César

Ramirez puts his design brief in three words, simple, clean and timeless, and Martin Vahtra gave him white oak walls, wood floors and a chef's counter of the same oak in full view of the kitchen. Thirty-six seats fill the dining room and thirteen more sit at that counter, with a semi-private salon off to one side for parties of two to five. Six savory chefs and two pastry chefs cook alongside him, for about fifty guests a night.

Nine years with David Bouley at Danube and Bouley put Japanese technique at the center of his cooking, and seafood carries the tasting menu, twelve to fourteen courses that reset four times a year. Hokkaido uni and black truffle on brioche, the dish that made his name, is still on it, and dessert tends toward a frozen soufflé, matcha one season and corn the next. John McKenna keeps a list of more than four hundred selections drawn from some two thousand bottles, weighted toward whites and lighter reds from Burgundy and the Loire.

The dress code is semi-formal, jackets recommended and not required, and the house no longer takes corkage. Nothing on the menu can be made vegetarian, vegan or free of seafood. It is his menu or nothing.