Blue Hill at Stone Barns

[dknywbg]

My husband is taking me for my birthday, three weeks from tonight, and he made the res a few days ago. The earliest they had for 2 people was 9:00... I'm pretty sure that they only take them a month in advance, max.

[woodburner]

My husband is taking me for my birthday, three weeks from tonight, and he made the res a few days ago. The earliest they had for 2 people was 9:00... I'm pretty sure that they only take them a month in advance, max.

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Well, Happy Birthday.

By the sounds of your comments, they book quickly. I'd like to take my wife for her b'day in May. I really want to view the grounds on the same day.

Have fun, and maybe you could comeback with a good report.

woodburner

[Bond Girl]

Bond Girl,

Thanks for the encouraging report. I've been following this thread as it has been drifting wildly from good to so-so. 

Did you have to reserve far in advance for your dinner?

woodburner

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Ahh, that you will have to ask Mr and Mrs. Bux. They came up with the reservation but the last tiime I asked they were booked a month ahead.

[docsconz]

I tried to book a party of seven for Saturday December 18th, but all I could get was on the waiting list. I initially tried calling on Nov. 18th at 9AM, the first time reservations would be accepted, but got a busy signal. I finally got through at 9:30AM, but the waitlist is all I could get. Ironically before 9AM I was able to get a 5:30PM reservation via Open Table, though I foolishly didn't take it because the time was too early and I thought I might do better by calling directly.

I am not counting on getting a table and so have made other plans, but we would probably change those plans and go if they called us.

[Bux]

And you all have to admit that many people who like meat, don't like liver. So they must taste different.

It is as Jason said, quite an operation. I'm not sure how easy it is to arrange a tour, but I'd urge anyone thinking of going for dinner to consider a tour although it's getting late in the year and dusk may come before you're ready for dinner. As Ya-Roo mentioned, we experienced a great sunset from the courtyard after our tour and before we entered the restaurant at about 5:00 pm. While I don't mind dinner at that hour on a Sunday, it's very early for me the rest of the week. While the operation is impressive, I was struck by the magnificent stone buildings. It's hard not to fool yourself into thinking you've arrived at some Norman abbey as Robert Brown implied earlier in his post on Stone Barns. This would be an impressive property and descriptions would figure heavily in most reviews even if Ducasse or Adrià were cooking there.

I should note that I know both Mike and Dan. We were introduced to both by our daughter who's worked in restaurants and written about food. I believe we actually met Mike before we met Dan and before Blue Hill opened for business. Feel free to filter whatever I say through that knowledge. What happened was that our daughter called to tell us a new restaurant was opening or had opened that was both our kind of restaurant and within walking distance of our home. We quickly discovered she was right on both counts and we became regulars, or as regular as people who don't eat out all that often can be. Eventually we met Dan and found him as good to know as his restaurant.

We rarely order at either of the Blue Hills and just let them feed us. Sometimes we get the day's tasting menu and sometimes we get something that's not on the menu. Last Sunday we just put ourselves in his hands. I don't know if our dishes were on the menu, as I never looked at the menu, but I suspect they were. When we're not planning a trip, and no one's coming in from out of town, we're not good at getting our act together to make reservations for dinner and in spite of our best intentions, we let the summer go by without getting up to Stone Barns. We were actually quite embarrassed about that when we ran into Dan yet again at the Union Square Greenmarket. Dan said to contact him and we'd arrange a date, which we did by e-mail. Were there tables available to the general public at that time? I honestly don't know. Sunday is usually an easier reservation to get than Saturday. We made our plans about two weeks in advance and took a 5:00 pm reservation which also allowed us a brief tour before walking into an almost empty dining room at 5:15. At some point in the evening, every table was occupied and tables that were empty when we arrived, turned at least once by the time we left. Not everyone has the tasting menu. Did we get special treatment? Probably. When people have met us through our daughter, they usually treat us well.

To fill in on Ya-Roo's post, we started with a Prosecco followed by an Albarino from Rias Baixas in Galicia and a Gigondas from the Rhone Valley in France. They also comped us a glass of rose with our vegetable course and between our white and red wines. Considering the quality of the food and the comfort of the restaurant, I would classify those as budget wines. It's a fuller wine list than at Blue Hill downtown. In general I've found their lists a bit quirky, and often full of wines I don't know that turn out to go very well with the food.

The scallop dish with the chopped squid could probably use some more detail. I believe it was presented as scallops on a rutabaga puree with a soy bean and squid sauce, which I assumed meant a reduction of squid broth. What it really turned out to be was minced squid in a broth, infusion or some oil that I don't remember, I was so fascinated by the squid bits. At first I didn't realize what these white bit were as they were smaller than grains of rice and kind of hard to isolate. The scallops themselves were also exceptionally small bay scallops and the dish needed to be approached delicately to savor each morsel.

