Cyrus

10/5/2009
Healdsburg, CA: 29 North Street - (707) 433-3311
Rating (1-10): 10
Price Range: Break the Bank

"A True All-Star"
There are some restaurants that are perhaps beyond this writer's humble critiquing abilities. Cyrus is one of them. This restaurant performs at a high level both in the cooking and the service delivery - with great attention to detail, warmth and friendliness, and utterly delicious food. Be prepared for a top notch type dining experience: swarms of dining room attendants, small, delicately put together plates, formal wear, and carts of lots of expensive stuff (cheese, champagne, desserts, etc). Though this type of dining experience is inevitably a bit stiff, this is a place where it's relatively comfortable. If you want a lavish, pampered experience, Cyrus is a strong recommendation for a date, family dinner, or other type of celebration - at a price tag that you can adjust to your liking.

At Cyrus you have a choice between a couple of tasting menus - the 8-course and the 5-course, and a vegetarian option for both. There are also wine pairing options and cheese courses as well as a champagne cart to kick off the meal. What's nice is that you're not under pressure to do one thing or the other. The server was refreshingly honest, not pushy in any way. When I asked about the vegetarian menu, he said, "Well, it will be delicious, but for me? I need meat." I totally agreed and I'm glad he helped me right my ship. Our dinner selection was the 5-course non-vegetarian menu - except we were also allowed to substitute a corresponding vegetarian selection if we so pleased. In essence, you can craft your own tasting menu if you want; this is a highly accommodating feature that allows guests to explore the menu.

The meal begins with some canapes and amuse bouches which alone could be a great appetizer. The peach, greens, and cream does exactly what it's meant to do: get your hunger going, excite the taste buds and your anticipation. What follows is a parade of entirely distinct courses, each with highly concentrated flavors and pleasing texture. The portions look small but turn out to be just right: They leave you wanting a little bit more but doesn't allow you to get full or sick of it at any point. Our plates ranged from lightly seared hamachi to stuffed fried squash blossoms filled with incredible eggplant and garlic filling to fatty roasted duck to intense mushroom risotto to big fat scallops to lamb tenderloin to foie gras to desserts plates with at least 5 components including, if you're lucky, chocolate filled doughnuts. Pulling off a menu of this breadth and complexity is more difficult to execute that almost any one of the guests can comprehend. But like a superior athlete, they just make it look easy.

What you see in these dishes are meticulously constructed components presented with flare and disciplined creativity. It's not the silly kind of "throw everything you can at it and hope for the best" style creativity - far from it. A large scallop is seared and sits in a pool of ginger-shiso broth, adding a unique feature to what my otherwise be a commoditized dish; it's also one of several items with a distinctly Japanese accent. The mushrooms risotto packs an intense mushroom-ness as such a risotto should, but with strong chive foam and subtle chestnut flavor. The roasted duck is just simply delicious and comes with a slightly greasy but homey potato cake. The lamb roulade is perfectly cooked disks of pink lamb meat which is nice to look at; oddly there was one flavor to every part of this dish which was overwhelmingly strong and heavyhanded - like a dish with too much cumin. Overall, for a lineup of dishes of this complexity, these were artfully plated and impressively executed.

The service is very well-informed, professional, courteous, and warm. They're also the size of a small army and all over every detail. What's nice is that, even though this is a markedly upscale experience, the restaurant retains the warmth and down to Earth vibe of the wine country. As a party on the younger side, we were treated accordingly, with a little more of a relaxed feel without being condescending. We never felt pressure. We were allowed to have no worries and nothing out of our immediate grasp.

All of this comes at a bit over $100, which is about as low as you can go for an experience like this and expect the restaurant to stay in business. In any line of work, I can appreciate commitment to excellence and performance to match. A number rating on a place like Cyrus is essentially meaningless - I loved it and to me, it was an all-star performance. There's no need to focus on a rank or number or grade or star or comparison on it. Doing so would only distract from the enjoyment of it. At the end of your meal, you have a selection of as many house made treats as you want - chocolates, caramels, lollipops and a brownie packaged with a gold label that reads: "Tomorrow??" That's probably the right call since you're going to be really full but also because you'll maybe be able to savor the experience for another day.

