Essential by Christophe began serving dinner on Sunday night a few weeks ago, making it the only restaurant in its high-priced class open seven nights a week.
Demand for seats left chef/owner Christophe Bellanca no other choice.
It’s not only the best restaurant on the Upper West Side — a neighborhood not known as a culinary nirvana — it’s my favorite French restaurant of any kind in New York since Daniel opened in 1999, if not since Le Bernardin opened in 1986.
Less than three years after it opened amidst the pandemic’s lingering gloom, Bellanca has made Essential into one of the city’s premier dining venues — though you might not have heard much about it given how obsessed young foodies are with every eight-seat, no-reservations counter downtown and in Brooklyn.
There’s no scene in Essential’s cozy, 68-seat dining room. It offers delicious, sophisticated-yet-accessible, cooking with just enough originality to set it apart.
Essential by Christophe was a good — but far from great — restaurant when it opened in December 2022. Some dishes fell short and over-talkative waiters drove customers bananas explaining simple dishes and wines in excruciating detail.
But this year, the kitchen and the floor team magically matured into well-synchronized harmony.
The menu reads as modern-American with French and Asian touches, but the skill behind simple-seeming but labor-intensive dishes shouts “classic French.”
“It’s not really French, but French foundation,” Bellanca said of the care with which he chooses ingredients and the exacting technique he applies to draw out their deepest flavors.
Bellanca aims to eliminate all non-essentials to “get right to the point of a dish,” he said. The “simple does not mean easy” approach reflects his long association with the great Joel Robuchon, for whom he served as culinary director in the US for ten years. Before that, he was the best chef Le Cirque had during its time at the Bloomberg building.
He sources the best ingredients, and it truly pays off on the plate. I long ago gave up on frogs’ legs, typically finding them bony and flavorless. That isn’t the case at Essential. Bellanca carefully sources amphibian limbs from a farm in Lousiana. They’re perfectly deboned, poached to a rare tenderness and their mild, chicken-like essence brightened with garlic, parsley and white wine.
Thankfully, Bellanca doesn’t push the “originality” envelope. His most inventive dish might be wild red king crab in a pool of crab bouillon and warm foie gras custard — a colorful ambrosia of sea and earth in a small transparent bowl. The surprising combination amplified the singularity of each intense element without a discordant note.
On the other hand, glazed squab is so traditionally French, he said he was surprised how many people order it. But it’s all in the execution. The imported young bird is roasted to a supple, succulent turn and garnished with potatoes confit, squab liver and cognac-scented vegetables. It’s presented under a transparent cloche that the waiter whisks off for a dramatic, silent “voila!” moment.
Braised black bass has been on the menu since Day One and should remain forever. The firm-textured fish is brightened with lime zest and lemon jus, and garnished with a baby artichoke stuffed with vegetable dice and razor clams. A circle of turmeric-soy sauce scented galangal, kaffir lime and lemongrass drives home the southeast-Asian point to thrilling effect.
For dessert, a vacherin with orange blossom and lime sorbets and clementine marmalade makes for a cheery, tropical tinged end to the meal. The warm chocolate tart is also a sweet conclusion.
Essential by Christophe is expensive — but not extravagantly so by elite Manhattan standards. Three courses run $175, four courses are $205 and the seven course tasting is $255. Such prices seem almost cheap compared with the restaurant’s high-end peers. (Six courses at Jean-Georges run $298, while eight courses at Le Bernardin cost $350.)
Remarkably, Bellanca has created this miracle of a restaurant as he launched the fine Cafe LV at the Louis Vuitton store on East 57th Street. Essential proves that in New York, great restaurants can pop up where and when you least expect them.
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