August 5, 2014 | Short Order

 

Bustan:
       I get a kick out of going to Bustan on the Upper West Side with my vegetarian niece and approaching the menu from her vision. I always start with spreads, Mazettim they’re called on the menu—Israeli for meze. Hummus, tzatiki, spicy feta, smoked eggplant. Pick there to spread on the large olive oiled flat bread from the bright blue Taboon oven.  The beet salad has been evolving—expect kale, pomegranate, shaved fennel, celery, pine nuts and chunks of grilled halloumi cheese.
487 Amsterdam Avenue near 83rd Street

ABC Cocina:
       I thought it was a mistake when Jean-Georges took over the space that was Pipa for ABC Cocina to do Mexican, Latino and Spanish dishes: It seemed too unfocused. But he sent in the same inspired team that runs his thrilling ABC Kitchen and they came with the same allegiance to the green market and it just got better. The room is dark, whimsical and romantic with the kitchen in full view. Both you and your vegetarian will be thrilled by spring pea guacamole and the sugar snap pea salad with house made sour cream. Soon corn will take over from the megalomania for peas and the ramps of spring. There are always sautéed mushroom tacos – now with mole, kale and lime and a vegetable rice dish. I try to persuade my pals to finish with the seasonal popsicles, three in a metal rack. Orange, hibiscus, caramel apple, always changing. We peel off the cellophane, take a bite and pass it on.
38 East 19th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South

 

Café Boulud:
       Daniel Boulud’s restaurant for grownups – a place where you can hear yourself talk. The menu at Café Boulud is divided into four categories: The classics, the seasonal, Le Voyage (a foreign cuisine) and Le Potager – “inspired by the farmer’s market farm.” That means heirloom tomato salad with burrata, baby greens with melon and feta and a series of pastas, in two sizes. Ricotta gnocchi with mushrooms and walnuts. Aged Parmesan ravioli with broccoli rabe and roasted tomato sauce. Grilled vegetable farfalle with ricotta-stuffed zucchini blossoms.  Choose a dessert from any category while the pastry chef celebrates stone fruits and berries.

20 East 76th Street just east of Madison Avenue

 

Telepan Local:
       In the gentrified farmhouse where Bill Telepan does small plates in Tribeca, you might think you’re in Iowa or even in Brooklyn. Fans are wild about Telepan Local's marrow rice balls and sensuous little Nantucket scallops topped with garlic thins on a swath of black trumpet puree. But you want to start with grilled cheese “con tomate” anyway and then check out the vegetable roster. Carrots with feta and oregano, Bread salad with summer squash and tomato. Roasted mushrooms with radicchio, pine nuts and machego. Fried watercress with cashews and chili oil. Your vegetarian will be suitably overwhelmed. Summer brings strawberry-rhubarb sundae but the spectacular coconut cake is a prize for all seasons.

329 Greenwich Street between Jay and Duane Streets

 

Bar Bolonat:
       I can’t imagine coming to chef Einat Admony’s small, tightly packed Israeli-inspired Bar Bolonat and not ordering her thrilling poussin nested in crisp rice baked in an iron pan. But I’m with my vegetarian pals from the beginning, starting with the grilled baby artichokes with Sicilian pistachios in yogurt and the “everyday” cauliflower with peanut tahini. It’sanything but everyday. We share eggplant with sheep’s milk yogurt too and the fatush salad with avocado, cucumber, feta and lavash crisps. The staff and the prices are both very friendly.

611 Hudson Street, corner of West 12th Street

 

Rafele Ristorante:
       Chef Raffaele Ronca is first of all, in love with Naples, but also, has a remarkable flair for vegetables. In the kitchen, Rafele Ristorante’s usual offering is a bowl of stewed eggplant, saucy and voluptuousm to pile or chunks of house-made focaccia. Don’t miss his crunchy sprigs of slivered artichoke, sprinkled with Parmesan and parsley or his homage to Mama’s Sicilain cauliflower with currants, pine nuts and soft onion. His crumbed rice balls ooze mozzarella. Ask and the pizzaiolo will be happen to do the house special Rafele pizza, half with prosciutto, half without.  My vegetarian niece was in heaven.

