Some chefs are notorious for their dazzling tricks with liquid nitrogen, their exacting technique or their new approach to long-forgotten grains. Suzanne Tracht is famous for her pot roast. And her deviled eggs. And her banana cream pie. If Gene Kelly danced through a time tunnel from 1953 into Jar, he would be able to have a tomato and onion salad, a broiled rib-eye with Béarnaise sauce, and a chocolate sundae for dessert; his martini would be bone-dry; and he could get a bowl of creamed corn if he wanted it. But Jar isn’t precisely retro — Tracht’s gift lies in her ability to reproduce the old tastes within a modern context, so that the sautéed pea tendrils with garlic make as much sense as the creamed spinach, the duck-fried rice as the mashed potatoes, and the char siu-style pork chop as the prime filet mignon.

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