Per Se is a
New American and French restaurant located at
The Shops at Columbus Circle
The Shops at Columbus Circle is an upscale shopping mall in Deutsche Bank Center, a skyscraper complex in Manhattan, New York City. It is located at Columbus Circle, next to the southwestern corner of Central Park.
Details
The shopping mall ...
, on the fourth floor of the
Deutsche Bank Center
Deutsche Bank Center (also One Columbus Circle and formerly Time Warner Center) is a mixed-use building on Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City. The building occupies the western side of Columbus Circle and straddles the border between ...
at 10
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York City, owned by chef
Thomas Keller
Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Founda ...
.
The
Chef de Cuisine
A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is ...
is Chad Palagi. Per Se has maintained three Michelin stars since the introduction of the New York City Guide in 2006.
Development
Thomas Keller
Thomas Aloysius Keller (born October 14, 1955) is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Founda ...
opened Per Se in February 2004. Keller also owns
The French Laundry
The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredie ...
and
Ad Hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.)
Com ...
in
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...
;
Bouchon
A bouchon is a type of restaurant found in Lyon, France, that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, coq-au-vin, "salade lyonnaise" duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as ''nouvelle cuisi ...
in
Napa Valley
Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...
,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; and
Bouchon Bakery in Napa Valley. According to Keller's website, he is "the first and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings" by Michelin.
Keller chose restaurant/hotel designer
Adam Tihany
Adam D. Tihany (born Transylvania in 1948) is a hospitality designer based in New York. He founded multidisciplinary design firm Tihany Design in 1978, and is considered the originator of the title "restaurant designer". His firm has designed ho ...
to draw together subtle references to The French Laundry and elements from both his and Keller's pasts; for example, the decorative blue door at the main entrance is modeled after the blue door at The French Laundry.
Per Se offers two nine-course tasting menus for $355, of which one is vegetarian, and a five-course menu that costs $245.
These menus are
prix fixe
Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...
, but guests may choose upgrades that may increase the menu price up to $800. According to Per Se, the
wine list
A wine list is a menu of wine selections for purchase, typically in a restaurant setting. A restaurant may include a list of available wines on its main menu, but usually provides a separate menu just for wines. Wine lists in the form of tasting m ...
includes 2000 wines.
The restaurant has three dining rooms. The East Room, which serves as the entry to other two rooms, serves the five-course menu in salon chairs and lower tables. The Main Dining Room serves the nine-course menus, and the West Room offers private dining. All rooms offer views of Columbus Circle,
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
, and some
Midtown and
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
skyline
A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.
City skylines ...
.
Ratings and reviews
Per Se was awarded three stars ("Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey") in the 2006 inaugural
Michelin Guide to New York City, and has maintained that rating every year to date.
, ''
Zagat
The ''Zagat Survey'', commonly referred to as Zagat (stylized in all caps; , ) and established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979, is an organization which collects and correlates the ratings of restaurants by diners. For their first guide, covering ...
'' gives Per Se a rating of 4.6/5 for food, putting it in their top 50 restaurants of New York City.
Since 2013, Per Se has been a recipient of the ''
Wine Spectator
''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...
'' Grand Award. It made the ''La Liste'' Top Ten (#2), and was recognized by ''L'Art et Manière'' for Outstanding Service in 2016. It has been awarded five stars (highest rating) by the ''
Forbes Travel Guide
Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide or Mobil Travel Guide) is a star rating service and online travel guide for hotels, restaurants and spas. In 2011, Forbes Travel Guide published its last set of guidebooks and on November 15, 2011 ...
'' annually since 2005.
In 2011, it was called the best restaurant in New York City by critic
Sam Sifton
Sam Sifton (born June 5, 1966) is an American journalist and food editor at ''The New York Times.'' He was previously the paper's national editor. Sifton has also worked as deputy dining editor (2001); dining editor (2001–04); deputy culture edi ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in a four-star review.
This rating was downgraded to two-stars by Sifton's successor,
Pete Wells
Pete Wells is the restaurant critic for ''The New York Times''. He has held the position since November 2011, succeeding Sam Sifton.
Wells was adopted as an infant and grew up in Rhode Island. He lives in Brooklyn and is married to the novelist ...
, in 2016. Explaining this change in the updated review he wrote, "With each fresh review, a restaurant has to earn its stars again. In its current form and at its current price, Per Se struggled and failed to do this, ranging from respectably dull at best to disappointingly flat-footed at worst."
See also
*
List of New American restaurants
Following is a list of New American restaurants:
* Alberta Street Pub, Portland, Oregon, U.S.
* Aviary, Portland, Oregon
* Benu, San Francisco, California, U.S.
* Boka, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
* Boulevard, San Francisco
* Brix Tavern, P ...
*
List of Michelin 3-star restaurants in the United States
This article contains a complete list of Michelin 3-star restaurants in the United States. Michelin stars are a rating system used by the red Michelin Guide to grade restaurants on their quality. The guide was originally developed in 1900 to s ...
References
External links
*
Archive of Per Se Menus
{{Thomas Keller
French restaurants in New York City
Restaurants in Manhattan
Michelin Guide starred restaurants in New York (state)
Restaurants established in 2004
New American restaurants in New York (state)
2004 establishments in New York City
Fine dining