Prelude
Restaurant · Financial District ·
Upscale Southern dining featuring creative takes on classics
Upscale Southern dining featuring creative takes on classics
"Located on the ground floor of the swanky Jay Hotel, this dusky space offers an elegant retreat from the bustle of downtown. Although Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones grew up in California, maternal grandmothers from Alabama had a formative influence on his cooking, resulting in cuisine that seamlessly blends humble roots with an elevated technique and a modern sensibility. Offered either à la carte or as a tasting menu, the dishes feature hearty flavors tempered by an edge of refinement, as in lacy fried chicken wings, partially boned and stuffed with andouille dirty rice, or a pimento cheese made with triple cream cheese and garnished with trout roe. The best might be saved for last: a banana cream pie reimagined as a delicate inverted tartlet with dark chocolate and pretzel." - Michelin Inspector
"Hidden inside a retro-chic hotel, this romantic, velvety bar channels Cali-Southern flavors with playful, evocative cocktails and a food program from a celebrated chef; standouts include pillowy smoked catfish dumplings in crawfish étouffée gravy and pimento cheese with fish-skin chicharrones. The cocktail menu (including four zero-proof options) is inventive and savory-minded—the fried-chicken–inspired P.F.C. Martini uses buttermilk-washed vodka, allium-infused vermouth, pickle brine, and a dry spice rub—making the room a seductive option for date night, intimate gatherings, or solo restorative drinks." - ByJoseph Hernandez
"For an upscale dinner in the area, there’s Prelude. The Southern restaurant on the ground floor of the Jay Hotel swaps classics like fried catfish for catfish dumplings that resemble gnocchi and a traditional wing with one stuffed with rice and dusted in fermented chili. If you have a ready and willing corporate card, their tasting menu is $165 and includes their best dishes like stuffed wing and hominy grits that are at least 50% butter." - patrick wong, julia chen 1, lani conway
"A tasting-menu restaurant led by Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones presents a string of standout small plates that make it hard to pick a single “best” dish — smoked catfish dumplings, johnny cakes, grits, the ambrosia salad and more all register. The dish the reviewer ultimately landed on was a stuffed chicken wing: "The crisp, fried exterior gives way to a dirty rice-filled inside, for a bite that will make you pause in appreciation." The writer adds that "when you get into the weeds of how a stuffed chicken wing is made, you grow all the more appreciative when you first go in," and recommends ordering the stuffed wings even if you’re trying the a la carte menu. —Dianne de Guzman" - Paolo Bicchieri
"At Prelude, chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones takes inspiration from his childhood spent cooking with his maternal grandmother and great-grandmother in Alabama. But rather than straight renditions of those dishes, he’s putting his spin on it, informed by his time at two-Michelin-starred Commis, Morimoto, and Niku Steakhouse. The result is a playful, but not stuffy, fine-dining take on Southern dishes, such as the smoked catfish dumplings, a spinoff on crayfish etouffee, or a boneless wing stuffed with dirty rice. The tasting menu is the best way to sample what Prelude has to offer, but there’s an a la carte option as well. If picking and choosing, your best bets are those aforementioned dishes, but it’s also worth trying the grits with its “smattering of garnishes,” which include perhaps some of the best bacon crumbles that grits have ever seen. Must-try dish: If you’re familiar with ambrosia salad, Prelude has a version that will have you rethinking your feelings toward that nostalgic dish in the best of ways." - Paolo Bicchieri
