#Seaport District now home to NYC’s best new restaurants
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“#Seaport District now home to NYC’s best new restaurants”
From tourist trap to culinary nirvana. That’s been the long, strange trip of Pier 17 in the Seaport District, previously known as the South Street Seaport.
Current Seaport owner the Howard Hughes Corp. lured marquee-name chefs — Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Andrew Carmellini and David Chang — and their arrival has proved transformational. The new pier, which resembles a floating fortress more than a dock for ships, has blossomed into a one-stop-noshing complex for three of the city’s most exalted chefs.
This isn’t your mommy or daddy’s Seaport of the 1980s, ’90s or early aughts with its tacky bars and bistros that relied on harbor views to draw tourists and boozy Wall Street Yuppies. (Remember them?)
Rather, the Seaport and the pier, especially, are now a mecca for actual New Yorkers to live and play. Today, some 70,000 of them call the FiDi home, as opposed to the day when 95 percent of the area was devoted to office space. Seaport visitors were 83 percent local just before the pandemic, according to the Howard Hughes Corp., and with travel limited, it’s above 90 percent today.
In addition to spots from top toques, the Pier’s other offerings include farm-to-table fare from Malibu Farm and rooftop revelry at the Greens. But it’s the new projects from Vongerichten, Carmellini and Chang that are really satisfying residents’ appetites.
“With three great restaurants, I no longer have to trek to Soho, the West Village or Tribeca to be in the mix,” said Merv Matheson, the CEO of lifestyle management firm Inner Circle Connect, who lives in the FiDi. “I can keep it all within walking distance.”
Have a look.
Carne Mare
Several years in the making, Carmellini’s newly opened, two-story Italian-style chop house was worth the wait. The richly furnished main dining room, up a curving staircase from a rollicking horseshoe-shaped bar, is decked out with lacquered terracotta walls and brass trim galore. Tuscan leather banquettes face each other to maximize people-watching. You might well spot Carmellini himself running things in the open kitchen. There are a few al fresco tables, but the heart of the restaurant is inside, making it the coziest place on the pier in cold or rain.
The menu boasts an array of carpaccios and tartares ($18 to $23), along with wonderful salads ($15 to $17), each large enough to share, including an excellent Sicilian-style Caesar with sesame dressing. US prime cuts of beef ($36 to $185) are the stars of the show. The Gorgonzola-cured Wagyu strip loin sirloin is an original preparation with a winning musky depth that doesn’t overwhelm the beef. There’s even old-fashioned tableside service for certain dishes such as steamed black sea bass that’s skinned and sauced before your eyes.
“It’s my favorite new place to dine,” enthused Ronnie DeMichael, who’s with Roc Nation Apparel Group and lives a short stroll away.
Pier 17, 89 South St.; 212-280-4600, CarneMare.com
Momofuku Ssäm Bar
The fabled Ssäm Bar’s new home — on the pier’s ground level just inside the entrance from the plaza — boasts one of Chang’s star chefs, Eunjo Park. Fresh off running the kitchen at the acclaimed, prematurely closed Kāwi at Hudson Yards, she’s turning out accessible Korean-inspired dishes that are a bit less daring than her work at previous restaurants but still remarkably delicious.
There’s no bo ssäm on the menu, but the scents of kimchi, kalbi and gochujang waft on river breezes throughout the open-air space. Favorite dishes include smoked sweet-and-sour ribs ($19), cacio e pepe rice cakes with truffles ($48), and a sizzling, kalbi-marinated flank steak ($36) that rightfully seems to be ordered by just about every table. The wide-ranging wine list is more adventurous than the menu with unusual choices from the Pacific Northwest, France, Italy, Germany and Austria.
Pier 17, 89 South St.; 212-254-3500, SsamBar.Momofuku.com
The Fulton
Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s jumbo seafood joint finally hit full stride this summer after braving two pandemic closings and several redesign tweaks.
There are 240 seats indoors and out across two levels. For my money, the Brooklyn-facing outdoor seats are the best in the house, with expansive views of the bridges and harbor that make up for the ceaseless thrum of helicopters overhead. My favorite dishes include crispy fish tacos made with Icelandic cod ($19), an unusual mozzarella-and-octopus appetizer ($24) and roasted black sea bass ($54).
The views and the food from Vongerichten and chef Noah Poses are so delicious, even uptowners are coming down to the pier.
“Before the Fulton,” said lawyer Amy Bevacqua, “You could not have dragged me to the Seaport from the Upper West Side for anything.”
Pier 17, 89 South St.; 212-838-1200, TheFulton.NYC
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