Charlotte's ventures into Manhattan frontier

Charlotte's ventures into Manhattan frontier

Avoiding the cliches of Mexican and Tex-Mex food, Rothman's menu offers grilled chicken breast with pineapple served with salsa and beurre blanc; grilled fajitas with pico de gallo, guacamole, and flour tortillas; bay scallops and leek enchilada with chipotle tomato sauce; and other similarly unexpected entrees.Appletizers include chilled cream of avocado soup, grilled roulades of prime beef, and flautas--corn tortillas wrapped around chicken and fried. Rothman will also offer five daily specials and a South of the Border Bouillabaisse every Friday."I feel it in my bones," she declared. "in a year this will be the leading restaurant in New York City." Schaeffer forecasted $100,000-a-week sales after the first year."This is probably the only Mexican restaurant in New York with a pizza oven." Rothman said.Mexican pizzas are available with a choice of toppings: mesquite grilled onions, pickled jalapenon, roasted garlic, red salsa, black refried beans, and chorizos.Charlotte's Cafe, her 150-seat, $1 million showplace specializing in Soutwestern food, has joined the nearby Gulf Coast, Sunset Strip, and Pasta Pot casual restaurants in staking a claim on the West Village waterfront.Chef Rothman, a Southern California native, made some changes in the kitchen which was designed and constructed before she was hired. She removed several stoves (the kitchen had too many, she said), ordered the pizza oven, had a walk-in installed where a service bar was inconveniently located, and changed the straight-line dishwasher area to a more efficient horseshoe shape.West Street used to be in the shadows of the elevated West Side Highway, which was removed, along with some old waterfront warehouses, a few years ago. The city is considering building a new superhighway and parks on West Street from nearby Battery Park City to midtown.Charlotte's Cafe's waterfront neighbors are drawing customers from outside the area--crucial for any restaurant in the still-desolate area.La Grand Corniche, an expensive tablecloth restaurant a few doors from Charlotte's, closed last year, and the small hotel in which it was situated has been converted to Bailey House, a group home for AIDS sufferers.With its pale green, pink, and black decor in an airy multi-level dining room filled with track lights, cacti, and ficus trees, Charlotte's Cafe is the most upscale of the lot, a beautifully appointed tablecloth restaurant that anticipates an influx of young professionals drawn by the neighbrohood's new apartments and shops. The restaurant's projected $30-a-person average ticket is high for the West Village but moderate for New York.Construction activitiesNEW YORK -- Charlotte Schaeffer is the latest urban pioneer to open a culinary outpost in a restaurant-deprived neighborhood of Manhattan--in this case, lower Christopher Street near West Street and the Hudson River.Despite the gentrification process that has already begun, the neighborhood retains its seedy characteristics, including numerous drug peddlers and their customers. It is also several blocks from the hearts of Greenwich Village.The 5,000-square-foot restaurant occupies a multi-level space on the ground floor of a new apartment building. Schaeffer said she has the room to add another 50 or seo seats in the main dining room.The entire West Village waterfront area, however, is bustling with construction crews erecting apartment houses and converting older buildings to cooperative apartments.Cindy Rothman, former sous chef at Safari Grill and supervising chef at Cafe Marimba, has assembled a menu for Charlotte's Cafe that she described as basic American food seasoned with Mexican herbs and spices. "With Mexican food it's sometimes hard to have a finedining experienceM so I'm combining only the best of Mexican technique and product," she explained a week before the restaurant opened.Dinner entrees are priced from $11.95 to $19.95. Rothman said she is developing a special light-foods menu for the bar are and the sidewalk cafe, which will open in warmer weather. Charlotee's Cafe has a Saturday and Sunday brunch and will begin serving weekday lunch in April.Sunset Strip at West and Horatio streets opened last May and offers an electric menu (chili, tacos, snails with garlic in cream sauce with puff pastry, fried chicken, grilled fish, barbecued ribs, and stir-fried foods) in a whimsically garish setting. Next door, the Pasta Pot features moderately priced Italian food and live jazz.On weekends tourists and shoppers from the suburbs crowd the neighborhood's streets. Among the renovation projects--the conversion of the huge, old Federal Archives Building to rental apartments a block away from Charlotte's Cafe. Schaeffer said the construction activity bodoes well for herlatest venture.Schaeffer, who also owns the Campus Coffee Shop on West Fourth Street near New York University and Charlotte's Island Gourmet Deli in Jensen Beach, Fla., is bluntly optimistic about her new venture.Gulf Coast is a popular Text-Mex restaurant on the corner of West 12th and West streets that recently opened an upstairs room to accommodate its nightly crowds.

The 5,000-square-foot restaurant occupies a multi-level space on the ground floor of a new apartment building. Schaeffer said she has the room to add another 50 or seo seats in the main dining room.

Author: Joe Edwards