Even though I’ve lived in or around New York my entire life, I had never heard of Hudson Heights, a neighborhood located at the northern edge of Manhattan, high above the Hudson, where many of the pre-war Art Deco and Tudor apartments have a spectacular view of the river. Both Fort Tryon Park and the stunning Cloisters are just north of it.
Tucked away in this hidden-away pocket of New York is The Pandering Pig, a slip of a room seating 28 guests, with a kitchen even smaller than New York’s notoriously small apartment kitchens.
The phrase “labor of love” does not really hint at the enormous intensity, focus and sheer hours that it takes to turn something one loves into a viable business, and chef/owner Nicole O’Brien and her husband, Wine Director Senator O’Brien, are doing so with what they call “FreNoCal,” an awkward mouthful that actually means French-Northern California cuisine. There may not be any rubrics as to what that term actually means, but, upon tasting Nicole’s cooking, I got the true sense of it: hearty farm-and-wine country Provençal family-style cooking with an emphasis on long-simmered dishes with a good dose of fresh herbs.
Nicole was born and raised in Marin County, cooking alongside her mother, who used largely local provender. She pursued a successful career in the arts and film, then became a private chef for demanding celebrity clientele with eccentric tastes. It was just four years ago that she realized her personal dream within her own Hudson Heights neighborhood, and the couple took the leap, opening The Pandering Pig, a caricature of which hangs below the blue awning at the door.
The décor is as homey as everything else, with plush royal blue cushions made by Nicole’s mother, a brick wall hung with small, black and white cards of silent-movie actors, wooden tables and booths set with a single red rose, a tiny bar and a tinier kitchen. There’s canned music, but it’s played softly in the background.
Keeping the menu short is requisite, and choosing dishes that are braised or stewed makes the most of the kitchen’s shortcomings. So, too, appetizers like a generous cheese board for two ($18) that comes with dried fruit, seasoned pecans, olives and good bread; a pate board ($24) with foie gras rillettes and brandied cherries (which they’d run out of by 7:30 p.m. the night I visited); and a fig-and-olive tapenade with goat’s cheese and garlic toasts ($12) show that plating, rather than cooking, is a wise option. For a winter’s evening a red lentil and apricot soup (at a very modest $8) made perfect sense, as did roasted Brussels sprouts with melted bleu cheese ($12).
The main courses manifest that Franco-California style admirably, starting with a robust short rib boeuf bourguignon rich in aromatics and herbs ($28). This came with parmesan-and-garlic laced mashed potatoes. The meat from a hefty lamb shank braised in white wine ($28) peeled from the bone, soaking up the scent of rosemary atop creamy polenta and seasonal vegetables.
Nicole is rightly proud of her classic coq au vin (a steal at $19). Succulent and tender, suffused with reduced red wine and the caramelized flavor of onions, tomato and carrots, it was a splendid rendition. That night there was a seasonal fish, a special of roasted black sea bass ($27). Specials are, of course, tied to the seasons and allow Nicole to stretch a bit back in that kitchen.
The desserts are as homey as any you’d find on a Shaker table, like the almond tart with sliced pears and blackberries, or a good French farmhouse table, like the Nuage au Chocolat (chocolate cloud), served with vanilla ice cream and touched by a mint leaf.
There is even a menu for Les Enfants—penne with marinara and chicken apple sausage.
Senator takes care of the cocktails and wine service, which can take a while because he’s also catering to all the tables, delivering food and taking orders. He carefully chooses bottlings from dependable estates, about ten each of red and white, and mark-ups are quite reasonable.
Open Wed.-Sun. for dinner only.
THE PANDERING PIG
209 Pinehurst Avenue (at West 187th Street)
212-781-3124
