ulterior epicure

I am sad I couldn't attend. The food sounds great. I have also had a sneak preview into the photos - everything and everyone looks happy. Glad you all found them duck eggs! Perhaps some sweetened/glazed/candied pecans/walnuts or blue cheese (or both), might have been a welcomed addition to the salad? How how was the cayenne-chocolate dessert? That sounds right up my alley.

My need for Chang food out here in "Missourah" has recently pushed me to: 1. Order an entire leg of cured ham from Burger's Smokehouse. I have to somehow saw the bone out and shave it. 2. A number of David Chang's recipes were published in the November, 2007 issue of Bon Appetit. While I've recently found a great local market selling excellent specimens of king oyster mushrooms, I have yet to attempt the mushroom salad that is so beloved on this thread. However, this weekend, I managed to pickle 12 large jars of vegetables using Chang's formula. ... the lengths that us non-NYC'ers will do to "go there..."

Fantastic! My meal at Bon Lloc two years ago was every bit as memorable for me as your meal at MD was for you. I remember sitting down with Chef Dahlgren after my meal and talking with him about his future plans, as he was just a few weeks away from closing down Bon Lloc. I have been waiting for his reincarnation, and it sounds like a positive report. I need to get back to Sweden soon.

Dinner at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink posted here.

I was pleased to spy Chef Michael Schwartz as my table was seated to dinner recently at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink. Although our party was awfully tempted to sit en dehors in the balmy night breeze, a couple in our party preferred the air conditioned environs and thus we ducked inside the small, boisterously upbeat, and (the photographer in me will note) dark dining room. Still, I managed to get photos of all of our food for you, which you can see, and read about, here on my flickr account. As with my report on Michy's, I'll dispense with the "411" and get down to the food and overall experience, which I'll try to do in broad strokes, more or less, 'cause I know the blow-by-blow can get pretty boring: Here's what we ordered and ate (oy, did we really eat all that?): Small House Salad Medium Butter Lettuce Heirloom Tomato & Baby Beet Salad Crispy Sweet & Sour Glazed Pork Belly Chargrilled Octopus Large Grilled Pumpkin Swordfish Wood-Roasted Harissa-Spiced Black Grouper Sides Wood-Roasted Cauliflower with Parsley Sauce Wood-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta and Lemon Aioli Desserts Chocolate Cremoso Angel Food Cake with Cayenne-Spiced Strawberries 1. I love the wine list. They have a truly interesting selection by the glass (I didn't bother looking at the bottles, as the by-the-glass list was pretty upstanding in itself. 2. Overall, the food was excellent. My two favorite courses were the Sweet & Sour-Glazed Pork Belly and the Grilled Pumpkin Swordfish. The Pork Belly dish, which has been much talked about, really was very nice. Honestly, I think I enjoyed the pork belly meat (and fat) itself than the accompanying syrupy sweet & sour "kimchi." The sauce was a tad too sweet for me (n.b. I have a sub-standard tolerance for sweetness). However, the pork was truly well executed and the meat itself, without the help of any sauces, was quite flavorful. It was probably the best dish we had. The grilled pumpkin swordfish dish was also another favorite. The fish itself was rather boring and much too meaty. I hesitated on ordering the swordfish because I generally prefer flaky/softer fishes to the steakier ones (i.e. swordfish, sturgeon (sometimes it can be wonderfully silky if done correctly), tuna steak, mahi mahi, shark, etc...). But, the accompaniments sold me, and in when realized in my mouth, won me over pretty handily. The ragout of artichoke hearts, fennel, and cipoline onions garnished with crispy onions in a seductively fragrant warm white wine (perhaps a touch of vermouth?) broth was exquisitely balanced, well-executed (the vegetables were *perfectly* cooked) and comforting. 3. The one (needlessly) disappointing dish was the House Salad - a mix of chopped lettuces with champagne grapes, Manchego cheese, and blanketed with a generous slices of Serrano ham. It was way over-salted. I was particularly looking forward to tasting the riesling vinaigrette, which turned out to be, in practice, a salt vinaigrette. I could hardly taste the sweet bead-sized champagne grapes - everything else disappeared into a otherwise indistinguishable textural study of SALT. With the Serrano ham and Manchego cheese, really not much additional seasoning was needed. Pity - it would have been a stellar salad if it had been properly seasoned. 4. What Michael's has mastered, more than Michy's, and perhaps not as well as Sardinia, is the art of the wood oven. Two of the most enjoyable courses came from the wood-oven: the brussels sprouts, which were nicely charged with fat cubes of pancetta and side of bracingly tart (a good thing) lemon aioli, and the roasted cauliflower coated with a nice parsley sauce. 5. Desserts, which are usually done with passing interest, were pretty good. What I enjoyed about the two we tried - the "Chocolate Cremoso" and the "Angel Food Cake," was that neither was very sweet. The Angel Food Cake, which came sided with a spicy cayenne-spiked mix of macerated strawberries and what appeared (and tasted like) a cayenne-infused syrup, was simple, yet made the earth move slightly beneath me. There were a few moments where I had sworn I had discovered the 8th Wonder (of what, I know not, but the 8th Wonder, no less). It was a fantastic combination which tickled my palate. The cayenne syrup was intoxicating... each bite of the cake took a progressively longer dunk. 6. Service for our table, sadly, was pretty shoddy. While the back wait staff was very diligent and efficient, at times they were really too eager to clear plates. For example, bread, disappeared after the salad course, never to reappear!! Our server was really just absent way too much. After desserts were dropped, I think he must have dropped (somewhere in the back kitchen) as well - we had to finally grab (yes, almost literally, as all the other servers seemed to be blind to our frantic waving) what appeared to be the manager to get our check. We outlasted a good two table turns - and not because we were eating slowly or purposely dallying. This was a pity as I probably would have been doing cartwheels out of the restaurant had our service matched the quality of our food - it really put a noticeable damper on the evening for our party. 7. On an aesthetic note (since I am a photographer and a self-consciously artistically-inclined fellow), I love the (for lack of better description), red box lanterns, which swayed to and fro freely with the draft above... I also very much enjoyed the open kitchen and the kitchen counter, which was lined with dozens of gorgeous, plump, over-turned heirloom tomatoes. If I were a lone diner, or even on a casual date, you'd probably find me at one of those counter seats. Again, you can see all of my photos and read detailed descriptions of each on my flickr account.

