Eric Hara’s Oak Room dinner menu to debut next Wednesday

March 13

I’ll be continuing with tales of my adventures in dining soon, but the work is piling up here at NRN and it takes time to compose a thoughtful blog entry about the dining world in which I live.
But I don’t want to leave you hanging, so I have some news items for you.
People obsessed with the New York food scene already know that David Burke veteran Eric Hara is the new chef at The Oak Room, replacing Joël Antunes. (That picture, above, is of Eric).
I spoke with him today about his new dinner menu, which will be introduced next Wednesday.
“I think we’re going with more of an American style,“ he said, adding that he wanted to “keep it approachable.”
That’s not to say simple, or boring.
Among the menu items debuting Wednesday is a bone-marrow crusted scallop with cippolini purée, tomato marmalade and a bone marrow crouton.
He’ll also be doing veal cheek stuffed shells with chanterelles, a pecorino emulsion and sour cherries.
Also: brioche-crusted striped bass.
"It’s going to be a take on cioppino,” he says of the bass dish. It will include cherry tomatoes, fennel, mussls, clams and a cioppino broth poured at tableside.
Served with it will be a quenelle of crushed fingerling potatoes with rouille aïoli.
Appetizers will range from $12 to $18. Main courses will be $20 to $33, "and then Dover sole will be Dover sole."