Grub Street

The man Ben Pollinger succeeded as executive chef at Oceana in October, Cornelius Gallagher, was one of the city’s top toques, and much of the kitchen left with him. Finally, though, Pollinger has settled in and after much tweaking of the original, finally introduced his own menu (which we’ve filed into our flourishing playground of a database). Says the chef: “Oceana’s menu reflects my vision for what I wanted to do here: a kind of global seafood, with a simultaneous awareness of classic American cooking.”

There’s one thing you won’t find on the menu, though, and that’s because the restaurant’s only serving it until it runs out, which will probably be tonight: rare-as-plutonium wild Columbia River sturgeon. Pollinger pan roasts the fish, and serves it with braised Yukon gold potatoes, baby vegetables, and a saffron jus reminiscent of the cooking he did under Floyd Cardoz at Tabla. “I think I’m the only guy in New York who has it right now,” the chef tells us. “It’s very simple. I basically cook it like a steak.”