Good idea. The accompaniments may be seasonal. I was there in late spring. I think there was a green garlic pierogi on our presentation.

Right, right, I knew that the new occupier isn't a Henry venture. Just couldn't think of the name. Is that the beef course you had at TFL?

I don't see why not. Did you happen to take a picture of it?

Oh my, that does sound good. We were pretty much on a quick one-stop shop mission this time. Also, we were restricting our appetites in anticipation of a large dinner planned that evening, that we certainly didn't want to spoil. Next time. Edited to add: I noticed (online) that this sandwich is only offered on their "Take-Out" menu. markemorse, did you order this in-house or take out.

Lunch at Joe's Stone Crab posted here Dinner at Michy's experience posted here.

My family and I had a simple, light lunch at Joe's not too long ago. It was our first time in Miami, and thus, at the original. I've been to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steaks & Stone Crab in Chicago, a collaboration between Joe's Stone Crab and the Chicago-based Levy Restaurant Group, and I have to say, that the atmosphere of the original one in Miami, though similar, is much better. In large part, this is because the restaurant has bright windows that (on a sunny day, like the day we went), lets in gobs of wonderful sea-side sunshine. The one in Chicago is much darker - the main dining room tucked away from natural light and much more masculine and steak-housey. Service here was stellar. It's the type of brassy but attentive march of the penguins - efficient, slightly gruff, but accommodating tuxedo'ed men and women. The food is way over-priced, but very good. (You can see and read more detailed information about what we ordered and ate by clicking here.) I saw it as paying for the experience more than the food. I have no idea what the going rate is for stone crab claws. I won't pretend to know. What I do know is that $34 seemed like an awful lot of money to lay down for seven ("Select" size) claws. But they were good - cracked and prepped all ready for you to de-shell (just enough to make you believe you actually got the experience of eating shell-in crab without all the mess)... so, I guess, I was more than fine with $34 for 7 "Select"-sized claws as the going rate. I absolutely abhor iceberg lettuce. I rarely meet a salad using iceberg that actually appeals to me. When I see/hear people ordering it, I want to pull my hair out. Let's just all admit that the famous steak house "Wedge" is just a vehicle for blue cheese and bacon - it's not a salad at all. This being said, Joe's "Chopped Salad," - a mix of iceberg, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and carrots all chopped up and tossed with canned black olives, honey-roasted peanuts and feta cheese managed to tame my violent objections to the appearance of the otherwise worthless lettuce. It was the vinaigrette, actually... it was wonderful. It could have made moldy bread taste like a slice of heaven. For the same reason, the restaurant's "Lettuce, Tomato, Onion" salad though spartan, seemed inspired. The recipe is on Joe's Stone Crab's website. I know that everyone RAVES about Joe's key lime pie. They're famous for it (and, apparently, everything else on their menu). I found this beautiful wedge disappointing. I think that a few things contributed to my disappointment: 1. The pie had obviously been pre-cut and stored in a deep refrigerator. It was served near-frozen. This is one of the biggest turn offs for me. While I don't mind a chilled, pie, I really should haven't to cut my pie with a fork and knife. The cold state also negatively affect the state of the curd. The curd had hardened and became a terribly rich play dough-like consistency that made an unpleasant eating experience - it was like eating frozen paste - you had to let the curd melt in your mouth, which totally numbed the tastebuds... I couldn't taste the graham crust. 2. The curd was too sweet. Only when I studied the picture that I took of it did I noticed (but not at the time we ate it) that there appears to be something poured over the pie - like a sugar glaze (you can see it dripping down the sides of the pie). I wanted more of the key lime tang. Am I convinced that Joe's Stone Crab has the best stone crabs? No. Am I convinced that they have the best key lime pie? Definitely not. Am I convinced they can do magical things with iceberg lettuce. Absolutely. Was I pleased with my overall experience at Joe's? As punch. I can see Joe's becoming a special light lunch tradition if/when I visit South Beach in the future. Otherwise, I can be happy knowing I've been once. Note to admins: I searched for a Joe's Stone Crab thread on the Florida forum and (surprisingly) found none. In the great possibility that one or more existing threads about this restaurant slipped through my rather loosely-constructed search, please do sprinkle your fairy dust and merge at will.

