LWF&D goes to Napa and chills with Michael (Chiarello) (not really)

Our last dinner in Napa was at Bottega, famous chef/food personality Michael Chiarello's Yountville restaurant. It's a palatial complex, a huge house-style restaurant with a lovely semi-wraparound patio for dining outdoors, and it was crowded in the way Cheesecake Factories are crowded... that is, it was enormous, and it was packed with people. Fortunately, we had a reservation, and we were seated at a large table set for four, which meant we had plenty of space for the two of us.

Wine comes in quartinos here, so I chose a quartino of grechetto, a light Italian white, to complement my food. Unfortunately (especially since this was our last dinner in Napa), I really didn't enjoy this wine... it was somewhat insipid and the flavor was flat and harsh. Oh well.

A half-loaf of crusty, flaky bread with a dish of some sort of cheesy spread landed on our table (literally on our table, too; there was no plate for the bread, which sat directly on the butcher paper covering our tablecloth). But there was barely time to eat it, since our shared appetizer arrived barely a second or two after the bread. This was a delicious salad of fresh ricotta, arugula, stewed peaches, pecorino, and some sort of peach gel. There's usually coppa as well, but I ordered it vegetarian-style for the two of us. And while the portion was pretty small, this was a very tasty dish; while the smear of ricotta on the side of the plate wasn't especially tasty, the rest of the ingredients were fresh and vibrant.

Bread on table

Greens on ricotta smear

For entree, Mom ordered the fish of the day, which was a white fish similar to red snapper whose name we both missed. The server came and finished filleting the fish at the table, a service note that is probably better in theory than in practice. But nonetheless, Mom enjoyed the fish.

Without head and tail, too

My choice for entree was the insalata del bosco, which was mixed greens, sliced pear, candied hazelnuts, and pecorino. While the pear wasn't much of a presence in this salad, the hazelnuts especially were quite flavorful. Again, the portion was on the small side, but otherwise this was delicious.

Pretty greens

We also shared a side of asparagus, which was both pretty and tasty, although I ate a little too much of it. But that's my own fault.

Too much asparagus. Hoooooboy.

Finally, we decided to have dessert at the restaurant. Mom chose a simple scoop of salted caramel gelato, which was really tasty. It also came with this slice of peanut-butter feuilletine-fudge-like confection, which I really enjoyed (but Mom, not so much).

Plain, unadorned

My dessert was the tiramisu profiteroles, three puff pastries split and stuffed with tiramisu & sponge cake gelato, all drowned in chocolate sauce (the menu also listed "cocoa puff," but I'm not sure what that is and don't think I had it on my plate). This was a well-executed rendition of profiteroles, although the gelato-- chock full of chunks of espresso-soaked lady fingers-- was too strongly coffee-y with me, especially with the bitterness of the chocolate sauce as well. I definitely would have preferred vanilla gelato, but I'm glad I tried the dish as is. And it was very, very rich; I only downed two of the three profiteroles before having to stop.

Pretty, no?

On balance, we did enjoy the food at Bottega, and the service was friendly and professional. It's worth a stop if you're in Napa. But-- how to put this-- it wasn't the most personal of our dining experiences. For better or for worse, Bottega is so successful that it's perennially packed and feels sort of like, well, a factory, churning diners out in a fast and efficient, albeit tasty, fashion. That said, you can get a great meal there, and if you don't necessarily want to linger or aren't out for a romantic, personalized atmosphere, it'll fit the bill.

Bottega
6525 Washington Street, Yountville, Napa
707-945-1050

LWF&D goes to Napa: Soaking up the evening air at Brix

Friday found us motoring north to Calistoga to take in the Old Faithful Geyser and the local Petrified Forest. Suffice it to say that the geyser was a geyser and the "petrified forest" was the lamest thing my mother and I have ever done. By far.

So on to dinner. This evening found us at Brix, a sprawling restaurant by the St. Helena highway. We sat outside on the patio by their incredible gardens, taking in the sunset, the ideal weather, the grape vines, the vegetables... it was pretty much the perfect setting. Oh, and the food was good too.

Mom started with the butter lettuce salad, which she claimed was tasty. It looked simple and fresh from across the table.

Herbs, lettuce, croutons

There was a long wait between appetizers and entrees; our waiter apologized several times and explained that the kitchen had lost the ticket, so as we waited he brought us each a half-glass of zinfandel on the house. It was delicious. Props to Brix for being honest and dealing with a mix-up in a stand-up fashion.

