ellabess restaurant at the new Nolitan hotel in downtown NYC! by Mary
We read about The Nolitan hotel opening a few weeks ago in one of our favorite NYC neighborhoods, Nolita and thought it sounded and looked promising. While in NYC for just two nights last week, checking this new property out was a must. We had a lot of hope for ellabess, the hotel’s restaurant as the team behind it has a resume that includes culinary gems dell’anima, L'Artusi and Anfora.
Mary chose it as the scene for a celebratory dinner with a few college girlfriends, and we were not disappointed. The design of the hotel, the dining room and the bar is modern minimalist with warm touches such as library like sitting areas in the lobby—bookcases flanking leather sofas create cozy nooks for before or after drinks and pots of orchids adorn tabletops while animated flowering branches are projected against a concrete wall.
The bar in ellabess, which occupies the far end of the first floor of the hotel was bustling with a well dressed, sophisticated, hip downtown crowd. I loved the white Carrera marble topped bar and dramatic back lit wall full of bottles and barware.
For having only been open for three weeks, the service was very good—prompt, knowledgeable and professional—not the usual kink sorting out that most new restaurants go through. The starters we had were delicious—salmon tartar and a market plate of field greens with assorted veggies on a delightful smear of ricotta cheese. As for the entrees, I didn’t love my fancy take on shrimp and grits—it was good, but not great and could have been hotter. Lucia, one of my best girlfriend, ordered the salmon which arrived looking raw. So raw that we in fact had to ask to make sure it had in fact been cooked. Our server explained that they cook it at a super low heat for a longer period of time in some sort of olive oil situation that cooks it all evenly to medium rare. Hmm. She did not love it and wound up only eating half…. The cocktails were quite good and the wine pours were hefty which is always appreciated!
All in all, the Nolitan is a cool option for staying downtown in a great location at a much more appealing price than other nearby hotels. As for ellabess, great for drinks and appetizers and I would give it another try for dinner but I wasn’t totally blown away… And in NYC where there are so many fantastic options, it’s hard to settle for pretty good.
Has anyone else been there yet? Loved it? Hated it? Same B to B+ I’m giving them?
We’ll be giving you all of our NYC highlights in the next few days! We discovered some fabulous new boutiques, restaurants and charming wine bars.