David Burke is more than a restaurateur. An author, TV personality, art collector and philanthropist with his own lines of cookware, bakeware, cutlery, steak sauce and wine, Burke takes a holistic approach to some 18 restaurants he operates along the East Coast of the United States and Saudi Arabia as part of David Burke Hospitality Management. Indeed, it”™s not unheard of for you to see barn doors, a phone booth or a pool table from his personal collection adorning one of his restaurants.
On the day of the pandemic lockdown in 2020, he bought a painting of a red horse by Vietnamese artist Tran Tuan. It was an investment not only in art but in the future. Despite the lockdown, the Jersey boy who attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and pastry school in Paris opened four restaurants within a year in the Garden State, including one in Rumson on the site of the former Fromagerie, with which he had a long history. He called the new place Red Horse, after the painting that graces it.
“I like horses, though I”™m not a track guy,” he said. “They never go out of style.”
Clearly, he sees the horse or at least his painted red one as a talisman, for on Monday, April 3, he officially opened a second Red Horse by David Burke on the site of the former BLT Steak White Plains, adjoining The Opus, Westchester, Autograph Collection (itself the former RitzCarlton New York, Westchester). (Red Horse had a soft opening March 22.) And yes, this Red Horse contains a copy of the Tran Tuan painting to the left of the entrance of the 7,900- square foot space, which Burke has renovated in a warm yet airy red and white palette at a cost that is between $1.5 million and $2 million. In a phone interview prior to the grand opening, he said it was money wellspent.
“We realized that in New York there are plenty of opportunities for growth,” he said of his seven restaurants now open in the Empire State, including the Revel 32° event space in Poughkeepsie. (A second Manhattan location, the brasserie Park Ave Kitchen, will open this fall.) “We see growth in White Plains.”
The man whom Westchester County Executive George Latimer credited with spearheading that growth White Plains Mayor Tom Roach returned the compliment at the grand opening. “It”™s just a great restaurant,” he said.
Judging from the hors d”™oeuvres at the celebration, you could only concur. Each of the restaurants in Burke”™s portfolio is different, he said. Red Horse is a steakhouse with Asian influences. Signature dishes include its Gruyere Popovers, Clothesline Bacon, Lobster Dumplings, Salmon Pastrami, Angry Lobster and Pork Chops with Sandy Hook Clams Casino. We sampled the sweetsavory Clothesline Bacon, served on squares of piquant pickles; Crispy Shrimp Spring Rolls; a smooth, rolled salmon pastrami on pretzel spears topped with crème fraiche and chives; and tender filet mignon served on a bed of guacamole and French bread ”“ all highly satisfying. Fish, pork and poultry figure into a menu that will have daily specials beginning in late April. But it is prime beef, dryaged using Burke”™s patented Himalayan salt process, for which Red Horse is known.
Pink Himalayan salt figures into a border that bridges the open kitchen and a spacious dining area as well as the red and the white of the color scheme, since pink combines both of those hues. (There are more intimate tables for two graced by horse portraits and a smaller dining room on the other side of the restaurant, which seats 200 inside and 80 outside.)
The outdoors will feature some special chairs painted by local artists through ArtsWestchester, whose Arts Exchange headquarters can be seen diagonally across from the restaurant through its floortoceiling windows. Under ArtsWestchester”™s auspices, three artists Ann Ladd, Barry Mason and Susan Rowe Harrison painted the eight colorful jockey statues by Saratoga Signature that overlook the main dining room. (The artwork is curated by Emily Santangelo.)
At the opening, the 65 attendees seemed as taken with the surroundings and their individual conversations as with the food. But then, County Executive Latimer said in his brief remarks, that is what fine dining is all about. He recalled that in his previous career as a marketing executive, he once received a big promotion and expected praise from the father, the late Stanley Latimer, who raised him in workingclass circumstances in Mount Vernon. Instead, his father admonished him about eating out so often.
But reflecting on turning 70 later this year (Nov. 22), Latimer said, “Me and my generation like to go out to eat. It”™s not just the food but the social occasion” a sentiment with which younger generations would undoubtedly agree.
He added that he and the County Board of Legislators, some of whom attended the opening, were always looking for a great lunch spot.
“We”™ll be back,” Latimer said, adding as he waved a finger teasingly at the Legislators, “but on your own dime, guys.”
Red Horse, at 121 Main St., is currently open for happy hour 3 to 6 p.m. daily and dinner (5 to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays). For more, click here. https://redhorsebydb.com/restaurantwhiteplains/.
