This time last year, Alfred Portale was in the middle of his fourth decade as the chef of Gotham Bar & Grill. The loftlike dining room still looked so much like 1985 that it could have served as a set for “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” in the unlikely event that any studio wanted to remake it.

The cooking may not have been in the vanguard any longer, but Mr. Portale was still wringing fresh pleasures out of ideas he had been refining for years. Meanwhile, Victoria Blamey, a chef who cut her teeth in kitchens that practiced the latest avant-garde techniques, was between jobs, taking a long eating tour while she looked for inspiration and a new place to show off her stark, contemporary cooking.