But the best education at this spectacular restaurant can be had simply by taking a seat at the narrow counter that borders the kitchen and asking the chef and co-owner, Marco Canora (formerly of Craft), about everything that he turns out.
Tracey Thorn, formerly of the British band Everything But the Girl (best known for its 1995 hit, "Missing"), wrote that column, a job she's held for the London-based weekly magazine after the publication of two critically acclaimed memoirs, "Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Tried to Be a Pop Star" (2013) and "Naked at the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing" (2015).
Outdoor seating (with wool blankets and heat lamps when it's chilly) lend it a European vibe, and executive chef Frank Ruta (formerly of the White House) creates everything from a terrific burger with shoestring fries to a refined Dover sole with passionfruit sabayon, leeks, and pea shoots.
This comes to us from Ben Silverman, formerly head of NBC Entertainment and producer of everything from The Office to, yes, Ugly Betty, and is well-acted, fun and engaging from the get-go.
Put the people formerly known as the audience at the heart of everything?
The dishes aren't fancy, as the owner, chef, host and most likely your waiter, Sébastien Aubert — formerly of Ivo & Lulu in SoHo — admits: "Everything we do is very simple".
Formerly of Whitestone, NY.
Formerly of Scarsdale, NY.
Formerly of Middletown, NJ.
