborhood Italian joint, Pesce Pasta, on Columbus near 95th. As the name suggests, they feature fish but offer pretty much anything else you would expect at an Italian restaurant. I had striped bass with capers and leaks that was quite good. One of my dining companions had thin veal slices topped with equally thin slices of eggplant and just the right amount of cheese. The other had cannelloni stuffed with a superb pesto filling.

Although we didn't partake, the antipasti bar was very impressive.

These aren't the only places we ate but these three were noteworthy because each, in its own way, was significantly better than it needed to be, which is always a pleasant surprise.