Mortons
New York
The days of rough-hewn, slightly faded-around-the-edges steakhouses in
the Big Apple are over. The polished, deep-red mahogany paneling,
thick carpeting and plush, leather-backed banquettes at the new
Mortons of Chicago here speak of high-class elegance, and the soft
wall lighting and overhead, modern-style chandeliers lend a pleasant,
clublike atmosphere. The restaurant is filled noon and night, and it's
exactly the kind of place where you don't mind waiting--even if your
lunch guest is 45 minutes late.
Ambience is one thing; however, food is another. Mortons doesn't miss
on the culinary side either. This is a straightforward, concise
meat-and-potatoes menu, with the requisite nods to chicken and fish
for today's modern-diet fans. Although the restaurant's standard
show-and-tell is often dispensed with at lunch for businessmen eating
on the clock, it's worth a request to your waitress. She'll roll up a
cart covered with raw meat and present each cut for your inspection;
get ready for the double porterhouse: 48 ounces of beef, which the
restaurant recommends you share with a friend. "But people do eat the
whole thing," the waitress says. And then there is the lobster--sold
in three-to-five-pound sizes at up to $16 a pound--which on a recent
visit was large enough to suggest you would lose an underwater fight
with it.
The meat is simply some of the best in New York, a town already known
for great steaks. A porterhouse--a bone-in piece of meat that usually
produces a New York strip and Filet Mignon when off the bone--tastes
of the 14 to 21 days of dry aging that Mortons gives its USDA
Prime. There's no skimping on size; it was at least one pound. The
tender fillet part almost falls off the bone, and the strip side has a
pleasing firmness that is filled with flavor. The non-beef
entrées are dazzling, too. A roast chicken, doused with an
oregano-lemon sauce, is actually a split whole chicken grilled to
perfection. And the swordfish steak covers an entire plate.
Appetizers can also provide a meal in themselves, although no
self-respecting steak eater would ever admit it. The salads are big
and fresh; a creamy blue-cheese dressing is the house specialty. A
lump crabmeat plate was succulent. Each table is given a freshly baked
loaf of bread. However, like many New York steakhouses, this is an
à la carte menu, so if you want potatoes or a vegetable with
your dinner, you must order them, too. Nor is dessert forgotten. Fresh
strawberries and raspberries top the list, but get to the New York
cheesecake or pecan pie, and you'll truly re-create a great steakhouse
meal.
Michael Hall, who oversees the wine list, says it is still
evolving. But there's plenty on it for wine lovers. California
Cabernet is well represented: Silver Oak, 1989, $75; Opus One, 1984,
$150 and B.V. Georges de la Tour, 1976, $160. Hall admits his Bordeaux
and Burgundy selections need some work; nonetheless, you can find a
1982 Château Margaux, $240; a 1985 Château
Mouton-Rothschild, $188; a 1982 Château Lafite-Rothschild, $280
and Château Petrus, 1979, $575. There are also top red
Burgundies.
White wines are well represented but are not a major part of the
list. There is a full range of Chardonnay, and French Burgundy
includes a Louis Latour, Corton-Charlemagne, 1990, $78 and Etienne
Sauzet, Puligny-Montrachet, "Combettes," 1991, $153.
Best of all, this is a seriously cigar-friendly restaurant. Ask for a
humidor, and the waitress says, "of course, sir. It will be right
here." A beautiful burl humidor filled with Davidoff cigars arrives
within seconds. A question about where you can smoke prompts one
maître d' to say, "of course, almost anywhere." In practical
terms, that means you may smoke at any table in the dining room's
smoking section, which occupies the majority of the restaurant. There
is also a bar where smoking is permitted. And the restaurant has
inaugurated cigar dinners; the first one, in March, paired single malt
Scotches with cigars and a four-course meal created around a
porterhouse steak.
Mortons has brought a new level of elegance to the steakhouse world of
New York City. It's a great place to enjoy a delicious steak, sit back
in a comfortable setting and pick out your favorite cigar for a
relaxed smoke.
-- Gordon Mott
Mortons
551 Fifth Avenue (entrance on 45th street)
Phone:
(212) 972-3315
Lunch/Dinner: à la carte, $60-65 per
person without wine
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