A recent e-mail from Tasting Table turned me on to the fondue and raclette room at Cafe Select in SoHo. While it's been a fairly mild winter here in NYC, I still got excited about an evening of Alpine cheesy deliciousness. So I enlisted my fondue-loving friend Kate and made us a reservation in their "once secret back room." (FYI - they very annoyingly require a credit card number to reserve table for two and threaten to charge a $20 fee if you don't show.)
To find your way to the fondue and raclette room at Cafe Select, head straight to the back of the main dining room, proceed through the tidy looking kitchen, then walk down a few steps, and you'll finally end up in the dimly-lit, windowless room with only 12 seats, a disco ball, and lots of christmas lights. I am not sure I would described this is this as traditional Swiss decor, but it did make the room feel cozy, in a strange way.
All of Cafe Select's fondues are made with their "special" (and undisclosed) mixture of cheeses, white wine, and kirsch (a fruit brandy, traditionally made from cherries), and served with cubed bread, raw vegetables, cornichons, and pickled onions. While the back room menu offers a variety of cheese fondues, including white truffle oil, "south of the alps" (fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and olives), and fresh herb (a special available when we were there, at least), we opted for the traditional "select house" fondue for two ($40), two fairly lackluster salads (field greens for me, arugula and shaved fennel for Kate), and some heavy red wine.
Despite the spotty service, quirky surroundings and EXTREMELY skimpy glasses of wine, I really enjoyed my cheese-based dinner at Cafe Select. The cheese mixture itself was really rich and tasty and it is a lot of fun to dip little pieces of country bread and tangy pickles into a vat of bubbling cheese with a long thin fork! Our waitress was happy to bring us more bread and pickles when we ran out, but I didn't have the nerve to ask for more boiling cheese, even though je l'aurais beaucoup aimé. If you find yourself hankering for cheese fondue, I highly recommend you check out Cafe Select yourself.
