Thirty years ago when the term “New American Cuisine” was coined in imitation of  France’s la nouvelle cuisine, it was soon extrapolated into New Southern Cuisine, New South Western, New Pacific Northwest Cuisine, and so forth across the map. (California spitefully split into Southern and Northern camps.)  The distinctions among them pretty much petered out in the ‘90s, when global influences, the Mediterranean Diet, and other fads blurred any reasonable definition of what New American Cuisine had become. 

       The contemporary, wholly fatuous definition often given these days is that American Cuisine is “whatever Americans eat,” which, if true, would be mostly frozen, boxed and canned food like Spam,  Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese, and Frito-Lay corn chips.

      My idea of what American food has become is pretty close to what’s being served at the year-old Kingside, whose chef-partner Marc Murphy (with Scott Gerber of the Gerber Group, below) has been focusing in on the kind of dishes that Americans who dine out are always happy to see, from a Kingside burger with giardiniera relish, soppressata and white cheddar ($21) to pan-roasted scallops with butternut squash, bacon caponata and brown butter ($34), ending off with caramel pudding with bourbon whipped cream and slivered almonds ($10).  (I’m stifling the urge to use the word “yum.”)

      Murphy, whose background took inspiration from his mother's and grandmother’s kitchens, from French master chef Jean-Louis Palladin, and from extensive worldwide travel, opened Landmarc in TriBeCa ten years ago, then another in the Time Warner Center, and a surf shack called Ditch Plains.  He still takes global ideas and ingredients and adapts them all to an American sensibility that bespeaks generosity, regional culinary tradition, a love of good salads, and a Yankee sweet tooth.  There is no fuss about his food, but it takes the kind of experience Murphy has to bring it all off with such grace.           

        Kingside is located in the Viceroy Hotel (near Carnegie Hall and the Theater District), with 115 seats,  38 at a very lively bar (above) whose high noise level fortunately does not intrude too much into the good-looking dining room, with its tile work walls and a convivial chef’s counter backed by quilted stainless steel.  Nicely lighted, with wooden tables and booths, the room manages to balance the feel of a swank midtown New York restaurant with that of a fast-paced, streamlined middle-American diner.  Service is amiable, knowledgeable, and attentive. The wine list of about 70 bottlings offers several by the quartino and half-bottle, with the majority of the list under $50 for whites and $60 for reds. (Now I’m stifling a “Yay!”)

        You could easily enjoy a good nosh at Kingside before heading for a concert or play: there are three raw items ($19-$21) of tuna, scallop and fluke, and charcuterie and cheeses ($10-$12).

Then there are a dozen small plates, with plenty of vegetable options.  Hay-aged, assertive pecorino graces baguette toast made sweet and milder with truffle honey and ricotta ($16), while lobster is diced with mustard seed, tarragon and fennel on toast to very delectable effect ($20).   Perfectly roasted foie gras takes a sweet balm from grapes and a splash of rich Sauternes.  A mushroom-flecked  burrata arancini ball was enhanced with truffle fondue ($15), though the fried arancini were a bit bland. 

    You don’t see snails on menus that often anymore, but anyone who likes them and wants to cook them should taste the way Mr. Murphy renders them, with bone marrow and garlic butter ($17).  Few snails ever had a better bed to curl into.

    The special that evening was house-made pasta lavished with white truffles—at $45 something of a modest price these days in New York.  My favorite entrée was the thick braised pork shank ($32), coming off the bone and oozing all the flavors it had absorbed, with roasted shallots, escarole and a pork jus. Also applauded at our table was a brick-roasted baby chicken (left) with fall vegetables, panzanella salad, and black garlic ($30).  The scallops I mentioned were as good as most in New York, if not outstanding, and the same might be said for the burger (I recall the outrage years ago when `21’ Club charged $21 for its burger. Times have changed.)

