Wells Is Wowed by the The Whitney's Warm, Welcoming Watering Hole

Even though the dining room "can look like an espresso shop" from some angles, Pete Wells is impressed by the production value of Danny Meyer's newest baby, Untitled at The Whitney Museum. Chefs Michael Anthony, Suzanne Cupps, and Miro Uskokovic are serving energetic food in that dining room along Gansevoort Street:

Pickled wine-colored cherries, sunflower seeds and orange splashes of carrot vinaigrette make every bite of a kale-and-cabbage salad taste like a new dish. (If we are sentenced to see raw kale everywhere we go, every restaurant should dress it as exuberantly as Untitled does.) Earlier this summer, there were roasted and griddled leeks, as dark as roasted Japanese eggplants and almost that soft, with an intense, sweet-sour salsa sauce of citrus and pasilla chiles; I’ve never wanted to cheer for a plate of leeks before.

Wells finds only a few dishes that miss the mark, including some salty pork ribs, and the swordfish steaks with eggplant. But Wells likes the experience of dining at Untitled enough to give the restaurant two stars. His review includes this smart observation about Danny Meyer's group: "Although Mr. Meyer has worked to make his name synonymous with hospitality, what his restaurants sell above all is reassurance."