The owners of Higher Ground met in New York’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a sleek farm-to-fork restaurant by Dan Barber, beloved of Michelin and Netflix alike. Barber is a chef who has driven minimal waste across his two sites in New York, centering on a “third plate” philosophy where great tasting food and an environmental consciousness sit in harmony. It’s a philosophy that seems to have travelled over the Atlantic to Higher Ground, where a sleek farm-to-fork restaurant sits on New York St of all places, serving a vegetable heavy menu that’s supplemented by one entire animal that they buy in, butcher, and use in its entirety.
Sophie thinks we’re not cool enough to be here and to a certain extent I can see where she is coming from. It’s very cool. Very New York. Very Mancinian. The room is long and shiny, the wines all natural, and so many pairs of Clarks Wallabees I felt compelled to buy a pair immediately after. It is what an estate agent might describe as ‘buzzy’, or someone much younger than me ‘a vibe’. They have twists on negroni which I enjoy a little too much. We are here for the sharing lunch menu, yours for £40 a head. We supplement it with one portion of the beef ragu with ricotta dumplings for £19.50.
The first course to come out is just superb. A cold green soup, almost vichysuisse-like in flavour, with breadcrumbs, trout roe, and batons of raw veg. It’s that perfect kind of set-up; fresh and purposeful, each element there for a reason. There are pea fritters, dense and green, under a flurry of grated Quike’s cheddar, and plates of superb bresaola, whipped cod roe, wholemeal rolls, and dressed courgettes covering-up the dignity of goats curd and grilled Tropea onions. The pacing is deliberate, allowing us to work through a number of the excellent red wines they’ve clearly carefully selected.
The ragu arrives as a testament to beef alone. I can’t make out in the way of sofrito, nor wine in the base, leaving it to a heady beef stock and various cuts of beef from the kitchen. The dumplings aren’t the lightest example of these – my mind goes back to a pre-vegan Gautier for that – but they work well. The final savoury course is beef, but you knew that already, as ruby cuts of rump and slowly cooked slabs of brisket. Some homemade mustard, grilled onions, and meaty mushrooms send it on its way. Everything serves to elevate the beef. It’s all pretty faultless.
Dessert is homemade yogurt with elderflower ice and rhubarb. Sophie finds it hard to get excited over, but I like the freshness of it to finish the meal. And with that we’re done, trudging across town to Flaw’d for wine, which in writing this I found out that it is from the same group. Add to that a seafood and cocktail bar opening later this year and what you have is a group who clearly know what they want and how to execute it properly. I really like Higher Ground. The pricing is exactly where it needs to be for the product, which at all times was excellent. It’s simply a great restaurant that happens to have exceptional values.
9/10
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