Yummy zin

Once the entrees arrived, we were back to being happy. Mom chose the halibut once again and asked for potatoes instead of the fregola pasta; those potatoes ended up being incredibly delicious, creamy and crispy and completely indulgent.

Can't you tell it was a beautiful evening?

AND they came in a cute mini cast iron pan!

My choice was a combination of sides: warmed spinach with saba vinaigrette and pan-roasted wild mushrooms with fines herbs and shallots. The spinach was pretty standard-- wilted spinach with an occasional sweet kick from the saba. The mushrooms were delicious, though; not as butter-drowned as those at Cuvee but tender, flavorful, and earthy in all the right mushroomy ways. Outstanding.

Green as expected

Brown and umami-rich

Brix was a top contender for the best meal we had. While the food was quite good, it was the atmosphere that was priceless... sitting out on the patio in the delightful early evening, drinking wine and eating fresh food, then strolling through the garden to see where that food came from-- it's a Napa experience that shouldn't be missed.

Brix
7377 St. Helena Highway, Yountville
707-944-2749

David Burke Kitchen delights... until dessert

Last week marked my parents' 38th wedding anniversary (!!!), so to celebrate, we all went out to dinner at David Burke Kitchen in Soho. I'd heard good things about the new outpost of David Burke's empire, particularly about the desserts, so I was excited.

Despite the fact that it was empty when we arrived (literally-- we were the first group to be seated that evening, which is always awkward), the space is quite nice. It's subterranean but still full of light, bright and whimsically decorated.

We started off with a bottle of prosecco to toast the parents' achievements (the wine list skews quite pricy, so budget accordingly). This went well with the bread course, which offered a choice of sourdough, multigrain, or olive walnut bread-- as much as you could eat throughout the meal, courtesy of an obliging bread man. The olive bread was luxuriously studded with enormous olives and was delicious with the soft, spreadable butter. My only gripe was that they only provided one tiny dish of butter for the table of five (maybe two tablespoons total)-- upon request more arrived, of course, but still.

LOVE olive bread!

Then came the appetizers. Mom and Dad both ordered the market salad, which we'll get to later. The bro went for the lobster soup, which came first as a bowl of just the included lobster dumplings and associated garnishes. As the maitre d' placed the bowl on the table, he asked the bro if he'd like more soup; "Sure, a little more," D responded in slight confusion. Of course, then the soup was poured tableside from a teapot-looking contraption, the plan all along. Mad props to DBKitchen for punking my brother. Culinarily punking.

Ashton, is that you?

While the appetizers were appreciated, the entrees were even more successful. Mom went for a soft-shell crab special, which the waiter offered to prepare in an entree portion (it was designed as an appetizer). As a lover of soft-shell crabs, she loved this preparation, which is visually bizarre yet kind of cool.

Tentacles everywhere

Dad and LM went for the pork chop, a huge Flintstones chop crowned with a couple of gargantuan onion rings. I took a bite of LM's onion ring, and it was exemplary-- fluffily battered yet still sweet and toothsome. They both really enjoyed the pork chop, though they noted it was a bit on the fatty side. LM also ordered a well-received and visually quite pretty side order of basil whipped potatoes.

Crowning onion rings

Purty potatoes

The bro went for the short rib, which got crowned with a dollop of truffle cream tableside (guess he was all about the tableside preparations that night, eh?). Along with the accompanying cavatelli and wild mushrooms, the bro pronounced the shortribs perhaps "the best plate of food he's ever had." Cheers to that!

Best?

My choice was the same market salad Mom and Dad had had as an app. I got mine sans bacon, but it was still plenty interesting. It was a huge tangle of lightly dressed greens crowned with some translucently-thin shavings of what seemed to be pear; in the mix were roasted walnuts, caramelized dices of some sort of root vegetable (could easily have been potato or turnip), and a few large hunks of aged goat cheese. This was one of the more interestingly composed salads I've encountered-- a fine and satisfying balance of textures and flavors, and quite filling to boot.

Highly recommended

So the meal seemed to be on an upward trajectory, and given the raves I've heard about the desserts, I couldn't wait for the final showdown: dessert. We were all quite full at this point, so only Mom and LM got a real dessert (the chocolate caramel fudge cake), while I got an assortment of three of their ice creams.

The fudge cake went over well; it was pretty much just as you'd expect from the photo: chocolatey, cakey, pretty to look at. It got the job done.

