AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
BAR MARTIGNETTI -- 406 Broome St. (212-680-5600)--Tom and Anthony Martignetti, brothers and owners of a club on Houston Street, have said that they intended, with this restaurant, to create an Odeon for Nolita's young and well-heeled. They have produced a brasserie that seems--from the pressed-tin ceiling to the tea-towel napkins--so generic that you start to suspect some sort of sophisticated in-joke. The venue is perfectly pitched to a late-twenties crowd that seems as standardized as the setting. He: financial services, gym, bed head, shirt undone to second button, a beer, steak frites. She: publicity, tanning bed, "blond," chunky belt slung to one side, specialty cocktail, chicken salad.
Up to a point, it doesn't matter much what the cooking is like. Certainly, if you order one of the obvious standards of the bistro menu, you can get the boring dish you deserve. The steak frites is on the stringy side, the mussels decent but average, and the filet-mignon dish spoils a nice cut of meat with a needless dollop of blue cheese. The surprise comes in the fact that the chef, Lonnie ("I haven't asked his second name," a waiter said. "He scares me."), is capable ...