Marcus Samuellson's dessert "arctic circle" isn't meant for the tight fisted.

PHOTO: YETNAYET ABERRA

NEW YORK 7:45 p.m.--Aquavit is not for the tight-fisted, which is tough if you’re a graduate student like me. Hidden on the first floor of the Rockefeller family’s brownstone on W. 54th Street, the 17-year-old restaurant is a gem waiting to be discovered by the kind of people who don’t even know what a budget is.

My dining mate, also a graduate student, and I tried an experiment to see if we could enjoy fine dining in New York on a shoestring budget. And Aquavit was the perfect setting for the test.

Although the restaurant isn’t on the international culinary map like Tavern on the Green or 21, Aquavit is one of New York’s elite restaurants and shares this category with other trendy restaurants such as Nobu and Balthazar.

Nevertheless, Aquavit has a wide variety of patrons: young couples in casual chic, business partners, Park Avenue-type housewives. Yet, although we dressed our best, our pocket books didn’t quite match with this place. According to general manager David Goldstein, the average price of a dinner for two at Aquavit is $200, not counting the dessert and wine that brings the tab up to $300.

On this night, our fellow diners included a table filled with Japanese businessmen, whose faces were ruddy from dozens of drinks. To our right were two Wall Street-type businessmen discussing a deal. To our left were two women who looked like attorneys.
The chatter was pleasant and low and there was not a single cell phone in sight.

Adam Jaffe, the manager of the restaurant’s café, says that the regulars include a staple of Swedish business people during lunch, and celebrities such as Sidney Poitier.

On a typical Friday night, as was this one, the reservations book is filled. The decor is simple and classy, with soft lighting and honey-gold wood floors. There are two dining areas: the café that includes a bar, which displays a wide range of cocktails, and the downstairs dining area.

The restaurant, which seats 50 patrons, is intimate and includes donut-shaped booths, and no more than eight tables in the restaurant’s rear. Rectangular mirrors, and spaceship-shaped lights and a cascading waterfall all added to the restaurant’s quiet sophistication.

8:15 p.m.
The service at the intimate restaurant is first rate unless you begin to show that you are on a limited budget. On this night, there were at least five waiters whose youthful looks deceived their professionalism.

Our waiter, who looked no older than 24, asked us what we wanted for drinks. One of Aquavit’s specialty is -- what else --- but Aquavit, a vodka-infused drink that is usually consumed in shots in Sweden. At the restaurant, there were ten different flavors ranging from lingonberry to pear, vanilla and black pepper; Aquavit is in Sweden what red wine is in France.

The Aquavit cocktails included the Nordic delight, Swede Martini and Aquapolitan. While tempting, the aquavits were $7 and the cocktails were $12, which was the same price as the appetizers. The waiter seemed slightly baffled when we said we would stick with tap water, certainly the cheapest drink available.

Unlike many upscale restaurants, Aquavit offers several menus, and at least two dishes change everyday. One of the most popular menus particularly for fickle diners is the “bite menu.” That menu includes a total of 16 dishes ranging from appetizer to dessert.

Aquavit decor is upscale.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF AQUAVIT

For someone who grew up on Big Macs and fried rice, I could barely pronounce half of them: ginger al granite, foi gras ganache, bleu de gex, and a dessert sample of cherry, lustau, moscatel solera reserva. And I feared that if I tried, it would further blow our cover.

The price-fixed menu was no less mind-boggling. For $85 we could have a smorgasbord of ten sample dishes including cod and watermelon and marinated squab, and one ounce of tsar nicoulai osetra caviar. It sounded lovely except it was tough on the wallet.

We finally went with the generic dinner menu with prices that looked fairly reasonable. The main courses ranged from $16 to $20. In addition there was a three-course price-fixed menu of $38 (READ: beverages, tax and gratuity not included).

By the third time the waiter came around, we needed to order something. I went with the salmon plate ($13), and my dining partner went with the duck liver and duck confit terrine ($12). While the descriptions of the dishes are rich, the portions are quite small; this isn’t the place to go if you are famished.

The salmon plate described as Gravlax and Tandoori Smoked Salmon, Espresso Mustard Sauce, sounded rich and plentiful, but when the plate arrived my heart sank. The dish included four coin-sized pieces of salmon and three circular pools of sauce, and a sliver of potato. It looked like a white canvas with a few minimalist dots in the center, anchored with the tangerine colored salmon. In four bites, the dish was gone. In retrospect I realized that we ordered appetizers.

The waiter clearly sensed that we were not the typical clientele, and began to treat us as if we were invisible. He failed to fill our water glasses, and we had to ask for the bread basket. The bread was probably the most filling thing that we had; we treated it as if it were the main course.

My dining partner took a taste of the duck and the duck liver and made a face. I tried some and agreed. Some dishes just weren’t worth the money.

9:30 p.m.

Adam Jaffe, the café manager, must have taken pity on us after we revealed that we were graduate students because he said dessert was on the house.

“You’re going to like this, it’s one of Marcus’s favorites,” he said. The dessert named Artic Circle was a tiny tower of goat cheese and lemongrass, which tasted like a light cheesecake. The tower was topped with a prune-shaped scoop of homemade blueberry sorbet resting on a curled cookie. The dessert was too pretty to eat, but we quickly polished it off.

Our fine dining experience would soon come to an end though. We clearly were not members of Aquavit’s “in” crowd.

Since we were in a hurry we took the bill (a total of $28 for two) up to the cash register, and each forked over a $20. However, the change never came. The waiter closed the leather bill book, said thank you very much, and swiftly turned his back to us. We could have asked for change, but why bother? It would have been tasteless.#