6 East 18th Street (between Broadway and 5th Avenue) 212-633-6003 www.unionfare.com
American. The former Barnes & Noble textbook store has been reincarnated as Union Fare (which is fitting because this restaurant is a textbook case on how to do everything right). It’s a huge space spanning one city block, filled with people enthusiastically enjoying. Part of it has got to be the music, the beat consistently hypnotic and impossible not to get into. If you think that sounds mesmerizing, wait until you experience the food. It is always hard for me to pass up grilled octopus, so I did not. Theirs, with croissant panzanella, fennel, orange, arugula and kalamata aioli was a highly unique and tasty interpretation. They are all about originality, proven again by the tuna tartare. It’s billed as an ahi tuna “melt”, complete with nduja, tomato confit and smoked provolone. What an ingenious creation, brilliantly executed. The entrées are no less innovative, as both the Maine lobster fettuccine (sofrito, sugar snap peas) and seared red snapper (lentils, clams, market vegetables, fines herbes) will attest. Dessert, though, deserves several sentences, if not an entire book. They have designed a chocolate luge, which is exactly as it sounds. It includes a Devil’s food cake tower, chocolate mousse and caramel. The luge, fully functional by the way, is a two piece chocolate construct. The first descends from the tower, the second culminating on the plate. The server subsequently drizzles caramel from above, causing a nearly instant melting effect. Were this just an architectural wonder and radically entertaining, that would be enough. But it is also unspeakably delicious. If ever they decide to add Chocolate Luge to the Olympics, I vow to practice making the team every single day.