A Fantastic Midtown/Kips Bay Eatery (That Gladly Accommodates GF Diners!)

Every so often, you stumble upon a restaurant where you go in with low expectations and you come out a fan.  Such is the case with Cask Bar + Kitchen.
This small eatery, which is quietly tucked away on E 33rd St between Lexington and 3rd, honestly doesn't look like much from the street.  A peek inside reveals a dimly lit setting of dark woods and wrought iron fixtures--it's what I'd picture a wine cellar in 16th century Spain might have looked like, only hipper.  The name also reveals little about the place.  If anything, it sounds like the kind of place where you might find wings n' jalapeño poppers on the menu--bar food, in other words.  For that reason, I thought we might be able to grab a drink and an appetizer (maybe--if they had anything gluten free), and then head elsewhere for our real dinner.
My conversion to being a Cask fan began with the charcuterie plate, which was graciously filled with thin slices of prosciutto, coppa, and bresaola along with green and black olives--all gluten free, I might add.  I washed this down with an Original Sin Hard Cider, which was clearly listed on the menu as being gluten free.
By this point, I was digging their cool soundtrack and had a bottle of GF cider in my belly, so we ordered dinner.
I should note, there is not a separate gluten free menu at Cask.  Also, no food items are specifically listed on the menu as being gluten free.  However, both the hostess and our server reiterated several times that they could alter practically any dish to accommodate my allergy; all we had to do was ask.  As an added safeguard, they ran every one of my menu selections by the chef to double check that it was safe.
Always a sucker for salmon, I ended up ordering a delicious piece of baked Alaskan salmon, served over roasted red beets and pan-seared spinach, accompanied by a side of the most perfectly cooked artichoke risotto that I've tasted in quite some time (creamy without being gloppy, with just a hint of tanginess from the artichokes).  The only alteration to the dish in order to ensure that it was truly gluten free was leaving off a dijon sauce that typically accompanied the fish.  In all honesty, the dish didn't miss it.  In fact, I think the sauce would have been somewhat extraneous, considering how creamy and flavorful the risotto was.  In fact, I'd even tell non-gluten allergic diners to leave off the sauce.
In short, the service was attentive and thoughtful, and the meal was well above average for a place that primarily fancies itself a "bar."  If this is pub grub, it's some of the best I've ever had, and I'll be back again.  Soon.


Cask Bar + Kitchen
167 East 33rd Street
212-300-4924
www.casknyc.com