I have taken a rare weekday lunch to indulge since usually work gets in my way. I’ve met up with a friend and dined at Koloman. Koloman is Chef/Owner’s Markus Glocker’s new restaurant that opened in the Ace Hotel where The Breslin was in Fall 2022. Chef Glocker made his name over the years at his former French restaurant Bâtard.
The gorgeous backlit bar is what you’d see when you enter the restaurant from 29th Street and we were seated at the right of the pass seeing moments of theater, if you will, between the front of the house and the chefs and cooks and the beautiful food that’s getting plated and coming out to the tables.
As someone who does not drink a lot, especially during the day, I sincerely appreciate a bar that does make interesting non-alcoholic drinks. My silver tumbler of Alpine Swizzle (alpine herbs, pineapple, ginger, spices) was complex and robust with the herbs and spices used in the drink. My friend’s Koloman Spritz (in wine glass) is a refreshing and tart beverage of sparkling wine, orange, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise which is a nice contrast to the richer and heartier foods we will have.
For appetizers, we shared the duck liver parfait topped with a gelée that is a mix of Austrian and French dessert wines served with a two-inch thick, pillowy brioche that’s perfectly toasted. If I may nitpick, I prefer the slice of brioche cut to one inch and leave us with four halved toasts so I have enough bread to consume the entire luscious duck liver mousse. The grilled mushrooms dish is from the main course section of the lunch menu but I wanted some kind of vegetarian dish to supplement the meal. This dish was delicious and hearty. There’s five different mushrooms (giving a nice range of flavors and textures) and it’s on a rectangular bed of olive oil crushed potatoes.
We closed out the meal with coffee and a trio of classic Austrian desserts. The sacher torte was a delicious, dense chocolate cake and the side of schlag (whipped cream) topped with apricot jam to make it look like a poached egg. The latter looked cute. The apple strudel with buttermilk ice cream was solid and I appreciate the tart ice cream to contrast the dense pastry. The baked Lübeck marzipan topped with stripes of chocolate and flecked with smoked sea salt was an intensely almond pastry since they use 60-percent almond paste rather than mostly sugar.
Overall, it’s a very good lunch and we liked the pacing of the service and our waiter was knowledgeable of the food served. I would definitely consider stopping by for dinner sometime soon.
Information:
Koloman
Official Website
Inside the Ace Hotel at NoMad
16 W 29th St
New York, NY 10001