Momofuku Ko

11/6/2008
East Village: 163 1st Ave (between 10th and 11th St)

Price: Break the Bank
Rating (1-10): 8

Momofuku Ko is a fun experience for anyone who wants to do some adventurous eating. While fun doesn’t always lead to success in the dishes, Ko isn't something you come across everyday. If you like asking questions about food, being in a kitchen, and interacting with the cooks, this is your place, because you will sit right in front of the cooks and literally feel the heat off the stove. The now iconic Chef David Chang (2008 James Beard Award Best Chef for NYC) has put a lot of thought into this very intimate experience and the set multi-course menu. Prepare for ingredients you hadn’t ever heard of (pine needle oil). Be sure to peer over the counter as the cooks assemble your next dish with painstaking care and detail. Take a guess at what you think is going to be next (you’ll be wrong). Ask yourself, “who the f thinks of that?” By the end, it’s likely you’ll be pretty exhausted from a full stomach and a mental challenge. Truth be told, it’s not the kind of meal that I’d want on a regular basis, but if you’re in the mood to experiment and enter a food playground, where at least some of the things will please the palate, check it out.

The Ko offerings are complex and involve ingredients you’d have to be a true expert to know. It’s one thing just to put a cool, little known ingredient on a plate, and say “Tadaaaaa!” It’s a whole other thing to use take that ingredient and use it intelligently and with purpose. In most of the dishes at Ko, there was a “wow” moment when you taste why certain ingredients are there, and how they pull the dish together – and that is impressive. The shiso leaf and the pink lemon pull together the lobster and shrimp ceviche, the best I’ve ever had. The mustard greens on top of the braised lamb belly are a great complement, and add surprisingly strong mustardy flavor. The candied nuts in the famed foie gras / lychee / Riesling gelee dish give a nice crunchy texture and add sweetness to balance out the alcohol in the gelee as well as the richness of the foie. A bit of chive on top of the raw fluke is the perfect complement to the fish and white soy - poppy sauce. The bits of coffee together with the venison are awesome. The “pretzel” flavored ice cream desert (who the f thinks of that?) works alongside the refreshing green apple puree underneath. The dishes seemed to “turn” on these ingredients.

Most of the dishes were enjoyable (and gone in a matter of seconds) – lobster and shrimp ceviche; smoked soft-boiled egg with caviar; long island fluke sashimi; mandarin orange fruit and sorbet. But a couple that were surprisingly off. Thin-sliced porchini mushroom and egg noodle with mushroom broth poured over top sounded wonderful but the broth was intolerably salty, with way too much soy sauce. Instead of subtly enhancing the flavor of the fresh porcini, the broth drowned it. And a pine needle oil that was supposedly in the dish was completely wiped out. This seemed to be an error in execution, rather than conception; if the broth were prepared well, this would have a great dish. By contrast, monkfish served below a delicious piece of uni (sea urchin), and resting in a shellfish broth, was problematic in conception as well as execution. What was most unappealing was the cold uni paired with hot fish; the contrast in temperature was a bit gross. Overall, the monkfish was rubbery and forgettable, the shellfish broth was fine, and I thought – as I often do with seared tuna – that I’d rather just have had the uni in sushi form.

Although, for the most part, I liked the courses individually, as a full meal, the experimental menu is a bit incoherent and perplexing to the stomach. Ko may be trying to take you on a adventure but the ingredients and dishes were so wide ranging that it left our party feeling strange, due to the intense variety along with a lot of heavy stuff (braised lamb, venison, fried cheese, foie gras). We were not a particularly faint of heart crew either; we tend to seek out the crazy stuff. Still, to be fair, this is what you sign up for.

