Out of thousands of restaurants in New York City, last night President Obama chose to dine at Estela. That's right—the Estela. The number-three Best New Restaurant in America. The home of beef tartare with sunchokes (we love that stuff, man). The brainchild of Chef Ignacio Mattos (that's this guy, in the picture below—and by the by, we named him one of our tastemakers in way back in 2012).
Mattos posing with a friend. Photo: Tukka Koski
So why did the president choose Estela? Naturally, we're assuming it's because he is a BA-devotee who takes our Hot 10 list seriously. The man's got good taste, after all. But it's also likely that our country's leader just enjoys artfully composed, blow-your-mind-good, honest, and straight-up real food; That's Estela's jam. It's their sweet spot. In fact, we wrote about some of our favorite Estela dishes right here at BA, like this number with grapefruit, white beets, yogurt and tarragon. Or this one, with seared scallops, avocado, and daikon. They're the type of dishes that make BA staffers go starry-eyed—it's a favorite around here, and we're thrilled to see that the leader of the free world discovered our hometown gem.
Whatever President Obama ordered, we know it was off-the-charts good, because Chef Mattos is a man who can deliver. His motto? “The idea behind our food is that it’s unassuming and unpretentious, but then when you eat it, you’re like, ‘F#%*, what just happened?!’” (We'd love to find out if that were the president's exact wording, BTW.) Mattos's relaxed attitude is probably just what the doctor ordered for a man with a stressful job and a crazy schedule.
The chef says, “I’m tired of people doing the same kind of food, the same style of plating, and all this silly fussiness. Just do honest, simple, basic dishes.” He offers a no-frills experience, without all of the pomp and circumstance of painstakingly hard to find ingredients and hyper seasonal ingredients: "I love wood sorrel. But here? No weird stuff.” So no wood sorrel for the President.
Instead, Mattos served him burrata, a walnut and endive salad, cod croquettes, and fluke carpaccio. Solid choices. If we were calling the shots, we would've also included this simple grain salad with barley, cauliflower, fresh herbs, and—hold onto your hats, folks—burrata blended with crème fraîche. It's exactly the type of meal we'd want to serve President Obama: bright, fresh, unfussy, and comforting. Just in case you weren't invited to dine with the president last night, you can get in on some of the action—in the video below, Mattos shows us how to make that gorgeous burrata dish.
(P.S.: Want more Mattos? Check out the rest of his videos here.) About time you booked a reservation?