After more than a year of hearing about Michelle Bernstein's splash, Michy's, onto the national restaurant scene, I finally made it. First, a hardy thanks to all those on this forum who gave me so much prepping. I won't go into the details of the restaurant - the decor, location, etc. Most here seemed well-versed with these ancillaries. The only thing I will say is that the wall paper trimming and pattern (dark blue with white and orange floral print) looked nearly identical to the decor of my dining room growing up in the 80's. With that, I'll get down to the food. In a nutshell - the food was good, (overly) pricey, and satisfying. It's exactly what I expected it to be - down home comfort foods with a slight upmarket twist. Our table managed to order (and eat): Oysters (Fancy Gourmets) Finocchiana Salami (by itself) Watercress Salad (full order) Roasted Beet Salad (full order) Bibb Lettuce Salad (full order) Blue Cheese & Jamon Croquetas (half order) Fennel & Orange Crusted Sweetbreads (half order) Truffled Polenta (half order) Florida Pompano (half order) Shortribs Falling Off the Bone (full order) Michy's Bread Pudding Quatro Leches Baked Alaska I won't attempt to bore you with a play-by-play of each dish. If you want to read about any particular dish (and see the photos), you may do so by clicking here. This one meal yielded the following observations about Michy's: 1. Everything - from the fish, to the meat, to the salads were executed (i.e. cooked) properly. 2. The flavors were all spot on. Save the watercress salad, which was a tad over-seasoned (i.e. salty), everything had a nice balanced, but wild and gutsy, flavor. My group happened to all prefer bold-flavored foods (as a side note, we also stand up to and welcome spice heat readily). Everything impressed. 3. Presentations ranged from whimsical (like the Bibb Lettuce Salad, which looked like a squat garden-borne Christmas tree decked with cherry tomato and radish ornaments and grated Jack cheese tinsel) to what a good chef friend of mine calls "poop n' scoop" (like the Sweetbreads, Truffled Polenta, and Short Ribs). What he (and I) mean by this is that it's sloppy, usually scoopable, and not particularly attractive - but usually (though not always in a place like Kansas City) very tasty. Some, like the Florida Pompano and the Roasted Beet Salads were a bit clumsy in presentation. The roasted beets looked like a pile of "something" which was remotely made edible-looking by the cannister whip cream-like rossette of "horseradish crema" on top. 4. Judging by our meal, Bernstein does comfort food best. Our most enjoyable courses fell into the "poop n' scoop" category. The short ribs, which, indeed, had fallen off the bone (they were served without the bones on a bed very creamy mashed potatoes) were meltingly soft and and incredibly moist. The twist to this rather down-home dish was in the accompanying Moroccan-spiced carrots and sauce, which hit a most enjoyable musky note - turning the rather familiar stew-like meat into something otherworldly. The Truffled Polenta, as mentioned my many others as a favorite, truly was wonderful. It's the kind of food that makes you want to crawl into the bowl and take a nice long nap in in the stuff. The polenta was soft and pillowy, the fricasse of mushrooms added a nice meaty beefiness (both flavor and texture), and the egg provided the right amount of velvety richness. I'm a sucker for white truffle oil - and a good dose of that didn't hurt the dish either. 