The Errant Æsthete

Out of Bloomberg, a stylish new restaurant opening in Manhattan: Allen & Delancey on the Lower East Side.

“The place feels and looks better than you’d expect given that it’s festooned with candles, wrapped Christmas candies and strings of amber beads. Maybe that’s because deep inside we’re all crying out for warmth and hominess. The two small dining rooms remind me of stage sets for “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

The clientele tends to be well-dressed and extraordinarily uninhibited. Pre-dinner kissing and cuddling runs rampant. I was told by a staff member that the restaurant in design and spirit is intended to pay tribute to all those who passed through the Lower East Side. Who knew immigrants necked so much?”

What’s delicious about Allen & Delancey, a stylish new restaurant on the Lower East Side, is the tale as well as the food.

The saga is very English, very Victorian, very Dickens. Neil Ferguson, English lad, toils from age 12 in the abattoirs that are the classic restaurant kitchens of Europe. He ultimately becomes chef de cuisine at New York’s Gordon Ramsay at the London but is sent off after Ramsay’s high-end joint gets ruinous reviews. The cane is spared, but not much else.

Our hero reappears. He is now executive chef at Allen & Delancey. He has a second nifty title, that of culinary director. (He’s also cooking at a sister restaurant in Westchester County.)

Is his redemption absolute? Not quite. The food at Allen & Delancey is mostly wonderful, part haute-gastropub and part Sunday dinner. The technique is French, the sensibility British.

His seafood dishes have flaws. They were the weakest aspect of the menu at Gordon Ramsay at the London, and they remain so here. Preparations are too strong (mackerel) or too bland (dorade, cod). Overcooking is also a problem.

If you choose to eat fish, the sweet scallops exquisitely matched with celery-root cream give the most pleasure. Raw hamachi topped with an excess of grapefruit “pearls” is refreshing, even if the fish is overwhelmed.

Unlikely Locale

Unlike the glittery Gordon Ramsay restaurant, Allen & Delancey is precisely what Manhattan needs, an intimate, sophisticated and not obviously commercial spot. It’s located on a block that screams 1970s Lower East Side. The buildings are scarred with large-format graffiti; iron fire escapes crawl down their facades.

At the uptown venue, Ferguson’s food — more fairly, his and Ramsay’s — was stunningly uninteresting. I recall losing interest in what I was eating halfway through most dishes.

Here, the visceral satisfaction is high. He piles on flavors, and he does so with assurance.

Cabbage, beef and onion is an inspired hodgepodge of veggies, braised beef, melted onions and steak. If you end up with a good chunk of aged sirloin, always iffy in Manhattan restaurants these days, you’ll think it’s the best dish in the house. Similar in style, although not jumbled together, is a lamb chop with braised neck meat — the richest food served. The slow-cooked lamb makes his perfectly good pork belly taste austere by comparison.

Jampacked

All dishes are crammed with extras — the scallop appetizer, for example, contains cipollini onions and verjus. There’s harmony, though, because the third, fourth and sometimes fifth elements remain nicely in the background. Usually, two components stand out — pickled pears with pork belly, foie gras with rare duck breast, potato puree with lamb. The food doesn’t appear colorful, but the room is so dark it’s hard to be sure.

Rather surprisingly, you won’t leave stuffed, which I attribute to Ferguson’s finesse. Or maybe it’s because the portions are modest. One of my guests, a rather skinny young woman, ate everything and remarked, “Can we eat everything again?” bespeaking praise, not hunger.

The wine list is thoughtful, intriguing but not inexpensive. Worth a moderate splurge is the 2005 Naiades Verdejo ($58), a perfect example of modern white winemaking from Spain, and the 2004 Seven Hills Merlot ($60), which proves that American renditions of this grape need not be insipid.

Desserts, uncannily, are stylistically similar to the savories. The baked apple is gorgeous and comes with a caramelized puff pastry — the only downside to this dish is that the pickled pears with the pork belly are so mouth-watering you’ll wish you had them instead. Peanut butter tart, really a chocolate tart with hints of peanut butter, is nearly perfect. It comes with a whiskey-flavored miniature vanilla milkshake.

Everyone I brought loved the way the place looked, although a few women expressed unhappiness at the portraits of female nudes, not out of false modesty, I think, but more likely because they’re not very good portraits of female nudes.

Good Looking

The place feels and looks better than you’d expect (one of my guests was relieved to find Allen & Delancey wasn’t a tenement museum food court), given that it’s festooned with candles, wrapped Christmas candies and strings of amber beads. Maybe that’s because deep inside we’re all crying out for warmth and hominess. The two small dining rooms remind me of stage sets for “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

The clientele tends to be well-dressed and extraordinarily uninhibited. Pre-dinner kissing and cuddling runs rampant. I was told by a staff member that the restaurant in design and spirit is intended to pay tribute to all those who passed through the Lower East Side. Who knew immigrants necked so much?

The Bloomberg Questions

Cost? Prices range from $12 for leeks vinaigrette to $29 for cabbage, beef and onion.

Sound level? The music is just right in the bar, too loud in the dining room. Everyone has to speak up, which creates a nice buzz.

Date place? Absolutely. Share the bone marrow topped with caviar. Wash it down with 1996 Lopez de Heredia ($48), a nutty, Old World, white Rioja.

Inside tip? The fragrant dinner rolls are basted with bacon fat. You won’t get seconds unless you ask. (I’m starting to think Manhattan has become the dinner-roll capital of the world.)

Special feature? Arrive early and commandeer the cozy alcove in the bar, a place of contentment for five or six, unless you’re horizontal with passion.

Private room? No, but the rear dining room is available for private parties.

Lunch? No.

Will I be back? Certainly. I wish my parents were still around so I could show them how chic the neighborhood of their birth has become.

Allen & Delancey is at 115 Allen St., at Delancey. Information: +1-212-253-5400; http://www.allenanddelancey.net . [Link]