Grill it up at Sheep Meadow Cafe.
A thought likely to go through one's head during a first visit to The Sheep Meadow Cafe is that someone should have started a place like it a long time ago. The restaurant is a semi-private patio in Central Park, and though it's upscale, the cups and plates are plastic, the food grilled. Early weekday evenings, the place has been almost empty. Minutes from rush hour, you can sip house chardonnay and contemplate the silence, the breeze, the fading light.
On the downside: Just before dark, a garbage truck idles on the other side of the patio fence and makes an awful racket for about 10 minutes. It might even spin your table umbrella as it pulls away. Maybe the workers are indignant, as was one jogger I overheard, that hot dogs are not being served in any form.
The best thing is the grilling. It doesn't get much better?with or without the hot dogs. Portobello mushrooms, for example, are treated with heroic amounts of balsamic and come off smoky, redolent of earth. Baby back ribs are succulent, with an edge of char ringing a pork flavor in full, fiery bloom. Any cook can wing it on a grill. This guy in Central Park is an accomplished master.
Those portobellos are the centerpiece of a lovely entree salad. My first visit, it came with fries, and every female diner was requesting the dish without them. By my second visit, Sheep Meadow Cafe's exceptional shoestring fries were gone altogether, replaced with cold potato salad with fresh dill. Score one for the uptown girls.
The other side dish that everyone gets is a medley of grilled vegetables. The eggplant?a food that's easy to grill but a major challenge to get exactly right?is superb. Optimally caramelize those gooey natural sugars and it will taste like eggplant from Oz.
The ribs are just an appetizer at present, because they're new. Rave reviews will get them promoted to main course status, said Cafe personality Angela, who apparently runs the place. An extroverted and edgy young woman (a less sympathetic companion graded her "just this side of fucking annoying"), she interviews every patron, often speaking too much to allow for replies. She took full credit for the excellent ribs, though I never saw her handling the tongs. The main theme of Angela's rambling pronouncements is love of food, especially fattening food. Given that she's running a grill restaurant in a park full of exercise addicts, I have to admire that. Still, I didn't enjoy being told I absolutely had to try the chocolate cheesecake. When someone so obviously self-absorbed forces advice, it's hard not to doubt their motives. Does Angela love the cheesecake, or does she need to get rid of it?
We did take Angela's suggestion and ordered a special appetizer of Mediterranean black olive tapenade, which included an amount of parmesan that's ideal for someone who hates the taste of olives. I side with the healthy eaters when it comes to unmentioned quantities of cheese. A better starter is the Cafe's smooth, mild and refreshing gazpacho.
The restaurant serves pitchers of sangria, which feels a bit better suited to its little plastic cups than wine. Unfortunately, the sangria tastes no better than what you could throw together at home. The fruit isn't even cut small enough to fit in your cup?it's hard to imagine a good reason for that.
Meanwhile, back at the grill, chicken breast filets with rosemary are only a tiny bit dry. The herbal infusion is lush, as robust as my last dozen chicken dishes with rosemary combined. This bold approach is correct. Chicken can take a lot of seasoning. The fresh rosemary needles seemed to have ripened over the flame.
Grilled trout was even better. Served whole, with topside skin peeled back for the application of some springy salsa verde, it didn't even need the sauce. Trout is tastier than most people realize, and the quick searing the fish gets on this massive grill leaves its flaky flesh as rich as sushi.
Salmon was a little off the night we tried it. Maybe they were going for some sort of anise seasoning, or maybe the fish was past its prime. When you have a cook who can grill whole fish well, why bother with salmon?
Another entree, chopped steak, was boring. Just a plain burger without a bun, it'd be okay for a fussy child if it weren't so large. The only other steak option is a strip steak, priced about $10 higher than the other main courses. Had Angela let me get a word in edgewise, I'd have suggested adding marinated hanger steaks to the expanding summer menu. Lamb kabobs would also be welcome.
For dessert, Ciao Bella sorbets and ice creams, fresh fruit and of course chocolate cheesecake. Those and appetizers fall in the $4-8 range. Entrees other than the big steak are around $15.
The Cafe takes reservations, but closes if it's raining or likely to rain. If you travel to the neighborhood and run into a thunderstorm, a workable substitute is the upscale diner Josie's at the corner of 74th St. and Amsterdam. They do a lot of good things with organic vegetables?try the potato and broccoli dumplings or the roasted eggplant and wild mushroom cake?and offer up quality burgers and grilled fish?notably a garlic-and-herb-crusted St. Peter's fish. Prices are comparable, and small parties can usually squeeze in without a reservation.