29 Seventh Avenue South

 

Per Se:
       When Sam Sifton ate his last meal as the NYTimes restaurant critic, he chose Per Se, the East Coast sister of Thomas Keller’s legendary French Laundry in Napa. A typical meal is full of intellectual and sensual surprises  and can last for hours. Sweet corn veloute, An omelette with mushroom duxedlles and aged tamari. Course after course until at the end, after an ethereal donut a chocolate montage, an oval of peach ice cream, the table is covered with sweet goodies, macarons, chocolate truffles, bon bons. There are only two menus, both $295 and one of them is a vegetable tasting, $185 at lunch. That includes service. The kitchen will accommodate vegan demands too.

10 Columbus Circle  4th floor


Stella 34 Trattoria:
       I get a kick out of surprising friends who automatically dismiss the notion of going to Macy’s Stella 34 Trattoria for dinner. Millionaires and vegetarians have discovered it with me. Imagine a high-ceilinged room with tall windows looking out onto the city, a sixth floor view of the Empire State Building spire, tables reasonably spaced, three wood-burning ovens where Chef Jarett Appell does not just pizzas, but fine wood-oven roasts and sensuous baked pastas. We start with the cauliflower pie. Verdure, multicolor cauliflower with raisins and pine nuts, is a must, vegetarian or not. Add grilled mushrooms, ferrato, or polenta laced with rich mascarpone. This is the first time in America for the Florentine ice cream maker Vivoli. Lemon sorbetto is my choice.

Macy’s 6th floor. Enter on Broadway at 35th Street

 

Café Fiorello:
       Watch your vegetarian pals eyes light up at the sight of the vast antipasti display just to the left as you enter Café Fiorello. It’s $21 for a choice of three. We get up from our table to instruct the servers in snappy straw hats: stuffed baby artichokes, grilled asparagus and brusells sprouts or a fava salad, perhaps. Once I got eggplant three ways, grilled, baked with parmesan and in the Sicilian caponata style.  I usually tip $2 dollars. Maybe that’s why my plate is overflowing. Back at the table we mix and share. There are also all sorts of salads, pizzas and mozzarella antipasti on the menu. The waiter brings focaccia and crisps (ask if he doesn’t). Finish with puckery lemon or intense chocolate sorbetto.

1900 Broadway between 63rd and 64th Streets

 

Tulsi:
       Ask for a table with sheer white curtains to explore the vegetarian menu of Tusli's chef-owner Hemant Mathur. Chickpea cake with tart tomtato chutney and tangy pineapple relish. Sweet, garlicky, super torrid Manchurian cauliflower. Crispy strings of okra in a salad with onion and pepper heat.  I would want those dishes even if I weren’t trying to feed a vegetarian. Even the dal is sumptuous, a wreathe of flavors.  Two of us can order a vegetarian prix fixe and I can slip in a tandoori lamb chop if the need is pressing.  Tulsi is also known for its delicious crossover desserts.

211 East 46th Street. Between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

 

Gato:
       In Bobby Flay’s olive oil world at Gato, vegetables demand attention: Start with a trio of small bar dishes for $17. Ricotta and wild mushrooms on hazelnut toast, burrata with black olive oil and beets and eleven layer potatoes or eggplant and manchego. Order a goat cheese pizza for the table or the chef’s unique Gato spreads with buckwheat pita. A must for me every time is scrambled eggs with almond romesco and boucheron cheese to pile on tomato toast. I must have the side of roasted carrots and parsnip chips too. Tortiglione pasta with tomato-piquillo sauce, eggplant and ricotta might be too much for one at that point, so let’s divide it. On the other hand, how about smashing the poached egg on top and splitting crispy potato chunks with parmigiana. Finish with  plum tarte tatin.

324 Lafayette Street near Houston

 

ABC Kitchen:
       It is no sacrifice at all to order nothing but vegetable dishes at Jean-Georges’ ABC Kitchen where the green market just blocks awayis an obsession. In spring the kitchen celebrates peas, asparagus and ramps. One late fall evening we ordered squash eight different ways starting with luscious squash toast and including spaghetti with spaghetti squash tomato sauce. Roasted carrot and avocado salad with sour cream is a must for me. And I love beets with house-made yogurt. We often share a vegetable pizza – mushrooms with a whole farm egg is a classic.  And in my crowd we never miss the salty caramel sundae with peanuts and popcorn in a puddle of dark chocolate.

35 East 18th Street near Broadway.

 

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