Big city battle

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Christina Ostrye

IN A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: New York, New York's Chilean sea bass and Maryland crab cakes, dining room décor and, um, urinal decoration

INFO

New York, New York

3.5 stars

1934 Hillview St., Sarasota, 955-6969 or newyorknewyorksarasota.com

The first time I took my wife to the New York New York, she was bitter and unimpressed. It's not the restaurant's fault. She was just a big fan of The Table — the restaurant that used to hold NY's Hillview location — and felt that nothing short of similar greatness should occupy that hallowed ground.

"It's like the they took a museum and put in a roller rink," she grumbled, as soon as we sat down at the bar and surveyed the scene. And, although I don't share her unfailing loyalty to the former occupants, I can kind of understand where she's coming from.

The space is still divided into two rooms (one essentially a bar area and one essentially a dining room), but the feel is different in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways. A grand piano lined with chairs takes up the front of the bar, complete with grinning lounge singer and patrons swaying to the music and mumbling lyrics, drinks in hand. The dining room now has a stage dominating the front of the room, home to NY's weekend dueling piano show. Other details add to the upscale kitsch: the overlit, block-letter marquee on the awning, the pixilated New York photography, the overwhelming black lacquer and chrome.

But the thing is, once you get past the silly trappings and questionable design choices, there's a surprise: New York New York's food is pretty damn good.

Of course, with theme being all-important, the menu is divided into boroughs that signify the usual array of appetizer, salad, pizza and entrée sections. Portobello fries ($6) are surprisingly successful as a quick nosh, the long sections of mushroom coated in just enough tempura for contrast crunch, with a few drops of truffle oil and a side of gooey, oily blue cheese for flavor. Almost as good are sweetly glazed duck wings ($7) that -- once you get past the non-chicken unctuous character of the bird -- have more heft and grace than your usual Buffalo bite.

The success of those bar food items encourages more exploration into the elegant side of the starters, like subtly smoked lobster crammed into crisp and creamy fritters ($8). The dash of vanilla is tough to balance, but the saffron aioli is spot on. Same with simple scallops ($8) seared and settled on a pile of truffled corn kernels and creamy red pepper sabayon. NY's pizza flatbreads ($6-$8), meanwhile, are thin and tasty, although that crackery crust is a tough sell in a spot dedicated to all things vaguely New York.

The flair of the appetizers extends to the entrees, where competent cooking marries with the occasional inventive touch. Lamb chops ($23) come with usual mint, but the herb is infused into a sweet and tart apple pesto. Sea bass ($22) gets a rich black bean sauce that kinda meshes with the buttery flesh. Salmon ($18) feature simply seasoned sautéed arugula that adds a nice peppery bite. Not only is most of the food good, a lot of it is more interesting than what you'll find throughout the Southside dining district.

Do I sound surprised? Well... yeah. It's difficult to hide your amazement when biting into tasty, refined food a few feet away from a belted-out lounge cover of a Van Morrison song.

At lunch (a sector of NY's business that is still struggling to get started), the menu is more straightforward but just as ably accomplished. All the dinner appetizers are there, along with the pizzas and salads, but the main courses are almost exclusively sandwiches. Strip steak on ciabatta ($10) is just right, the meat tender enough to bite through easily and coated in sweetly caramelized onions and blue cheese. Smoked salmon is thrown on a classic BLT ($8) with zingy mayo, and a crunchy, well-seasoned fried fish filet ($8) as long as a baby's arm is whimsically put onto a normal roll that disappears beneath its monstrous size.

In the final analysis, New York New York is a conundrum.

There's that chintzy marquee, the monumental oddity of the weekly dueling piano shows, but then there are those portobello fries and fish, the fritters and salmon BLT. I don't ever want to have to listen to tipsy 40-somethings singing along with the lounge act again, but I kind of want to get a few people together and take over that piano bar seating for some ironic piano-karaoke of my own. Want to join me? My wife isn't interested, so I'm going to need some company.