[media-credit name=”Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″]
[/media-credit]BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | The tables and chairs that turn pedestrians-only Stone Street into an outdoor dining mecca from April 1 to Nov. 30 have been put away for the season but Stone Street still offers lots of dining and drinking cheer. There are a dozen restaurants on the two short blocks between Hanover Square and 85 Broad St. — the former headquarters of Goldman Sachs that was finished in 1983 and bifurcated historic Stone Street. In Dutch times, the street went all the way to Broadway as a plaque inset into the pavement on the east side of 85 Broad plainly shows. The inset, based on a Dutch map from 1660, calls the street “Hoog Straat,” but in Nieuw Amsterdam it was also called “Brewers’ Street” because the Dutch West India Co. built a brewery there in 1632. Given the current incarnation of the street, those Dutch burghers would probably feel right at home.
The newest restaurant on Stone Street is The Growler, which opened less than two months ago. It sells more than 20 kinds of beer plus an extensive menu of other potables. Patrons can take home a 64-ounce growler jug of their favorite brew for $24. Picking up on the dog theme, The Growler offers a variety of hot dogs and sausages plus sandwiches and bar bites. The kitchen stays open until 3 a.m., but drinks are the main attraction.
The Growler comes to Stone Street courtesy of the Poulakakos family, who are also backers of several other restaurants on the street including Financier, Adrienne’s Pizzabar, Ulysses, Vintry and Harry’s Café and Steak.
In 2000, working with Harry Poulakakos and Tony Goldman, both of whom owned property on Stone Street, the Alliance for Downtown New York invested $1.8 million to repave the street with granite and to install bluestone sidewalks and old-fashioned-looking street lights that could have come out of 19th-century London. The investment turned Stone Street from a dilapidated back alley into a thing of beauty worthy of its authentic, early 19th-century buildings that had once served as mercantile offices and warehouses.
Harry Poulakakos who, with his wife Adrienne, had run a restaurant called Harry’s at 1 Hanover Square since the early 1970s, opened Financier at 62 Stone St. in 2002 — the first of the restaurants that are still on the street. Financier sells tantalizing pastries and cakes plus soups, sandwiches and salads. There are now 11 Financier shops in New York City. The baking for all of them is done in a central kitchen in Brooklyn that operates seven days a week under the direction of French chef Eric Bedoucha.
There are no television sets in Financier. Neither are there any in Vintry, Adrienne’s or The Growler, for that matter. Harry’s has a few TV sets in the bar but none in the restaurant area. Ulysses, which is large, also has some TV’s on the bar side but not on the dining side, where live bands play on Saturday nights. The presence or absence of televisions is a tip-off as to noise levels and what kind of clientele is likely to come in and when. Summer and winter, happy hour tends to be busy on Stone Street when the financial services businesses close for the day.
Some of the Stone Street restaurants are awash in TVs, particularly Beckett’s, a sports bar that plays all games available on any given day and allows patrons to reserve a spot near the game they most want to watch. The Stone Street Tavern and The Dubliner also have their share of TVs. All have lively bars and menu items such as fish-n-chips, burgers, steaks and shepherd’s pie that go down well with a drink or two. These restaurants along with Waterstone Grill, which is quieter and more intimate, belong in part to restaurateur Ronan Downs. He is also a partner in Burger Burger and Pizza Pizza on the western end of Stone Street’s restaurant row.
There are two restaurants on the street that are singletons. Mad Dog & Beans announces its Mexican Revolution theme with exterior door handles shaped like shotguns. The walls are decorated with photos of some tough-looking hombres and the food, too, can pack a wallop. Guacamole is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, served in a molcajete (a mortar) made of volcanic rock and made with Serrano peppers, avocado, cilantro, tomatoes, onion, garlic and lime juice. The tortilla chips with which it’s served are made in-house. Mexican nachos are also very popular. They come with three kinds of cheese melted together and are served with guacamole, crema fresca and pico de gallo. Fried ice cream (vanilla ice cream in a cinnamon-flavored pastry shell with berries on the side) is a new item on the menu and already has a following.
Across Stone Street from Mad Dog is Smörgås Chef Wall Street, serving Scandinavian food. It is particularly noted for its Swedish meatballs with lingonberries, which can be purchased in appetizer or entrée size, or in a sandwich. Smörgås Chef recently bought a 150-acre farm in the Catskills to provide a source for fresh produce and other ingredients used at the restaurant.
All of the Stone Street restaurants are open daily with the exception of some holidays and serve lunch, dinner and Saturday and Sunday brunch. Smörgås Chef will be open on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, according to Michael Cantor, the manager. Stone Street Tavern is planning a special ticketed party for New Year’s Eve with an open bar, a champagne toast at midnight and hors d’oeuvres for $100 a person. For details on holiday hours and menus, check the websites of each restaurant.
