Eleven Madison Park recently ditched an already extraordinarily popular menu to completely recreate itself as a loving tribute to New York City’s culinary legacy. Part of this transformation was presentation, including a dessert finale involving a magic trick designed by Jonathan Bayme and Dan White of theory11.
That trick has remained a mystery. Until now…
A reviewer for the Huffington Post spilled the beans:
We had read in the Times that there was a magic trick that introduced the desert and although most of the rest of the things the reviewer had mentioned had been eliminated, I was determined to see the magic trick. I asked the waiter if he was going to do it. “Oh yes, I am,” he said. He produced a deck of cards with symbols of food or spices printed on them, palmed them in a line on the table and we were each instructed to take one card. Underneath the cheesecake we had already been served, we each found a candy that matched the symbol on the card we had taken. Quel surprise! Later we read in a booklet that we got as we left, with our gift of a jar of granola and a pack of cards, that the trick was a tribute to the “three card monte” that used to be a staple of New York street life. The trick was perfection.
Sounds awesome. Although at $1200 for four people it’s certainly a pricey exchange.