Salt & zest at the Odeon

Last Thursday, around 7:30, AS and I wandered around Tribeca looking for something to eat. We stopped into Terroir, which was pretty packed. We wandered. We stopped into "Marc Forgione" (f.k.a. Forge), and despite about half a house's worth of empty tables, we were told it would be about a 30-40 minute wait for a table. More wandering. Finally, we ended up at the Odeon, one of those downtown landmarks I've never been to. The host-- let's call him "Mr. Bean" because he looked exactly like Mr. Bean-- led us to a table.

The vibe at Odeon is cool, very "bustling brasserie." There's white butcher paper on the table, the ceilings are high, and the bread is good crusty french bread with a dish of butter. Yum.

Bread.

To start, AS embarked on Chapter 2 of the Green Soup Chronicles with the asparagus soup. A dollop of creme fraiche melted across the top, adding extra richness to an already rich and tasty soup.

There were no bursting goat cheese dollops, but we can't win 'em all

My entree was the warm goat cheese salad with pine nuts. It came as a good tangle of mixed greens, dusted with a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts and accompanied by a round of goat cheese on a thin, crunchy toast. The goat cheese was topped with something-- creamy? melted?-- that could have been more goat cheese, but the jury's out on that one. Oh, and one more thing: there was salt. Lots of salt. The whole salad packed one powerful punch of salt. I think it was the dressing, actually, that was somewhat oversalted-- and this comes from someone who has a very potent salt-tooth. (Huh?) It was still edible, though, and the saltiness actually enhanced the glass of sauvignon blanc I had on the side, but with a touch less salt it would have been a great salad. About an hour after dinner I was desperately, desperately thirsty.

You can't see the salt. But it's THERE.

AS went with the Satur Farms heirloom tomato salad, one of the daily specials. This was very prettily plated, and one taste revealed a hearty kick of orange zest-- actually something of a surprising taste when biting into a tomato. I think this salad could have used one extra ingredient (some sort of cheese, maybe), to truly balance it out, but I'm also not a chef, so take that with a grain of salt (ha! Get it?).

OrangAtos

Neither of us had been that full to begin with, so we skipped dessert for a nice early-evening stroll through the streets of Tribeca. The overall take on Odeon? Despite a few (salty) hiccups here and there, I actually liked it, and I'd easily return. That means a solid three Offset Spatulas in my book.

The Odeon
145 West Broadway
212-233-0507