I tried these new places across from STK last Friday night. The quality of the review will be impacted by the open bar I attended to earlier in the night.
Maria & Enzo's - The place looks great. It recreates the look of an airport from the Golden Age of aviation. Think Pan Am. Howard Hughes. Indiana Jones. Now the dimensions are off. The "waiting room" would never be a sunken, open dining room the size of a small arena. But, the iconography is there. As is a separate pizzeria/cafe (why is a cafeteria called that? Coffee +?) and a cellar dining room. The last one didn't carry out the "airport" design. It was modeled after one of those wine cellars that often get turned into trattorias. We showed up really late. Around 11pm. And in flip flops and shorts. They still seated us. The hostess station is a boarding gate. We were the only ones in the whole place. My buddy just had calamari because he ate at an open bar that we were at before we made it here. It was $16. It was ok. I just had something called Ncasciata for $23. Uncle Google says it's Sicilian. It was basically a lasagna. It was ok. Served in a metal cooking apparatus. I hazily recollect that the menu was small. 4 or 5 entrees. I think my dish was the cheapest. I don't recall any problems with the service. I think they might have been Italian even. At least some of them. And that's all I have to say about that. I wish we hadn't been so tardy to the party. But, that wasn't my doing. We had to wait for the office function (really just the auction results) to transpire. I popped in earlier in the day to peruse and was impressed. If the food is anywhere near as good as the interior design then they will have a great one two punch. If not, you probably can't lose at the pizzeria. They are run by the people who run the Morimoto Asia spot. I applaud the resources they must have expended bringing this place to life. It's hard to recreate without insulting the original. I don't think they have. And that's not the tequila, wine and beer talking.
The Edison - This place is right next door and also just opened. It's "thing" is steam punk. Think The Time Machine. The book by HG Wells or the movie with simian Brad Pitt - Guy Pearce. It looks like a 1800's power plant. A large gear works replica greets you when you enter. The hostess station is on the right. Then you descend steps that lead to various bar areas. We settled on the lowest level because that is where the floor show (and most of the sparse crowd) was. The entertainment is now free, but, I think I read that they are going to charge $10 (after 10pm) at some point. The whole place is "differentingly" impressive from M & E. You also get transported being here. They also spared no expense. The liquor selection is on display and it's pretty impressive. The menu was small and uninspiring. And expensive. I'd do what we did. Go for drinks and maybe the entertainment. My biggest fear for them is that Disney killed all the adult fun from this area when the closed Pleasure Island. We LEFT at midnight because it was empty. If they don't try harder to provide a better culinary product, I fear they won't survive. The bar crowd isn't there.
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