Tag Archives: best of the best

New Opening: Root & Bone Manhattan from Chefs Jeffrey McInnis & Janine Booth

21 Jul

Last fall, we went to a pop-up restaurant in Brooklyn in anticipation of Top Chef-testants Jeffrey McInnis and Janine Booth opening up a restaurant in NYC. We had a great meal and a very special evening.  So when we heard that the Manhattan Root & Bone was opening, we called right up to make a reservation.  We couldn’t get one for about a month after opening, but our time finally came due this past Friday.  We went with some of our favorite foodie friends (one of whom was with us at the pop-up).

The first thing we noticed about the space, which is in Alphabet City on 3rd Street between Avenues A and B, is that it is TIGHT.  We had to sneak through a very tight entryway into a tight dining room which led to another tight room.  We had requested to sit at the bar right outside the kitchen (usually reserved for walk-ins but we love to watch the kitchen) and it was, as you guessed it, tight.

But it had all the industrial decorations that I am a sucker for.

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Mike and I started with some lovely cocktails, the Twisted Mustache (Russels 6 year bourbon, Swedish punsch, citrus, and ginger) and the Filthy Manhattan (Wild Turkey 101, port, bitters, filthy amarena cherries, and  rosemary).  The Filthy Manhattan was pretty good, but the kicker was the cherry at the end which was absolutely incredible.  But I really loved the Twisted Mustache and wound up ending my night with that.  It was fresh and ginger-y.  Very nice cocktail.

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Sitting at the bar by the kitchen made it dinner and a show. And the two chefs that were cooking seemed genuinely excited to have 4 food groupies who were thrilled to watch them cook. They showed off their food as they went, including these incredible looking fried chicken and waffle sandwiches.

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And we enjoyed watching this chef make ricotta dumplings (which wound up being plated beautifully).

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We saw both celeb chefs, however, Janine was very hands-on in the kitchen and spent a lot of time next to our seating area.  She immediately recognized us and asked if she knew us, and we told her we had been at the pop up.  Sweet of her to recall and say something.  We talked a lot about my allergy and she was so accommodating about it. She continued to check on us throughout the meal and was overall just about as nice as could be.

We started with the southern style cornbread with clotted cream and house-made preserves.  The corn bread was just the right texture of moist while still being a little crumbly, and the clotted cream and preserves (something I usually have only with scones) was a nice compliment and a good way to start our meal.

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We watched the chefs throw an entire corn of cob into the open fire on the grill and decided it was something we had to try. This was “Grilled Sweet Corn Cob… Husk and All” with cornbread butter, giant hominy, and popped corn.

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This was one of my favorite dishes of the night, if not the #1.  The corn was great and the char on it was awesome, but the corn bread butter… holy shnikeys… awesome.  And the addition of the popped corn and the hominy made for great textures that all held up to the sauce.

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We also got the basket of waffle fries with cheese sauce, but we had to have the bacon and remoulade on the side since it had peppers (which I cannot have).  These fries were charred.  Why has no one thought of this before?  (Okay… someone, somewhere probably has… but this was my first encounter). I love a good crispy fry that tastes of potato, and this fit the bill and then some.  And the cheese didn’t make them soggy.  Great fries.

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We watched the chefs on the line pile handful after handful of cheese on top of their macaroni and cheese side throughout the evening, so we had to try it. It was described as “big elbow pasta” that came with crunchy cheese toast and fresh thyme crust.  I wanted it SO bad, however, it had some peppers in it.  I had a couple bites and it was delicious and totally worth the itch.

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As for “bigger plates,” I had to go for the meatloaf after loving the one we had at the pop up, plus… how could you beat the description? “Braised short rib meatloaf with parsnip root mash, tomato ketchup jam, charred spring onions and other roots.”  This was AWESOME. It was like someone made excellent short ribs, then pulled them, then reassembled them into a loaf, then charred them, then put great sauce on it and added the parsnip puree and delicious root vegetables for added flare.  It was like everything I love in one great dish.

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Our friends also got the “Crispy Free-Range Bucket of Bird: Sweet tea brined, pickled lemon dusted, spiked Tobasco honey.”  While the Chef Booth informed me that they could have made it without the Tobasco honey, turns out they brined it in something with peppers, too. Chef actually sounded upset on my behalf that I couldn’t eat it.

And it turns out, with due reason.  Everyone else at the table said it was one of the best fried chickens they’ve ever had.  I was about to risk it, however, Mike said he could taste the spice so I didn’t do it, since I wanted to be able to enjoy the rest of the meal.

