THE LOYAL

John Fraser, our chef here at The Loyal, is one to follow, no doubt.  The excellence of Dovetail inspired just anticipation for the opening of Narcissa, and it lived up to every expectation (I think I even liked it better).  Not being a vegan, I was less chomping-at-the-bit when I found out about Nix, but even less excited when I actually dined there and was frankly disappointed, despite its Michelin star, the rave reviews and a seemingly current happy eatership.  Well, Fraser has rebounded leaps and bounds in my opinion with his newest venture, The Loyal.



For the most part, Fraser has a ballsy, lusty style: his flavors are less of the subtle, nuanced variety as the bold and decadent. Thus, the delicacy that can define scallops is tossed by the wayside with these fat beauties, a plush quartet seared to an intense bronze on one side, and wallowing in brown butter-enriched spaghetti squash, its nuttiness compounded by additional crushed filberts strewn atop.  Much to my delight, a quartered Brussels sprout was thrown in to the mix, but alas, one sprout is more like a tease than a treat, so I'm glad it wasn't included in the menu description: the paucity would've then been disappointing.  On my plate (as on this one), there can never be too many Brussels sprouts, and this dish could've also used quite a few more.  Aside from that, and overall, it was a repeat-worthy dish.

Beet Salad

Speaking of repeat-worthy, Fraser's beets at Narcissa earned national culinary renown, and his salad here pales not at all in comparison.  It is pillowed by whipped feta studded with crunchy nuggets of roasted pistachio, sprightly leaves of radicchio  propped up at attention.  Before that, you could roll out with the raw bar, or an assortment of bar snacks, which

Roasted Shishitos

could actually constitute a fairly balanced and really interesting meal if you ordered every item, feeding for three or four.  We sampled the roasted shishitos, here served with a little more panache than normal: furled scrolls of
 jicama, ever-so-lighty pickled, topped the pile of roasted peppers, then strewn with crunchy fried shallots.
Their emerald color was retained vibrantly even as their vegetal crunch was decimated by an intense roasting.  I'm not sure what differentiated these categorically from a small dish of Four Radishes, four different varieties, specifically....

Four Radishes

not even a whole one of each, so for $16, I guess you're paying more for the luscious, salty smoked trout gribiche beneath that the humble roots, but so the titling goes.






Do not think for a moment, however, that Fraser is all rabbit food- he has a laudable burger here at The Loyal, fashioned from Piemontese beef, that elite breed, and bedecked with pungent Comte cheese and the mysterious 22-step tomato, which has undergone a battery of treatments from compression to roasting and beyond, resulting in an ur-tomato of ultimate tomato-ness that would be especially impossible to find in nature, in April or really any month of the year.  But even better than the hefty patty and its preciously coddled nightshade are the square duck-fat tater tots that accompany it. I tend to avoid deep fried foods, in general, only partaking when they are well worth their caloric impact.  Well, these ARE.  They have me thinking about them days later.... weeks later, and I don't see myself forgetting about them anytime soon.  Their dense, creamy interior of super spudsiness are contained by an immaculate golden crust, a combination of crispy, creamy, salty, earthy, buttery and just pure,
 iconic deliciousness.  They are ostensibly the best thing I have eaten all year.  Like, I want them again right NOW, and it's ten a.m.  And I'm not hungry.  But I'm hungry for them, and I can't see myself ever not being.  Plus, the burger doesn't really pale in comparison.







Not being a huge chocolate fan, and after the Wellsian rampage against the laziness of sundaes as restaurant desserts, we went with Brian's (our server's) Choice, as he had pretty much aced all his other suggestions throughout the evening.  The S'mores Baked Alaska, a soft toasted marshmallow igloo snuggled itself over a cool dome of ice cream, a buttery sweet caramel poured table side, drooling languidly over the meringue an into a luscious moat.  First bite was shockingly sweet, but it eased into the neutrally flavored gelato within, balancing the saccharine components with the creamy ones to the benefit of all- us included.  Only a small wafer beneath contributed the chocolate component, but it was rich enough to quell a choco-craving but didn't overwhelm us, either.

The magic emanated from here:

Peek into the kitchen....

the heavy curtains parted just enough to glimpse a flurry of the action within, adding the the anticipation of the arrival of each dish.  Pretty much everything at The Loyal lives up to Fraser's reputation, as he continues his successful expansion.  Consider me a Loyalist.

289 Bleecker Street NYC
On the corner of Bleeker and 7th
tel.  212-488-5800