Fish Out of Water

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The New York Sun

Putting a low-frills seafood shack on a classy, landlocked West Village corner requires a little finesse. Marc Murphy, the brains behind TriBeCa’s impressive Landmarc, has attempted just that with his new restaurant Ditch Plains, but the finesse is a little lacking.

The space (in which I was just reviewing Yumcha, this time last year) doesn’t quite manage to set a mood. A couple of TVs showing surf videos, and the faintly sun-dazed waitstaff, just seem out of place in the dark room; what used to be an open kitchen is now sealed in by a riveted metal wall that looks as though a battleship has parked next door. The cooking, courtesy of Landmarc chef Frank Proto, is more or less as expected: coastal fare spruced up to a greater or lesser degree. But trying to suit both the neighborhood (with a $40 caviar service) and the shack concept (with a $7 hot dog) leaves the menu’s footing uncertain.

The lobster roll ($23), a mainstay of this cuisine, succeeds effortlessly, via the classic formula of lobster and more lobster. Firm chunks of shellfish, piled on a bun so thickly that they almost completely hide it, cling together in a juicy, tarragon-scented mayonnaise. Eating the roll is a job for a fork and two messy hands; a layer of sweet sweet-potato chips underneath absorbs any spillage. Calamari salad ($12) is somewhat more urbane: Large pieces of breaded fried squid dotted among the lettuces soak up a sesame vinaigrette.

But too many of the dishes fail to eke any real verve from their ingredients, just falling back on flavor crutches like bacon and butter. Fried clams are a seaside staple, and they can be wonderful, with tender meat and delicate batter coatings, but Ditch Plains’ rendition ($15) uses Howard Johnson’s-style clam strips – slices of chewy muscle – rather than whole, succulent clams and sheaths them in a too-salty, crunchy crumb breading that falls off the greasy strips and collects at the bottom of the bowl. There are real clams in the clam chowder ($9), but it takes a fair amount of dredging to find one: The average spoonful comes up with a potato chunk, a thick lardon of slab bacon, and nary a sea creature. Even the liquid is shallow-flavored and overly salty, a condition that is not improved by dumping in one of the tradition al plastic packs of oyster crackers. Even at these prices, a little skimping on ingredients in the service of something unpretentiously delicious might be forgivable, but to leave you craving seafood when you’ve just ostensibly finished a big bowl of it, is not.

A few other attempts to doctor good shellfish succeed equally poorly. Clams especially can’t catch a break here: In an order of baked clams ($15), they’re minced beyond recognition and pressed, with a salty hash of breadcrumbs and chorizo, back into their shells. Roasted oysters ($15) fare a little better – at least they’re left intact – but a thorough drenching with garlic butter leaves one wondering fruitlessly whether they’d have any flavor without it. Steamed mussels ($14), however, are tasty and almost unadulterated; they come in a choice of creamy broths: one bacon-based, one curry-based, one chorizo-based.

The menu, in the unwieldy form of a ring-bound stack of little cards, offers all-day breakfast as well as dinner, so diners who are so inclined can pair up their shrimp with a bowl of granola. One breakfast item that ingratiates itself at dinner too is the grits ($5), which are simple, creamy, and savory, and can be fleshed out with any number of add-ins: cheese, bacon, sausage, oysters, lobster.

One of the things that sets Mr. Murphy’s Landmarc apart is its handsome selection of full and half-bottles of wine with barely any markup. The same generous, sensible arithmetic holds at Ditch Plains, where you can enjoy a bottle of delicious 2002 Benton-Lane pinot for $28, or a half-bottle for $14. Other standouts include Domaine Bidaud-Giraud’s mouth-filling “Bid’gi” muscadet ($11/$22), and Garretson’s “Saothar” viognier ($26/$52). Curiously, the markup comes back with a vengeance if you want a beer: A bottle of Corona is $7, or $9 with a splash of hot sauce.

The desserts are proudly store-bought: slices of pie from the Little Pie Co. ($8), accompanied by cans of squirt-your-own supermarket whipped cream, which the servers plunk down with a mischievous grin. The sour cream-apple pie, tangy and rich, is the best, though pecan gives it a run for the title. Ditch Plains does a number of things right, but calling so much attention to the fact that the tastiest items on the menu were bought elsewhere might not be the smartest tactic.

Ditch Plains, 29 Bedford St. at Downing Street, 212-633-0202.


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