Meat Is Back at Eleven Madison Park

Meat is back on the menu at Eleven Madison Park for the first time in four years. And I was there. When I was walking up to the restaurant, it was mostly business as usual gor a Tuesday night at 6 p.m. — you walk through the revolving doors and there’s a dozen smiling hosts waiting to take you to your table. There’s carts rolling around the dining room. The menu works pretty similarly to before, but now you can choose between meat and seafood or plant-based options. for a few of the courses. We had leeks with green chili. We had onion butter in the shape of onions. We had radish grown at the restaurant’s farm, but at some point a steak knife shows up at your table and your heart starts to race, and you start to remember all the amazing things you heard about the duck at the world’s best restaurant. And then you eat it. And you understand. In some ways it felt like nothing changed. Your meal still starts with the same great laminated bread, and it ends with a jar of the restaurant’s granola. While it seemed pretty similar to before, it was clear that this was a special moment for the staff. People kept talking about the return of the duck. Everyone was smiling. It was kind of like it was someone’s birthday party. Of course, though, it’s a fine dining restaurant and we still left a little hungry. So we popped across the street to Popeye’s for a drumstick.