Some Tempura With Your Tempera?
by Nathalie Hall, Editor

What can be said of art and food? That is, aside from the fact that there are many restaurants in New York City that try to combine the two in the most delicious ways possible for the most amount of money possible.

Open the latest Zagat or Michelin Guide and you will find hundreds of worthwhile restaurants to please even the most seasoned palates (and that's palates, not palettes, my fellow painters!). If you manage to get a reservation at a top dining destination such as Jean Georges, Le Cirque, or Maze you will come expecting not only food that is paired so well - lest it even be something as unexpected as Artic Char with jalapenos or Goat Cheese as sorbet - that the taste is A+ but food that looks creative from a presentation standpoint.

Creativity in the realm of fine dining is not a new concept, albeit it is one that many places tend to neglect in favor of the tired and true run of the mill offerings. Artists who come to New York City and experience its restaurants will seek out the more creative and visually appealing dining experiences, but amidst a sea of “baked salmon” and “spaghetti bolognese” where does one actually discover the most worthwhile dining experiences that not only tantilize the tastebuds but also the pupils? Toss aside your Zagat and keep reading:

o Wallsé - Fold up your easel planted on the corner of Barrow and Commerce in the quiet West Village and head up to this modern Austrian art-lovers mecca. We all know how good Austrian food can be, but Wallsé steps it up a league with menu items such as the heavenly quark dumplings and lobster over spaetzle. As if that wasn't enough, the wine list is beyond comprehensive and the requite art comes in the form of the Expressionist painter Egon Schiele…on the walls, in the logo, and omnipresent as his spirit lives on through culinary artistic excellence. 344 West 11th Street at Bank Street

o Café Mozart - When you've had enough of hearing birds singing over your canvas in Central Park journey west over to 70th and Amsterdam where this classic mainstay offers a dessert menu that would make you give up even your ritzy Blockx pure pigments. Great for after dark if you're keen on live piano playing and a cultivated high-culture experience. 154 West 70th Street

o Vynl - If Mozart isn't exactly your cup of tea, breeze on down to this other music-driven haunt. Relish in vivid blocks of colour, mosaic tables, and a surplus of action figures collected behind the bar. Sip a beach blanket bikini key lime martini over the best pad thai a non-thai restaurant can serve up, admire your mosaic table, and study the plethora of typefaces on the varied menu while your eardrums take in the best of pop music over the years (think Cher, the Spice Girls, and Donna Summer). It certainly puts the “kitch” in hell's kitchen. 754 9th Avenue at 51st Street

o Lever House - After a long day of fighting past the crowds to admire the Picassos, Van Goghs, and Motherwells at MoMA it wouldn't be overkill to breeze up to this mod architecturally mesmerizing restaurant. Granted you'll be so busy admiring your modern nautical-meets-Corbusier surroundings to even notice what you're eating, but don't worry - the food is quite good. Chances are you will be so astounded you won't even remember you even went to a museum beforehand. 390 Park Avenue at 53rd Street

o Freeman's - So you just experienced the red-hot New Museum that took over the Bowery and now that you've already sighted some t-shirt-clad hipster types and angry cart-weilding hobos you're ready to escape back to SoHo. Instead, walk northward up to Rivington Street. Freeman's harbors the best collection of wild game both on the walls and in the kitchen. Taxidermy aside, you'll be glad you braved those hobos and hipsters. The atmosphere is rustic, laid-back, and there is an abundance of dark wood and even wood plank flooring that will most certainly trap your high heels. The food comes in the form of wild boar, lamb, and a famous artichoke dip and is sure to fill you up before your safari back to SoHo. End of Freeman Alley off of Rivington Street

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