Some dining rooms in Manhattan are like a Broadway theatre with a new production opening every season.  Bobby Flay’s latest New York restaurant, Bar Americain, has taken over the space which once housed JUdson Grill, and before that, Sam’s.  With a high barrel ceiling and a dramatic staircase to the mezzanine, this has always been a lovely room but in the past when the room was less than full, you might have felt as if you were waiting for a midnight train after the show had left town. 

Not so, now.  Bar Americain (a reference to the European term for a full alcohol bar) has the buzz so often associated with Flay’s dedicated following.  And the room itself, redesigned by the Rockwell Group, with its orange and pumpkin tones and amber light pylons and a mirrored proscenium arch around the bar (which wisely has been moved to the room’s back wall, thereby creating a central focal point) evokes the manic energy which first greeted Flay’s Mesa Grill years ago.  Even after eight o’clock, when you might expect an exodus to the theatre, the room remains packed with a well-heeled corporate crowd. 

As for the food, Bar Americain is Flay’s nod to all things comfortably American, with the focus on comfort.  The cocktails are classic – highballs and daiquiris and a whiskey smash – evoking the era of the three-martini lunch.  And the menu is a geography lesson in post-war American eating habits: New England clam chowder, a cioppino from San Francisco, Brooklyn hash browns.  The sides are terrific: creamed corn with green chiles, and creamed kale with caramelized shallots, both served in covered cast iron skillets.  And few desserts recall the ersatz culinary glamour of the late Fifties more than a souffle – which at Bar Americain is blackberry, and served tableside with a pitcher of blackberries and a bowl of lemon cream.  WIth food like this, it’s no wonder the nation got fat – but what a swell way to go.

And that’s another thing – with food as satisfying as this, presented by a keenly intuitive waitstaff, this restaurant’s got legs.  Third time’s a charm: Bar Americain might well become one of the long-running shows in the neighborhood.