Established February 2004 Head chef Thomas Keller Food type New American, French | Current owner(s) Thomas Keller Chef Eli Kaimeh Dress code Jackets required | |
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Per Se is a New American and French restaurant located on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center at 10 Columbus Circle (at West 60th Street and Broadway) in Manhattan in New York City, owned by chef Thomas Keller. In 2011, it was called the best restaurant in New York City by the New York Times. The chef is Eli Kaimeh. Per Se is currently the third most expensive restaurant in the world after Sublimotion and Urasawa with an average guest spending approximately $851.
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Development
The owner is Thomas Keller, who is also involved in the restaurants French Laundry and Ad Hoc in Napa Valley; Bouchon in Napa Valley, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles; Bouchon Bakery in Napa Valley; and the Time Warner Center and Rockefeller Center in New York. Per Se opened in February 2004.
Keller chose restaurant/hotel designer Adam Tihany to draw together subtle references to The French Laundry and elements from both his and Keller's pasts; for example, the decorative blue door to the right of the main entrance is modeled after the blue door at The French Laundry.
The restaurant features a salon, bar, and wine cellar. Like Keller's previous project, The French Laundry, Per Se features two daily prix fixe menus, one of which is vegetarian.
As of February 2010, it is one of only seven restaurants in the United States to be awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide, along with New York restaurants Daniel, Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges, Masa, Chef Keller's California restaurant The French Laundry, Alinea in Chicago, and The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena. Restaurant ranked Per Se number 10 in the world in 2011. The restaurant previously held four stars, the highest rating, from The New York Times (awarded in 2004 by Frank Bruni and again in 2011 by Sam Sifton). However, a January 2016 review gave the restaurant two stars, citing its "slow creep of mediocrity and missed cues." It was named as the 9th- best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine in 2007.
Per Se's former head sommelier, James Hayes, is currently the associate beverage director for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. In 2010 Jonathan Benno, who had been chef de cuisine since the restaurant opened in 2004, left to be executive chef of a Patina Restaurant Group restaurant at Lincoln Center called Lincoln.
Phoebe Damrosch's Service Included, a non-fiction account of her employment as a waiter at Per Se, was published by William Morrow and Company in September 2007.
Meals
On a typical night, each diner is given the choice of one of two prix-fixe menus: a nine-course vegetable tasting menu or a nine-course chef's tasting menu; each costs over $300, which includes non-alcoholic beverages and service. Menus frequently include up-charges for luxury ingredients such as foie gras and truffles. The private room can accommodate approximately 10 people, while the west room can accommodate 62 – the same number of seats as the French Laundry.
Ratings
In 2013, Zagat rated it the best American cuisine restaurant in New York City with a rating of 29, as well as the best for service with a rating of 29, and ranked it the 2nd-best restaurant in New York City.
Since 2013, Per Se has been a recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award.
In January 2016, Pete Wells of The New York Times gave Per Se a rating of two out of four stars, dropping it from the four star rating the Times had previously awarded it in 2011. Wells's caustic review described, for example, "lukewarm matsutake mushroom bouillon as murky and appealing as bong water" and chided the staff for uneven and indifferent service. Despite several sloppy or clumsy dishes, however, Wells still praised certain Keller classics. At $325 per person for dinner, prix fixe, with expensive supplemental charges which Wells in one instance likened to "extortion", the restaurant was called "among the worst food deals in New York".