Damn.

I made them all tell me it was truly awful. (LIARS)

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We got to watch the chef put the finishing touches on Mike’s Australian Rack of Lamb, which came with roasted roots, horseradish crusted leek and sweet potato gratin, carrot barbecue sauce, and watercress.

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This was a beautifully cooked and seasoned piece of meat. I really enjoyed the puree and the lamb tasted great.  Of all the things we ate, I think the other items were a bit more original, but when you have a great piece of lamb like this, there really is no need to get very fancy with it.

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They served the roots separately, telling us that the dish photographed better without them on the plate, which made me greatly appreciated the thoughtfulness (and they were delicious).

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We barely had room for dessert after this meal, however, we decided splitting one between the four of us was feasible.  So we went with the Banana Cream with layers of honey graham, vanilla custard, bananas, and pecan praline.

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It was a really nice end to the meal, with big chunks of banana.  I wished there were more pecan praline, but that’s just because I think there is never enough pecan praline in this world.

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And then we received our check… in a bone.

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Overall, I was pretty blown away but all the food we had throughout the evening. Each dish was a little bit special and a little bit unique, and a lot a bit tasty.  The flavors were really thought out and each plate felt very special.  It was obvious that the people who came up with the menu and all those preparing it really cared about the food they put out and went out of their way to make sure it was truly great.  They could not have been nicer or more accommodating, and we really enjoyed watching the chefs cook throughout the evening. A truly great experience.

I heard that they are not accepting reservations any longer, but it sure can’t hurt to check! I am super curious about their brunch, and the menu sounds amazing. I mean come on… they serve that meatloaf with EGGS!  Sold.

The only thing I can fault them for is that they are in Alphabet City, which is already inconvenient from just about everywhere, but will be even more so from our new place in Riverdale.  Maybe that’s a good thing, however, because if they were close, I’d be very, very fat.

Total Nom Points: 8.5 out of 10

nomscale- 08.5

 

Per Se: First Anniversary Celebration

16 Jun

It has been an incredible year.  1 year ago on June 15, I married the incredible Mr. Nom Nom with an incredible wedding in Maine, and then went on an incredible honeymoon that even made it into a magazine.  On our honeymoon, we went to The French Laundry, where we had an incredible, memorable meal (though slightly below expectation). It was still great enough, and epic enough, that we decided that for our first anniversary, there was only restaurant we could go… Per Se.

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Per Se is described as the “urban interpretation of The French Laundry” on their site, and is helmed by the same chef, Thomas Keller. Keller opened Per Se in 2004, about 10 years after The French Laundry, and it has long been on our grubbit-list.

We decided to save up and cap anniversary gifts at $20 to have a meal at the place that everyone said was the most famous in NYC.

So yesterday at noon, we sat down on the 4th floor of the Time Warner Center, looked out over Columbus Circle (and Columbus himself) and got ready to dine.

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The room is very reminiscent of The French Laundry with some similar touches, but it still a restaurant unto itself with very high ceilings and a bit more modern touches.

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Our waitress was nice enough to capture a shot of us at our table.

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And the restaurant, as perfect as French Laundry, even printed special menus wishing us a Happy 1st Anniversary.

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The format is similar, with a “Tasting of Vegetables” on one side…

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And the “Chef’s Tasting Menu” on the other side.  The 9 course full menu is $310, and this lunch menu has some additional options of a 7 course for $245 or a 5 course for $205.  We had been saving our pennies so we went for it and did the full menu.  There are also some supplements you can opt into, but we chose to stick to the regular menu. (For a fun infographic, check how how much you CAN spend at Per Se in case it’s not ridiculous enough…)

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Rather than go with a wine pairing, which would have broken the already decimated bank, we went for starter cocktails and then had a few glasses of wine throughout the meal. These were possibly the most expensive cocktails I’ve ever had ($25 a pop) but they were flipping fantastic.

Mike had the Charlie Hustle which was Basil Hayden Bourbon, Aperol & Vanilla-Infused Carpano Sweet Vermouth. It was perfectly balanced with all the right amounts of everything to create a manly, but not mannish, drink.

And I had the Long Weekend, which was made with Plantation “20th Anniversary” Rum & Strawberries. It exploded with delicious strawberry flavor.  It reminded me of a fresh strawberry popsicle from childhood.

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We began with an amuse bouche of miniature cheese stuffed puffs.  These were similar, if not the same as at French Laundry.  But they were much more memorable. The cheese was so creamy and it really popped.

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The salmon coronette was exactly was I remembered it from French Laundry.

