Chanterelle
The Ultimate Dining Experience
A Memorial To A Lost Icon

Winner of the James Beard Foundation

2004 "Best Restaurant" Award

This is what life is all about...
Chanterelle
The best of the best

It is with the utmost sadness that we understand that Chanterelle has closed its doors for good right before their 30th Anniversary, a victim of economic downturn.  It is unfortunate that the perpetrators of this disaster get a bailout--but the victims do not.   We will leave our pages up as a memorial and in remembrance of this giant of a restaurant.

Tom and Diane first experienced Chanterelle in April, 2002 to celebrate Tom's birthday.  We put ourselves in the chef's hands and requested that he surprise us with an 8 course dinner matched with wines.  When we arrived, we were treated like royalty.  The food was innovative, and beyond fabulous, the service so personal and wonderful, you feel that you are at a special friend's for a dinner party and the wines were beyond fathom.  Since then we have been back many times to Chanterelle and are always treated like "best friends come home".  We have our "special table".  Wait staff always seems to rush to greet us.  Management and reservation staff call us by name.  The food and wines every time have topped the previous visit.  In addition,  the room is lovely and there are always beautiful, rather large flower arrangements. 

We now have a tradition of sharing our holiday baking with the Chanterelle staff, and send them large "care packages" at Thanksgiving and Christmas with samples of our holiday sweet breads, cookies and confections.  Who else do you know who sends food to a restaurant?

In this review, we will try to give some background about Chanterelle, the chef/owners David Waltuck and his wife Karen who manages the restaurant and Master Sommelier  Roger Dagorn, as well as share with you one of our special dinner menus.

Background:
Chanterelle, owned by husband and wife team Karen and David Waltuck, opened in 1979. It was originally  housed in a small, elegant cast iron storefront in the Soho district of Manhattan and moved to its current location (corner of Hudson and Harrison Streets in the Tribeca section of Manhattan) in 1988. David Waltuck's innovative cuisine based on French classics, in combination with superb service given by Karen Waltuck and the entire staff, earned Chanterelle four stars by the New York Times in 1987.

The dining room has carved cherry wood pilasters, custard colored walls, an ornate tin ceiling and huge floral arrangements that provide an ambiance of  quiet elegance with an unpretentious downtown spirit. Well-spaced, over-sized tables are attended to by an impeccably trained staff.  This also allows for privacy of conversation and a feeling of space and freedom sometimes lost in mid-town restaurants where space is at a premium.  Chanterelle's staff is friendly, extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of food, wine and service, professional and wonderfully attentive without being hovering.  

The Food and The Chef:
The food at Chanterelle is just beyond comprehension.  It has its foundation in classic French , but also includes innovative modern twists and touches of  other styles of cuisine, e.g., Asian.  David Waltuck searches for the freshest seafood, produce, game and wild mushrooms from small sources all over the country. David also changes his menu monthly, so you never get bored on repeat visits.  The restaurant offers ala cart ordering as well as both tasting and Table D'Hote menus.  We always put ourselves in David's hands and let him and Roger surprise us with something wonderful.  In addition, we ask for different dinners for each of us, and we switch half way through each dish to get the ultimate in tasting experiences.  David has been rightly recognized as one of this country's premier chefs.  To review his complete resume, visit "David's Bio".

The Wine And The Master Sommelier:
The wine cellar boasts some 3000 bottles and offers unusual, small producers as well as the best of French wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. Chanterelle also has a wide variety of aged and rare Cognacs, Armagnacs, ports and dessert wines.  The wines are watched over by Roger Dagorn, a Master Sommelier, who also acts as Maitre D' Hotel.  Although Roger is a true wine expert and has an extremely impressive resume, (including being recognized by the James Beard Foundation with their 1996 Outstanding Wine Service Award),   he is always helpful, friendly, explains all his recommendations and food matching ideas and is never intimidating or pretentious as wine experts can sometimes be.  He is truly a delight and is an amazing asset to the restaurant.  To review his complete resume, visit  "Roger's Bio".

Dinners Created Specially For Us:
Why not savor one of our most memorable special menus from Chanterelle. 

Have the ultimate in dining experiences yourself--visit Chanterelle.

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Updated October 24, 2009