Sidecar in New York City for Dinner

Sticking with the subtitle theme, the subtitle for this post is You can't go home again. Sidecar occupies a special place in our lives: My wife and I had our first Valentine's Day date there, as well as our wedding reception. One of the last meals that we had in Manhattan before moving to Connecticut was at Sidecar. In addition, we had the opportunity to meet some really incredible people that used to work at Sidecar, like him, him and her (Meg, not the other woman). Many of them will be famous one day and we will be those annoying people that say "I knew them when."

Sidecar is a New York City steakhouse that is on the second floor of the original P.J. Clarke's in Manhattan. P.J. Clarke's has been around for literally over 100 years, however, Sidecar is a relatively new restaurant.

After having not visited the restaurant in over a year, we went back a few Saturdays ago for dinner with friends. As I said, you can't go home again. To start with, all of the waitstaff that we knew are no longer around. In addition, the menu has changed entirely. Sidecar was a steakhouse with an excellent raw bar. That was what differentiated it from the rest. Now, it is trying to be something more casual like P.J. Clarke's and it doesn't work. Also, P.J. Clarke's has its trademark red and white checkered tablecloths. Sidecar was always more formal and had white linen tablecloths. It looked like this:

Not any more -- the red and white checkered tablecloths from P.J. Clarke's have found their way upstairs to Sidecar. Why? This cheapens the whole Sidecar experience. Sidecar has also decided that mirroring the P.J. Clarke's menu is a good thing. (In essence, Sidecar has become a second dining room of P.J. Clarke's). I would not be as upset about this if the new menu at Sidecar was as good as the food at P.J. Clarke's. It isn't. Not even close. To add insult to injury, the prices at Sidecar have remained higher than the prices at P.J. Clarke's despite having THE SAME ITEMS ON BOTH MENUS.

I fear that I am coming across sounding like a cranky old man and I guess I am. I am generally okay with change provided that the change improves something. The changes to Sidecar have not improved a thing. In fact, they have ruined what made Sidecar so great. It is sad to see a once great restaurant lose its luster.

But, let's talk about the food. Let me say this again: Sidecar is a steakhouse. I ordered my steak medium-rare. I guess they changed the chef along with the menu and decor because this chef does not know what medium rare is. The steak was way over done. I admit that I share some blame for not sending the steak back and asking for it to be re-cooked. However, when you are at dinner with 5 other people, sending something back is a little too pretentious for me. Also, Sidecar used to have the best creamed spinach I had ever tasted. Not sure what happened to the recipe, but the creamed spinach that we were served was watery and gross. We could not eat it. Finally, I thought one of the things that they teach you in Restaurant Cooking 101 is that all the food for a table should come out of the kitchen at the same time. Well, the new chef at Sidecar should get a refund from his culinary school: Four entrees came out and everyone at the table waited a good three to five minutes before the last two entrees came to the table. (Another reason why I didn't send the steak back).

There is one bright spot -- the raw bar. Sidecar still has an excellent selection of fresh oysters.

If you find yourself in New York, I highly recommend a burger, a beer and fries at P.J. Clarke's -- the original on 55th and 3rd, not one of the new locations. I wish that I could also highly recommend Sidecar (like I used to), but I just can't.

At our wedding, we included a brief history of P.J. Clarke's and Sidecar on the menu. Johnny Mercer wrote One for My Baby at P.J. Clarke's bar on the back of a napkin. I leave you with the definitive version of this song.



Sidecar
205 East 55th Street
New York, NY 10022-4001
(212) 317-2044
www.pjclarkes.com


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