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A mouthful of salty, crunchy, fishy deliciousness. Great balance of all textures and flavors.

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And then this spoon hit the table…

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… and I could feel my heart filling with anticipation as I knew what was coming next.

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The oysters and pearls. (Menu description: “Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and Sterling White Sturgeon Caviar).

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This masterpiece bowl of awesome heaven defies all explanation.  How this can be so fulfilling and so flavorful and so exciting blows my mind.  Right now I am actually saddened by the fact that I do not know if I will ever be at either of these two restaurants ever again to have this dish again.  There are few dishes that sing like this sings.  It is obvious why this is so famous.

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But as quickly as it began, it was over.

But a parker house roll with two house butters were there to try their damnedest to fill the void.

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The first butter was salted and very similar (if not the same) as the French Laundry version.  The second butter was unsalted but it was an insanely buttery tasting butter.   Both very good and fun to taste the dichotomy of both versions.

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The next dish was the Salad of French Laundry Garden Radishes (menu description: Hawaiian hearts of peach palm, hass avocado, bing cherries, and green almonds).  This dish was so beautiful and so fresh.

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I do not love radishes, but this could have made me love them.  The sauces were so smooth and so flavorful, without taking away from the delicate tastes of the radishes.

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Breads were offered throughout the evening, and we enjoyed sampling each of them.  My favorite of the great batch was the pretzel. This is what pretzels should taste like. Why people make imitations that taste anything less than this is a crime against pretzels.

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Our next dish was “Confit” of Dover Sole (menu description: Sweet carrots, morel mushroom “tempura,” wild asparagus and melted green garlic).  The sauce was a great foil for the fish, which was slightly sweet.

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I really enjoyed the mushroom “tempura”  which added a hearty and earthy quality to the dish.

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Next up was the Jade Tiger Abalone (menu description: Grilled corn shoots, Hakurei turnips, Surinam Cherries, and Piedmont hazelnuts).  I have never had abalone to my recollection, but this sea snail didn’t tickle me as much as I was hoping.  It was good, but I just would much rather a scallop.

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That said, this was executed incredibly well, with a bit of crisp sear on the top and a lovely, earthy sauce.

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Our next dish went into the meat world and was a Degustation of Four Story Hill Farm’s Suckling Pig (menu description: Marinated tomatoes, Lamborn pea tendrils, haricot verts, and “Sauce Gribiche”).

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I cannot remember the details of how each was prepared, but all bites were packed with flavor and had all the right balances or acids, greens, sauces, and earthiness.  And the tomatoes on the plate were somehow the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever had.  I have been sorely disappointed by pretty much every tomato I’ve had in recent years, but these were incredible.

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Our last meat was Elysian Field Farm’s “Carré D’Agneau” (menu description: “Petit Salé,” English peas, romaine lettuce, spring onions, and “Paloise Gastrique”)

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The plate was beautifully arranged and the peas, onions, and sauce were so bright and so spring.  With the lamb I was wondering if flowers were going to start sprouting from our table.

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The char and the salt on the meat brought out all the flavors.

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This was the most tenderly flavored lamb I’ve ever tasted.  It was distinctly lamby without being at all gamey.

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As a segue into dessert, the cheese course was Consider Bardwell Farm’s “Pawlet” (menu description: Black truffle shortbread, granny smith apples, celery branch and Belgian endive).

This cheese was so good that I actually looked up the farm and where to get it (Murray’s Cheese!)

The short bread was so perfectly textured and the cheese with the apple… gosh… it was just so good.

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Onto the desserts!

This is where the menu gets low on the details. It just says “Assortment of Desserts” with the description of Fruit, Ice Cream, Chocolate, and Candies. So apologies on the lack of details in my memory.

This was a rhubarb and strawberry something or other with some short bread pieces. It was fresh and creamy and lovingly balanced with textures and flavors with a hint of tart.

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Then we had an almond ice cream with hazelnut and pistachio.  Again… a simply perfect balance of texture and flavor.  Refreshing and nutty.

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Last “dessert on a plate” (great description from the waitress that made me laugh) as their take on an “After Eight.” I love mint and chocolate, and especially After Eights, so I really enjoyed this rich, but balanced dessert.  Mike, who doesn’t like chocolate with mint at all, even gobbled it all up.

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We then received a very sweet anniversary special treat.  This stunning piece of art was entirely edible.

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And it was as delicately delicious as it was delicately beautiful. What a treat!

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But the gifts just kept on coming.

