IF SHO Shaun Hergatt doesn’t light a fire under the dining millions, the terrorists will have won. Snicker, if you must, over the cliché. But of all the liabilities that beset this remarkable new place named for a chef few New Yorkers know, the worst is the security-mad war zone around SHO’s home at 40 Broad St.
What a pity if it scares anyone away from some of the most original new dishes south of Columbus Circle. Yet, the bleak environment around the place, and a grasp of the challenges it faces, make it all the more pleasurable once you brave the mess outside and give in to Hergatt’s spell.
SHO cost a fortune to launch on the second floor of the Setai condominium in the heart of the Wall Street area, just as Wall Street was collapsing. Construction woes delayed the opening by six months.
To protect the New York Stock Exchange up the block, the NYPD built a bizarre vehicle turnstile, attended by cops and bomb-sniffing dogs, in the middle of the street steps south of the Setai. It broke down and now no vehicles can pass at all. For good measure, a jungle gym-like scaffold hides the restaurant.
But buried behind the horror show is a sprawling, 12,500-square-foot, neo-Zen pleasure palace with a vaguely Asian air and a zillion dollars well-spent worth of mahogany, mother-of-pearl, Brazilian walnut, Tibetan fabrics, bronze, terrazzo and red Thai silk.
You reach the dining room after a stroll through a maze of beautiful bars, lounges, a communal-table room and floor-to-ceiling walls of wine. The surface of an infinity pool is so still, one guest lost his laptop when he set it down on what he thought was glass.
The main eating area is divided into two warmly lit spaces with American walnut floors, white tablecloths and red accents. They face a glassed-in open kitchen that’s turning out the most remarkable meals ever served south of Chambers Street.
Hergatt last cooked in New York under Gabriel Kreuther (who now runs The Modern) at the old Atelier in the Ritz-Carlton. Then he moved briefly to the Setai in Miami, where I had a meal so good a few years ago, I couldn’t believe it was Miami.
His best dishes on Broad Street are possessed of the same deceptively simple clarity of presentation and lightness of bearing that inform Thomas Keller’s work at Per Se. Australian-born Hergatt calls his menu “modern French with Asian accents,” which gives little hint of what’s in store — a weave of impeccably sourced raw materials, combined on plates with not more than three or four elements at once but yielding revelatory flavor effects.
The menu’s replete with ginger, kaffir lime, Thai basil, galangal and darling little hon shemiji mushrooms. But meat and fish wear their Asian mantles lightly; nothing is ever overwhelmed for exoticism’s sake.
If you saw Hergatt demonstrate how to make salt-pressed Tasmanian ocean trout on “The Early Show” last week, you’d never guess how this salmon-free gravlax tickles the palate: The deep-pink fish alternates in layers with slices of Nashi pear just sweet and acidic enough to parry the oceanic essence.
Over-marination or plain overcooking sapped the moisture from yogurt-ized poussin. But biting into lightly fried, crisp but batter-less zucchini blossoms, we smiled at the sweet intensity of minced blue prawns tucked inside. Filet of steamed black bass, beautiful to behold and gossamer on the tongue, is bathed in a rounded broth with notes of soy, ginger and scallions that lend playful steps to the dance; a crunchy rice wafer adds kaffir lime and lemongrass to the harmony.
A kaleidoscopic “citrus palette” tops pastry chef Mina Pizarro’s desserts. A grand lady, Emilie Garvey, presides over a grand wine list. But some waiters need to have their power turned down; too many “are the flavors to your liking?” intrusions wreck the casual mood.
Prices are a relative bargain for cooking at this level. At lunch, appetizers are $12 to $18 and main courses $25 to $36; at dinner, it’s prix fixe only — underpriced at $57 for two courses, $69 for three. There’s also a $30, three-course lunch option, but it offers only a single choice in each category.
SHO Shaun Hergatt might have opened a year too late. But so did Corton and Marea, both of which are ambitious, expensive and thriving. Get there now before it’s done in by hard times — or until, let’s hope, it becomes too hot to get in at any time.
scuozzo@nypost.com
SHO SHAUN HERGATT
At the Setai 40 Broad St.
212-809-3993