Commerce - Reviewed
**Two Stars
CAPSULE: Nostalgic for an old New York.
ADDRESS: 50 Commerce St., between Bedford and Barrow Sts.
PHONE: (212) 524-2301
DINNER: Mon.-Sat., 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.-11 p.m.
CUISINE: New American
VIBE: Charming tavern
OCCASION: Neighborhood dining; group dinner
DON’T-MISS DISH: Marinated fluke sashimi; red snapper with Thai-inspired herb broth
PRICE: Appetizers, $11-19; entrees, $23-44; desserts, $9-16
RESERVATIONS: Recommended
Cue the historical relevance of 50 Commerce St.: Nestled on a cobblestone-paved corner in Greenwich Village, this address has seen a Depression-era speakeasy, the 50-year-long run of the Blue Mill Tavern and a quintessential neighborhood haunt, Grange Hall. Did I mention a short-lived restaurant that resurrected the name of the Blue Mill Tavern?
If you've ever wondered what it was like to dine in the Village in the 1940s, step into Commerce. It's the newest incarnation of this landmark building. Co-owners Tony Zazula and chef Harold Moore, who met while working at Montrachet, have elegantly appointed the space with bronze sconces, an Art Deco Brunswick bar and restored wooden booths from the original Blue Mill Tavern.
The menus are presented in chintzy plastic slips, but this is not standard tavern fare. Trained under Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, chef Moore issues New American cuisine, rife with ambition and refinement.
Instead of the down-home comforts of meatloaf or a green bean casserole, you'll find a salad of "20 herbs and lettuces," sliced beef tataki and a market special of parsnip soup with black cherry foie gras and maple syrup gelée. There's even a full-time baker in the kitchen, exclusively devoted to a glorious assortment of housemade pretzels, olive rolls, crusty baguettes and brioches.
You could spend an evening just feasting on the bread basket, but then you'd miss out on a classically French arrangement of warm oysters luxuriating in a Champagne sauce, decked with leeks, caviar and slivers of potato. Or an exceptionally fresh appetizer of lime-marinated fluke sashimi, perfectly seasoned with fleur de sel and an herb-infused oil. There's also a fantastic treatment of crispy-skinned snapper, which gets a foamy rush of flavor from a green coconut-curry broth that's poured over the filet tableside...
Though there are a handful of successes on the menu, too many dishes amounted to overworked compositions with little payoff. A poached chicken breast, deprived of its skin, proved a bland centerpiece for a mushy assemblage of potato purée, mushrooms and a braised mixture of cabbage and brussel sprouts. A $52 steamed dorade for two offered no real flavor at all, sinking into a watery verjus scattered with plum tomatoes. Even worse, a stuffed veal breast was entirely obscured by a chalky stuffing and a heavy-handed tarragon mustard sauce.
Then there were misplaced sweet potato tortelloni doused in a pomegranate molasses, so cloying that they were better suited to the dessert menu. Pastry chef Josue Ramos conceives restrained desserts, the best of which was a cocoa-dusted chocolate mousse with dainty cubes of Champagne gelée and a velvety chocolate peanut butter marquise, grounded in a celery salad and salty peanuts.
Bent on proving his versatility and culinary repertoire, Moore overreaches with a self-conscious and pricey menu that feels notably out of sync with the informal tavern setting.
While the food hounds are currently packing into the cramped dining quarters, the handsome bar offers a welcome refuge for locals to sip old-school cocktails and fondly remember the building's storied past.
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