food comas

Ellabess

Executive Chef: Troy Unruh
Cuisine: American Nouveau
Neighborhood: Nolita
Price: $15-20 appetizers, $25-30 entrées
Address: 153 Elizabeth Street, NY, NY 10013
Phone: 212-925-5559
Hours: Dinner daily 5:30-11:30pm, lunch and brunch to come

Epicurean Management, the guys behind Dell’Anima, L’artusi, and Anfora, have just debuted their latest venture, Ellabess, an American Nouveau restaurant at the Nolitan Hotel. As a devout lover of the other restaurants, I was excited to try the new venue and went for dinner on opening night. The atmosphere of Ellabess is a contrast to the other three West Village spots. It is more spacious and open. The high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows let in plenty of natural light. Mirror wall hangings create the illusion of even more open space. The fare is American Nouveau versus Italian and the wine list not as extensive (Joe Campanale, the sommelier of the other three restos, is not part of this project).

All the comparisons aside, Ellabess held its own. Monday was opening night and every part of the dinner ran smoothly. The server knew the menu inside and out and was super friendly and accommodating. I loved all the natural light of the place and the sleek, simple decorations. The food was very well-prepared and I enjoyed the creativity of each dish. I wish we had tried more seafood (unfortunately my dinner companion is not a seafood fan), but the ceviche, shrimp, and chowder all sounded great.

Bread

SHARE PLATES

Fried Sweetbreads – dill aioli
Yummy but definitely prefer the grilled sweetbreads starter

STARTERS

Grilled Sweetbreads – cherry glaze, fava beans, marcona almonds
Very yummy dish, absolutely loved the sweet cherry glaze and the crunchy almond accent

Delicata Squash – maitake mushrooms, duck egg, pancetta, red onion, basil
Savory and amazing

Quail – summer succotash, corn purée
It’s no quail at L’artusi (to which I’ll be loyal forever), but this little guy was delicious and the purée nice and sweet

MAINS

Skirt Steak – summer bean salad, braised beef
My friend ordered this, but the bite I had was very nice and juicy

Wild King Salmon Confit – shitake, blueberries, juniper lamb jus
This salmon was cooked I believe for 1-2 hours in its own fat and jus and had an amazingly unique consistency. It was not flaky, as salmon usually is, but was almost the same texture as smoked salmon and retained its soft smooth flavor. The shitake mushrooms and blueberries added nice touches of texture and burst of flavor.

Roasted Monkfish – pork belly, black trumpet mushrooms, parsley root purée

SIDES

Potato Bacon Croquettes
This has bacon and it’s in a form of a croquette — nothing can be wrong with such a combination