The Glittering Pleasure of a Perfect Raw Bar

The best way to take in the bounty is by way of the ninety-eight-dollar Ice Box Plus, Penny’s version of a seafood platter. It’s an exquisitely arranged, gloriously over-the-top tray that on my visits bore brawny oysters, plump smoked mussels, tiny periwinkles (a type of snail), a huge scoop of lightly dressed Jonah crab, a slippery-sweet scallop crudo, and a tangle of vividly pink cocktail shrimp, tails entwined. Most thrilling, among the jewels, are two shot-glass-size portions of vichyssoise (a chilled potato-leek soup), dolloped upon arrival with voluptuous portions of caviar, green-gold and sublime, which slide almost seductively beneath the opaque surface of the soup. It’s not cheap eats, by any stretch, but it’s the sort of thing that makes money feel well spent.