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By Barbara Penny Angelakis
Seppi’s
123 West 56th Street
New York 10019
212-708-7444
For many women - and a not insignificant number of men - the top food group in the nutritional pyramid is chocolate. And, for those lovers of the divine sweet, there is a special prix fix chocolate brunch for $24 served every Sunday at Seppi’s at Le Parker Meridien, on Manhattan’s 56th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Chef/owner Claude Solliard created and designed the menu which includes entrée, desert and beverage with (and without) chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Entering Seppi’s, named after Chef Solliard’s grandfather, we were greeted by Cole Porter-esque tunes. The crooner is clarinet player/singer Rick Bogart with a piano and base completing his trio. This musical flavor sets the stage for the pre-war - WWII that is – French café art scene. Here, lurking in a dimly lit corner you might expect to find a budding artist surreptitiously sketching the beautiful people dinning and partying. Such is the ambience at Seppi’s where walls and ceilings are covered with painted tin tiles, the rear wall sports a large mural of pre-war Montparnasse in Paris, and a grape and vine painted faux skylight decorates the ceiling and floods the room with soft incandescent light. To add to the bistro feeling, there is a charming private chamber separated from the dinning room by a heavy wine colored velvet drape. In the bar area there is a standout Venetian mirror adorning one wall that is surrounded by French art posters, photographs, original artwork and ornate mirrors arranged in an eye pleasing fashion and that bleeds into the main dinning room without taking on a cluttered look. Sadly, the heat and air conditioning ducts are prominent fixtures in the bar’s ceiling and add an ugly appendage to the otherwise authentic look of the room, as does the flat screen TV positioned atop the bar.
We were seated behind a small but impeccably clean and beautifully accessorized tropical fish tank separating the bar area from the main dinning room in an impossibly uncomfortable booth so when you go, do ask to be seated at a table. The “Inspired by Chocolate” brunch begins with a breadbasket sporting fresh pain au chocolat and Classic hot chocolate, coffee or tea. Available ala carte are Chocolate Mimosa, Chocolate Martini or Black Chocolate Stout. But, if you have ever savored a cup of hot chocolate in a Spanish chocoletería and yearn to repeat the experience, you must try the classic hot chocolate at Seppi’s. This drink has as much relationship to American style cloyingly sweet, lumpy, artificial-tasting, hot chocolate as a frozen hamburger patty does to an aged filet mignon cooked to perfection at a New York City steak house. Seppi’s rich chocolaty brew is smooth and creamy, not overly sweet, and heady with flavor.
Your innovative entrée choices are smoked bacon and eggs over sweet potato gratin served with chocolate truffle ravioli; salmon Napoleon with a hint of chocolate and ginger served over endive salad; almond and hazelnut chicken breast with Oaxacan mole sauce; phyllo wrapped eggs over smoke salmon served with coco brioche; or steak and eggs with cocoa beans and French fries. Hard to choose between so many brilliant selections but I opted for the Salmon Napoleon and my partner choose the chicken breast. Both selections were handsomely plated; dinner rather then brunch sized servings; and cooked to perfection. The salmon was silky and juicy inside with a crusted edge that was properly crunchy and delicious and perfectly flavor balanced with the fish’s bland flesh. The endive salad, which I normally enjoy, was nicely dressed but tended to be a tad more bitter then suits my palate. The chicken breast was large and meaty with a mild breading to accommodate the rich mole sauce.  It was served as a one-plate dish with cubed roasted potatoes and a field greens salad.
Of course the pièce de résistance was the dessert that consisted of – are you ready? - an all you can eat chocolate buffet. Be still my heart! The buffet contained five or more chocolate cakes including a devils food dark chocolate, a mousse cake layered with butter cream and dark chocolate icing, a death by chocolate mud cake plus a bittersweet dark chocolate fondue accompanied by fresh strawberries, melon and pineapple slices, a bowl of chocolate mousse with a separate bowl of whipped cream for topping, and a spoon desert of crystallized chocolate. Dessert buffets are more often food for the eye then taste treats for the palate but in this case it was all so good that even sampling all the offerings, as I attempted to do in the cause of research, was too much even for a chocoholic like myself. Suffice it to say any one of the deserts du jour warrant putting aside the calorie counter for the day.
Seppi’s brunch is a chocolate lover’s celebration and just like shooting stars and colored pyrotechnics, the memory lasts long after the glow fades.
© April 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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