Perry St

First things first - Perry St is indeed located on Perry Street, but its entrance is around the corner on West Street. This information should save you the inconvenience of walking into the lobby of the building's residential section, and it should save the doorman of said section from redirecting yet another disoriented diner. You're welcome.

So yes, the restaurant is located on the ground floor of a Richard Meier building - a building comprised of swanky multi-million dollar condominiums, one of which is home to Perry St chef/owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Needless to say, the restaurant is not too shabby a space. From the outdoor slate tiles by the mini infinity pool-esque water feature, one enters through the glass vestibule into a sleek space of muted tones and minimalist decor with industrial touches. The host/hostess stand is in front of you, the lounge is to the left (beyond which is the coat check), the bar is to the rear, and the L-shaped dining room is to the right.

The lounge area is outfitted with barely-plush couches, leather benches, and knee-high tables under dangling filament bulbs. In the main area, diners sit on white leather banquettes and armchairs at rectangular tables or around high-backed rounded banquettes at round tables. Light in the main room is provided by shaded floor lamps arching over tables and by the sunlight pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows through which one spies the Hudson River beyond the West Side Highway. Glare is tempered by lightly colored sheer shades, which complement the dark chocolate carpet, light gray cement pillars, and varying hues of wood throughout the room.

Like at other Vongerichten restaurants throughout and beyond Manhattan, you can ultimately count on a great meal with attentive service. Dinner at Perry St will be a smidge more casual than his namesake at the Trump International Hotel & Tower at Central Park West. That's ok, because the prices are a smidge lower accordingly. The atmosphere at Perry St will be less ornate than his Spice Market in the Meatpacking District - less boisterous than the ambiance at Mercer Kitchen in Soho - less stodgy than the nuances at JoJo on the Upper East Side - more refined than the cafe-like touches at Nougatine back at Central Park. That's ok too, because it seems the point of Perry St is a return to basics, in which attention is predominantly focused on the food.

The food at Perry St is American at its core with French and Asian influences. The meal starts with an amuse bouche from the chef, usually a soup, which varies with the season. From there, you may order a la carte or from the price-fixed menu. The restaurant offers a $26 lunch and a $38 dinner, both of which are three courses (two plates and a dessert; additional plates are $13 each). The dinner promotion is offered between 5:30pm and 6:00pm as well as after 9:30pm everyday except Saturday.

Appetizers at Perry St include the likes of a beet salad with goat cheese and champagne mango vinaigrette, crispy poached eggs with caviar and vodka cream, and sweet chili crab dumplings with cilantro and sugar snap peas. Entrees include slowly baked arctic char with white asparagus and basil vinaigrette, fried chicken with a spicy pea puree and pickled onions, and braised rabbit with lemongrass and ginger sweet corn. The desserts are artfully composed as well. At one point, there was a chocolate mousse with crystallized violets on the menu; at another time, white chocolate and meringue with yuzu sorbet.

So make a reservation at Perry St for your favorite forty year old who would prefer a quiet birthday celebration if you must celebrate this new decade at all, for your date with the woman you are finally ready to introduce to your friends (maybe meet them afterward for cocktails at the Jane Hotel five blocks north), for lunch with Calvin Klein and Nicole Kidman who were rumored to live upstairs (in separate apartments, of course) at one point or another. That is, if you actually know them.

Perry St - 176 Perry Street, at the corner of West Street

wd~50

It sounds like a cleaning agent, looks like art, feels like a science experiment, smells like food, and tastes...well, some say exhilarating, and others...don't. Simply put, wd~50 is a restaurant on the Lower East Side with inventive dishes. You may have seen chef/owner Wylie Dufresne demonstrating his molecular gastronomy on Bravo's "Top Chef," The Food Network's "Iron Chef America," or in other televised appearances. At his restaurant, you can experience the madness firsthand.

Chef Dufresne has an impressive culinary background and a noteworthy co-owner in Jean-Georges Vongerichten (chef/owner of high end establishments in and beyond NYC, including but not limited to Perry St, Jo Jo, Jean Georges, Nougatine, Spice Market, Matsugen, and Dune). He's therefore not just some dude with chemicals and toys. He's a knowledgeable dude with chemicals and toys.

Whether or not you enjoy what he and his kitchen cohorts produce, however, is a matter of preference. The menu changes fairly regularly, but the inventiveness remains constant. So do the relatively high prices, for that matter. Therefore, knowing it won't be a cheap meal regardless of what you order, I would suggest indulging in the nine-course tasting menu ($140) with or without the wine pairing ($75). This way, you get the full impact of what makes this restaurant special, for better or worse.

What kind of special am I talking about? Well, basically every dish plays with texture, flavor, color, and temperature in unexpected ways. On a visit a few years back, the menu included a "sunny side up egg," which looked like what it sounds like but tasted like carrot (the runny "yolk"), coconut and cardamom (the firm "white"). A deconstructed deli sandwich included thin strips of beef tongue, a smear of tomato molasses, and cubes of fried mayonnaise. Yes, cubes. Yes, fried mayonnaise. You read that correctly. Other dishes involve aerated mousses, foamed liquids, chewy gels, and "soils" (dehydrated and crumbled solids).

The art of the dishes carries over to the room itself. Light fixtures are boldly colored and varied in shape, walls are painted in rich hues, and a mosaic graces the space above the bathroom sinks. The floors are both stone and wood, and seats include a combination of wood, cushioned banquettes, and metal stools (seven at the bar, where the full menu is available).

There is also a private dining room, which can seat up to fourteen people, in the restaurant's wine cellar. Though the main dining room and bathrooms are wheelchair accessible, this private room is not. For dining options and minimum price requirements in the wine cellar, information is displayed on their website.

I would say wd~50 is worth checking out at least once. If you like it, feel free to check it out more than once - I'm ok with that. In order to potentially like it though, you have to be willing to give it a chance. If you're just in the mood for a skirt steak with mashed potatoes, come back another night. If you want to impress that suit who fancies himself a "foodie," go ahead and make a reservation - I'm ok with that too.

wd~50 - 50 Clinton Street, between Stanton & Rivington Streets