Little Maven in Chelsea Serve a Damn Good Duck | Eater NY

"At Chelsea’s Little Maven, a hanger-size space at 30 W. 18th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, we found a self-styled “modern American neighborhood restaurant” from the VCR Group that can feel at once flashy and intimate: a front room with abstract Fauvist murals, a bar lined with banquettes, a low-ceilinged enclave that feels like a celebrity hideout, and a rear dining room past a passage that has a church-basement vibe with black-and-white murals channeling Keith Haring. The food can be excellent — co-chef Conor Hanlon dry-ages the duck breast before searing so the texture is reminiscent of prime steak cooked medium-rare while retaining the dark, lacustrine flavor of duck; the two tenderloins arrive almost naked ($47) with a scatter of turnips and pears tourned into little ovals and a satisfyingly crunchy skin. We enjoyed several other dishes: a whipped tahini ($18) that’s almost indistinguishable from hummus but perked up by a great pickled relish of chiles and olives; tiny two-bite lobster rolls ($26) that were better than expected; a rich oxtail trofie pasta with ground meat and fried rosemary needles; and a disappointing broiled oyster topped with an overly salty, firm cheese-and-breadcrumb mantle (my companion removed the topping and ate it like a cracker). The by-the-glass wine list is exemplary with 16 quirky selections — we liked a straw-colored Basque getariako txakolina from Bodegas Hiruzta ($17) — and the cocktails are playful and sometimes complicated (The Fix Is In, $20, was served over crushed ice with an Amarena Fabbri cherry). Desserts, like a banana split ($19) with three ice creams, glazed banana, chocolate sauce and crunchy dehydrated berries, made for a pleasant finish. It’s not cheap — what feels like a modest meal for two can run nearly $300 with tax and tip — and the menu’s emphasis on appetizers makes it feel geared toward drinking as much as dining, but when the food hits it can be a real delight." - Robert Sietsema