That vegetable dish was a stunner. At first I was sure there was a base of meat stock, but I think that was coming from the earthy puree of chestnut. The grapes were certainly an unexpected touch but absolutely the flavor counterpoint that gave depth to the dish although I'd be careful not to assume throwing a few grapes into a vegetable dish at home would improve it. Four of us at that table love the taste of meat and for two of us, the stronger the better as in lamb or game, but that was an eminently satisfying dish. I'd not promise it would have the same appeal to a meat and potatoes guy.

The egg in the salad dish was fried, but "fried egg" is misleading. The egg was boiled long enough to set the white, peeled and cooled and then coated with the panko and almonds -- I think it was almonds -- and then deep fried with one half egg to a portion. The warm vinaigrette had pieces of pancetta in it to complete the dish.

The chicken soup was a dark brown reduction with enough flavor to justify it's place in the menu not as a soup course. Yes, I thought it a bit salty, but not so salty that I didn't finish it all. I was impressed with the quality and texture of the turkey slices in the soup. It may also be worth noting that we had dinner the night before at the home of a friend who uses no salt at all in her kitchen.

The Berkshire pork trio was a thick juicy chop, a slice of house made cotechino sausage and a large cube of pork belly. The latter seemed poached rather than braised or fried and of an incredibly meaty quality. These pigs are raised on the farm and we saw a few of them up on a hill in a fenced off area while on our tour.

The cinnamon ice cream was interesting. I was inclined to think it was too strongly flavored until I combined it with the pumpkin souffle. For some reason -- ask Hal McGee -- the cinnamon was neutralized by the pumpkin and the combination was terrific.

I need to put my finger on a better word than gentle to describe this food as that belies a certain kind of intensity that exists in the dishes. I'm also tongue tied when I try to explain why food I believe is intense in a gentle way seems like comfort food to me in spite of the fact that it's often like nothing I've had before I ate at Blue Hill.

There's one fault. Blue Hill at Stone Barns is even darker than Blue Hill in the city. It is either the most dimly lit fine restaurant or the best dimly lit restaurant I know. Neither seems a reasonable distinction. We never saw menus, but at least one party in the restaurant came prepared with flashlights to see theirs. It just seems so inhospitable to make guest use a flashlight to see the menu. I suspect there's a puritanical streak in Americans that just makes them want to disappear when they're enjoying a good meal. Dining seems so much more of a public celebration in Europe.

[tanabutler]

I got such a sweet surprise in the mail today. The Blue Hill newsletter arrived (Volume 1, Issue 1, Fall/Winter 2004-2005) from Sleepy Hollow. It's double-sided, one for the City News and one for Country News (flip it over and turn it upside down). The Country News side features an article on a "young lady farmer" named Sara, and it is Sara who sent it to me. She is the daughter of my dear friend, Betsy, a chef whom I took to the dinner at Blue Hill Stone Barns in October, 2003, long before they opened.

EDIT: duh. I hooked Sara up with the folks at Blue Hill, and she and her boyfriend got themselves hired as the farmer's assistant and the farmer's wife's assistant. Dan Barber interviewed her for the piece in the newsletter, for which she was rewarded with a dinner at BHSB.

Like everything Blue Hill produces, it is tasteful, earnest, and lovely. The recipe is for "Fall Chicken Soup for _________" (insert "young lady farmers" or "expectant mothers").

The "expectant mother" is Blue Hill Wine Director/GM, Pam Walton, who by now has probably delivered her baby boy.

Happy news. Sweet news.

Edited December 11, 2004 by tanabutler (log)

[dknywbg]

Well, my big birthday dinner is finally here--tomorrow. We have a 9:00 reservation and we were thinking about heading up there early, so we can see the place in daylight. Problem is, that leaves us with a good four or five hours to fill in the area. Any suggestions for nearby attractions that'll be open in the early evening?

[Bux]

It's a beautiful place with beautiful grounds. I haven't the slightest idea of what you can do up in the area. Let us know if you get any suggestions. Four or five hours can be a long time to spend in the dark. I think the bar opens at five, but I can't imagine sitting around for four hours. If you decide to go up when it's still daylight, you should call ahead and see if someone can take you on a tour of the facilites. It may not be possible on a last minute basis, but it's worth having a guide and having access to the greenhouse. It may be more practical to save your tour for the late spring and just go and enjoy dinner tomorrow.

[dknywbg]

A brief report on 9:00 dinner this past Wednesday:

We didn't end up going early enough to see the grounds--just couldn't think of a way to fill the five hours before our reservation. All in all, it was a lovely meal but as the courses progressed we were less and less thrilled. Service was impeccable, almost to the point of overkill but never going quite that far. A note about wine: I've developed a bizarre allergy over the last year and my husband was driving, so we abstained. In the end I'm sort of glad we did, since the bill could easily have doubled.

