Eat to the Beat: Lincoln Center’s Culinary Aspirations

One of the many beautiful things about living in New York City is the ubiquity of, well, everything.

Need some fresh reindeer milk to go with the Kaluheenati rice pudding you’re whipping up? No problem. Want to get a Swedish massage from three Buddhists while they sing “Frosty the Snowman” a cappella? You can find a joint like that on Rivington.

But if you want to catch some live music and a plate of more-than-just-decent food, you may have to fugheddaboutit.

Jonathan Benno, Thomas Keller’s famously focused and innovative sous chef at Per Se, has sprouted his very own set of eagle wings, left the Keller nest and soared over to Lincoln Center–home of the most significant collection of musical performing arts institutions in America–to open a haute cafeteria designed to feed the crème de la crème of haute opera society. If Benno has his way, eating to the Lincoln Center beat will no longer be an on-the-fly affair–it will be a destination in and of itself.

Because after (or before) seeing Lewis Nash beat his post-bop drum or listening to the sonic experiments that explode from VOX’s zany opera lab, one may start to feel a bit peckish.

Brilliant chef, great space, hungry and rich populace. This should lead to thrilling flights of culinary resplendence–and despite the tepid reviews, Lincoln Restaurant still promises as many fireworks as “Carmen.” So if you’re rolling like a carefree Wall Street lad and want to give the new kid on the block a shot, feel free to plop down $128.00 for a black angus ribeye with shallots and potatoes, the $100 pasta with white truffles and Parmigiano Reggiano, or $24 for a single sea scallop squatting on a pile of almond puree.

Or, you know, you could just hit Carnegie John’s, a truck on the corner of 56^th and Seventh, chomp down on a $1.25 hot dog (get it with the homemade onions) or the $4 cheeseburger that puts Pat LaFrieda to shame, and eat to the real beat of New York: squawking tourists, harried locals and the jingle-jangle of passing taxis, bikes, trucks and cars.