The daring, much-talked-about, 21st-century design of this restaurant is sumptuous: white on white, with polished white marble floors, drapes, and a long white communal table with a polished burl-wood top running down the center of the dining room, lined with facing columns of white upholstered arm chairs. The basic effect is Roman banquet hall meets Vogue and Architectural Digest. The decor and long tables draw the crowds, and you might not be comfortable with the scene at Messa unless you are designed as professionally as the restaurant itself. This is talented Chef Aviv Moshe's personal restaurant, so it won't have a turnover of chefs, but the gourmet menu choices (some touched with the chef's Kurdish family traditions) constantly change. Among appetizers, look for a dish of calamari served with lemon cream eel and gooseliver; main-course hits include the seafood toast -- grilled coquilles St. Jacques and shrimp served on thickly sliced toast with anchovy butter, and a good vinaigrette salad on the side; and the seafood couscous in crab and lemon thyme broth. Rich meat dishes round out the menu. The wine list is carefully planned, and there's a dramatic black-on-black designer bar to see and be seen in.
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planning your trip.
