![]() Instead, he makes news by winning the judges’ vote at the South Beach Burger Bash. Murphy obviously has talent, and you have to wonder what he could do, if he ventured outside of his comfort zone. The menus at these restaurants don’t change very often, and they hew mainly to readily recognized comfort-food classics that don’t challenge the diner. That was the formula too, when he cloned his Tribeca hit Landmarc at the Time-Warner Center. Rather than try his hand at something new, he replicated a concept that was already successful downtown. Murphy is obviously not a risk-taker, in more ways than one. It’s not that chef Marc Murphy is doing anything original, but a civilized restaurant from a chef with some ability, where you can dine happily on $20 entrées, deserves a shout-out. The critics will ignore it, because it’s a clone of Ditch Plains in the West Village, which is now five years old. Ditch Plains in the West Village remains open.ĭitch Plains opened last month on the Upper West Side. Note: Ditch Plains on the Upper West Side closed in September 2014, due to an unaffordable rent increase. These prices aren’t out of line for the location, but even after eating and drinking without excess, you’ll still be well over $200 a couple, for food that’s well made but not very memorable. Cocktails are $16, and most of the entrées-sorry, “large plates”-are over $30. No one will confuse Kingside for the bargain Landmarc used to be. If you replicate Landmarc’s cuisine, dial up the volume, and do it well, what do you get? Welcome to Kingside, Murphy’s latest production, a big, bold brasserie in the Viceroy Hotel, a few doors down from Carnegie Hall. We liked Ditch plains, but there’s no mistaking what it is. His next project, a two-restaurant chain called Ditch Plains, did for the seafood shack what Landmarc had done for American comfort food. ![]() A few years later, both Landmarcs were just serving gussied-up shopping mall food, with shopping mall service to match.ĭespite training in “some of the most highly esteemed kitchens in the world from Paris to Monte Carlo” (so says the website), Murphy’s ambitions remained decidedly low-brow. The crowds at the original Tribeca Landmarc subsided, as they always do at hot restaurants. The French-trained chef, Marc Murphy, parlayed the success to a second Landmarc in the Time-Warner Center, in the space Charlie Trotter was once supposed to occupy. Nowadays, another place like that opens every week. Eater and Grub Street didn’t exist then, but if they had, Landmarc would have soared right to the top of the “Where To Eat Now” lists.ĭiners endured hour-long waits for cuisine that wasn’t especially inventive or clever, just comfort-food classics really well made in a casual room. ![]() It’s almost forgotten now, but in 2004 Landmarc was happening.
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