First printed in metro.pop magazine, I think in the November/December issue.
New Yorkers love having choices. Corner bodegas can carry a dozen kinds of bottled water, from flat to fizzy, purified to natural springs, flavored to vitamin-enhanced. There are now at least five cupcake-cranking dessert meccas to choose from on the tiny chunk of Manhattan below 23rd Street. Stacks of delivery menus in your average NYC apartment read like a list of attending countries at the U.N.
So when it’s time for dinner, why choose between Japanese, French, Vietnamese, or American when you can have them all? So says the Stanton Social, located in New York’s Lower East Side. There are no starters or main courses, just 40 small plates that hail from around the globe, from Italian to Southeast Asian to Mexican and more, sometimes in a single dish. It’s perfect for New York’s commitment-phobes. Especially when they’re looking for a good place to take their equally non-committal dates. After all, what could be more seductive than sipping creative cocktails and leaning across the table to converse over the lively din while sharing dainty morsels of rich food off the same plates?
Potential paramours have been packing the AvroKO-designed, multi-tiered space nightly. Dark wood, gentle rope lighting, lizard print-embossed walls, and swirly goldenrod Venetian stucco provide an air of warmth and playfulness. Upstairs, the completely separate bar room features cherry blossom branches painted on the wall, a cool mint-green tile mosaic bar, and a beautifully functional herringbone-patterned wine rack wall. The space is the structural equivalent of the finger-waved, cinch-waisted Heather Graham character in Swingers – eye candy that is a little retro and a lot va-va-voom.
The kitchen is equally sassy with its offerings. With nods to every possible type of cuisine, the one-page menu reads a bit like a list of party hors d’oeuvres for a couple who are trying too hard to seem worldly. But, paired with one (or a few) of their signature fresh cocktails, the right menu choices can make for an interactive, delicious and satisfying meal.
Especially when you start with the inspired French Onion Soup Dumplings. Six ping-pong ball sized pouches of thin dough magically encase a gushy teaspoon of caramel-sweet French onion soup. The darling dumplings come in a classic six-shooter escargot dish, each topped with a lacy veil of gruyere, a crouton hat, and a toothpick for easy gobbling.
The Stanton Social also offers classic raw bar selections, as well as a nightly ceviche. Our creamy Kumamoto oysters came with four different sauces – classic cocktail sauce and mignonette as well as a mild yuzu ginger and a strangely astringent citrus sauce. Other seafood selections on the menu were a bit hit and miss. Grilled marinated sardines on tomato rubbed garlic baguette slices were meaty and wonderful, and the skewered, dice-size tamarind glazed scallop & foie gras satays were a richly sensuous pairing. But the waiter-endorsed crispy-shell red snapper tacos had a filling with the pap-like texture of canned tuna packed in water. Mushy lobster, chorizo & artichoke paella cakes tasted like spicy, fishy pizza joint rice balls.
The small plates concept works best with the richer items on the menu. The Stanton Social features “Sliders”—a cheeky reference to White Castle’s mini burgers. The Kobe beef burger was an impossibly rich and juicy patty of fatty beef sandwiched in a mini brioche bun with quarter-thin pickle slices, the whole stack a little smaller than a baseball. My friend raved, “I could come here after work and just order a cocktail and three of those.” Lobster roll is one of those menu items that I often pass over because a whole serving would be too rich and guilt-inducing to make a meal of. Not so here – the same little brioche bun receives a perfect-sized pile of mayo-swathed, tender lobster (though I could have done without the added celery, celery seed, and red pepper).
They saved the king of the small plates for last -- the Stanton Social beef Wellington is a small hunk of medium rare beef wrapped and baked in a pastry crust to look like a dollhouse miniature of the original. With the juicy beef’s earthy mushroom bloom and tender, flaky house, a larger portion would have been too much, especially at the end of such a long and varied meal. A small portion ensures that you’ll have room for their desserts – the fluffy, hot sugared doughnuts with caramel, raspberry, and chocolate sauce were so good, I had to order them twice.
With so many choices, the Stanton Social can be a different restaurant for every mood (or every date). Sure, the menu’s a little fussy, but you can be assured that there’s something on it for everyone, whether abstinent vegetarian, finicky diner, or red meat-loving omnivore. Which means all you have to commit to is a deliciously glam night out.
The Stanton Social
99 Stanton St.
212-995-0099
thestantonsocial.com
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