About Per Se
Thomas Keller opened Per Se in 2004 as his New York answer to The French Laundry, and the blue door on the fourth floor of the Deutsche Bank Center at Columbus Circle has been a pilgrimage destination ever since. Three Michelin stars. Nine courses. A view across Central Park that makes the whole of New York feel like your private garden.
Keller's philosophy — "finesse over force" — is evident in every component. The famous Oysters and Pearls: a sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and ossetra caviar, a dish so precisely constructed it has become part of New York's culinary vocabulary. The Salad of Petite Lettuces. The Moulard Duck Foie Gras. The pastry kitchen producing gossamer confections that arrive as a separate act at the meal's end. At $425 per person for the tasting menu, you are buying a fully choreographed performance — and the performance has never been accused of underdelivering.
The room itself is the point. Designed by Adam D. Tihany, it gives the impression of being larger and more intimate simultaneously. Booths along the window seat two in cinematic privacy. The city spreads below, indifferent, enormous — and you sit above it, deliberately, with whomever matters most.
Service at Per Se is the gold standard against which New York hospitality has been measured for twenty years. Plates arrive and depart without sound. Needs are anticipated before they are spoken. The sommelier manages the cellar — one of America's most serious — with effortless authority and genuine joy.
