At the very yeast
The free bread basket is disappearing, but diners deserve butter — and rolls
OH, you want bread? Oh, you want salt? Damn right, I do — even if I’m bucking the trends. In most restaurants, we should be given these staples of life without having to pay or beg. But, increasingly, New York places have forgotten they’re in the hospitality business.
Salt, once on every table except in rarefied establishments, has gone missing even in ordinary ones. Chefs think they know better than diners when it comes to seasoning steak — never mind that a $50 tab should entitle us to a 2-cent say. To get salt, you not only have to ask, but endure a server’s snobby response.
Bread deprivation’s a worse nuisance for a guy like me who expects a basket of carbs before every meal at any non-Asian restaurant. Unless I’m at Le Bernardin or Gramercy Tavern, it doesn’t have to be great. Give me that old-time baguette, malawach or parkerhouse roll! Dull slices and ice-cold, foil-wrapped butter at Union Square Pavilion warm my heart when my stomach’s churning.
Even restaurants that offer better, cuisinespecific bread for a price, historically have given us free munchies first. Indian favorites such as Tamarind Tribeca lay on complimentary papadums before we order naan or poori.
But Indian Accent on West 56th Street rolled out a $22 papadum “tasting” last year (it was later dropped, but a manager says it’s coming back later in the year). Paowalla, the name of Floyd Cardoz’s new place in Soho, means “a person who makes and sells bread.” It should be taken literally; there are no complimentary papadums before a meal. You have to shell out $5 to $6 for Goan bread specialties.
Waiters at many new, highly publicized eateries, where entrees run $40-plus, now give you funny looks if you have the temerity to request complimentary bread in any form.
At barbecue-driven Pig Bleecker in the West Village, where main dishes run as high as $29, we scored one tablespoon-size cornbread madeleine each only after we begged. They begrudge bread in a barbecue joint?
Many other excellent new restaurants now offer marvelous, artisanal, house-baked riffs on flour and water — for a price. I couldn’t have bread without paying at Dan Kluger’s seasonalAmerican Loring Place on West Eighth Street (whole wheat with Hudson Valley butter, $6); comfort food mecca Maison Pickle on Broadway at 84th Street (“pull-apart bread and butter,” $8); “Arabian-French” Au Za’atar on Avenue A (flatbread with baked labne cheese, $12); pescatarian Gloria on West 53rd Street (jalapeño cornbread, $5); or Israeli Nur on East 20th Street (several Middle Eastern types, $7 to $11).
A new school of thinking holds that paying for great bread is better than complimentary mediocre carbs. Well, some of us would like both. Free focaccia never stops me from paying for prosciutto-topped bruschetta later.
Stephen Hanson, former owner of restaurant empire BR Guest, says chefs are tapping into new tastes. “Places are thinking, if I can’t serve great bread, don’t serve any,” he says.
While agreeing with me that it’s “crazy” for a high-end place or steakhouse not to serve free bread, Hanson notes, “People aren’t interested in having old-fashioned, white-flour bread and rolls as much as they were even five years ago, especially at lunch.”
Hanson’s next restaurant, Life, opening on West 31st Street before Labor Day, will have wood-burning ovens.
“The question, ‘Will we charge for bread or not?’ is something we’re tossing around every day,” he says.
Toss us some free rolls, Steve!