FORGET about Friday night. And Saturday. New Yorkers in the know are saving their big summer outings for Sunday night. What’s brought about this revival of the sit-down, end-of-the-week meal, a tradition that recalls mom’s roast beef and and Normal Rockwell paintings? A host of dining and drinking deals, offered only on Sundays, at hip and high-end establishments all over town.
Alfred Portale introduced his first-ever dining deal at swanky Gotham Bar & Grill just three weeks ago. Each Sunday until Labor Day, everything on his menu drops to 1980s prices.
“New Yorkers love a deal,” Portale says. “Because of [the low] pricing we get people that might not come to the restaurant normally.”
Bar Bao’s “Sunday Family Feast” started a month ago and has been so successful that it’s now a permanent weekly fixture, attracting many locals to the Upper West Side spot.
“We felt it was a good idea to create a night that focused on our neighborhood regulars,” says Luke L’heureux, Bar Bao’s direc
tor of operations.
Even non-traditional cuisine like sushi is suddenly getting a Sunday dinner spin.
One month ago Midtown Japanese restaurant Inakaya slashed their prices by 20 percent on Sundays. The result? The number of diners is also up by 20 percent, says general manager Yu Koyama.
But this trend isn’t just a way to pull in more patrons. Brad Farmerie, chef and co-owner at Public, offers a five-course meal to Sunday diners because “it gives the kitchen a chance to experiment and create new recipes — and patrons [can] try a whole variety of dishes.”
In other words, it’s a win-win situation: Restaurateurs fill up a dining room on a traditionally quiet night — and you get a great meal without blowing the budget before the week even starts. So quit sitting at home worrying about work tomorrow and slip into a martini.
Bar Bao
100 W. 82nd St.; 212-501-0776
* The deal: $28 for three courses
* The dish: The three-course dinner varies each week but can include dishes from the regular menu, such as the summer rolls (regularly $8), succulent short ribs (regularly $12) and Saigon noodles (regularly $16). One-off dishes like prawns and snapper cooked in an iron pot, not to mention a decadent Thai chili chocolate gelato sundae, are also well worth trying.
Marc Forgione
134 Reade St.; 212-941-9401
* The deal: $15 burger and a beer
* The dish: Since February, Marc Forgione has been treating TriBeCa locals to one heck of a burger come Sunday night. Made with Creekstone Ranch prime hanger steak and enhanced with a slice of aged cheddar cheese, crispy North Country bacon, caramelized onions, a top-secret sauce and a handmade potato roll, the burger was an unintentional concoction.
“I created it by accident, when using up some leftover steak tartare,” Forgione says.
Vegetarians or low-carbers can take advantage of the other deal of the day: a three-course prix-fixe that includes everything on the regular menu for $35.
Gotham Bar & Grill
12 E. 12th St.; 212-620-4020
* The deal: Dishes from the restaurant’s ’80s menus, all at their original prices
* The dish: To celebrate the 25th anniversary of this venerable East Village boite, executive chef Alfred Portale turns back the clock every Sunday and churns out dishes he first created in the ’80s. Classic plates include 1985’s lobster fettuccini ($17), 1988’s angel food cake with strawberries ($12), and goat cheese ravioli from 1985 ($12).
The entire menu, which will be available until Labor Day, has been an instant hit with New Yorkers. “Last week we did nearly 300 dinners,” says Portale. “And it’s a fantastic deal. The food is marvelous.”
Dovetail
103 W. 77th St.; 212-362-3800
* The deal: $38 for three courses
* The dish: Dovetail’s “Sunday Suppa” helps John Fraser and his team of cooks get excited about the week ahead. “After Saturday night, we’re maxed out,” Fraser says. “So it’s a way to keep the intensity up, to experiment. We now have people that have come 20 times on a Sunday. And we get out-of-towners, too.” The menu changes every week (it always includes up to 12 appetizers and eight to 10 entrees), but the dishes are the same size as any other night of the week when entrees can cost up to $43.
Recent choices have included crab ravioli, duck hearts with polenta and sirloin and beef cheek lasagna.
A bigger, five-course menu is also available for $70; and both options are permanent Sunday fixtures.
The Red Cat
227 10th Ave.; 212-242-1122
* The deal: $30 for three courses, one of which contains pork.
