Culinary delights

By Matt Haley
Special to the Coastal Point

I was in New York City last week, having a low-key hang-out time, and I thought: “What a great thing to write about!”

I had some people ask me recently about my favorite places to eat in NYC, and instantly I thought of Prune, my favorite place to eat when I am up there. This is a good place to write about and then maybe compare similarities it to my new favorite place to eat here at the beach — Jules on 120th Street in Ocean City.

Prune is a little place on the corner of 1st and 1st in the East Village, simply serving some of the best food I have ever eaten. The chef/owner’s name is Gabrielle Hamilton and she is a very well-known chef in NYC and around the country.

The menu there is pretty straight-forward in some areas and pretty far out in others. But for me it is pretty much the perfect menu.

I always order the sweetbreads in lemon butter, capers and bacon, followed by fresh sardines or seared monkfish liver on crouton and butter. Bry likes the salads and sides, and when they do mixed greens it is simply mixed greens with oil and lemon, and it’s awesome. The sides, such as three potato mash, braised celery or cauliflower in brown butter, are as natural-tasting as any vegetable could be.

The thing that Prune does is bring out the natural flavors in all there products without trying to overachieve. When they do roasted marrow bones, they are simply roasted, as is, and served with a baby spoon. (There is a name for that spoon, but I can’t spell it.) To me, that is true art, taking as few steps as possible with what is usually not thought of as an option and turning it into perfection.

At Prune they also offer great steaks, whole fish, roasted suckling pig and grilled jumbo shrimp for those not as familiar with the rest of the menu items. If you ever go there, ask for Cynthia as a server and follow her suggestions — and please be adventurous.

I stumbled on Jules on 120th Street a few weeks ago when I was buying a cup of coffee and picking up a movie in OC. It reminds me a lot of NorthEast Seafood Kitchen’s location — just a little off the beaten path and a place you would probably do a double-take on — but once inside, fantastic.

I met one of the owners, Adam, once years ago at Bluecoast and remember having a great conversation with him about food and philosophies on food. He had talked about opening his own restaurant, and it seems he has not only opened it but has opened one of the great ones, in my opinion.

His partner, Rebecca, runs the front of the house and he the back. My first night there, I ran the table on appetizers and was floored. The scallops wrapped in applewood bacon, with a corn hash, were awesome. I still am trying to figure out how he wrapped the bacon so perfectly.

My crabcake appetizer was the best crabcake I have ever had; the fois gras was perfect — and so on down the menu. I would go on, but you need to just go because it’s right down the street. Find out for yourselves how good the whole fish flash-fried is. The staff was great, efficient, nice and — most importantly — unpretentious.

Since I am not a critic and don’t want to be, I will get to the point of the column — which is to compare the similarities of great restaurants and what I look for in a great restaurant, or what I don’t look for. For example, I had no idea I would write an article about these two restaurants until after I ate there. The fact is that, at both restaurants, I felt comfortable and happy to be there without thinking about it.

You see, a critic is looking for something that I think messes it up from the get go. When I go out, I pretty much just like people who create great food, service and a comfortable setting just by staying true to themselves and their art. These places buy quality products and prepare them with straightforward standards. Both places have chefs/owners who cook for people — not ego — and both have very relaxed comfortable atmospheres. And let’s not forget they both also have great upscale bar menus.

That’s it. Don’t forget New York City is not that far away, nor is Ocean City. It’s nothing to jump in the car and drive up I-95 to the parkway and be in SoHo in a few hours and eat at some of the best restaurants in the world. But it is also pretty easy to drive a little south to OC and eat just as well.

Matt Haley is a chef and a co-owner of restaurants BlueCoast in North Bethany, NorthEast Seafood Kitchen in Ocean View and Fish On! in Lewes. Haley hosts a monthly food chat at Booksandcoffee in Dewey Beach on the third Tuesday of every month, at 7 p.m. His new television show, “Food Chat with Matt Haley,” airs on the Resort Video Guide channel from Comcast Cable. Haley’s food column is a new monthly feature of the Coastal Point. For more information on each month’s column, or to submit a question, visit the SolDel Web sites at www.sodelconcepts.com.