Newsday from New York, New York • 231

l1. i 4-s 4 9 'J i A gii A IQ Tffi A NTS 0(t AT A GLANCE: Open lunch Monday through Friday 1 1 :30 am. to 3 p.m.; dinner Monday through Thursday 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday 5 to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday 4 to 11 p.m.; Sunday brunch noon to 4 p.m. Ala carte dinner with wine, tax and tip about $40; prix fixe dinner all major credit cards; reservations dam bellies and some of the broiled fish, this menu is an excellent example of why cooking shouldnt be landmarked. If you order from the other menu.

Gage Tollner becomes more living, less museum. The daily photocopied sheet features the cooking by. Edna Lewis, who for five decades has been New Yorks doyenne of southern-style home cooking. Her Charleston she-crab soup is velvet-rich and still fresh and sweet with crab. Her tomato soup is real, freshened by torn basil.

Her turnip soup makes you re-evaluate the lowly root vegetable. Shes wizardly with fiery catfish stew and with a shrimp gumbo that is a perfect balance of file powder and nutty, browned roux. Ashkenazy is trekking across the bridge to Fulton Market; all the fish on the menu is impeccable. Already, Lewis is turning out perfectly sauteed soft-shell crabs and pan-fried shad roe. Her flounder in parchment is another winner.

The crab cakes Freetown will make you consider relocating. The pan-fried chicken, the quail with spoon bread, the spareribs with red rice, the brisket of beef with carrots are all Sunday dinner. Save room for lemon meringue pie, for the coconut layer cake and for Lewis intense, bitter chocolate souffle. The waiters cant believe they are serving sweets again. "Before her, said one, all my customers fell asleep at the table before dessert.

Now, the young burghers of Brooklyn are beginning to (Nish through the front door again. Edna Lewis walks softly from the kitchen to the tables. The prim bun of hair on her neck is as white as the chefs jacket she wears over her African sari-style skirt. Shes living history. Sitting at her table you can almost hear the Gay 90s roar at Gage Tollner again, in By Molly ONeill 1 OR 110 YEARS, Gage Tollners wood-I framed, revolving door has creaked around -U.

and around, a constant turnstile into the Gay 908. When Brooklyn was the world, A was its downtown, and the thicket of courts that hemmed the shopping district was The Law. The Robber Barons and the would-be-Daddy-War-bucks, the lawyers and the judges, the retailers and the stoppers pushed through Gage Tollners front door. Inside the rambling dining room, oysters by the dozens and deep-fried clam bellies were the great equalizers: All who entered were Diamond Jim Brady. At least for the meal.

Cherry-framed, arching mirrors bank the dark room. Brass chandeliers, forged like oxen yoke, march in a line overhead. They should be swaying; this should be a dub car rolling along the tracks. The dark bentwood chairs, the man-size white napkins that are smoothed across the tables, the legion of waiters in their black waist-jackets and bow ties are all remnants of glory days on the rails. But this train is parked in the era of cut glass and Gibson girls, when cash was fast and a pretty waist was thick.

Maybe thats why the. door never pletely stopped turning. It slowed. Sometime after Brooklyn-the-world became Brooklyn-the-bor-ough, the waiters could actually hear the swoosh of the front door. Gage was that quiet.

The restaurants interior was landmarked in 1975. But one waiter claims he can remember every customer who ordered the famous clam-belly broil in the following half-decade it took him to earn the gold star of service thats' stitched to his left sleeve. Under a hundred, he claims, everyone an antique. For at least a decade, Gage Tollner has been history. It still is.

In November, Peter Aahkenasy, who co-owned The Oyster Bar, Charlie Os, The U. S. Steak House, American Charcuterie and Lu-chows, bought the But the fresh coat of -gold-leaf paint that he had brushed on the ceiling MENU: American cooking with a southern accent. With the exception of fried dam bellies, the best dishes are all from Edna Lewis pedal list: she-crab soup; crab cakes; catfish stew; dam chowder; all seafood; fried chicken; pan-fried quail with spoon bread; braised brisket of beef; bitter chocolate souffle; lemon meringue pie; coconut layer cake. WINE LIST: Decently chosen and priced selection of primarily American wines; generous selection of naif bottles.

