Photo: Courtesy of Back Forty
Here’s good news if you took our advice about reserving for Back Forty’s Tuesday-night crab boils but still haven’t been able to, well, crack into it — the restaurant sends word that it will now host boils Wednesdays through Saturdays at its farm table. Get fourteen people together to pay the $600 flat fee and it only ends up being about $3 per head more than the $40-per-head Tuesday dinners. Here’s the letter Peter Hoffman plans to send out later on — you can call the number he lists starting at 3 p.m. today.
Dear Back Forty Crab Eaters,
The staff at Back Forty wants to thank you all for your support of our Tuesday night crab dinners. The good news is: many of you have told us how much you’ve enjoyed the experience. The bad news is: the dinners have become so popular it’s hard to score a reservation. We know this can be frustrating. It pains us to turn away anyone who wants to visit our restaurant, whether they be first-time diners, twice-a-week regulars or even my sister-in-law (sorry, Annie). Therefore, we’ve decided to expand the crab eating opportunities and make it easier to book a table.
Crab dinners are now available as one of our Farm Table Feasting menus Wednesday through Saturday nights. This means you can book your own private crab feast. The farm table accommodates up to 14 guests and is available for two seatings each night: 6:30 or 9:00 PM on Wednesdays and Thursdays and 7:00 or 9:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. This opens up about 100 additional seats each week and might even make Tuesday night reservations a little bit easier to come by. It also affords larger parties the opportunity to book further ahead of time.
Since feeding crabs to 10-14 people is a different proposition than feeding 150 customers, the menu and pricing structure on these nights will be slightly different than on Tuesdays, but the core elements will still be there: newspapers, mallets, fresh corn and that glorious perfume of steamed crabs covered in Old Bay. The price is $600 for up to 14 guests, and includes a summer tomato salad with herb vinaigrette, salt cod-yucca fritters, one bushel of steamed crabs (that’s a lot), Old Bay-spiced corn on the cob, new potatoes with herb butter and a summer fruit cobbler. For Farm Table crab dinner reservations, please call 212-388-1990 x 10. (Please note: Tuesday night crab boil reservations must still be made via our web site.) A $200 deposit will be taken when you reserve the table, which must be made at least three days in advance.
Finally, we’re extending the crab boil season until the end of September (the last one will be on the 29th). Crabs only improve as the season progresses. They are growing, eating, and building up energy stores for a long winter buried in the mud flats. So by September the meat is even fuller and richer.
So gather your clan for a feast table booking. We hope to see you soon, and thanks, again, for your support of Back Forty.
Sincerely,
Peter Hoffman
