My spouse and I dined at Aureole for dinner on a Saturday
evening in early August 2019. Aureole is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner
on Mondays through Saturdays (closed on Sundays). Diners can book a spot using the online Resy reservation
system.
Since 2009, Aureole is located on the street level of the
Bank of America Tower on West 42st
Street (between Broadway and 6th Avenues) on the street level of the
Luma Hotel. (Prior to 2009, Aureole occupied a turn-of-the-century brownstone
on the Upper East Side for 20 years.) Present-day Aureole is located a half-block from Bryant Park (with the
main branch of the New York Public Library at its far end). The restaurant is
also located steps from the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (with its entrance on West
43rd Street) because of a passageway that leads between the numbered
streets mid-block.
Charlie Palmer is the chef
behind Aureole, the flagship property of his restarant group. He operates other
restaurants in NYC (Crimson and Rye [where we dined in May 2018], Charlie Palmer
Steak/Spyglass Rooftop Bar [at the Archer Hotel], Charlie Palmer/St.
Cloud/Jakes [at the Knickerbocker Hotel]), DC (Charlie Palmer Steak), Nevada
(Aureole and Charlie Palmer Steak), and California (Charlie Palmer Steak, Dry
Creek Kitchen, Sky and Vine Rooftop Bar, Hotel Heraldsburg, Spirit Bar).
Aureole offers several spaces in which to dine: the al-fresco
seasonal patio located on the covered passageway between West 42nd
and West 43rd Streets), the bar area which adjoins the more casual
Liberty Room dining space, and the main dining room. The patio area offers
seating at small regular-height tables, a high-top communal table, or in a
casual lounge sofa grouping. Enormous windows in the high-ceilinged expansive Liberty
Room (with its zinc-topped bar) overlook bustling West 42nd Street,
although some diners may find the electronic billboard across the street and/or
the foot and vehicle traffic distracting. The formal rear dining room offers more
intimate seating at tables that ring the room (some of which share a long
padded banquette on one side) or at stand-alone tables in the center of the
space, which is dominated by a large but attractive service station in the
middle.
Aureole serves New American cuisine. In the dining room, guests
make choices from a three-course prix-fixe menu. (We expected to be offered a
more extensive chef’s tasting menu as well, but we were not and did not
inquire.) Servers delivered a yummy amuse bouche, as well as offered a choice
of three bread options. As our starters, we selected the chive cavatelli (with
fava beans and braised octopus) and an amazing egg/caviar/creamed spinach concoction.
For entrees, we ordered the scallops (served atop a saffron puree with
hazelnuts and cauliflower) and the lamb (served with a bean and asparagus
cassoulet and smoked eggplant). For dessert, we chose the cheese plate (one of
the nicest we’ve seen anywhere) and the deconstructed peach cobbler with
buttermilk ice cream. Because we were celebrating a birthday, one dessert presentation
was appropriately celebratory. Besides the two dessert dishes, staff delivered
a plate of six mignardises at the same time. (We found this timing odd, as we
usually receive petit-fours when we receive our bill.) We sampled a delicious
non-alcoholic beverage called “Dirt Candy”, which featured beet juice and fizzy
soda water. (We loved the fact that the drinks menu offered at least six
alcohol-free options, when so many other restaurants overlook them.) The food
was equally beautiful and delicious and worthy of the restaurant’s one Michelin
star. In the Liberty Room (as in the bar or on the patio), guests can order
from an a la carte menu rather than a tasting menu.
Although we enjoyed our meal at Aureole (the food and
service were excellent), we missed the buzz of a more energetic (and crowded) restaurant.
