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"Alan Richman on The Breslin\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nHome cooking aside, I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t believe any food is more recognizable to New Yorkers than that of April Bloomfield.\n\nYou&amp;amp;#x2019;ve had it at The Spotted Pig (animal parts, pan-drippings, lots of lemon), at the John Dory (fish, done to a fare-thee-well), and now at the brand-new Breslin (snacks, beasts, and p&amp;amp;#xE2;t\u00E9s, every which way but straightforward). Her impassioned and embellished style of British cooking, unfussy but meticulous, has become her trademark. She seems oblivious to outside influences or internal uncertainties.\n\nNot everyone is an admirer. One friend of mine, unfamiliar with Bloomfield&amp;amp;#x2019;s cuisine, tasted the warm smoked salmon with bacon and butter sauce and said, &amp;amp;#x201C;Isn&amp;amp;#x2019;t it a little overdressed?&amp;amp;#x201D; If that&amp;amp;#x2019;s your criteria for good eating, stay away. Another griped that the ice cream sundae was more horizontal than vertical, didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t tower high enough over the dish. (Only a New Yorker could be disturbed by that.) One satisfied guest appears to be Chelsea Clinton, who dined there on the evening of her engagement and, I was told, has been back several times since.\n\nThe Breslin is attached to the Ace Hotel, located in a decidedly unfashionable part of Manhattan just below the Garment District. According to one of the Breslin waiters, the area has been named NoMad, for North of Madison Square Park. (Clever, but since it&amp;amp;#x2019;s nowhere near Madison Square Park, it might as well be called SoCan, for South of Canada.)\n\nThe restaurant design, in lockstep with the food, is an homage to the British Empire, a spiffy olde pub setting with dark wood, dim lights, textured glass partitions, and faux taxidermy. Both the Breslin and the Ace Hotel pay tribute to the 19th century with such passion I expected to see Horatio Hornblower dining in one of the semi-secluded booths. Another friend, less convinced of the authenticity of the British touches but clearly impressed by the veneration of days gone by, quipped, &amp;amp;#x201C;Hey, isn&amp;amp;#x2019;t that Wyatt Earp at the next table?&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nI ate there four times. I had two modest dinners, simply because the food is so overpowering it&amp;amp;#x2019;s hard to survive more than a two-course meal; one lunch; and one brunch. It should be apparent by now that I&amp;amp;#x2019;m an admirer of Bloomfield, but I&amp;amp;#x2019;m not certain her cooking is what most folks want to tuck into at lunch or brunch, unless they&amp;amp;#x2019;re planning to sleep the rest of the day. And, to be honest, I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t know how many New Yorkers are looking forward to a grilled tongue sandwich at lunch (despite the tongue being deliriously tender) or a fried peanut-and-banana sandwich at brunch. (Not for me, but I suspect Elvis would have loved it.)\n\nI also can&amp;amp;#x2019;t recommend brunch to people who like to dress up. Most of the patrons this past Sunday morning looked as though they had rolled out of bed, struggled into jeans and T-shirts lying on the floor, and stumbled in for cups of Stumptown coffee. The staff doesn&amp;amp;#x2019;t dress much better. On the other hand, the waiters are knowledgeable and good-hearted, happy to describe the complicated dishes over and over again. They also seem to drop those complicated dishes an awful lot, trays falling with a crash.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\nOnly at lunch did I notice Bloomfield&amp;amp;#x2019;s lemony Spotted Pig touches, in a Cornish game hen entr\u00E9e and in a soup that accompanied the tongue sandwich. At every meal there&amp;amp;#x2019;s a lamb burger, properly juicy and accompanied by marvelous potatoes that seem to be a cross between giant steakhouse fries and puffy pommes souffl\u00E9s. Should you happen to mourn the closing of the John Dory, as I do, you might want the single available seafood entr\u00E9e, sea bass cooked on a flat grill. I&amp;amp;#x2019;m always astounded by Bloomfield&amp;amp;#x2019;s fish filets, delicate yet meaty. However, should you really want flavor, try her soups, so intense they&amp;amp;#x2019;re practically sauces.\n\nHer take on Caesar salad is sublime, the best play on that dish I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve ever had\u2014petite romaine leaves dusted with feathery parmesan, plus anchovies so mild that even I, a dedicated anchovy hater, enjoyed them. The croutons, light and crunchy, are anchovy-flavored, too. The pig&amp;amp;#x2019;s foot for two, at $36, is the bargain of the house\u2014it seems to consist of overwhelmingly rich pork meatloaf stuffed into a crunchy, crazy, hog-leg casing. One portion can easily feed four, or six, or maybe everybody in the restaurant.\n\nI didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t admire everything. A frittata topped with ricotta and broccoli rabe wasn&amp;amp;#x2019;t appealing, the eggs overcooked and the greens excessively bitter. Surprisingly, I didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t admire any of the four terrines. Every one (rustic pork, guinea hen, rabbit, and suckling pig) was rubbery, dry, and nearly flavorless, which is everything Bloomfield&amp;amp;#x2019;s food ordinarily is not. If you want to go in that direction, considerably better are the deep-fried cubes of gelatinous head cheese. You won&amp;amp;#x2019;t be bored by them.\n\nPrices aren&amp;amp;#x2019;t low, although cocktails ($10-$12) and draft beer ($7) are reasonable. Wines tend to be high-priced. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s not so much that the mark-ups are excessive. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s that nobody is sourcing wine bargains. I got a good deal when a wine listed as a simple 2003 Colin Deleger Chassagne-Montrachet ($90) turned out to be a single-vineyard premier cru, a significant upgrade. Quite pleasing is the 2006 Terrabianco Campaccio ($56), a polished red from Tuscany.\n\nShould you happen to feel that Bloomfield&amp;amp;#x2019;s dishes aren&amp;amp;#x2019;t quite British enough for you\u2014after all, they are interpretations\u2014you should be well satisfied by the desserts. My favorite was the sticky toffee pudding, resolute but not too sweet, and served with a chunk of poached pear and frozen chartreuse custard. Maybe it wasn&amp;amp;#x2019;t so British after all, since it wasn&amp;amp;#x2019;t doused in custard or cream.\n\nThe Breslin has opened just as America seems to be rediscovering the past, having found the present unsatisfactory. I think I understand our newfound admiration of capes, bowlers, greatcoats, and vests\u2014as well as ancient dining traditions. It goes along with a notion that the only chief ecutive with the wisdom and experience to lead America out of the mess it&amp;amp;#x2019;s in is Queen Victoria.\n\n(Correction: An earlier version of this story refered to a plate charge if more than two people shared the pig's foot. That was a misunderstanding; there is no sharing charge.)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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