What we did not sign up for, and what was most disappointing, was the service of the hostess/server. While the cooks do well at preparing the meals, conversing with guests, and entertaining simultaneously, the servers seem to be the ones dropping the ball. Or, as it were, the glasses, twice (once on my leg). They also turned off the lights in the restaurant without realizing it. But it’s not so much that they messed up – everyone does – but the only ones who really seemed to be concerned were the cooks across the counter. Throughout the night, the only truly personable service we received was from the cooks. From the “front of the house” side, the attitude was lax and nonchalant, and in addition, rude. For example, the wine menu, which we opted out of, was uncomfortably pushed on us, with a tone of expectation, rather than offering. How is that supposed to make you feel comfortable? As laid back as the Momofukus are intended to be, it’s still a high end meal and there’s a difference between being casual and being careless.

David Chang strikes me as a cook’s chef; he’s a no frills kind of guy who’s not in it for the celebrity. He understands a cook’s mentality: the perspective of the guys grinding it out in the kitchen trenches every day and night, getting paid beans, trying to develop their foundation of skills and ideas – while hoping that some day, they too will have an opportunity to run a kitchen. Chang encourages creativity and thoughtfulness in his cooks, and it seems to be his philosophy and mission to help them experiment, grow, and try to develop new culinary ideas. From what the cooks at Ko told me, they do indeed have the freedom to propose new dishes and collaborate on new menu items. In this high-end laboratory, the cooks also have the unique opportunity to get out of the “back of the house” and interact with the customers, across the quasi-sushi counter. They see the expressions of delight on your face and stand at the table with you. It strikes me as a very rare opportunity for an up and coming cook. Chang is putting a whole lot of trust in his cooks and he’s creating a style of mentorship all his own. Whether or not you like his food, I believe it’s something you have to applaud.

I’ve long thought that the numerous critics that gushed like cloned idiots over Ko without any real critique, have done this place a disservice. First, they have set expectations impossibly high. Please temper your expectations and know what you’re getting into. Second, they have sparked a general craze over this place that is borderline bizarre. They’ve made it into something that I’m not sure David Chang intended it to be: a scene. As a result, chances are against you that you’ll be able to get a reservation, at least for the time being. If you don’t get one, life has not passed you by, believe it or not. You can always go up the road to Momofuku Ssam for great David Chang food, where you’ll find dishes that are just as good if not better (pork buns – still the best). They might not be as quirky and adventurous as they are at Ko, and you won’t get to sit directly in front of the cooks when they’re making it – but I love that stuff, and even I would say, don’t go scouring Craigslist for a reservation. Go when the time is right and have fun when you do.

At the end of the day, my service experience aside, Ko is a wonderfully unique dining experience and for $100, it’s worth the money. You’ll be getting a great deal of personal attention from the professionals who make the food, high quality ingredients, and the opportunity to be a part of a kitchen lab that is pushing new culinary ideas forward. If you do have the opportunity, it’s one worth grabbing, provided you have some cash and an open mind.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

10/19/2008
Poncatino Hills, NY: 630 Bedford Rd - (914) 366-9600
Price: Break the Bank
Rating (1-10): 10


I think the most appropriate word to describe Blue Hill at Stone Barns is ‘idyllic.’ It says something when, even after waiting on your reservation for two months at an already hyped restaurant, it utterly blows you away. If you have the opportunity and a bit of a budget, go - and make it an all-day affair. You’ll enjoy fresh varieties of food you never knew existed, presented delicately, playfully, and tastefully. You’ll learn about what you’re eating and where it comes from. You’ll be coddled by an army of smiling, earnest, and comfortably formal staff. You’ll see where everything comes from as you stroll the sprawling countryside before or after your meal. For a day, you’ll feel like a Rockefeller.

Of course, Blue Hill at Stone Barns has the unfair advantage of being situated on a picturesque upstate Rockefeller upstate. For a chef, for a restaurant, I could not imagine a more ideal setup: a fully functional farm to source natural, seasonal, and ridiculously local food, well-financed backers, a campus of beautifully preserved old stone structures, and a food-aware clientele. But they seem to have found the perfect chef for this set up: Dan Barber, who has become something of a hero within the local, natural food movement. Chef Barber splits his time between his restaurant in the Village and this restaurant and despite his rising national celebrity, he’s actually here, in the kitchen.

