Cafe Select

A conversation among friends:

M: I think last night was a Monday night record.

Ray LeMoine: That should be your average Monday! Cafe Select is my favorite "cafe" in New York. I can’t think of another better one, at least downtown.

M: I'm Cafe Select's new, biggest fan. Thanks for the introduction. I know we partied there a few months back, but I'd been meaning to try the food. Lately I've been on a kick to find places where I can just stroll up solo, sit at the bar, drink some (two liters?) wine, chat with a bartender, make new friends and feel perfectly comfortable. Did it at Great Jones the other week and it’s going to be my new M.O. in 2009. Cafe Select is the same kind of place. It’s a challenge to find a spot that's equally as fun to eat in as it is to go out to. Had it been a Friday or a Saturday night, it would have been very easy (crowd permitting) to segue from spaetzle and schnitzel to vodka in the annex behind the kitchen. I walked my friend, TriGirl, to the back to show her the two-tiered cave and it was like I showed her the Oval Office. It was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.

RL: I like Select’s slightly tricky layout and retro-modern aesthetic. There’s a nice quality to the furnishings -- weird light fixtures, marble (?) bar top, ‘70s looking glass and steel wine case, shiny, black leather booths, candles, nice glassware and dishes. It's high-concept, with a table in the kitchen and the secret bar in the back (complete with an upper deck), but still low-key, kind of like Blue Ribbon meets Lil’ Frankies at design school.

M: Per your (and your waitress friend Fleur's) rec, I would order the exact same thing again, minus the veal with rösti and onion sauce, although the hash browns (crispy and well done) and onions (sweet like French onion soup, minus the broth) were pretty sick. The side of spaetzle was perfectly doughy and crispy. Probably the best I've ever had outside of Switzerland.


RL: Hating on the veal sausage comes at a price, Ms. Mona. That's my favorite thing on the menu! We also got the cheese tartlet and the mushroom puff, both of which I liked.

M: That cheese thing was incredible. I could have eaten one whole order myself. It was like a gooey, eggless quiche. Even the accompanying salad was good. I don’t usually like radishes, but I chomped them down in the light, sweet vinaigrette. Let’s not forget the chilled cauliflower salad.


RL: Oh right, the cauliflower salad, too. I think each appetizer was about $7 and the entrees float between the $14-20 range. Portions aren’t huge, but given the neighborhood (SoHo/Nolita borderlands), Select is good value.

M: Agreed. Yet somehow, even with the small-ish portions, I saved no room for dessert. I’m still kind of bummed we skipped it, but then there would have been less room for wine and late night bevs.

RL: I know I didn’t eat dessert because you made me eat the whole sausage!

M: Because you made me finish the entire schnitzel! Look at the size of that thing. It was enough for about four people. Thanks to parental guidance, I am really picky about this dish. Mom and Dad will have to accompany me in the near future to be the real judges, but until then, Select's schnitzel gets my stamp of approval. The veal was pounded to the perfect thickness and the breaded crust was just the right texture.


RL: As for the scene…The staff and crowd are drawn from the various nodes of Serge Becker-dom. Becker’s been around since the ‘80s. He was one of the people behind Area, “a nightclub that was like art,” as Glenn O’Brien wrote in the Times:

“It was riotously successful yet insanely oblivious to profit, and then suddenly it was gone — from a 13,000-square-foot nightclub with three bars, a swimming pool and a tank full of live sharks to a pile of pictures of a lost dream.”

At the time, all clubs in New York were music-themed, according to O’Brien, who is now the editor of Interview Magazine. The idea for Area was taken from Allen Ginsberg and the Beats’ “Be-ins” with a healthy dose of Andy Warhol. Every month Area changed themes, from, say, sex to skateboarding. This was circa 1983, and artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Michael Heizer and Jenny Holzer would contribute their artistic talents to the space. Basquiat, famous for his graffiti art, would come by to DJ, Heizer would drop off some earth art and Holzer did the windows. A book about the club is forthcoming. From Area you can see the germs of later Becker venues, like the sex-theater, The Box (which is around the corner from Select), and the secret Mexican restaurant, La Esquina, across the street.

M: A swimming pool with sharks? Jesus, dude. You’re like a walking almanac of New York City nightlife. Tell me more.

RL: I only know this because I once had to write about another Becker venue. So yeah, Cafe Select follows in this restaurant/club as art tradition. Becker is a co-owner with Oliver Stumm and Dominique Clausen from Touch of Class. I'm not too familiar with those guys, but know they all used to DJ and are all of Swiss origin, hence the Swiss theme.

M: That was my next question. I didn’t know where the Swiss theme came from when the name seems to lend nothing to the type of food, unlike Blaue Gans or Heidelberg, where you know you’re getting brats and beer.

R: Swiss in theme but New York in execution, right down to the staff, most of whom are drawn from the art and music scenes. But unlike the other local Becker venues, Select's not a velvet rope, guest-list scene. You can relax there with a bunch of people. Yes, there’s a heavy art, fashion, media contingent, but without the arrogance of, say, the morning PR crowd at Balthazar or dinners at Waverly. One suggestion: Select should have a DJ from 10 on.

M: I didn't realize Select was Becker's. That guy is genius. When he builds it, New York's elite party set will come. I've never been to La Esquina, but I've heard great things. And we all know I'm a fan of The Box, even if I only get in one out of every four times I try to go. Staff was great, obviously, although I definitely wouldn't have received the royal treatment had I not been with you, my friend. But yes, Fleur was a doll and our glasses were never empty. I think having a DJ from 10 on is a great idea. That would kind of up the ante and encourage people's minds to ditch the food coma.

R: Yeah, by about midnight it was slowing down at Select and we made the move to a place with a DJ.

M: Where did I buy those tequila shots? And where did you take us before we ended up at the final stop Beatrice?

R: We stopped at Merc Bar, for little reason other than taking shots -- pathetic for two “adults” on a Monday. Those shots did make all the fashion Euros at Beatrice (it was a holiday week) tolerable. Wait, actually the tequila made me angry at all the sensitive, European facial hair. Note to French men: the Orlando Bloom/swashbuckler look sucks. Note to French girls: call me: 646-575-1039.

M: Beatrice has been at the top of my list of places to go and I was too drunk to appreciate it. Typical. After TriGirl and her boyfriend didn't get in behind us, I was in a sour mood the rest of the night. My 1:30 a.m. cab ride from Lafayette to 104th St. was painful. Worth it, but painful. The world was spinning. I feel a new tradition for Monday funday coming on. What say you, Ray?