Celsius - Bryant Park

Celsius
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212.661.6640
Bryant Park – 5th Ave & 42nd St
http://www.thepondatbryantpark.com/celsius/info

Open annually, Nov. 6, 2009 - Jan. 24, 2010
Sunday-Wednesday: Noon - 10pm
Thursday-Saturday: Noon - Midnight


One of the great things about living in a city like New York is the seasonal restaurants that pop up throughout the year. The Bon Appétit Supper Club and Café is perhaps the most popular of these, but it’s only open one week a year (weekdays only!) and is open to the public only for lunch. But not to worry, Bryant Park has the place you’re looking for!

Once the temperature dips low enough, Bryant Park erects an outdoor skating rink, called “The Pond at Bryant Park”. The Pond is Manhattan’s only free ice skating rink (although skate rentals are $12) and is available to the public from early November through late January. With Harry Connick, Jr. and Perry Cuomo crooning softly through The Pond’s speakers, an afternoon of skating at The Pond makes for a great date – especially if followed by food and drinks at Celsius!

Located on the north-east corner of Bryant Park, Celsius is a glass-enclosed restaurant/lounge overlooking The Pond and Bryant Park’s decorated “Holiday Tree”. Celsius has a well-stocked bar on the first floor and additional table service seating upstairs, but the best seats in the house are on its outdoor terrace. These long, comfy couches and cozy tables for two are perfect for an après-skate bite, and are flanked by enough heat lamps to keep out the winter chill.

Click through the slideshow to see pictures of Celsius!

Celsius’ menu is full of cold-weather favorites with a casual touch of elegance. Mac-and-cheese becomes “mac and cheese gratin”, full of gruyere, gouda, and Vermont cheddar, while potato-and-cheese pierogies are spruced up with sides of caramelized onions and pomegranate-apple compote. An order of steak frites pairs a well-marinated skirt steak with piping hot, salty french fries, which are covered in a light dusting of Cajun seasoning, and served with ketchup and a barbecue-like spicy dipping sauce (which is great on the steak). The home-style chicken pot pie is prepared and served in its own cast-iron skillet, where a savory, buttery crust tops a sea of surprisingly large, tender hunks of chicken, punctuated by the occasional whole, baby Portobello mushroom and other stray vegetables.

Skirt steak makes a double-appearance on the menu at Celsius, first as steak frites and then as a skirt steak sandwich served with horseradish mayo and grain mustard slaw.

Chicken pot pie is slow-baked and served in an individual cast-iron skillet. Occasional bites of peas, celery, carrots, and whole, baby Portobello mushrooms interrupt an otherwise creamy landscape of tender chicken.

There is something at Celsius to please everyone, from their Asian-inspired vegetable spring rolls and butternut squash-coconut bisque, to a seasonal beet and goat cheese salad, to side orders of tater tots and buffalo wings. Their desserts are safe but well done, and their cocktail menu is inventive with drinks like “Earl-y Chili” (gin, earl grey tea, lemon juice, egg white, and peach bitters) and “Red Sage” (absolut, cherry liqueur, muddled sage, and Coca-Cola).

Celsius has a decent selection of hot drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcholic - perfect for warming your hands after time on the ice!

This perennial pop-up will be back in the fall, but don’t wait. Celsius is only around for a few more days, closing up for the season next Sunday, January 24. Make sure you go soon - and bring a friend!

Poll of the Week - 1.11.2010

Pizza is truly an all-American food. Brought to this country by immigrants, America has taken the best parts of pizza’s Greek and Italian ancestors, and created something that only occasionally bears resemblance to its international counterparts. The great thing about pizza, though, is that no matter what style you prefer, there is a part of America that specializes in exactly that.

If you like deep-dish pizza, Chicago’s the place for you. Love wide, foldable slices? Head for the streets of New York. If your favorite pizza comes topped with barbecue chicken, or shrimp and avocado, or loaded with fresh vegetables and goat cheese, you can thank Wolfgang Puck and Ed LaDou for creating “California-style” gourmet pizza. And whether you’re engaged in the wood- vs. coal-burning oven debate, or don’t care how it’s cooked so long as it’s hot, pizza’s never-ending combination of dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings ensures that this American staple has something to offer everyone.

As today kicks off the first day of National Pizza Week (always the second week in January), Little Scarlet has to ask the most important of all questions - what do you want on your pizza?


Tell Little Scarlet which place makes the best pizza you’ve ever had!

Shepherd’s Pie

New York’s weather has been beastly the past few days - the temperature has been hovering in the mid-twenties (° F), and with the wind whipping up the avenues, it feels about ten degrees colder! Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for snow all day, and what better way to warm up at the end of a long day than with a piping hot one-pot meal?

