Lucky Lindy: Comfort in the Condesa

The term “comfort food” has been bandied about ad infinitum these days; it’s one of those elastic concepts that means different things depending on geography and memory. It may be about childhood recollection, or simply food that reassures, dishes whose familiarity is the point, prepared with care but without ideological ambition. At Lindy, a recent addition to the Condesa, chef Allan Feldman—born in Mexico City but trained and seasoned in New York, including at such institutions as the late and much-lamented French stalwart La Grenouille—proposes his own cosmopolitan interpretation of comfort, drawing freely from Europe, the Americas, and the late twentieth-century American restaurant canon.

Condesa Deco

The restaurant occupies the ground floor of an elegant Art Deco apartment building overlooking lovely Parque México and recently converted into Rodona, a boutique hotel, which means long hours and breakfast service. Its position facing the park inevitably recalls the nearby Foro Lindbergh, inaugurated shortly after the eponymous aviator’s celebrated transatlantic flight in 1927. If there were any doubt about the homage paid to this former hero whose legacy is now somewhat complicated, the bar is named “Lucky”, Charly’s nick-name.

Feldman’s menu moves easily across geographies and decades. Pan-European bistro classics—steak frites, gnocchi with lemon and fresh fava beans, mussels a la marinara—coexist with gestures toward Mexico and Peru, such as Peruvian-style ceviche with leche de tigre and short rib intended for self-made tacos. There are also unmistakable nods to the American comfort repertoire: a cheffy hamburger, a ribeye with creamed spinach, a Green Goddess salad (here done with kohlrabi) recalling mid-century dining rooms, and oysters served with nothing more than a proper mignonette—a welcome restraint in a city where chefs so often feel compelled to improve upon what nature has already perfected. And, undoubtedly as a paean to the restaurant’s hotel affiliation, the menu includes the obligatory but decidedly upscale club sandwich.

The appetizers establish both the strengths and the range of Feldman’s cooking. The berenjena tatemada, blackened thin-sliced eggplant cloaked in a tahini sauce enriched with pistachio and almond, is deeply aromatic with cumin, evoking India as much as the Levant. Leeks in vinaigrette and capers are such a good idea and rarely appear on menus this side of the Atlantic.

‘A punto’ as it should be

Several main courses continue in a distinctly Franco-bistro register. A generously portioned steak frites—easily enough for two so a bargain for its seemingly hefty price—arrived “a punto” on our last visit, properly medium-rare, a blessing in a city where beef is so often cooked to death. The accompanying creamy pepper sauce is assertive without overwhelming the meat; I haven’t had such a good one since Paris.  

Camarones tatemados, enormous shrimps are quick-cooked and crispy outside, steaming and succulent within. Their dramatically vivid ruby-red chile-infused marinade renders them deeply flavored and visually striking, though, recently, the accompanying basmati rice was a tad too al dente, marring what might otherwise have been a perfectly calibrated dish.

Camarones tatemados

The star of the show may be the mejillones, to the eye a standard mussels a la marinara but in fact presented in a rich, ruddy bisque incorporating the chef’s interpretation of the currently fashionable Hong Kong-originated XO sauce, here built from dried seafood and local chiles. The result is intensely savory, Indochinese in its resonance, though, on a recent visit, the mussels themselves were just slightly overdone, sacrificing some of the succulence that could make the dish truly great. Timing, always timing, is the fragile fulcrum upon which seafood rests and I hope the kitchen takes note because this sauce is nectar of the Gods and I will be back for more.

Mussels a la XO

From the brief dessert menu, the dense, creamy flan de cajeta is notable.
An ample breakfast menu is offered starting at 7 a.m., which is great for the sleepless.

An astutely selected wine list is predictably pricy but offers a couple of glasses for under $200, rare these days, and more than welcome.

Prices are reasonable considering the generosity of portions. Lunch might cost $500 per person with limited alcohol.

Taken together, Lindy presents a confident, highly personal interpretation of comfort food—one filtered through New York training, international travel, local traditions and a sensibility attuned as much to nostalgia as to technique. Many recipes are pared to a merciful minimum and wisely free of pretentious and overused ‘bijou’ ingredients. Presentation is for the palate not Instagram.  It is, above all, a restaurant that understands the enduring appeal of the familiar, even as it gently reframes it.

Lindy
Avenida México 31, Colonia Condesa (see map)
Telephone 55 6095 7726
Open Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Saturday 8 a.m. – 10:30 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.