Next up was a box of homemade candies.  He described each one and then made us choose. I chose a bourbon pecan milk chocolate while Mike went with an “Arnold Palmer” (ice team and lemonade) white chocolate.  (I was very upset to not try the burnt honey one, especially after re-reading my French Laundry review and realizing that their burnt honey ice cream one of my favorite parts of the meal).  But they were both really fantastic.  I was really impressed at how much the Arnold Palmer tasted like tea and lemon.

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We then received a “tower” that we assumed was to end the meal.

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Lovely truffles on the bottom (one of the flavors was with beer)

 

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Tender macarons in the middle (I think one was Earl Grey flavored)

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And then caramels and nougat on top.

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But oh no… we were not done…

Similar to how we ended our meal at French Laundry, we ended with fresh, warm donut holes and a “cappuccino semifredo” which looked like cappuccino but was made from a mousse with foam on top.

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Served with fresh cherries.

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We were so stuffed so I was thrilled when our waitress said she could pack up the rest of the tower to go (we had it for dinner!)

Then we were given a take-home of shortbread chocolate sandwiches.  It is now the day after and I just had one.  Sheesh. Bang. Zoom.  How are cookies that good? The filling is soft and like a chocolate cloud with perfectly soft yet firm short bread.  Awesome.  A great flashback to every great flavor from yesterday.

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What a meal!  This was very reminiscent of our meal at French Laundry but it was actually just a little bit better. Each dish was similar in format and composition, with a similar order of the full meal (including the farm salad followed by a fish followed by a seafood followed by a pork followed by a lamb dish), but each component of Per Se sang just a little bit better. It felt more in tune. Maybe this is the final nail in the coffin about my preference for the East Coast over the West Coast, but I’m curious how others who have had the incredibly pleasure of eating at both would compare the two.

Overall, our meal was just so phenomenal. As perfect as French Laundry and just a hair more delicious.

Worth it? Absolutely not if you have any practicality in your body whatsoever. But I do not when it comes to food.  Especially celebratory food.  I don’t have fancy cars or fancy clothes. I don’t go to concerts or fly in first class.  I eat like this. And I love it.

Total Nom Points: 9 out of 10 (really more like a 9.2 to give it a bit of an edge over our meal at The French Laundry)

nomscale- 09.0

New Opening: Heartwood

26 Apr

Every time I find out that I know someone, who knows something, who is opening a restaurant, I am both excited and concerned.  Excited because I am fascinated by the business of opening a restaurant and love being one of the first to try a new place. Concerned because if it sucks, or is even just average, I’m going to write about it and that someone, who knew someone, may read it.

So when I heard that Mike knew someone who knew someone who was opening up Heartwood, in the space previously occupied by the famous Donatella, I was even more concerned.  Lately, I feel like Chelsea has been opening restaurants that excel in abundant averageness. The old standbys have gone away, and now it seems like a revolving door of places that are just okay.  The area has spot after spot of places to get something to eat, and definitely something to drink, but no place you go out of your way to dine at if you don’t happen to be passing by while hungry.

But the pedigree sounded pretty great:

  • Nick Mautone from Gramercy Tavern
  • Nick Fiorentino, former bread baker at Daniel
  • Bradford Thompson, from Lever House and Miss Lily’s

Heartwood just opened on Monday, but it already got a bit of buzz on Eater, so we checked OpenTable for a reservation as we walked across town towards the restaurant…made one for 5:30 .  We got there a bit early, and it turns out the kitchen doesn’t open until 5:30, so we had a drink at the bar.

The space has a great look that’s right up my alley, with mason jar chandeliers and a comfortable dining room.

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Soon after we ordered, a bread basket was whisked to our table, outfitted with the house brown butter and a spicy mustard, as well as some nice rustic slices of bread and delicious salty pretzels.

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Now THIS is how bread baskets should be served.  Too many restaurants treat their bread baskets as an afterthought, but it was obvious that someone who truly cares about bread put this together, and it was a great opening scene.  The brown butter was slightly sweet, which was actually really fantastic, especially with the salty pretzel.  Turns out it’s sweetened with agave, which I usually don’t like, but was excellent here.  The mustard was SUPER spicy apparently (sinus clearing, in fact).

We ordered the skate fingers, which were tempura fried skate that was supposed to be served with jalapeno tartar sauce.  Since I cannot have peppers, they made a parsley aoili for our dish.

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I absolutely love sweet and sour chicken from Chinese restaurants, with that perfect golden crisp. This reminded me a lot of that kind of crisp, but a much cleaner flavor and the light skate inside was delicious.  It was perhaps a tiny bit on the greasy side, but I didn’t mind it a bit.  The aoili we had was pretty good, but it was made great by adding the tart acid of the lemon to the dish. That really made it sing.