Chocolate cake

But my ice creams-- for shame! This was, without a doubt, the worst ice cream I've ever had. And if you read this blog regularly, you'll know how much ice cream I eat and how much I love ice creams and frozen treats of all kinds. All three flavors here-- vanilla, cajeta (goat's milk caramel), and chocolate-- were atrocious. Icy, thin, flavorless, not rich at all: it tasted like eating ice with a bit of skim milk poured over it. The texture was all wrong. The flavor was all wrong. I took a couple bites, and once I realized what was going on, I did the unthinkable: I stopped. Not sure if this is sad or not, but this is the first and only time I've ever stopped eating a dessert a few bites in because it was terrible and simply not worth the calories (even at Scarpetta, when I should have stopped, I didn't.) It's just such a puzzler, because it's not difficult to make delicious ice cream, and if you can't, just order it from any of the many fantastic companies that deliver to restaurants (Il Laboratorio del Gelato, anyone?). Also, on a completely separate note, it's a little disappointing for an ice cream dessert preparation at an upscale restaurant to come with no garnishes or fun add-ons (whipped cream, cookie garnishes, anything); given that the ice cream was so vile it didn't matter, but had it been delicious the three small shot glasses of plain ice cream still would have been somewhat disappointing.

Worst?

Anyway, dessert screed over. Aside from that, the rest of the evening was pitch-perfect-- food was delicious, space enjoyable, and service prompt and friendly and everything you could ask for. In the right context and with a much improved ice cream service, DBKitchen could be pushing five spatulas. As it was, it landed at a low four, providing a memorably delicious evening to most of the party and unfortunately only truly disappointing the reviewer.

David Burke Kitchen
23 Grand Street at 6th Avenue
212-201-9119

The hidden and quirky Bahr Che

Bahr Che is a curious place. On the surface, it's kind of like any other wine bar in the city: dark-ish, vaguely modern-looking interior; tailored menu of cheeses, charcuterie, and other small bites; laid-back vibe made for lingering. But there are some important differences, primarily that there's nobody there. Seriously. I was there from 8-10PM on Friday night and there were, max, two other parties in the space at any given time. The one server handling the whole room looked almost bored. The lack of traffic is due, of course, to the location, which is in one of the weirder no-man's-lands in Manhattan: around the corner from Aster Place, on a bleak and almost industrial part of Cooper Square, guarded by a tiny, tucked-away door that pretty much nobody notices. And that's a shame, because Bahr Che has its charms and should certainly see much more traffic than it does.

Let's start with the wine, shall we? While the by-the-glass menu is impressively long and varied, here is where Bahr Che makes a misstep, in my opinion. Unless you're ordering a sparkler (which I was), you can't get just a glass-- you can get a carafe, described as around 1.5 glasses, or a bottle. That means, of course, that the prices are much higher-- around $15, give or take--than a single glass at most places, and given that at most bars and restaurants around the city a "glass" pour ends up being about a glass and a half anyway, this ends up being something of a ripoff. But it's easily remedied: Bahr Che, just add a true by-the-glass option, and you'll be fine. In any case, I went with a delicious, crisp glass of prosecco (a real glass at $10), and KS and AC split a carafe of txakolina for $15.

My yummy bubbly

Half the carafe

AC and I also split a five-cheese cheese plate. Our selections were the Selles sur Cher, Tomme Crayeuse, Sharfe Maxx, Pecorino Oro Antico, and Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (this latter an interesting choice for a cheese plate menu, no?). They provided a good variety of bread, a mix of rosemary bread and focaccia, but only a relatively small portion of each cheese except the cheddar, which was a big honkin' wedge. I enjoyed the Selles sur Cher, which was the ash-rinded soft goat cheese, the most; the others were all tasty, but a couple were almost overwhelmingly salty. And while there was a tiny composition of undressed frisee and beet sliver garnishes, that seemed to be more for visual interest than for consumption. There were no accompaniments to speak of: no chutney or jam, no honey, no nuts or dried fruit. For $16, I expected a bit more-- cheese is great, but cheese with the right accompaniments can be transcendent.

Stark cheese

Lotsa bread

So I'll say overall our experience was mixed. Because there were so few other parties in the bar, we could linger as long as we wanted without feeling guilty or being nudged out the door, which is a rare luxury in the city. But also because there were so few other people there, our voices echoed in the high-ceilinged space and it felt a little, well, awkwardly empty. If Bahr Che can fix its menu quirks-- offer wines by the glass, kick up the cheese plates a few notches-- it could be a real gem in a neighborhood not known for relaxed, upscale places to grab a nice glass of wine. I hope then the crowds will come.

Bahr Che
26 Astor Place (but entrance is on Cooper Square)
212-260-2220

Back to Medi for more wine and olives

As I vowed the last time I tried Medi Wine Bar, I went back as soon as I could, this time with friend AS in tow. We sat in the corner of the bar amidst a frenzy of activity between the bar and the kitchen, but for the most part everyone working there seemed to be having a good time, so it was more convivial than distracting.

