New Kitchen Inaugural Dinner

Tender Greenmarket farm-fresh turnips braise in a gravy of cumin seed-specked chickpea flour gravy.

Ruske always enjoys a cocktail - or nine - before dinner.

Slice fresh and crisp radishes, spread with good (softened) French butter, sprinkle with Fleur de Sal and thick-ground black pepper and watch them disappear with cocktails.

Cafe Drake's tablescape was a subtle mix of winter white and (hopeful) early (early!) Spring green.

Always plenty of fresh herbs for garnish and flavor.

J-La helps herself to the Stovetop Buffet.

A new all-white kitchen at Cafe Drake.

Cafe Drake is a massive fan of the fancy dinner party as anyone who has browsed these pages must know, but sometimes - just sometimes - a Saturday evening meal with best friends is so much homier on a casual note. As above you'll notice we atypically served a "stovetop buffet", allowing old pals Jen R and Jen L to graze from the four full burners, sampling exotic Indian curiosities and returning at their leisure for seconds of favorite dishes.

In the spirit of the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards (which we watched after a single course meal of multiple dishes), Cafe Drake got experimental and served Chicken in a Cashew and Rosewater Sauce, Turnips braised in a Chickpea Flour "gravy" spiked with toasted cumin seeds, a puree of spinach enlivened with garlic, ginger shards and fresh green and red chilies, pineapple salad with chilies, Chinese garlic chives and chat seasoning and a basmati-caraway seed pilaf.

The celebratory evening began with Pink Gin and Tonics (colored and spiced with bitters) and buttered and salted radishes. Jen L supplied a bone-dry prosecco (Tutela) and Ruske delivered another stellar and esoteric Sauvignon Blanc. After a rich repast all crawled to the living room for the afore-mentioned awards show and scarfed down Ruske's decadent chocolate mousse.