5. Across the table, the most disappointing dish of the night was the controversial "Blue Cheese & Jamon Croquetas." I won't belabour you with the details of my discontent - you can read them here. Suffice it to say here, they were bland and the centers were unexpectedly runny which made eating them problematic. The accompanying fig marmalade, however, was a treasure. The other slight disappointer was the veal sweetbreads, which I found skimpy. The half portion, with only two nuggets of sweetbreads, really ended up being more about the duck sausage and vegetable cassoulet than the sweetbreads. The crust, which tasted very little, if anything, of orange, on the sweetbreads was so thick that I'm not sure I could have guessed what was in them if I hadn't known. 6. The one dish that truly surprised me was the Florida Pompano. While I think $20 was just a tad on the expensive side for the portion we got (three tiny fillet sections on a bed of lentils), I must say that the execution was perfect. The fish was piping hot and flaky and moist on the inside. The curried lentils, however, was what made the dish sing. Perfectly-cooked lentils are a hard commodity in restaurants today. These were *perfect.* I loved Michy's curry blend (I wish I knew what kind she uses - or the recipe) - together with the fish and warm tomato vinaigrette, it made a most holy trinity. 7. The Finocchiana Salami was a novelty. It was a treat. I want to know their pickling method for the accompanying vegetables (I'm assuming they do them in-house); they had a nice spicy kick to them. I wish I could have had time to come back (or a third stomach) to try their other salami. I was tempted by their cheese plate, but after hearing their rather pedestrian selection of the day, I passed. 8. I'm not generally a dessert person. All I'll say here is that Michy's desserts are very sweet (in the flavor sense of the word). The bread pudding was more like a bread stew (swamp?) instead of pudding. 9. Service was pretty outstanding. In fact, of the five meals I had in Miami that I'm reporting on, this was tied at the top with the service we received at Joe's Stone Crab. The only flaw I can mention is that there were a few moments when it seemed helpless trying to wave someone down. Part of the confusion was that we were served, pretty evenly, by two different people - we didn't know which, or whom, we should request. But, I'd have to say, the staff was refreshingly casual - charming at times - yet professional. The sommelier had excellent suggestions and was most accommodating. 10. Value: I hate dickering about price. However, on a very minor note, in my opinion, the food, though good, tended to be just a bit over-priced. I respect that Chef Bernstein uses high quality ingredients and has impeccable execution, but considering the whole, I think a few dishes were just a tad high. The croquetas ($8 for 3), and the short ribs ($28 for full) come to my mind. The half portion sweetbreads would have felt more appropriate a couple dollars less - for two pieces of sweetbreads. As stated, I felt like I was paying more for the (very good) duck sausage in the vegetable cassoulet. Overall, we had a solid meal. I'm not sure that Michy's could have done anything to make our experience any better. It was what it was. And, for that, I liked it.

Hey there Jojomek - it's been a long time. I think I had a similar Colotte de Boef Grillee at TFL over a year ago. BTW - are you at the new incarnation of Trio nowadays? You're no longer with Alinea, right?

I just wrapped up three days of great eating in Miami. I have to admit to a bit of whining and anxiety about the food scene in Miami (all, admittedly, prejudice) - but man, I have to say that I was pretty impressed by what I experienced. Here is what I managed to squeeze into my vacation: 2 Lunches: Joe's Stone Crab Versailles 3 Dinners: Michy's Michael's Genuine Food & Wine Sardinia Ristorante/Enoteca The dinners went a little something like this: Good (Michy's), better (Michael's...), best (Sardinia...). I'll be posting reviews of each meal and links to photos in their respective forum. I'll update this thread as a "table of contents" as I progress. Here we go...

