First let me say that I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon tooling around the City (of New York, of course). Crossed town to the Time Warner center to pay homage to Per Se. Excitedly rode three escalators to the entrance, nervously entered--then I was greeted by a hostess and two managerial types. They were kind enough to let me look around, and I apologized for appearing in street clothes ("It's okay," one replied, "it's Sunday afternoon.") As I left, and thanked them sincerely, the French suit joked that they'd send me the bill at home.
Bouchon Bakery. I'm not overly impressed, though I will return for take out snacks or even a sit-down. Pan au chocolate--wonderful pastry, light, a pretty, rectangular croissant--once cut into quarters each piece had maybe 1/2 an ounce of chocolate. You do the math--not bad, but not great. Perhaps that fits in with Keller's notions about how much of a component is necessary to express the full spirit of a dish, but to me it smacked of bad (though well distributed) portion control. (Or maybe I like chocolate; do I want to be overwhelmed by it? Perhaps. Pour some ganache on me, as the song goes.) The fig pound cake was extremely attractive, with three small candied slices on top of a small, perhaps 5-6 oz. portion of sweet pound cake with fig in the middle. The fig garnish slices were sickly sweet, the poundcake itself was just about delicious, so overall I'd worth the five or so dollars. The coffee cake was good--the most straightforward pastry of the few that I purchased. No complaints there. A refined, good portion, tasty and well recieved by the friends to whom I served it later in the day. Then, I went into the restaurant proper, to the bar for an espresso. Perhaps I should have sat for a prepared dish, but the whole thing smacked of Starbucks, done up in a more high end context with a traditional restaurant staff structure--host, bussers, servers, chefs, bartenders, barbacks--but a Starbucks feel nonetheless. Starbucks is getting into the business of serving food with their coffee. Why wouldn't Bouchon Bakery open in a few airports to compete?
Totally average, machine dispensed espresso. Still, I felt compelled to tip 60% to the poor culinary school externs eeking out an existence picking up a few extra bucks at their weekend cashier job, and 40% to the sullen bartender who responded to my criticism of the espresso with "can I get you anything else?"
I understand real espresso machines require more training, upkeep, and depreciate in value more quickly, but come on... give me a real coffee drink. And I thought I could get some french bread or brioche for take out! What a shock, what the heck, I wanted some good bread to serve at home.
Drove over to Chesea Market (Bowery Kitchen) to pick up a Messermeister shellfish knife. I highly recommend this thing if you work raw bar. (It does bend, though, but at least it doesn't chip, so buy several, they're cheap.)
After dark. wd~50. Perfect service. Totally accomodating. Unpretentious. Comfortable banqettes, and some free standing tables. No tablecoths. A certain Vong-iness to the lighting, decor, art, and color schemes that made it clear one was in a fine dining establishment. The open kitchen looked spotlessly clean. Our server picked the perfect wine for me based on my description of what I liked and what we were willing to spend. He walked us through every component of every plate. Bartender was good, most every signature cocktail was a winner. All the dishes were everything I wanted in terms of having a gastronomic experience. Highly intellectual, daring yet sensible flavor and texture pairings, great plating technique, quality prep. I found components of the fois dish to be a little gelatinous but at not boring in terms of flavors, ingredients, and presentation, just not what I'm used to--and since what I'm used to with fois can border on pedestrian, this was refreshing. Beef tongue was thin and tender. Smoked eel was pleasant, with deep flavor, presented sort of like sushi. Entrees. The sea bass was a bit overcooked around the edges. Their french onion soup challenges, comforts, and suprises you, all at the same time. Loved the flatiron steak paired with coffee gnocchi. The pork belly with pear and apple vinegar shoe leather (I don't recall exactly what was in that shoe leather, or whether it was served with the beef tongue, but in any case I loved it.) was visually appealing, very subtle flavor, and didn't feel too fatty. Dessert was wonderful, we had the creamsicle and the cherry chocolate mousse.
It was a reasonably priced meal for three, clocking in around $300. My only regret was that it was Chef's night off... but exec. sous chef Kevin took care of us.
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