Introduction to Eighty Six
Eighty Six on Bedford Street is the hardest new restaurant in town to penetrate. I expected to hate everything about it. Instead, I had one of my best meals of the year. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.
The Exclusive Restaurant
The ten-table steakhouse is a dwarf in the middle of the city’s gigantic cattle stables. But it packs a punch well above its weight class – assuming you can get into it. Too exclusive for almost everyone except friends of the establishment, Eighty Six is ironically located in what was once one of the city’s most hospitable spots – Chumley’s Pub, which occupied the site for nearly 75 years.
Getting a Reservation
Limited reservations are available exclusively through DoorDash, but actually, apparently, you have to know someone. The preciousness usually reduces sensible, mature guests to complaining sycophants. For the past few weeks, “Can you please take me with you?” has become a common refrain among friends who think I have a magic wand to gain access. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and I had to rely on a friend’s invitation to get in myself.
The Meal
Once inside, I was rewarded with a meal I’ll remember for a long time – a decadent, protein-packed fantasy that left me longing for more of the menu. The Eighty Six is not for those who want “sauce on the side.” Chef Michael Vignola uses truffle butter, béarnaise, au poivre and the like to enchant obscure but extraordinary cuts from remote farms and ranches.
The Menu
The restaurant is owned by Catch Hospitality Group, the team behind last year’s bastion of unimaginable impenetrability, the Corner Store in Soho. In this restaurant, where Vignola is also responsible for the kitchen, it’s apparently less about the food and more about the scene. They shouldn’t have been. Although I was upset that bread wasn’t served at the start of a meal, I was instead offered two meaty dill pickles drizzled with horseradish to get over it.
Dishes
There was also brown butter toasted sourdough to spoon bluefin tuna tartare. A gleaming round of deliciously fresh fish sat on a ring of shaved Persian cucumber, topped with Osetra caviar and drizzled with aged soy and extra-virgin Sicilian olive oil. The 8-ounce Rossini filet mignon — sourced from the Jeffrey Huss family in Mitchell, South Dakota — is a far cry from the usual lean, diet-friendly filet found around town. The crust was perfectly seared. Cooked to a precise medium-rare, the meat was finished with a 60-gram mound of Hudson Valley foie gras and white Alba and black Burgundy truffle butter.
Other Options
Wagyu Cheesesteak laughed at even the most outlandish interpretations of the Philadelphia warhorse. Westholme’s Australian Wagyu ribeye has been thinly sliced and slowly roasted to wonderful tenderness, seasoned with pickled peppers and chillies and coated in a creamy blend of Hornbacher and Comté cheeses. The Cresta di Gallo caviar pasta was a complex flavor experience with saffron shallot sofrito, cream, Robiola cheese, egg yolk, Calabrian chili oil and Osetra caviar.
Desserts
Chocolate “flying saucers” – malted milk ice cream sandwiched between chocolate wafer pieces and presented on a bed of chocolate crisps to roll the sweet sandwich into – topped the list of fun desserts.
Ambiance
The environment is plush and more. Large, padded cabins almost hug you. The light shines in Art Deco fixtures and shimmers on lacquered dark woods and marble floors. It’s the most seductive neo-speakeasy shit in town. My 30 or so fellow guests looked like they were dressed to party, but all I heard were subtle moans and groans of pleasure.
Conclusion
For those who come in, a meal at Eighty Six is a truly wonderful experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time or space for seafood entrees or a huge whole duck, aged for 10 days and served under an orange blossom glaze with foie gras sausage. I would like to try the wonderful sounding waterfowl another time. All I need is another friend to wave the magic wand and get me in.