Shepherd’s pie is a perfect winter meal, full of hearty meat and crisp vegetables, all topped with creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes. Sautéed mushrooms add extra body and depth of flavor, and an even mix of ground lamb and ground beef tones down the gaminess of the dish. A mashed potato topping is crucial to a true shepherd’s pie, so make a big batch of this using your favorite recipe!

Little Scarlet likes to make mashed potatoes by boiling peeled, cubed potatoes in lightly salted water until they can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain water from the pot, reserving a few tablespoons to add later, and mash the potatoes in the pot with a fork as best you can (it’s okay to leave behind a few lumps). Slowly add a combination of butter, sour cream, milk, and reserved potato water, sprinkling with kosher salt and tasting as you go, adjusting amounts of ingredients accordingly.

For best results, prepare the mashed potatoes while the meat is browning - it’s alright if they cool, as they will warm up later in the oven. Serves 6-8.

This recipe is perfect for lifting you out of the winter doldrums - enjoy!

Directions:
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ pound baby Portobello mushrooms, chopped
½ large onion, chopped
½ pound ground lamb
½ pound ground beef
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
14 oz brown gravy
1 16-oz bag mixed frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, corn, green beans)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
½-1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½-1 teaspoons kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté mushrooms and onion about 8 minutes, or until mushrooms are brown; transfer mushrooms to a bowl. Add ground lamb, ground beef, and garlic to skillet, sautéing about 5 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink. Return mushroom and onions to skillet, and mix in gravy. Reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.* Add frozen vegetables, and simmer until just tender, about 5 minutes longer.
   
2. Mix in 2 tablespoons parsley, and add ½ tablespoon Worcestershire sauce and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Season with freshly ground black pepper - then taste. Add additional Worcestershire sauce and salt, if desired.
3. Transfer meat mixture to 2-qt glass baking dish. Spoon mashed potatoes on top, covering meat completely. For a pretty flourish, make a cross-hatch pattern in the mashed potatoes using the tines of a fork. Bake pie about 15 minutes, until heated thoroughly (insert a knife into the center of the pie, and see if the tip is warm to the touch). Garnish with remaining tablespoon of parsley and serve.
   
   *1 tsp cornstarch can be used to help thicken the mixture if its viscosity still seems too low.
   

Poll of the Week - 1.04.2010

Welcome to the first “Poll of the Week” of 2010!!

New Year’s Eve is a time for revelry, and between the specialty cocktails, coolers full of beer, and friends who make sure your hand is never empty, New Year’s Day can sometimes bring a brutal welcome to the next year. All of those resolutions to “eat right” start after one meal - breakfast on January 1. When you wake up feeling a little under-the-weather, what do you reach for? A friend of mine swears by Lay’s® Potato Chips and “yellow”-flavored Gatorade®, while another will only drink ginger ale and green tea. Little Scarlet rang in 2010 with rye toast and scrapple - the BEST, most underrated breakfast meat! (It’s very popular in the mid-west and mid-Atlantic regions - thank you, Philadelphia!)

Most seem to find success in more traditional cures, though, and this week Little Scarlet wants to know what’s your favorite hangover remedy?


If you have any other favorite ideas, leave them in a Comment for your fellow readers!

Red Beans and Rice

Like gumbo and jambalaya, red beans and rice is a staple of Creole cooking - and one of Little Scarlet’s favorite childhood meals! Salty, smoked ham adds great flavor and depth to a simple bowl of kidney beans, while Frank’s RedHot sauce lends a subtle kick of spice. It’s perfect to make on a cold, wintry weekend afternoon, and goes great with a simple green salad.

This one-pot dish takes a few hours to cook, but requires very little attention and tastes even better the next day - I promise you’ll be amazed by how a dish with so few ingredients takes on such wonderful flavors!

Red beans and rice - recipe makes about 6 servings

Directions (modified from Jeff Smith’s The Frugal Gourmet):
1 pound kidney beans
½ pound ham hocks or smoked ham
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 tbsp parsley
3-4 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tbsp butter (or ½ stick)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Frank’s RedHot sauce
Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
3 cups cooked white rice

1. Soak beans overnight in ample water. The next day, drain water from the beans, and place in a heavy kettle. Add the ham, onion, celery, parsley, bay leaves, and garlic (don’t add peppers yet!), and add water to the pot barely to cover the contents. Bring to a boil, and then turn to a simmer.
2. Simmer, uncovered, for two hours, being careful that the beans don’t stick. If the beans become too dry, add a little extra water and stir.
3. After the first two hours of cooking, add butter, bell pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Frank’s to the pot. Continue cooking for one more hour, this time with a lid on the pot and the heat on low. Add extra seasonings (salt, pepper) at this point if desired, but take care not to add salt before this point because salt cooks out of the ham hocks (or ham) and seasons the dish well. Serve over white rice.

If you like yours a little extra spicy, make sure you bring the bottle of Frank’s to the table!