Down in the part of town recently rechristened the Seaport District, Pier 17 continues its evolution from megamall to event space and concert venue with a “Pier Village” of ground-floor restaurants. Where once were Liberty Cafe, Flutie’s, and Pedro O’Hara’s soon will be brand expansions from David Chang, Andrew Carmellini, and the West Coast’s Malibu Farm. First up is the Fulton, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s bilevel piscatory tribute to the old Fulton Fish Market, which he began patronizing as the chef at Lafayette in 1986. An Alsatian new to New York, he was the proverbial fish out of water, and his friend Gilbert Le Coze, the late co-founder of Le Bernardin, showed him the ropes, explaining that “the small boats leave in the morning and come back by noon,” ensuring peak freshness. The market is long gone, but Vongerichten (along with executive chef Noah Poses, late of the Modern and the Watergate Hotel) honors the site’s history with a menu of seafood both raw and cooked, including dishes like Florida-red-snapper crudo with rhubarb and avocado, buckwheat-crusted redfish, and a fritto-misto salad with pickled cherry peppers. Of the more than 200 seats, half are outdoors, and the views are, predictably, stunning. Here, a sampling of what you’ll find when dinner service launches in early May. Lunch will follow in the coming weeks, along with the promise of alfresco lobster rolls.
89 South St., nr. Fulton St.; 212-838-1200
*A version of this article appears in the April 29, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!