At Balthazar: The New York Brasserie at the Center of the World

Granted unlimited access to Balthazar, one of N.Y.C.’s preeminent bistros, journalist and novelist Nadelson (Blood Count) has produced a gilded portrait. Balthazar was the brainchild of restaurateur Keith McNally, and transplanted French tradition to Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, becoming a center for expense-account tourism. Nadelson, a native New Yorker, scopes the restaurant from the labyrinth basement to the grand tilted dining-room mirrors, profiling busboys and sous chefs while also venturing to a Kansas slaughterhouse and Bordeaux vineyard in an effort to encompass the entire Balthazar food chain. Her exploration leads her into the history of SoHo, New York, bistros, and Paris. Balthazar was Nadelson’s breakfast nook for years and her praise is unstinting: she depicts food, ambience, and staff as flawless, with McNally the (remote) nonpareil. A guilty confession that she doesn’t like oysters—not even Balthazar oysters—is as hard as Nadelson hits. All that being said, Nadelson offers artful depictions of the evanescent magic that dining out can provide; few who read this book will be able to resist making a reservation. (Apr.)