Tru’s new caviar presentation

For years, the caviar staircase at Tru has been the one thing that is universal about the restaurant—even if you had never been to the restaurant, you could talk about its caviar presentation. Its fame made it difficult to remove from the menu. But last week, after 12 years of service, executive chef Anthony Martin did just that, retiring the staircase and replacing it with…coral.

The coral
Martin came across these coral replicas while walking through a mall. “The coral grabbed me right away, because it almost looks like movement,” he says. It’s “very creative and brings a certain uniqueness to Tru, just like the staircase did.”

The shells
The abalone shells nestled in the coral’s branches are “the perfect vessel to hold caviar…. It’s really interactive. You can take the shells, pass them [around the table].” Caviar courses may involve as few as one shell of caviar and as many as 20.

The caviar
Tru will keep six to eight different roes on hand at all times. “We’ve had the daunting task of tasting 30 to 40 different caviars,” Martin reports. He’s excited about a farm-raised Russian caviar, rated Imperial. “As far as a farm-raised roe, it’s the first one I’ve had that can compete with a wild Caspian,” he says. He’s also into a roe called “Keluga,” a Chinese caviar that’s a take on beluga.