Primehouse

Tonight I joined a colleague after work at Primehouse on Park Avenue. We had attempted to go to our usual favorite Les Halles, but despite the fact that it was 10:30 on a Thursday night it was packed, and we found ourselves waiting 15 minutes for a table. After debating the whole time about whether about the pros and cons of leaving versus continuing to wait, we finally decided to tell the hostess that regrettably we were heading out somewhere else. Of course she indicated that she was sorry and that we were next on the list to be seated. We stuck to our decision, though, and headed off down Park Avenue towards Primehouse.

Admittedly 10:30PM is not really the ideal time to consume a large quantity of red meat; much less if one intends to toddle off to bed immediately afterward. Nonetheless, we were hungry and happened by immediately after our disappointing rejection from Les Halles (also in no small measure a carnivore's paradise as well), and were therefore persuaded to head inside. We figured if there was no wait we would eat there; otherwise we would just move on.

Notwithstanding the crowd of people in the lobby, we found that there was no wait for our party of two, and so we were quickly shown to a table. Given our recent experience at Les Halles, my hungry and impatient colleague immediate started a ten-minute stopwatch to countdown the time until we would leave unless we saw a waiter or waitress to take at least our drink order. Perhaps unreasonable, but understandable given the wait we had already experienced and our level of hunger by that time.

Luckily the waiter appeared just in time to take our drink order. After that he quickly returned and took our dinner order. We both selected the tableside preparation of Ceasar salad, with the optional imported white anchovies. For the main course, my colleague selected a sea bass preparation, while I chose the bone-in pork chop with stuffed apple.

Much to my surprise, when I asked the waiter his opinion (which I often do, if for no other reason than for curiosity's sake to see whether the staff is actually trained in eating what they server), he recommended the pork over the filet mignon that was my main alternative. Here we were at a place called Primehouse, and the waiter recommended a pork chop. No prime steak was going to be delivered to our table.