It’s one of the items that reflect Mr. DiSpirito’s recent obsession with nutrient-dense dietary supplements, although the way it keeps coming up in the servers’ patter makes you wonder if Mr. DiSpirito spent too much time as a QVC pitchman. Anyway, somebody-or-other’s toast sits under the smoked gravlax, red with beet juice and very silky on its bed of coconut crème fraîche, that Mr. DiSpirito sends out as an amuse. Either one will convince you that Mr. DiSpirito knows how to get his hands on raw materials that can stun with almost no assistance. The best things at Standard Grill, and there are quite a lot of them, depend on very good ingredients touched as little as possible. Back in the Union Pacific days, Mr. DiSpirito’s interest in East Asian cuisines came out in the form of complex preparations, arcane ingredients and out-of-nowhere juxtapositions.

Source: New York Times April 02, 2019 15:56 UTC