Critics’ choice

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dining at eighty one.

Photograph: JJ Sulin

Best justification for ingredients-worship
eighty one
Preopening buzz for Ed Brown’s first solo project screamed “pretentious”—it promised to be a restaurant that sourced many of its eclectic ingredients from faraway lands, locavore movement be damned. In action, the luxurious comestibles are employed with restraint, resulting in elegant creations you’ll want to savor. The former Sea Grill chef shows he’s still got it when it comes to fish, with an entrée of rare yellowfin tuna paired with meltingly tender foie gras on a bed of heirloom-bean cassoulet­—a combination so natural it should become the standard surf and turf. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing we’ve seen on a plate here came with dessert: a coconut the size of a marble, garnish on the architectural mille-feuille. Its origin? Chile.

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