After 22 years, Jean-Georges — one of the city’s handful of Times four-star restaurants — is revamping its menu and concept. Jean-Georges Vongerichten has eliminated the a la carte section at his Columbus Circle fine dining restaurant in favor of tasting menus-only at lunch and dinner. Half of the new choices are vegetarian.
The lunch menu has tastings of four and six courses — two under the heading “omnivore” and two “vegetarian” for $68 to $148 — while dinner will expand those options to six and ten courses for $148 to $298, which is a $50 jump from the previously most expensive menu. Until the end of October, all produce will be local, and even into winter many things will be sourced from organic greenhouses in the area.
The new menus at Jean-Georges will still reflect Asian influences in dishes like slowly caramelized carrot with red curry, coconut, and fresh ginger; roasted Icelandic cod with artichoke and jade emulsion; and peekytoe crab dumplings with celeriac-meyer lemon tea. French accents are also apparent in dishes like broiled squab with onion compote, corn pancake, and foie gras.
Though as of tonight meals at Jean-Georges will be strictly prix fixe, Vongerichten says he will always accommodate the request for a dish or two, and points out that the adjoining Nougatine offers a la carte. The new lunch and dinner menus are below.
Vongerichten says the change was due to a number of factors, including the high number of tasting menus the restaurant was selling nightly — 70 percent. Plus, 20 percent of orders were vegetarian, he says.
Vongerichten is far from a veggie newbie. When he arrived in New York in 1985 at Lafayette in the Drake Hotel, he introduced plant-based juices and oils in place of traditional butter- and cream-laden sauce in dishes like lobster in carrot juice served alongside grains presented in a carrot basket. With the opening of ABC Kitchen in 2010 and ultimately AbcV in 2017, he moved further into herbivorous territory.
“I grew up like this; my mother would make a smaller piece of meat and serve it with a lot of cabbage and potatoes because it was healthier and less expensive,” he says. “I’m not a vegetarian, but my meals are more balanced, with less meat and more vegetables and grains, and so many people are eating like that.”
The revamp will certainly bring fresh attention to Jean-Georges following the loss of its third Michelin star in the 2018 ratings. For 12 years, Jean-Georges was one of a few three-star Michelin restaurants in NYC. It still holds two stars, a category with 15 restaurants in it currently.
“It’s our only high-end restaurant in New York, so we would love to get the star back for the team,” Vongerichten says. “When you give a 10-course tasting of vegetables bursting with flavor, it’s a greater experience than just serving an appetizer and an entrée.”