Eleven Madison Park, Redesigned

Before we visited the new Eleven Madison Park, I read the best article about the most earnest things about the redesign, and they’re just adorable. My favorite is the stairstep leading up into the dining room, which is made of all of the old kitchen’s steel appliances, melted down into an inch-high plank. They paid an artist to make that for them. And you have to read Chef Daniel Humm’s Instagram post about it.

Like, come on! You’ve never seen anything more earnest. And earnest really is the best way to describe it. I honestly just don’t think these Eleven Madison Park guys are doing anything more than trying to try. They just want to serve really great food in a beautiful space that means a lot to them. And they really, really want to make things special for you. I’ve been an EMP fangirl for a long time, but this visit was over the top for me.

It started when Will, the co-owner of the restaurant, came over to the table to talk to one of the friends I was eating with. He said to us, “I don’t know if you know this, but you’re dining with EMP royalty here.” I said, “Oh, don’t worry, he reminds us every day,” which delighted Will enough to make him come around the table to give me a hug.

My friend reminded Will that I’m infamous to him as the person who got a free meal from EMP back in the day because I complained on my blog that they didn’t make me feel special enough the first time I visited. Will said that oh yes, he remembers, because he was the one who emailed me after I posted my review.

I explained that I was a young princess back then who didn’t know any better and that they appropriately shamed me by giving me the best goddamned meal a girl has ever had when I came back for my comped visit. Will jokingly said that they would never again make the mistake of not giving me a kitchen tour, and I’m sure I turned eight shades of red.

And then, a couple of courses later, a server plopped a slice of orange cardstock beside my plate with the EMP signature of four leaves on it and said, “You’ll need this for later.”

I turned it over, and it was a hand-drawn Monopoly-style Chance card that read, “This card may be kept until needed or sold. GET INTO THE KITCHEN FREE.”

Can you believe that?! I have no idea if this is something they’ve given to other people or if they made it just for our table, but you can bet it made me feel WILDLY SPECIAL. And that’s why I keep returning to EMP and recommend it to everyone I know.

And now, onto the food!

The cocktails are lighted accented with the flavors of the fall menu under headings like celery root, squash, mushroom, and seaweed. They also have ice cubes from molds with the EMP signature leaves on them, and you know I love that attention to detail.

savory black-and-white cookies

roasted chestnuts (a chestnut shell filled with chestnuts and truffle), apples with foie gras caramel and almond-apple crumble, game pies with venison, liver, and blood sausage, and sweet potato tarts

smoked-sturgeon cheesecake with caviar

bread service

clams with fennel

mushroom carpaccio

foie gras with red cabbage

Kitchen tour! With little truffle cones that reminded me of the trdelniks you eat on the streets of Prague.

tilefish with parsnip and crème fraîche

lobster with potato and chanterelle

whole-roasted kabocha squash, wrapped in bacon and seaweed, doused in squash and seaweed and bacon broth

celery root

duck breast

dry-aged veal with pear

side of potatoes

side of kale

drizzling beer cheddar onto the pretzel bread

This was absolutely my favorite course, sort of because it was semi-gross? Like, the bread was almost still dough, and it was so rich it felt like a brick in your stomach, but it was dusted with super delicious mustard powder, and you KNOW that beer cheese was great . . . our table couldn’t stop talking about how weird but maybe good but totally weird it was.