To Market, To BLT Market
Laurent Tourondel’s Expanding Empire
by John Mariani

Laurent Tourondel probably never had in mind opening a place like BLT Market when he was a young cook back in France, working with three-star chefs like Jacques Maximin and the Troisgros brothers and having made his own reputation in NYC at the haute seafood restaurant Cello a few years back.

But then he also probably never imagined opening the restaurant that made his fortune, BLT Steak, which means "Bistro Laurent Tourondel Steak" and which he debuted in 2004 as a French riff on a traditional American steakhouse and did so with such panache that there's rarely been an empty seat since. It also spawned BLT Fish downtown in 2005, a very commendable turn on both the casual and serious American seafood house.

At that time I began to wonder just how far Tourondel could go with the BLT brand, writing, "There are already plans to open BLT Prime this fall, and that worries me. One can only wonder if next year he'll open BLT Veggie. You can stretch a sauce too thin, and I hope success doesn't translate into multi-units in multi-cities. Time will tell."

Well, now the BLT brand, owned by Tourondel and two partners, is expanding rapidly, with BLT Burger, also in NYC, and branches of BLT Steak in Washington, DC, and San Juan, and more to open in the next year, in L.A.; White Plains, NY; Dallas; and Miami.

So, I worry. Especially because his newest venture in NYC is a far more expansive concept than the rest. Located in The Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, BLT Market is devoted to seasonality and the provender of the marketplace, not just the butcher or fishmonger. The 100-seat L-shaped dining area looks great, if a little incongruous in this neighborhood. To flip the old cliché, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in New York anymore," BLT Market looks a lot more like Kansas than Manhattan, as if Martha Stewart and Paula Dean battled it out over farmhouse decor. The design, by Michael Bagley, has a wide oak plank floor made to look worn, fluted walls, spidery chandeliers, reclaimed country furniture, and antique farm tools in a nicely lighted atmosphere given punches of color from some huge paintings of fruits and vegetables by artist Marilyn Sommer. Too bad the bare tables are topped with chintzy paper mats: At prices that range from $12 to $25 for appetizers and $26 to $43 for entrées, some colorful country-patterned tablecloths or at least some woven place mats are called for.

You can also buy a wide range of artisanal food products sold here, from spiced dill pickles to salt water taffy. The winelist is just as hefty as it needs to be, with more than enough good American bottlings and a large number of global labels, too.

There is no pretense that Tourondel himself is back there brining the pickles: Chef de cuisine David Malbequi is in charge of the kitchen, and he turns out a very rich menu of old favorites done with considerable flair, and the size of the menu–six starters, plus soup, pasta, and risotto, and 7 main courses, with nightly specials–is ideal for a place this size. Down the side of the menu are listed ingredients that are "Peak in Season," right now salsify, sunchokes, black trumpet mushrooms, black cod, pomegranates, and much else. Unfortunately his crew has a heavy hand with salt, which marred the appreciation of those first-rate ingredients used here.

No one leaves hungry: Start off with some very good charcuterie to go with a loaf of warm bread stuffed with garlic, in a paper sleeve, as they do in New Orleans. You get a sizable slab of seared duck foie gras with a Jurançon grape vinaigrette and quince purée–the acids and sweetness nicely balanced. Raw hamachi with avocado, cilantro purée, and a cucumber and McIntosh apple vinaigrette is a lovely, light rendering, pristinely fresh, while simply steamed jumbo stone crabs ($15 each) came with a lemon mousseline for dipping. Nantucket bay scallops, now hitting their peak, were a little fussed over with caramelized walnuts, watercress, endive, and an assertive blue cheese, and agnolotti filled with duck in a fennel-anise-beurre blanc was good but a little went a long way. There was a lot of flavor in wild mushroom manicotti with a gratin topping and sage brown butter, but, wow, was it rich!

The best of the main courses was a pistachio-crusted loin of excellent, lightly gamy venison, with salsify and Brussels sprouts and some welcome cranberry counterpoints. Also good was a pan-seared red snapper with braised Savoy cabbage and orange-scented polenta. Roast rack of lamb with a porcini-artichoke ragoût and pommes dauphine were acceptably French in style, but two orders of Amish chicken stuffed with too much rosemary and lemon confit were dry and salty, and the shoestring potatoes a little oily.

For dessert there is an old Tourondel favorite–a caramelized crêpe soufflé he made famous at BLT Steak, along with some downright yummy honey crisp apple cake with Calvados caramel. A chestnut floating island was only a tad better than most renditions of this fluffy classic item. They also offer a cheese each night made by a local farmer–but at $14, that's one expensive cheese.

On a Monday evening BLT Market was hopping, with a mixed crowd of New Yorkers and out-of-towners, most in casual clothes, who came to eat seriously and well and very much of the season. If the kitchen holds back on the salt, those wonderful just-arrived ingredients will really shine.

BLT Market is hitting on all cylinders right now, but I only hope that Tourondel pays as much or more attention to this property as he does to expanding others from here to Tipperary.

John Mariani is well known for his frank and poignant writing in Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink and co-author, with his wife, of the Italian-American Cookbook.