Day 2: Tuna Tartare
Where: Wine Bar Food (South Plaza and Arthur Ashe Stadium)
Cost: $14
Wine Bar Food looms large on the South Plaza of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, a mammoth open-air canteen and watering hole with a wraparound bar, open kitchen, and adjacent high-boys for grazing. The concession proffers a select roster of Italianate snacks—orbs of burrata cheese, an antipasto plate, flaming ouzu shrimp—and a similarly short card of beer and wine options with which to wash it all down.
Overseen by Chicago's chef Tony Mantuano, whose Spiagga restaurant is today owned by U.S. Open food service operator Levy Restaurants, Wine Bar Food is a standalone operation, a few outer courts away from the Food Village. The lines here are often shorter than they are at other venues around the grounds, in part due to geography and, in all honesty, because Wine Bar Food is a relatively pricey venue with food and a vibe that all but demand that you stop and savor rather than grab and go.
One of the lighter (no meat or cheese) options available at Wine Bar Food on this hot, sunny day is the tuna tartare, an unmistakably "restaurant" composition: A layer of white beans topped with chilled, raw chopped tuna that’s been augmented with diced tomato, olives, and capers, and finished with black pepper, olive oil, and a garnish of arugula. Like most of the food here, it’s simple, familiar, and satisfying, and goes well with a glass of wine or a cold beer.
Click here for more Dishes of the Day from the 2013 U.S. Open.
In addition to his duties as an editor at-large for TENNIS, Andrew Friedman writes about food, chefs, and the restaurant industry. He has written or co-written more than 25 chef-focused books and cookbooks and chronicles his travels in the culinary world on his website, Toqueland.