I had heard the Chef Mark Strausman, formerly of Freds at Barneys New York and Campagna, had opened a place in my hood on 26th Street serving a variety of foods including some of the traditional Jewish foods of his upbringing in New York City along.

As of this writing, the restaurant is open Wednesday through Friday for dinner from 5 to 10 pm, Saturday serving brunch and selling bagels from 10:30 am to 10 pm and Sunday only until 5 pm. Their “Bagel Take-Out Counter” opens at 9 am on weekends**. Coffee is also served.

I met a friend there for dinner recently and plan to head over one weekend morning to sample his breakfast fare, smoked fish and both bagels and bialys. After our meal, my friend declared, “Mark’s Off Madison is my new favorite restaurant!”

We were seated by Daniel, Mark’s son who is working there while pursuing an acting career. I tried their unusual peperoncino margaritas ($18) made with blanco tequila, triple sec and made sweet with the chef’s hot pepper jam. Interesting.

We shared their orecchiette, cooked al dente, with sausage (hot and sweet) and broccoli rabe ($26). Their Chianti Classico Lilliano, 2017 ($16) worked well with that garlicky dish as did Mark’s amazing crisp-crusted dense bread.

I also used that bread to sop up the traditional saffron broth in our Bouilbaisse a la Tetou ($42) filled with shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels then topped with a slice of thick bread topped with aioli. Delicious.

Mark’s Off Madison
Gramercy-Flatiron
41 Madison Avenue (entrance on 26th)
New York, NY
(646) 838-8300
marksoffmadison.com

** I returned the Sunday morning to sample their bialys, bagels and whitefish salad. Sadly, when they opened the bins contained few bagels and no bialys. I did get to try their dense, small (only ~3.5-ounce instead of 6 to 8) hand-rolled bagels and sampled them with topped with their whitefish salad, which was good, yet I prefer mine simply with only mayo — sans diced celery and red onion.