       Salt-and-pepper fried potatoes were gilded with a sweet onion aïoli ($10),  and buttery pommes fondant ($10) had enchanting, velvety texture and flavor,  while seasonal vegetables ($10) were packed with enlivening spices.

         When I see caramel pudding on a menu—rare, indeed—I order it and allow myself to slip into a nostalgia reverie for this childhood dessert. Mr. Murphy brought it all back to me, with the addition of grown-up whipped cream and pretzel crumble ($10).  

        So, although there are some French and Italian preparations on the menu at Kingside, they become very much part of the fabric of this very American menu.  Mr. Murphy has never tried to be trendy, only to be very, very good.

Kingside is  open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, with brunch on Sunday.

SPIRITS OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT
By John Mariani

    This is a new Golden Age for whiskies, spirits whose popularity was long ago eclipsed by tasteless vodkas and white rums. The emergence of single malt Scotches, small batch bourbons, even a resurgence of new ryes, has made it a hot category again--and not a cheap one.  Indeed, the price of a lot of what’s now out there is not based on anything extraordinary about the whiskey, and some, like rare Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, have become such a cult spirit that people are paying whatever it takes--$250 and up--to get hold of a bottle that retails (if you could find it) at $80-$108.  Now that the holidays are upon us, so-called “brown spirits” are always a good gift idea, so here are some that I’ve been impressed by, not because they are so rare or come in a really nifty bottle, but because they are really quite distinctive.

Penny Blue XO Single Estate Mauritian Rum ($75-$80)--“XO” (extra old) is not a label term you see outside of Cognac, although its distributor, Anchor Distilling, says the small batch (5,946 numbered bottles for the whole world this year) is matured in French oak Cognac casks.  The name Penny Blue alludes to one of the world’s rarest stamps, with twelve in existence, and it’s made by Doug McIwor of Berry Bros. & Rudd of London  and the Master Distiller Jean Francois Koenig on the island of Mauritius.  Rums from that African island don’t leave it often, so the complex, spicy Penny Blue is not going to be in everyone’s Christmas stocking this year.

The Macallan Rare Cask ($300)--Available in a stunning gift box, this Scotch is made from carefully selected oak sherry casks, and Macallan has never shied away from an oaky flavor in its Scotch. Master Whisky Maker Bob Delgamo balances this with vanilla and chocolate notes along with some citrus, with a fine lingering finish that  remains chewy on the palate. 

Michter’s US*1 Toasted Barrel Bourbon ($48)--The novelty here is that this bourbon is aged in two different barrels—one for maturation, one for finishing in a cask never charred, as is otherwise typical.  At 45.7 percent alcohol, it’s not tame. Michter’s made its rep on the basis of its aggressive 10-year-old ryes, which sell around $70, and it wants its bourbons to show innovation rather than just small production.

Crown Royal XO Blended Canadian Whiskey ($50)—Just as rye has created its own niche market, there is renewed interest in Canadian whiskey—the thing you used to drink with 7-Up in college—and the old distillers are falling over themselves to come up with a new edge.  Also using that “XO” word, Crown Royal’s new whiskey also matures in old Cognac barrels, and it joins others in the brand’s portfolio like Crown Royal XR (its “rarest” whiskey), Maple Finished, Crown Royal Deluxe, and Crown Royal Black. The XO is culled from 50 whiskies and is smoother than most Canadian spirits, with far more charm and elegance.

Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve ($41)—You can tell how thinly spirits makers are slicing the onion when you see a label that boasts of being a “single barrel” bourbon then adding “Reserve,” promising it is the only single barrel, 120 proof example aged for nine years.  That’s a long time to keep a bottle in the barn, and the aging has the effect of mellowing the texture and bringing out more nuance in a bourbon that comes from just a single barrel, which means each one varies in flavor.

