Something Actually Smells Good On The East River

Barricaded as we are in the fortress Morningside Heights, we tend to develop a kind of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to our local dining options, with restaurants like Le Monde playing “good kidnapper” to Ollie’s deranged sociopath. It rarely occurs to us that if only we might go downtown, or God forbid, across town, there might be restaurants out there in the wilderness serving terrific food at reasonable prices.

The East River Cafe, on 61st Street and First Avenue, does as admirable a job as any restaurant can in providing excellent service and food that’s a good notch above the average (some would say deeply mediocre) fare one finds at, oh, say, Pertutti. Nor are the prices too much higher. The restaurant has been open for 14 years, a good lifespan for any restaurant, and has developed a large local following. The food is Italian-Mediterranean (which translates to tomatoes and olives in basically every dish). The atmosphere is a very pleasant mix of formal service and casual dress—one can wear shorts to the East River Cafe as happily as one can a suit and tie. The waiters are not only pleasant, they are well-trained and professional. Waiters unaccustomed to formal service have a tendency to overdo it, fawn a bit too much, or launch into arias about whatever specials are being offered. The waiters at East River Cafe, in contrast, are discreet, delivering the food promptly and then smoothly retreating.

As for the food, we began with shrimp wrapped in prosciutto over a bed of greens, cannelloni beans, and cherry tomatoes in a mango dressing ($12), and a dish of sea scallops with broccoli rabe ($13). The scallops came with what appeared to be a great lump of chlorophyll in the center of the plate—a lump that turned out to be the aforementioned vegetable in disguise. They were exquisitely done, however, and healthily complemented by pepper. For someone who likes his food heavily seasoned, they were perfect, and though they were a special that night, the owner, Sam Marcos, reports that they’ve been so popular that they’ll likely be added to the menu in the near future.

Following the appetizers came the gnocchi—a house specialty. These are made from scratch in-house, and by way of showcasing it, the restaurant has no less than five different gnocchi dishes on the menu. We went with what seemed to be the most pedestrian, the melanzane—gnocchi in a tomato-and-basil sauce topped with mozzarella cheese ($12). The gnocchi were quite well-made—they melted in the mouth with the utmost compliance and were light as air. This detail is of particular note, as average gnocchi can sit in one’s gut like a sock full of pennies. In this case, they just gently dissolved in the mouth.

With such high standards in place, the entrees, unfortunately, were something of a comedown. Then again, my dining companion and I didn’t make it easy. I suppose the deck was stacked against the roast duck breast in “berries sauce” ($22) from the beginning—it’s a strange dish to find in an Italian restaurant, and my companion is something of a duck aficionada. The berries tasted like pie filling (which is often good enough to eat straight from the can), but more damning was the duck breast itself, which was overcooked and tough. I ordered the filet of sole in a creamy pinot grigio sauce ($22) because I think cream sauce is a silly thing and I wanted to see how they handled it. Not well, as it turned out. The fish itself was lovely and delicate, and I cannot fathom why anyone would want to violate such a perfectly cooked fish with something so utterly drab as cream sauce. We ordered challenging entrees on purpose. They were not bad, by any stretch—they just didn’t live up to the earlier promise of the meal. The mashed potatoes were outstanding, though—buttery and soft, and I was very pleased that they showed up on my plate as well.

Atmospherically, the East River Cafe was quiet the night we were there, but from Wednesday to Saturday they have a live pianist at night, and the place comes to life. If you should find yourself on the East Side and are looking for a generous, romantic meal that’s a cut above, the East River Cafe should suit you just fine. You might even have cash for the cab back afterwards.