Executive chef Eucepe Puntriano ups the ante on all the classic dishes
The rib eye; hamachi crudo atop watermelon planks and the mango-inflected tuna tartare.
Marbled & Fin
A perfect martini; chilled shrimp cocktail; and béarnaise-adorned, dry-aged New York strip—the steak house story hasn’t evolved much since the Mad Men era. But now a new entry to the genre is attempting a rewrite. Marbled & Fin, the latest venture from Neighborhood Dining Group (NDG) that opened on East Bay Street in June, has breathed new life into the concept to befit a city known for its food scene.
Ditching the standard clubby, masculine vibe, NDG transformed a former dry cleaners into an airy, contemporary space accented by striking light fixtures and full-sized palm trees. A U-shaped bar is separated from the main dining room by a verdant row of birds-of-paradise and flanked by half-circle booths that allow diners to soak in the buzzy scene alive with bartenders and attentive servers in snazzy green jackets.
It was in that lucky perch one recent evening that our waiter greeted us with an “amuse booze” of passion fruit gimlets alongside a spoonful of luscious salmon mousse. That, and other snacks—a Kaluga caviar and lobster tart, a seared slab of A5 Miyazaki Wagyu atop a crispy rice cake, and tuna tartare spiked with serrano and showered with crunchy tempura bits—were among the most sensational bites of the night.
The classic steak house booth goes contemporary; chocolate entremets is one of a handful of throwback desserts.
The usual suspects take up much of the menu: cold and hot seafood towers; the wet-aged, dry-aged, and Wagyu cuts; potatoes every which way; and surf and turf for two—a whole lobster and a 28-ounce porterhouse—that will set you back $195. But executive chef Eucepe Puntriano ups the ante at every turn—truffle butter on your Wagyu rib eye, anyone?—offering a starter of foie and chicken liver terrine and pairing broiled oysters with bone marrow. (Turns out that rib eye is an umami revelation on its own, no need for embellishment.)
The beverage menu does such extravagance justice, with evocative cocktails such as the “Catamaran Tan,” a gin and tonic riff with aloe, cucumber, and mastic, and by-the-glass pours of Krug Grand Cuvée and delightful reds like the Luigi Giordano Barbaresco. Ditto for the desserts, including everyone’s favorite showy throwback, Baked Alaska—a fitting end to a sumptuous evening.
480 E. Bay St.
Monday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 4-11 p.m.
marbledandfin.com
