I recently had an after-work dinner with a friend at The Tuck Room and found myself pleasantly surprised to know there is an upscale cocktail bar and restaurant found on the second floor of the iPic movie chain in South Street Seaport. When I peruse through the menu of The Tuck Room, it’s filled with pages of various cocktails that primarily contains New York State spirits and produce.
We chose a few drinks like its namesake Old Fashioned, luxe meaning it’s made with better bourbon (Elijah Craig 18-Year Old Single Barrel) and it does make a smoother cocktail. The from the heizenberg, Luxe Cocktail is essentially an infusion process for the day and the spirits and flavors changes daily. That evening, it’s Lowland Scotch, cherry, blood orange tea for the luxe cocktail option and my waiter informed me that I have two options as to how to have my drink — either made Blood and Sand style or in a fizz form. I chose the former for craving the sweeter end since Lowland Scotch tends to be very smoky for my palate. It did result as a spirit-forward cocktail and it the cherry and smoky flavors were upfront.
I truly enjoyed the off-menu drink called the Velvet Underground, after I wanted a lighter spirit (gin), something refreshing and fruit forward. The Velvet Underground is a citrus-y, yuzu forward drink cocktail. The beverage director, Adam informed me that the cocktail is layered – the bottom of the glass has the saffron infused gin, layered with the yuzu sour and topped off with a Brooklyn-based brewery, Grimm Ale. It’s a great summer drink.
As for the food, while we were dining during Restaurant Week(s) but we stuck with the regular menu. The food menu is limited compared to the cocktails but it’s still good and satisfying to go with your drinks.
The Reuben croquettes were easy to like with the fried orbs of crispy pastrami and Swiss cheese, dotted with some sauerkraut and laid on a swathe of “thousand island” sauce to complete the fried version of the iconic sandwich. The brioche crusted crab cakes tasted fine and could be crisped a little more and it looked like dainty crab cake sandwiches. The Avocado, reads more interesting on the menu than what we had. It’s a grilled avocado that’s stuffed with cotija cheese, fried shallots, and breadcrumbs but I couldn’t taste any potent finger lime pearls. But it’s still a very good schmear for the soft bibb lettuce leaves and dip for the crispy cheese and herb crackers.
As for the main courses, we has the Tuck Room marrow burger that is a very solid smoked cheddar cheeseburger that’s topped with bone marrow aioli and candied espelette bacon. I’ve asked for truffle fries on the side and while the flavors were good, the fries were unfortunately soggy. The Scarlet Pepper Steak, a grilled strip loin topped with sour peppers with a side of Vidalia onion rings was very tasty. The steak was cooked perfectly to a medium-rare temperature and the piquant spicy pepper flavors permeated the meat nicely. The onion rings were delicious and I would like to have more of them.
We were pretty full at this point of the evening but we shared the banana split tart. I usually don’t care for banana desserts but this tart changed my mind as the bananas weren’t mushy. The brûlée on the bananas added enough crispy texture and banana caramel gelato pairing was sublime. I didn’t care much for the rainbow sprinkled sugar cookie since I never cared for those cookies. Otherwise, the dessert was great.
Overall, the dinner was good. Drinks is the prime reason to come and stay here. The food is good but I personally adored the dessert more. The service is very attentive and always checked up on us at the right time.
For more photos, please CLICK HERE for the complete sets or see below for the dining photos:
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Information:
The Tuck Room
Website
11 Fulton Street
New York, NY 10038
Phone: (212) 776-8273
