Restaurant
Central Park
Dovetail
Vegetable-loving chef John Fraser is once again basting beets at his Upper West Side restaurant, Dovetail. The acclaimed — and Michelin-starred — restaurant reopened in 2015 after just over a month of renovations, and a lot has changed in that time. With over a decade in the kitchen here, a second restaurant, Narcissa, under his belt, and the 'vegetable-inspired' Nix in Greenwich Village, Fraser decided the time was ripe to revamp the menu and ask questions about what his team was cooking and why. At Dovetail 2.0, which has ditched à la carte (you can still order it at the bar) for tasting and prix fixe formats, Fraser’s approach is more clarified and focused, the culmination of a years-long shift toward a vegetable-focused, California-cuisine sensibility. “When I started this vegetable journey, we were interested in making them mimic meat, using lots of barbecue sauces,” Fraser says. “After a while, I became more interested in making the best mushroom dish or what have you.” The menu is also geared to the pleasure principle, eschewing avant-garde technique or combinations in favor of cooking that nods to backyard summer dishes, like grilled blue foot mushrooms or a scramble on toast with delectable king trumpet mushrooms. — Chris Crowley
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