Recommended: 87 Sequoi Grove Char-donnay 87 Kenwood Sauvig-non Blanc 86 Preston Zinfandel 86 Newton Meriot ($27) didnt change the cigar-stained feel of the place. Pushing through the door, youre ready to join the rollicking ghosts of ban vivants past. But inside, you start to whisper. Is this a museum? Only if you order from the relic menu. You have a choice.

The antiquated menu offers dam bellies 16 wsyB, fish, steaks, chops, omelettes and Welsh rabbits. Avoid this menu. Except for the broiled Making the Single Diner Feel Welcome ervations for these spaces. According By Robert Schoolsky to Bodner, the feature is a recent addition and appears to be catching on, particularly at lunch, which draws a number of diners from the sprawling garment center district to the south. The restaurant, at 120 W.

41st St. (212 840-8810), is also near the theater district. At Aurora, 60 E. 49th. between Madison and Park (212 692-9292), bar dining was part of owner Joe Baums original concept when the restaurant was still in the design stage.

A special menu was developed and the service has proven to be extremely popular. On Friday and Saturday evenings, diners at the bar downstairs at Club 1407 eryoy the added divertissement of viewing closed-circuit TV showings of the comedian performing live in the adjacent restaurant showroom. Other evenings, and at lunch, management runs old movie short subjects. Club 1407 is at 1407 Broadway, between 38th and 39th Streets; (212) 575-1407. Some other restaurants that have the welcome mat out for singles at their include: the pasta bar at Trattoria dellArte at 200 W.

57th. (212) 245-9800; the Union Square Cafe at 21 E. 16th (212) 243-4020; The China Grill, in the CBS building, 60 W. 53rd. (212) 333-7788; The Gotham Bar Grill, 12 E.

12th (212) 620-4020. RAVING A restaurant by yourself is never easy. And restaurateur Tony May hoped, to make it less difficult when he opened Sandros on East 59th Street four years ago and installed a large table for 12 in the center of the dining room. It was set aside for single diners who, when grouped together, could feel comfortable about their solo status. Unfortunately, the communal dining table didnt live up to his expectations.

Sandros is just not in the right location, said May; instead of drawing younger diners who are 'more apt to join with people they dont know," his restaurant mainly attracts the Sutton Place he said. However, May is not giving up on the concept. Were going to have a communal table in our new, second Sandros, which is currently on the drawing boards in an. area more conducive to such an arrangement The new location is still a secret; the original Sandros will continue at 420 E. 59th St Meanwhile, dining at the bar, a tradition in European restaurants for many years, remains the best bet for diners on their own.

Levins Restaurant Wine Bar, 23 W. 39th. St, (212) 921-1288, has offered that option since its opening a decade ago. It has worked out very well, owner At Giorgios bar, single patrons can sit and watch the open kitchen. Richard Lavin said, So we didnt NEWSOAY.

FRIDAY, MARCH 10. 1989 WEEKEND31 signed the decor with copper-on-ma-hogany-colored paneled walls, said he thought the open-wall kitchen would be more interesting than the traditional back-bar mirror. Giorgio, at 245 Park Ave. South at 20th Street (212 460-9100), also delivers within a five-block radius. Hot meals arrive in boxes that convert into trays.

A covered dinner plate is microwavable. Midtowns Cheers, which owner-Martin Bodner claims is the only glatt kosher Italian restaurant in New York, offers service at the bar for lunch or dinner and will take res- hesitate to repeat it when we opened Sofi downtown. It gives the single diner a dunce, yet maintains independence. Sofi is at 102 Fifth at 15th Street, (212) 463-8888. Solo diners at Giorgio, the new high-tech cafe that opened last month, can sit on comfortable chairs at the snug six-seat bar and talk to the chef.

The restaurants kitchen is sans walls, providing a full view of the activities, and the bar is the best vantage point from which to catch the action. Consultant Frank Valenza, who do- i i I I I 4 i -f a '4 I 4 4 4 1 I I 1 V'- i a.