This is Highly Recommend , a column dedicated to what we’re eating, drinking, and buying.

I recently celebrated a dear friend's birthday at Marcel 945 Madison , the much buzzed about restaurant at Sotheby's global headquarters (RIP, old Whitney) on the Upper East Side of New York. Inside the Breuer Building, named for its Brutalist architect, it is a space to behold , equal parts concrete and midcentury walnut accents. Every detail—the luscious lighting, the forged flatware, the tufted mohair banquettes—is exquisitely considered and, likely, for sale .

In this beautiful room full of beautiful people, I could not take my eyes off the frites, priced at $22 under the "Accompagnements" section of the menu in Chroma sans serif type.

Skinny but not shoestring, long, golden, and perfectly salted, they practically glowed from within a napkin-lined bread basket. Every frite was pert, not a single one enervated under a mountain of hot fries.…