January 26, 2006
Two for one: Another Husband Friendly Restaurant PLUS a great Romantic Getaway
The Three Tomatoes have a favorite new restaurant and hotel too! It's hard to believe there was a time when you'd avoid hotel restaurants like the plague. But here we are in NYC with a plethora of really great restaurants inside some really cool hotels. (We're not talking yucky chains here, like Hilton's and Sheraton's.) Our newest favorite restaurant is Country located inside the newly renovated Carlton Hotel at 90 Madison Avenue at 29th Street.
It's hard to separate the restaurant from the hotel, because it's all part of the overall aesthetic and gastronomic experience. Country Cafe which is one flight below the lobby, is where we recently had dinner. There's a main dining room (which hadn't officially opened when we were there), located on the balcony level of the hotel overlooking the magnificent lobby.
Country is chef Geoffrey Zakarian's second restaurant and follows on the heels of his success at Town (which is located in the Chambers Hotel at W. 56th Street.) The Country menu focuses on fresh, organic and local produce, with dishes like crisp market salad with herbs, greens and shaved vegetables ; lobster soup with lobster salpicon (whatever the heck that is, but tastes great) and fennel cream; steamed Long Island striped bass: with extra virgin olive oil, marinated tomato and grilled avocado. The simple, uncomplicated menu and generous food portions definitely helped earn them "husband-friendly" rating. The food was wonderful, the wine list superb, and the service was great. We followed dinner with a visit to the champagne bar, located a flight up.
The Country Cafe has a beautiful , "lets meet for drinks after work" bar in the middle of the restaurant, but for after dinner, or late night drinks, the champagne bar is awesome! Set in an alcove, this beautiful marble and leather furnished bar offers more than 40 Champagnes and sparkling wines by the bottle, a handful by the glass and a list of Champagne cocktails.
Now about the Carlton Hotel . It's housed in a beau-arts style building originally built in 1904 as the Seville Hotel at a time when that part of Madison Avenue was considered fashionable. The hotel changed hands a few times and gradually deteriorated. It was sold to the current owners five years and ago and they have spent $60 million in renovations with a combination of new and old. The lobby features a two story waterfall and gives the feeling of old time opulence and grandeur. Another highlight is the lobby skylight that features a giant 200 foot glass dome (believed to a Tiffany) that was uncovered during the renovations. Boarded up since 1940, the dome originally topped a gentlemen's barroom in the days when smoking was actually encouraged and was completely black with soot and smoke when it was discovered.
A romantic getaway
One of the best things about living in or near the greatest city in the world, is pretending you don't and actually having a getaway in your own backyard. Since the hotel is new, they have some terrific special rates from now through the end of March, including a romantic getaway special like staying in a Deluxe King Size room for $299 which includes a bottle of champagne and breakfast for two at the Country Cafe. Or, if you really want to splurge, there's the one bedroom Penthouse Suite (large living room, dining room, spacious luxurious bathroom (with Jacuzzi tub and special bath amenities), state of the art Bose sound system and flat screen tv's in living room, bedroom and bathroom for $899.
And for anyone visiting New York on business or pleasure, their special rates through March feature a Superior Queen room for $259 a night. Now that's a NYC bargain for sure.
So thanks Carlton for bringing a little country and a lot of class back to lower Madison Avenue.
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