True to its mission, all parts of Blue Hill at Stone Barns work in rhythm with nature, a restaurant within a broader ecosystem. No wonder Chef Barber is so admired in the eat fresh, eat local Alice Waters movement. You don’t need signs telling you it’s “All Natural” or “100% Organic” or “Certified Free Range.”

That’s all a given. The restaurant fits so seamlessly into the farm, and follows and maximizes the environment it’s in. Somehow, being here brings a calm over you, some kind of Update New York Zen.

There are many wonderful restaurants in NYC with the same food philosophy as Stone Barns, but you just can’t get a truly living-off-the-land kind of experience in the Village, not even at Blue Hill’s NYC outpost itself. One server offered to go pick tea leaves to make tea for a nearby table. Kind of says it all.







It’s almost intimidating to walk into a place with such a depth of knowledge about the production and preparations of food and ingredients (in fact, it’s a learning institution than runs tours and educational programs for children and various groups). But it’s not in a snobby way, it’s just what they do and love.

For brunch, Blue Hill offers a tasting menu of several courses that aren’t laid out on the menu. Instead, the server asks some questions to gauge your preferences, eating restrictions, and adventurousness. And then the menu shifts, so what one table gets will probably differ from what the next table gets. It’s flexible, personable, and fun.

Our first dish was a roasted eggplant broth mixed with various wild mushrooms, a deeply yellow, creamy poached egg, and a type of spinach. The mushrooms are the main feature – large, earthy chunks in a savory, slightly acidic yellow broth. Next up, freshwater, smoked eel in a Manhattan-style chowder with miniature cubed vegetables – carrot, celery, garlic, potato, maybe more, in a bright orange tomato broth. The veggies are crunchy and slightly sweet, and the eel, which is caught in northeastern streams, is a bit tough because at this time the eel are spawning, working hard, getting tougher. It’s a smoky, gamey, and oddly appealing.

A pork plate followed, with braised pork belly glistening with fat, pork sausage that reminds you how meat is supposed to taste, roasted mini apple (who knew?), apple puree, pork jus, and fresh collard green leaves. This is a pork lover’s dream but – and this is a small matter - a tad too much sweetness from the apple. On the next plate sat a fat chunk of braised lamb’s neck with jus, a squash blossom, and an assortment of shell beans – rich, salty almost corned beef flavor, layered with fat. The dish is wonderful to look at. But our (only) criticism was the choice of fat-laden braised meat dishes in two consecutive courses, which is a bit heavy.

For dessert, we got three plates for two people: a play on strawberry shortcake with mini strawberries, citrus, cream between two blinis, and vanilla bean ice cream and yogurt on the side; pumpkin and chocolate cake with a righteous piece of pumpkin, and ice cream; and an apple dessert layered with meringue and ginger ice cream on the side. This is some of the best dessert I’ve ever had with elements that blend beautifully together. The strawberry and the apple desserts were my favorites.









We enjoyed the meal along with several cups of tasty Brazilian bean coffee over the course of three swift but careless, leisurely hours. Blue Hill service is impeccable and friendly, and it seems like the staff flash a warm smile whenever they pass by your table. They clearly love the food and the mission here, and are happy to discuss the backstory of where it all came from, who is responsible for cultivating it, etc. It’s ‘you can do no wrong,’ bend over backwards, ‘no request is unreasonable’ kind of service. Their attention to detail and conversational manner add to a brand of hospitality befitting of the atmosphere. (And one thing I noticed – no ice in the water! Ice often makes water too cold and also clumsy to drink. Here, they don’t pour ice in your glass, a novel, smart idea.)

The entire estate is tastefully decorated with clean lines and modern furnishings while retaining the rustic outdoor feel. We sat in a banquette that looks out across the rest of the dining room which is surrounded by windows that stream in sunlight and surrounding scenery. The dining room features high ceilings, exposed buttresses, and great people watching as well as food spying on other tables. It’s comfortable and classy, clean and efficient. You want to be here. All told: the cost per person was $77. By any standard, this is more than fair.

