Tuesday, October 7, 7:00 pm
Members $100, guests $125

Credit Esca for setting sushi-loving Manhattanites straight—the Japanese do not have a monopoly on the expert preparation or innovative presentation of raw fish. Esca means “bait” in Italian, and chef David Pasternack has been reeling ’em in, hook, line, and sinker, with his astounding crudo (“raw”) and equally enticing cooked creations. Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl told Sylvia Carter of Newsday, “I think it’s the freshest fish you can get in New York right now…[Pasternack] wins your trust.” In his New York Times review, William Grimes concurred: “The crudo appetizers at Esca are the freshest, most exciting thing to happen to Italian food in recent memory…Pasternack works thrilling variations on a very simple theme.”

After their runaway successes at Babbo and Lupa, chef Mario Batali and his wine-and-service-specialist partner, Joseph Bastianich, brought Pasternack on board to open Esca. But in a departure from the standard high-profile-chef-and-restaurateur-get-all-the-press-while-someone-else-toils-away-in-the-kitchen formula, Pasternack is getting the credit he deserves. That’s because, as Batali explained to Carter, Pasternack is a “master fisherman. He knows everything about the sea. He grew up in it.” Dave Samuels, owner of Blue Ribbon Fish Company at the Fulton Fish Market, agreed that “[he] knows more about fish than any chef you’ll ever meet.”

It is no surprise, then, that Pasternack’s first job behind the stove was at The Jolly Fisherman, a happy seafoodery in Roslyn, New York. Next, he helped open Provence in New York City, then, David Bouley’s eponymous TriBeCa restaurant, and Terrance Brennan’s groundbreaking Flatiron restaurants Prix Fixe and Steak Frites. Following a stint at Privé, Pasternack signed on as Brennan’s chef de cuisine at Picholine. Six and a half years later, he opened Esca with Batali and Bastianich. A postcard advertising Viva Esca—translation: “live bait”—hangs over his workstation in the kitchen. But we prefer a slightly different read: Viva Esca!—long live that exceptional Italian fish restaurant in Manhattan’s Theater District!