December 14, 2007

Chasing Tail

Dovetail Restaurant Opens

Nothing like a little sleet to make you lose your cool.

Nothing like a nice meal to make it all better.

For the latter, head to Dovetail, the new Upper West Side townhouse restaurant opening this weekend or early next week (depending whether ConEd is feeling Santa or Scrooge).

Chef John Fraser (co-founder of Snack Taverna, two-starrer of Compass) has assembled a dizzyingly detailed menu: gnocchi with black truffles, veal short ribs, prunes, and pecorino; scallops with fennel, blood orange hollandaise, and marcona almonds; and his signature oysters Rockefeller with egg, lobster, pancetta, champagne, and caviar. (Fraser won’t use any ingredient more than once.)

Go for afternoon tea on the weekend (starting in January) or the prix fixe Sunday supper. Have dinner in the exposed-brick wall dining room or the intimate nook downstairs. Order from the extensive sherry list.

You’ll want to stay awhile.

Dovetail, 103 West 77th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues (212-362-3800).