2007 R&I Ivy Awards: The Sea Grill, New York City
High among The Sea Grill’s assets is an amenity rare in New York City: a glorious sense of place, a setting that invites the outside in, making it integral to the dining experience. And as urban geography, Sea Grill’s surroundings are pure enchantment, a mix of serenity, playfulness, grandeur, even drama on a mythic scale.
By Patricia B. Dailey, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/1/2007
 Opened: 1984 Seats: 130 plus a 12-seat private room Daily guest count: Lunch, 150-175; dinner, 200+ Check average: Lunch, $55.00; dinner, $72.00 Staff: 80 full-time employees Top-selling menu item: Crab cakes Number of couples who got engaged outside The Sea Grill, on the Rock Center Ice Rink, in December 2006: 200   Menu items, including a trio of autumnal apple desserts echo seasonal changes that play out in full view of the Adam Tihany-designed dining room.  Diners are welcomed to The Sea Grill with amuses bouches, a changing array that emphasizes the seafood-focused menu. |
High among The Sea Grill’s assets is an amenity rare in New York City: a glorious sense of place, a setting that invites the outside in, making it integral to the dining experience. And as urban geography, Sea Grill’s surroundings are pure enchantment, a mix of serenity, playfulness, grandeur, even drama on a mythic scale.
Located at the base of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan—one level below the thrumming hubbub of city streets—the restaurant cuddles up against what in winter is an ice-skating rink, in summer a lushly landscaped dining oasis and at the holiday season, a wonderland of Christmas trees and glittering lights, red-bowed wreaths and pine boughs. Always omnipresent is Prometheus, the mythological Greek Titan who gave the Earth fire and also served as its protector. An extravagantly gilded likeness, said to be the second-most recognizable statue in New York (after Lady Liberty), presides over the public space just outside the restaurant, a resplendent figure in full view of patrons.
Noting the symbiotic relationship of the interior with its ever-changing exterior backdrop, Nick Valenti, founder and chief executive officer of New York City-based Patina Restaurant Group, which owns The Sea Grill, says, "We could have named the restaurant Four Seasons, but it was already taken."
Valenti instead chose a straightforward name that explicitly conveys the restaurant’s focus, a paean to the sparkling seafood that its menu both champions and elevates to high culinary art. "Sweeping the country at the time was an intense focus on food and wine of America, a brash patriotism," Valenti recalls. "I wanted to bring in the best fish the country had to offer, from its oceans, lakes and rivers." The year was 1984, a date that puts The Sea Grill at the vanguard, a leader in the celebration of fresh, local, American ingredients.
High Sea
From setting to food to service, The Sea Grill’s aim was high, even in its earliest stages. "We wanted the restaurant complex (at Rockefeller Center) to be New York’s dining room," Valenti says; 23 years later, it would be hard to quibble with that vision or their success in attaining it. The Sea Grill courts both locals and tourists, at lunch counting corporate CEOs among its well-fed regulars, and at dinner welcoming with equal warmth the city’s high society and its first-time visitors. These disparate groups are perhaps drawn by location and view, only to leave equally in awe of the other aspects that contribute to the experience: uncompromising comfort of the room, capable finesse of service and most certainly the menu—expertly crafted and flawlessly executed.
"We want The Sea Grill experience to make memories. The most important thing is to have our guests look back and say they absolutely would return," Valenti explains. "If it’s the CEO of Time Warner or a first-time visitor, we want to make the exact same impression on both."
Trend Stopper
Thriving in a city that goes full-throttle on the thrill of the new, The Sea Grill has built its reputation on timelessness rather than trends, focusing on food that is classic instead of contrived and delivering it in a serene, Adam Tihany-designed setting that’s marked by easy elegance. Service manages to be both understated and accommodatingly gracious, as comfortable for business tycoons as it is for guests from Poughkeepsie, Kansas or points beyond.
"We work hard to keep the staff stimulated and attuned to our guests. Matt Lauer and David Rockefeller are regulars; they have different expectations than do the couple with kids who are in from Long Island to see a show," notes Ken Gordon, Patina Restaurant Group vice president of operations. "It’s a different market at lunch. Then it’s about business, not the rink or the setting. They eat out so much; they want simple, good food."
Aiming to keep the menu current with guest preferences, sushi was added several years ago. "We’re not what you would consider a sushi house but there was interest in it among our regular guests, so we brought in a sushi master," Gordon says. "Now, it accounts for 20% of lunch orders." Plancha cooking also was introduced; this, too, is a way for guests to eat simply if they choose. But the luxury of indulgence also looms large. Crab cakes settle into a rich pool of mustard sauce while Nova Scotia lobster, poached in butter and gilded with foie gras, is sent to the table with an intoxicating cap of jet-black truffles.
"This is a high-ticket experience but even with that, we want guests to leave with a sense that it was a good value," Gordon says. "Whether it’s an amuse bouche sent to the table, a visit from the wine steward or the chef, we want to touch each table in a meaningful way. That sets The Sea Grill apart."
Valenti discerns other traits, details that distinguish and add luster to The Sea Grill. "There’s a level of service, of attentiveness, of staying true to the concept and to who we are. It’s also the silver flatware and the Italian blown glasses, the bone china, the tailored uniforms … a lot of details that add up to what we hope is excellence," he says. "But as much as anything else, it’s an emphasis on service. I could go up and down the names of people—the waiters, the bartenders, the chefs, all of whom make the experience what it is."
According to Gordon, there is one more element—perhaps the most essential—that allows The Sea Grill to carry on its long-standing legacy. "In running the restaurant, Nick is never really happy. The things that make The Sea Grill a success are never taken for granted. He constantly strives to make it a better experience, to continually improve every aspect.
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