* The dish: The Red Cat in Chelsea has hosted its “Classic Rock Sunday Swine and Sangria Supper” for years. And while the menu changes ever so slightly from time to time, the basic tenets are the same: Organically raised suckling pig is served in some form or other — and classic rock (think Leo Sayer and Linda Ronstadt) is blasted throughout the dining room.
At the moment the menu (served from 5 to 10 p.m.) is made up of striped bass ceviche, pork tacos and caramel fried ice cream; pitchers of sangria are an additional $30.
“People like the idea of being together,” says executive chef Bill McDaniel, “and at a restaurant like ours, [Sunday night is] all about family and fun.”
Public
210 Elizabeth St.; 212-343-7011
* The deal: $50 for five courses
* The dish: The menu at Brad Farmerie’s five-course “Sunday Supper” changes every week. Recent dishes included pork belly on cauliflower puree, seared tuna with crispy taro and lavender créme brulée — depending on what’s in the refrigerator.
“The ingredients come in on Saturday, and the chefs have to set their menu within a day to make use of what’s fresh,” explains the Michelin-star chef. If a dish is good enough, it gets moved onto the regular menu where appetizers cost up to $19 and main courses average $26.
Inakaya
231 W. 40th St.; 212-354-2195
* The deal: 20 percent off nigiri, sushi and sashimi
* The dish: This Midtown restaurant specializes in robatayaki (Japanese barbecue), a style of cooking that’s “not so popular here,” admits general manager Yu Koyama. “But we want to introduce our customers to it.”
So four weeks ago Inakaya started serving its sushi for 20 percent off on Sundays (5 to 10 p.m.). Koyama recommends first-timers order the fatty tuna or bluefin tuna (usually $11 per piece) or sushi chef Hiroshi Yonashiro’s assorted sushi dish: seven pieces of sushi nigiri, including tuna, crab, salmon belly and seared Wagyu beef (usually $39).
“Since we started, the number of diners is up by maybe 20 percent on Sundays,” Koyama says. “Most people try our barbecue at the same time. So we plan on doing it every Sunday!”
Boqueria
171 Spring St.; 212-343-4255
* The deal: $35 for three courses, plus wine or sangria
* The dish: Executive chef Seamus Mullen is serving his “Domingo Familiar,” a three-course, family-style meal at both Boqueria Soho and Boqueria Flatiron until the end of summer. It includes ensalada de achicoria (a salad made with frisée lettuce, soft-cooked egg, radishes and anchovy vinaigrette); cochinillo lechal (suckling pig served with wild mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and braised greens); and a custard flan to finish. Rose or sangria come gratis, too.
“Sunday meals in Spain are a time when the whole family gets together, the weekend winds down and there is always a great meal on the table,” Mullen says. “So this is our tribute to the slow, yummy closing of the weekend with friends and family. It’s a great deal and a wonderful way to end a summer day.”
The Harrison
355 Greenwich St.; 212-274-9310
* The deal: $39 for three courses
* The dish: This TriBeCa eatery is best known for seasonal American dishes, but on Sundays from 5 to 10 p.m., chef Amanda Freitag eschews the restaurant’s typical fare for a traditional Italian feast. First up, a grilled Caesar salad, then a bowl of rigatoni with homemade sausage, meatballs and pulled pork in a red sauce, followed by a different dessert each week.
“When I first started at the Harrison, I wanted to totally separate myself from Italian cooking,” says Freitag, who previously cooked at Gusto and Cesca. “But I could not keep my meatballs a secret. And since they’re one of my favorite things to make, Sunday Supper has become a very special thing for me. It’s a hugely satisfying meal.”
Allen & Delancey
115 Allen St.; 212-253-5400
* The deal: $76 for a three-course meal for two
* The dish: Diners jonesing for a home-cooked meal that
requires no home cooking should head to Allen & Delancey for its month-old “Home Style Sunday Dinner” that runs until Labor Day.
“We wanted a menu that was simple and satisfying,” says Mary Feldman, founder of the four-year-old, Michelin-star boite. “A perfectly roasted chicken is just plain feel good food.” A greenmarket salad, various sides and a berry shortcake (made with seasonal berries) round out the three-course meal.
“Sunday is the perfect night to relax with friends and enjoy a nice hearty meal,” adds Feldman. “There’s no stress. Especially when you leave it up to the restaurant to do all the cooking and clean up!”