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We had been seated at one of the few 2-tops in the back near the pizza oven, which was tucked away from the crowd.  I thought it was a really fantastic seat… nice and quiet and with a perfect view of the action.

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Apparently, the pizza oven is a Stefano Ferrara that was previously gold plated.  But it turned out a perfectly crusty pizza even though it is now repainted red.

We ordered the “When Peter Luger Goes Out For Pizza” which was topped with braised short ribs, creamed spinach, and horse radish.  While I have no idea how they are getting away with that name, I am very glad that someone was genius enough to put this pizza together. All the ingredients went so well together, were so well balanced, and made for a truly lovely and flavorful pizza.

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It was also served with shisito peppers and smoked flake salt. I don’t know if this was just for this pizza or comes with all, but I added a bit of salt to the pizza and it brought it to a whole new level (I love salt).

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The upskirt shows a lovely bit of char.  The pizza wasn’t all that crispy at the inside, however, the flavor of the dough and toppings were so good that it didn’t matter in the slightest.  Great pizza.

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We also decided to split the “Crisp Skin Chicken” which was described as coming with “day old bread sauce” and soft herb salad.

But when it came out… it looked a bit scary, as indicated by Mike’s cautious finger below.  Why scary?  See that shade of orange?  It’s a very particular shade.  It’s the shade of death. (Not quite death… but a very, very itchy mouth potentially filled with blisters).

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It did look beautiful, however.

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The waiter apologized for the mistake and offered to leave it for Mike to eat and they would make me a new one.  We were already over-stuffed, so Mike said he was fine just eating the pepper-free one that was to come.

I was also a bit surprised to see that they described what looked like parsley garnish as an herb salad.  Nothing wrong with that at all, but perhaps something that was billed a bit strangely.

It took some time for the new version to come out, and the waiter apologized to us again that each time it takes 15 minutes to prepare and it would come up as soon as it could. I could tell he was upset about the mistake.  He was upset he couldn’t get the revised chicken up sooner and that the mistake happened.  Poor guy.

But when the chicken did make it’s entry without peppers, it was worth the wait. When a chicken is billed as “crispy skin,” it certainly should have super crispy skin.  Too often I’m disappointed by chicken skin in restaurants, but this was not one of those times.  It was perfectly crisp and somehow the meat inside was super moist.  And the pan jus with it was a really fantastic sauce.

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Our waiter was kind enough to apologize for the mistake again and offered to buy us dessert.

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We chose the chocolate caramel brownie pie.

It was SO rich, but that dark chocolate in a very rich crust was great, and the caramel reminded me of the salted bourbon caramel sauce I love from Fat Toad Farm.  The cherries on top were a bit off-putting when eaten alone.  They tasted a bit, maybe, medicinal?  And I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  But when our waiter told us that they are soaked in SoCo, it all made sense.  I think they should probably mention this, because wrapping my brain around “cherries in SoCo” made them taste more like that and less like medicine.  The pie itself was really great though.  A nice balance of sweet and bitter, which a lovely texture and delicious crust. And that caramel… give me more of that any day!

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As we were leaving, we had a pretzel left in our (now second) bread basket (it was just so good).  I sheepishly asked if they could give me a to-go bag for the one pretzel to have for breakfast tomorrow, and the waiter nicely came back with a box of TWO pretzels for tomorrow.  One of my favorite touches of fancy restaurants is when they leave you with a parting gift, so this made me incredibly happy.

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And the best part? Our entire meal, including 3 drinks, came to under $100.  It felt like a gourmet meal and I was pleasantly surprised when the bill came.  (Love when that happens!)

So as it turns out, I had nothing to be afraid of.  Not only was this restaurant way above average, but Mike and I left there abuzz about how good our meal was.  Not only was it great quality at a great value, but the food felt special, different, and inspired. That doesn’t happen very often.  So not only is there now a great place to go in Chelsea, I would say it’s worth a trip to Chelsea just to visit this great new restaurant.

On our walk home, Mike and I talked about how we hope that they will soon start serving brunch, and how that bread baker would make some excellent breakfast baked goods and that adding an egg to the pizza would be incredible.  Also, I cannot image anything better than a short rib hash made with the incredible meat they serve on the menu twice (once on a pizza, and once as a main).  I’m glad to have been able to try dinner there, and I look forward to going back for many more meals.

Total Nom Points: 8 out of 10

nomscale- 08.0