Red Rooster, NYC

After the opening at the City of New York Museum’s exhibition on the Apollo Theatre, we went up to Marcus Samuelsson’s new restaurant, Red Rooster. We were out with our dear friend, so dear she is a sister (and don’t even go there, because we’ve been friends with her so long that my grandmother knew her and her mother has stopped calling me the ‘son-in-law that wasn’t’ and just says ‘son’ now) following a viewing of this excellent exhibition on the Apollo that merits a visit even by you downtown hipsters, and we have to say that we were disappointed by what we were served.

Now, many of you know that we grew up in the south so the cuisine of Harlem is not ‘black’ food to us but ‘Southern’ or ‘home cooking’, and we’ve been eating uptown since before the unfortunate demise of Mr. Wilson (which does date us), so going to the Red Rooster was a bit like coming home. Not to mention that my sister, Princess Uptown, had her first lunch date in the original Red Rooster, but I digress.

Arriving at the Red Rooster, we noted that the opening at the Museum and the first seating at the restaurant held many of the same doyennes of Harlem and their walkers; the décor of the restaurant was pleasing, and we appreciated what we sensed to be a blending of Mr. Samuelsson’s two heritages – African and Scandinavian. The buzz in the room was good without being overwhelming and the open kitchen created a dynamic focal point in the dining room.

Service was attentive and welcoming, and there was no problem with the idea of eating at the bar. Problems did not arrive until the menu was presented. We can be critical, but Princess Uptown is rigorous. On her behalf, we must say that it is never simply, “I don’t like that.” There is always a reason, an explanation, a definition. She is a serious foodie and a trained chef, but she was stumped to find a dish that drew her in. We, naturally more fluid, were torn by one or two and so ordered Chicken and Egg and Hearth Baked Mac & Greens.

All were presented at the same time, and again we felt some of Mr. Samuelsson’s Scandinavian history in the use of small cast iron skillets on wooden coasters, but his talent as a great American chef was not on display. We have applauded Mr. S’s use of the deconstructivist method since we first saw it displayed at Aquavit (although our dear friend, the Country Mouse, has created an entire scale against which deconstructed food is measured based upon Mr. S’s “gratuitously deconstructed” apple tart), and we recognized quickly his hand in the presentation of the Chicken and Egg but believe it falls below the bar of ‘gratuitous deconstruction.’ Furthermore, it was badly prepared.

The chicken livers were burned and floating in oil and the egg was represented in some rubbery crepe substance flavored with African spices. The latter provoked Princess Uptown who found that to be unnecessary in a Harlem restaurant, “This is not that Ethiopian place he had that closed.” she said. Unfortunately, the Mac & Greens did nothing to save us; they were awful, inedible. Poor old macaroni and cheese has suffered so many permutations through the years - from special oven-baked delight to quick but comforting family dinner and on to truffled and more upscale versions, including numerous with ‘add-ins’ among them greens. Comte, Gouda and NY cheddar are just names and don’t make up for ‘been-there-done-that’ macaroni and cheese. Don’t bother, or least, if you insist on serving some version of macaroni and cheese, spend some time researching what has been done before you so that we don’t arrive at your fabulous new restaurant to try what we ate in the 1990’s at the Shark Bar.

Sadly, we’ll have to say what no one else seems willing to say. Mr. Samuelsson is an extraordinarily talented chef who has created an attractive restaurant where the food does not begin to live up to the promise he showed when he burst on to the NY scene years ago. The sad part of the tale is that his ability to attract an audience from outside of the neighborhood has blinded, or muted, critics from speaking honestly about Red Rooster to the detriment of other establishments in the area that are working to present honest food in less heady atmospheres and at fairer prices.

Mr. S’s gustatory pleasures from Aquavit at $100 and up per person made sense for the quality, the originality and the setting (which does include the reality of rent and salaries in the West 50’s). To put it bluntly, there are plenty of reasons to go to Harlem to eat dinner these days, but there is no reason to venture to Lenox between 125th and 126th Street and spend upwards of $200 on dinner at Red Rooster. Let’s get real, Marcus.