UPTOWNflavor

Table Talk: Harlem Grill taps local history

Serves neighborhood dishes along with new American; belted songs add to sound

By Bob Lape
Published on August 01, 2005

Harlem Grill
2247-49 Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
Blvd. (Seventh Ave.)
(212) 491-0493
**
Cuisine: New American/Southern
Wines: 60 choices, sommelier
Dress: No code
Noise Level: High Mon.-Tues., moderate otherwise
Price Range: 19-$26
Wine Markup: 45%-210%
Credit Cards: All major
Reservations: Recommended
Hours: Mon.-Sat., 6-11:30 p.m

_________________

****= Outstanding
***= Excellent
**= Very good
*= Good

A delicious addition to the new spirit of Harlem is the new Harlem Grill.

Owner/operator Allen West and chef Tyson Jordan have transformed the former Wells’ Chicken & Waffle eatery into a handsome, sophisticated restaurant, lounge and supper club.

There is some controversy about who invented chicken and waffles. The Pennsylvania Dutch may have a case, but it was Joe Wells who popularized the dish while feeding music moguls for 60 years. Nat King Cole had his wedding reception there, Sammy Davis, Jr. was a regular, and many Cotton Club and Minton’s stars spent wee hours with waffles at Wells.

Chef/partner Jordan and Mr. West pay homage to local lore with chicken and waffles on weekend menus. But the rest of the fare is inventive new American with a Southern drawl.

Mr. West and chef Jordan began 20 year-plus careers in the hospitality business in their midteens. Mr. West, former owner of Kwanzaa in SoHo, has consulted for leading restaurants in New York. Chef Jordan’s resume includes stints at Atlantic City casino hotels, Philadelphia’s esteemed Striped Bass, and Manhattan’s Redeye Grill.

At Harlem Grill, the chef strives for dishes that are timeless and flavorful, punching up intensity with reductions and infusions. This means starters ($7 to $16) such as merlot-braised, fall-off-the-bone short rib over creamy grits studded with wild mushrooms. Crispy rock shrimp play happily off apricot-curry sauce. Spicy tuna wontons are paired with delicate enoki mushrooms. Fresh and colorful salads and soups reflect seasonal produce and the chef’s desire to showcase the best ingredients simply and memorably.

Tersely described entrees may seem basic, as in “fish & grits,” but the dish is a blend of savory snapper or sea bass with salmon and manila clams. The underlying grits hold nibbles of shrimp as well. I’m keen on clay-pot snapper, slow-cooked with other seafood, and taking on a smoky, spicy edge from chunks of andouille sausage in the pot. A wasabi crust lends zip to a tuna steak reposing amid a swirl of Asian vegetables.

Other entrees of note: a tender and juicy herb-roasted chicken, hearty flank steak served with caramelized-onion mashed potatoes, a 10-ounce Harlem Grill burger, and a significantly oversized grilled pork chop done up with mashed sweet potatoes.

The well-dressed uptown clientele co-mingled with a few hip-hoppers also find sweet potatoes in their cheesecake, and a mixed, macerated berry approach to strawberry shortcake. The shortcake itself is lemon. The star of the sweet show, however, is bourbon butter pecan profiterole, a puff pastry filled with homemade bourbon butter pecan gelato and drizzled with warm chocolate sauce.

Designer Carlos Jimenez created and constructed most of the restaurant’s interior and furnishings, from tin ceilings and leather-pleated walls to amber lights and antique mirrors. Harlem Grill seats up to 100 patrons, who are cosseted by an engaging and attractive staff. In Frank West, no relation to Allen, it has one of Harlem’s very few sommeliers, overseeing a well-priced list of global goodies.

And if you think the hostess is a knockout, wait till you hear her sing! New Orleans-born blues singer Acantha (Lang) performs Monday evenings with a five-piece band. There is no cover charge for the added pleasure. Let admiration know some bounds. Her fiancee is the owner, Allen West, an athletic 6-foot-5.

There are other musical entertainments on Tuesdays, when celebs make unscheduled drop-ins–even without chicken and waffles–and a gospel brunch is in the works.

Source: Crains