After our meal, we took a kitchen tour, saw the herb garden, and the wandered surprisingly freely around the grounds and adjacent state park. You want to see where the pork comes from? Go check out the pigs. Beef? Cows. Arugula? Greenhouse. Chicken? Chickens. Honey? Bee farm. You get the idea.

Maybe it's the whole idea of going to Stone Barns and being in this setting that predisposes a visitor to being utterly taken by this place. That may be why I walked away with almost no thought to how it could have been better. One thing is clear: Chef Barber’s life is not bad. During our post-meal exploration of the Stone Barns grounds, he jogged by us down a winding path with fall foliage colors in the background – probably catching a breath of fresh air before heading back to his culinary playground to plan what items to showcase at dinner. You should really see it for yourself.

Cafe Gray

6/19/2008
Midtown: Columbus Circle, Time Warner Center
Price: Break the Bank
Rating (1-10): 9

A few thoughts, since this restaurant no longer exists. I went here with a friend during its last week before close to try the spring tasting menu, Gray Kunz's "greatest hits." For some restaurant go-ers, upper upper end, white tablecloth dining is unappealing as it stinks of elitism, discomfort, stuffiness, and severe cash loss. But when you enter a restaurant like this, with such warm and detailed-oriented service, it's hard not to appreciate the level of effort that goes into running an ambitious restaurant: this is great hospitality. As in any line of work, there should be people working this hard, investing as much effort, and trying to be as good as possible at what they do.

There are of course some more rigid etiquette rules in a place like this, but I'm very impressed with places that are classy yet comfortable. This is what Cafe Gray was. Multiple people are at your beck and call, making it seem as if there are no inconveniences at all. You're made to feel ok asking for anything, and they'll try very hard to find a way to accommodate you. The cooks personally deliver the plates to your table from the open kitchen. It's partly service, partly show and you're the priority. At the end of the night, one of the managers gave us a tour of the restaurant and kitchen, which overlooks Columbus Circle and Central Park - a restaurant view that's hard to top. It's expensive no doubt, so you should almost expect these things for the price tag, but it's nice to see when the restaurant delivers, because such meals can last a lifetime - and the memory can be of a value that cannot be captured in monetary terms.

The decor was actually a bit strange and seemed to be from a bygone decade; glitzy but too much brown, and in need of a refresher. But hey, it's a small gripe - I am no interior decorator, after all - and more to the point: the food, which was generally French-based but with lots of Asian twists (particularly Southeast Asian) was declicious and interesting. Not all of it was great but most, if not all, were memorable.

The mushroom fricasse risotto was the top dish - al dente risotto with incredibly deep mushroom flavor, garlic, and truffle oil. The essence of mushroom in this dish was awesome. One of Kunz's signature dishes is a coconut encrusted red snapper atop crab and green papaya, surrounded by a green curry sauce. It's good but overhyped - the meat was very juicy and tender but lacked dynamic seasoning and the crust was neither crusty nor coconutty. The best part, however, was the crab and papaya - which complement each others' sweetness and freshness surprisingly well. The braised short ribs course was a generous portion, served with delicious soft grits (and I usually can't stand grits) and mustard sauce. The meat was tangy and softened to a no-knife-needed consistency. It hits the spot for a slow cooked meat glutton like me, but I'd prefer if there were fewer flavors and more muted tanginess/sweetness (also, the presentation was a bit bizarre, not all that subtle or good looking). This was followed by a chilled lemongrass soup with yogurt lime sorbet and candied pistachios: refreshing, sweet and light after a lot of hot food, and the crunchy pistachios worked great with the flavor of the cold soup. The dessert, a hazelnut souffle and cardamom ice cream, was well-crafted but too sweet. But by that point, I was already at a level of happiness where I just didn't care and ate it anyway. Sometimes you just gotta be decadent.

It's unfortunate that Cafe Gray has closed. There were talented cooks and dedicated people working there and I hope that they find a good next step in their careers.