NYCReview
Charlie Bird
Included In
Charlie Bird means New York. Or at least that’s what the introduction on the restaurant’s website says. There’s a Beastie Boys quote up there, too, just in case you needed some extra convincing as to just how New Yorky this place is. Tough to argue with that.
Now, obviously, no one thing can truly embody the essence of New York City, except maybe the Empire State Building and our general distaste for other New Yorkers. From there, we each make something a little bit different of this place. Charlie Bird’s particular New York seems to be some kind of snappy downtown “cool,” mixed with an emphasis on good wine, good food, and hip-hop music (see: boom box artwork). That’s a New York we know well, and yes, I just said “snappy.”
Let’s forget about the concept for a moment and talk about what really matters. We love Charlie Bird. We love it a lot. This place already ranks among our favorite restaurants in town, and they haven’t been open for very long. Yes the food is excellent, and more on that soon. But what’s really got our attention are two things that these people already do better than almost anyone else: service and wine. On those fronts, Charlie Bird gets a 10.0. This is a somewhat casual restaurant with a five-star staff who are professional, nice, and really good at what they do. There are no white tablecloths here, but you will be attended to like there are. The wine list is similarly excellent and extensive, but treated informally. Want to try something? Cool. There happens to be a half bottle behind the bar they’ll pour from for you. Finished your glass before you finished your oysters? Before you even realize it, they’ll come top you off so you’ve got something left for the last few bites. That stuff goes a long way for us, and it will for you, too. It’s amazing how much good service matters.
As for the food, most everything on the menu at Charlie Bird is fantastic. This is an American restaurant with some Italian influences, which is pretty much what every American restaurant says now so that they can put pasta on the menu. Upon first inspection, we actually thought this place might be L’Artusi with oysters, in which case we were going to have to commit ritual suicide out of respect to the chef and the knowledge that we had found true enlightenment. But it’s not quite that. Not yet. Charlie Bird is damn near perfect, but they have some slight consistency issues.
Which brings us back to the concept. Maybe the one true universal thing about this city is that we expect the best out of everything and everyone. Once we see the promise in something, we demand perfection. So yes, Charlie Bird is New York in the sense that it is both phenomenally good and also somehow not quite good enough. If they can fine tune their menu and improve on a few small things, this very well could end up being one of the highest rated restaurants on this site.