Have we really been so lazy as to let this thread lie dormant for nearly a year? Well, here are just some (off the top of my head) that have opened since last November (2006): Michael Smith Pizza Bella Justus Drugstore, A Restaurant Krause's (re-opened after a brief close-down/re-zoning at 910 Delaware in Lawrence, Kansas) Seven (the link is currently broken, hopefully it will be fixed shortly) Kansas City Cafe Em Chamas Room 39, Mission Farms One Bite I'm sure I'm missing half a dozen, but at least this is a start.

No, but idiots like me try to push and pull the blue doors open as if they were real... thinking the whole time they're on candid camera, or that it's some cruel joke that restuarant closed on the day of my reservation. I guess I just don't see the point of having fake doors... especially when the sliding glass doors look like floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sorry to fixate on this, but what makes you think they did something to the horseradish? The reason I ask is because I love freshly grated horseradish over beef and often, over fish if it is roasted, to soften the flavors of the radish.

So, this isn't one of those seasonal menu-changing restaurants? I guess this makes sense for a "neighborhood restaurant" (or, why it's considered one)... I guess the regulars have to have their, well, "regular." Was it fresh horseradish grated over the fish, or was it horseradish sauce?

L'Impero put Scott Conant on the culinary map when Eric Asimov awarded 3* in 2002. Alto, which came later, was designed to be more upscale than L'Impero. Anything less than 3* was going to be a major disappointment. Sure enough, Bruni gave 2*, and Eater put Alto on deathwatch. When I visited Alto, I thought it deserved 3*. To be fair, it's my understanding that Conant tweaked the concept quite a bit, so I wasn't sampling the same menu that Bruni did, but some of Bruni's complaints didn't make much sense.Today's reviews rank Alto where it was always intended to be. In recent years, L'Impero has been somewhat off the culinary map, so perhaps 2* is indeed the correct rating. However, as Grub Street notes today, under Bruni the two-star rating is a kind of "limbo". You've got would-be three-star restaurants like L'Impero that are being penalized for poor performance, alongside $25-and-under one-star restaurants like Franny's that are being given a bonus for inexpensive excellence. So, I gather from this that Alto was actually meant to be the higher-end experience... that is to say, that it isn't unnatural (or surprising) for Alto to receive a higher rating than L'Impero.

I don't disagree with you, oakapple. I'm not one who is so terribly affected as to be put off by the mall situation of the restaurant. You are certainly correct in stating that 99% of the experience is inside the restaurant, which I find to be one of the more pleasant restaurant settings I've experienced. That being said, those faux blue doors still bother me... not enough to distract me from the "main event," but something that I can't quite separate from my the rest of my experience. Everytime someone mentions per se, those "doors" are one of the first things to pop into mind - only because they were my first impression/encounter with the restaurant (in person). Sorry, I guess it's a mental block for me that I recognize is certainly an aberration from the "normal" person...

I find this a little difficult to comprehend. You can go in a side entrance, take an elevator, and walk into Per Se. Your exposure to the "mall" lasts a grand total of about 4 minutes; the meal, about 4 hours. ← Exactly. And, and don't forget the shoppers gawking at the front trellis, the unworldly faux garden and the blue doors - one musn't forget those blue doors that aren't real either... ... the restaurant is definitely in a mall... no 2 ways about it. I'll agree that once your inside, the mall effect disappears - and yes, that is the majority of your "per se experience." However, for the mall-averse, I can easily see how the mall setting taints the overal feel - from the first impression to the very last when you "walk" out those faux doors...

That is so well said. ← Echo.

Today, Bruni's review of L'Impero and Alto was published; the two cobbled together. He gives L'Impero 2 stars and Alto gets 3. I'm familiar with both only insofar as it was Conant's stage. However, I am not so experienced (having eaten at neither) as to know the difference... it was always my impression that L'Impero was the "elder" of the two?

Perfectly understandable... why hurry? After all, the master himself instructs: "Our hunger for the twenty-minute gourmet meal, for a one-pot ease and prewashed, precut ingredients has severed our lifeline to the satisfactions of cooking. Take your time. Take a long time. Move slowly and deliberately and with great attention..." Hope it's worth the wait!

Carolyn, I can't believe you've never been! I'll look forward to hearing about your experience.