Springbank Cask Strength Single Malt ($70-$85)—The come-on here is that this Campbeltown Scotch comes straight from the barrel without any dilution, so it’s a powerhouse.  It’s also got the characteristic smokiness of Campbeltown with a good dose of peatiness.  It’s really quite distinctive and a true Scotch lover will want it in his cache.  At 12 years old, it’s two yers older than their usual 10-year-old.  It’s also nice to know that Springbank is one of only two (the other is Kilcoman) of the region’s distilleries in Scotland to malt their own barley and go through every step of production on premises. Still best enjoyed splashed with a little water or seltzer in a crystal glass. 

Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition Blended Scotch Whiskey ($32)—Cutty Sark was founded during Prohibition in America and when that idiocy ended, the company was well positioned to capitalize on the thirst of Americans for good, cheap blended Scotch, which grew lighter in body after the war. This “Edition” hearkens back to a fuller-bodied style favored in the 1920s, and there is certainly more complexity to it than ever, made mostly from a blend of Speyside whiskies, bottled at 100 proof.  It’s got a bite, and there’s no apology for that. Still at its best on the rocks.

Johnnie Walker Gold Reserve ($85)--Welcome back, Johnnie Gold! Well, sort of.  Gold, originally a limited edition mainly for the Asian market, was discontinued, but now it has been introduced in a one-of-a-kind format bottle, without the prior “18 Year Old” statement on the bottle. It has the characteristic creamy texture, peatiness, lots of oak, and sweet notes of all the JW issues—24 of them--including the basic Red Label, the smoky Double Black, and top-of-the-line Blue Label, at $225.  The Gold is generally available in a regular bottle, but a gift edition is gold-colored in a gold box guaranteed to impress the recipient.

Laphroaig Islay Single Malt 10 Years Original Cask Strength ($66)--Now, if you really like briar and peat and smoke in your whisky, Islay is the place to find it, and one of the finer, more complex versions is from Laphroaig.  You either like such eyebrow-raising Scotches or don’t, but you get what you pay for here. The whisky is aged in seasoned, charred oak barrels and slightly barrier-filtered  just to remove the small char particles present, so the Scotch may even appear a tad cloudy.

GlenDronach Distillery 15 Year Old Tawny Port Wood Finish ($80) and The GlenDronach Cask Strength Batch  ($150)--These are two new Scotches from The GlenDronach distillery (founded 1826), which foundered for a while but is now back in good hands. The Old Tawny Port Wood Finish takes on some of the sweet character of Port, mellowing the whisky and adding caramel notes. The Cask Strength Batch is matured in Sherry casks, which impart their own flavors of nuttiness and orange.

The BenRiach Horizons 12 Year Old Triple Distilled ($80) --This sophisticated expression of Scotch is distilled three times, rather than the usual two, which takes away the rough edges and burn and replaces them with creamy, honeyed flavors.  BenRiach also makes a Solstice 2nd Edition 17 Year Old ($100) that uses both heavily peated and unpeated malted barley, which means it’s got plenty of snarky ballast under the first layers of fruit and spice notes.

1800 Tequila Milenio ($225)—Tequila is rarely thought of as a brown spirit, but the aged versions take on a definite color. 1800 Tequila’s second release of Milenio (the first produced in 2000), made from 100 percent blue agave,  is double distilled and  aged in Cognac barrels for five years, making this a tequila to be sipped like any fine brown spirits, not to be sloshed into a blender to make a margarita. Excellent also with Mexican-style tapas and Serrano ham. I suspect this is one of the priciest tequilas ever made.

The Glenlivet (owned by Chivas Regal), which was one of the first Single Malt Scotches to start the  bandwagon rolling back in the 1980s, now has sales of 11 million bottles each year, so it  is trying something new in its small batch, chill filtered Nàdurra (“natural”) line from Speyside with an Oloroso ($79) matured exclusively in ex-sherry casks from Jerez, which adds a lovely touch of creaminess and sweetness, with 48 percent alcohol.   (They also will release The Glenlivet Nàdurra First Fill Selection [$79] drawn from casks made from American White Oak next spring.)