Cold Soups of Summer

103 W 77th St, New York, NY 10024 (map)

Dovetail's John Fraser is a master at deceptively complex dishes that seem simple but aren’t. Case in point: his watercress-avocado soup. Its twin purees give it an appearance much like any other green summer soup, but hidden inside it are pieces of smoked trout (for texture and depth), Greek yogurt panna cotta (for richness) and even some American caviar, whose brininess and acidity pop out of the other flavors. Does the best cold soup in town reside on the Upper West Side? It just might.

12 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003 (map)

This downtown institution is about as classical as you can get when it comes to combining flavors, so it’s no surprise that its chilled English pea soup is so good. It's a medley of asparagus, peas, morels and pearl onions with an ethereal morel foam lightening it all up. Get this one fast, though: peas and morels are on the way out, and will start declining before the end of the summer.

35 W 64th Street, New York, NY 10023 (map)

You didn't think we would have a cold soup rundown without gazpacho, did you? But this is a version of the highest order, a gazpacho of the gods. At Picholine, Terrance Brennan does a kind of duo: the traditional white gazpacho with its confluence of almonds, olive oil and garlic; and then the traditional red tomato-based gazpacho, in the form of a granite, a coarse ice of concentrated tart-sweet-acid flavor. Then, just for kicks, there's a perfect little shrimp, scented with smoked paprika.

355 W 14th St, New York, NY 10014 (map)

Scott Conant's rich Italian food isn't always what comes to mind when you think of light summer dishes, but he has a delicate hand with his summer soups, and there's a great one rolling out this season: a chilled puree of summer pea soup with crab meat, Riesling and crispy shallots. It's really exciting, and a perfect prelude to the spaghetti with tomato sauce that the Meatpacking District restaurant is so famous for.