For wine, AS chose a cotes du rhone and I selected a glass of Ciro Bianco from Italy. This was a surprise delight: lightly sweet at first sip, fruity and a bit floral, and thoroughly delightful.

That's mah wine!

And of course, I got a dish of the olives. They were just as meaty, salty, and delightful as last time.

Such a wonderful variety

Medi is great. It's laid back, reasonably priced, and delicious. What more could you ask for in a wine bar?

Medi Wine Bar
811 Ninth Avenue, between 53rd and 54th Streets
212-586-1201

LWF&D experiences Nougatine... finally

Nougatine, the slightly more casual part of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's flagship Jean-Georges restaurant, has been on my list of places to go pretty much since I moved to NYC. Now that I'm imminently moving south to Philly, I wasted no time in checking it off my list once and for all, toting Mom along for a delightful dinner.

And delightful it was. We were a little underdressed, to be sure, but we could appreciate the relaxed decor, the friendly and professional servers, and the eye-catching open kitchen bustling with activity at the end of the room. My only room-related gripe was the table: It stood on a tapered pedestal that was thick at the bottom (kind of like a mushroom), which cut drastically into the table's foot room. Kind of a bizarre choice.

But once we got beyond that, it was smooth sailing. One of the greatest things about Nougatine, I discovered, was that they offer wine in half (3oz) pours as well as full pours, which meant I could try two different kinds of wine! I started with a half pour of Domaine Carneros bubbly, which was fantastic, and finished up with a superlative Torrontes that was aromatic, crisp, and pretty darn delicious. Also, notably, for some reason they offer Cristal by the glass (and half glass). Huh.

Bubbles

Two half glasses = more than 1 glass. Yay!

To accompany the wine (and club soda, for Mom), we started with bread. Though the butter was cold and hard to spread, the bread was delicious, with a slight sourdough tang and an irresistibly stretchy inside.

And they give you two pieces at once!

Oh, and there was an amuse-bouche as well. A shot of warm carrot soup was surprisingly yummy; the accompanying rye toast was pretty standard, but it certainly got the job done.

Dollhouse food

To start, Mom went completely rogue and ordered the artichoke with mustard mayonnaise. Crazy town! After a steep but rapid learning curve in terms of how to eat it, she declared her love for the dish. I sense a long and happy artichoke-laden future for her.

The 'choke!

On to the entrees. Mine was warm asparagus topped with mixed mushrooms and a vinaigrette. Though there were only four thick spears (a bit paltry, in my opinion, for an $11 dish), all the ingredients were top-notch and remarkably flavorful. I particularly loved the mushrooms, which were actually the best part of the dish for me.

Lots of flavor, little portion

Mom chose the red snapper, with asparagus, shiitakes, and sesame vinaigrette. It was as satisfying as she expected, with perfectly-cooked fish sporting a crisp crust and a flavorful, Asian-inflected gingery sauce.

Really pretty fish

Of course, dessert was up next. The dessert menu was extensive and enticing, with everything from carrot cake to hazelnut dacquoise. It was hard to choose, but we did. In a startling turn of events, Mom chose the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. She loved it, but I thought it was surprisingly plain for a Jean-Georges dessert: pretty standard chocolate cake, above average vanilla ice cream, job done.

Mod chocolate cake

Mine, however, was transcendent, one of the best desserts I've had in a while, in fact. This was a coconut and mango-passion mint vacherin with exotic fruit chutney. A cylinder of mango-passion sorbet-ish substance sat atop a dish of crunchy meringue, all crowned with whipped meringue and crystallized mint and surrounded by a small-dice tropical fruit salad. The plate was painted with passion fruit puree, and a long stick of meringue provided both garnish and textural and visual interest. The dessert was an explosion of flavors, fresh and vibrant and sweet and satisfying. And the textural range was impressive, from soft and silken purees and whipped meringues to firm, toothsome fruit to crunchy baked meringue. In.Sane.Ly. Good.

Explosion of color and delight!

Oh, and to send us off were three tiny mignardises each: two pates de fruit of indeterminate flavor and a chocolate-covered orange jelly stick. These were ah-kay, nice sweet bites but nothing too special.

Freebies

All in all, though, Nougatine is quite a special place. The food is spectacular, and the service and overall experience are both pretty great as well. It's a four Offset Spatula destination that's perfect for special occasions and any time you want to feel, well, delighted.

Nougatine
1 Central Park West
212-299-3900