2 amuses: a warm chickpea soup with aleppo pepper, served in the tall flute shot glasses others have mentioned here, which was pretty spectacular; and goat cheese & chives in a parmesan cup with a candied walnut--you'll probably all kill me but I'm not a cheese-lover so I didn't taste it, and let my husband have both of ours. He loved them. We were really looking forward to our meal by this point.

We had three savory courses each, in this order:

1. Me: Mushroom Tartelette, described as "local wild mushrooms, walnuts and fingerling potatoes." It turned out to be sliced portobellos laid over chunky mashed potatoes, with a small salad of greens and other mushrooms alongside. The walnuts were in a puree between the mushrooms and potatoes, the waitress said as she presented the dish, but I couldn't taste them to save my life. It was beautifully and precisely presented, delicious but not WOW. I liked my husband's salad much better...

1. Him: Baby Romaine Lettuce, with a panko-breaded and flash-fried egg, pine nuts, and warm pancetta vinaigrette. This was the WOW dish of the evening, by far. We were quite excited by it, and hopeful that it was an indication of more excitement to come.

2. Me: Poached Chicken Breast, with "farro and roasted carnival and cabocha squash." This was lovely, silken-textured chicken with chewy grains and a lively sauce--with soy or something like it, to richen and deepen it (and make it slightly too-salty). But after a few bites I got a little bored--each mouthful tasted the same. I'm not sure I would've been happy with this in an entree size.

2. Him: Homemade Cavatelli with guanciale and broccoli. This was another beautiful, but not spectacular dish. The cavatelli had a nice flavor and texture--though it was almost too al dente--but the guanciale tasted very much like the pancetta in the salad, and though the broccoli had been cut into the tiniest, cutest little florets I've ever seen, the whole thing didn't quite hold together as a dish.

3. Me: Wild Striped Bass, with "hen of the wood mushroom, caramelized cauliflower, almond and caper vinaigrette." This was the big disappointment--I was really looking forward to this, loved every aspect of it in the menu description, and the waitress had raved about it when I wavered between it and the Cod. Ultimately, it was fine, but the fish was underdone--again, call me a philistine, but I'm not a fan of raw, tough fish. I'm not sure if it was intentional, or if the kitchen screwed it up, but I ended up leaving a hunk of flesh behind on the plate. I was surprised that nobody asked if there was a problem (which makes me suspect it was, in fact, intentionally undercooked). As for the other components, the capers didn't add the punch I expected, the almonds were visible but added no flavor, and the cauliflower was little more than fine. The mushrooms were the best part, earthy and slightly crispy.

3. Him: Crescent Duck, with "romaine, stew of napoli carrots with toasted spices, fromage blanc spaetzle." Another almost-winner. He loved the duck, said he'd never enjoyed it prepared to that texture before (soft, rather than crispy) but in this case it worked. The vegetables were lovely, perfectly cooked, and the spaetzle, served in its own small iron pot, was browned and tangy from the fromage blanc. But the sauce, which covered the duck and vegetables, struck me as a little too one-note. Underwhelming.

Dessert: we shared the Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding, with "caramel ice cream and pine nuts," and it, too, disappointed just a bit. It's a good-sized square of the pudding, served with a quenelle of ice cream on top. A couple of pleasing textural surprises: the pudding had a creme-brulee-like sugar shell, which added a nice jolt, and the pine nuts were somehow hidden underneath or inside the pudding, in a small pile in the center. We'd forgotten reading about them in the menu, so coming across a nutty interruption partway through was a clever bonus. But flavorwise, we weren't as happy. While the pudding looked nearly black (though that could've been the dim lighting), it had surprisingly little fudginess to it. If I'd been served this blindfolded, I'm not sure I would've recognized it as a chocolate-based dessert. And the caramel ice cream, of which normally I'm a great fan, seemed to be made from an overcooked caramel, veering towards burnt and acrid.

A nice little send-off with the coffee: chocolate-covered almonds, which were delicious and perfect.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but in the end it struck me as a place striving for four-starness but just missing. The service, the setting, and the presentation were all there, but the food itself: not so much.

Excuse the blatant plug but if you'd like more detail, within the next day or two I plan to write a bigger, more thorough report for my blog, with pictures (click in my signature below). I'd post the pictures here but a) I don't know how, and b) the lighting was so low I'm still trying to figure out how to make them usable!

[Jason Perlow]

Rachel and I had dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns tonight -- here are the photos we took of our wonderful evening, in order.

Please excuse the heavily processed lighting and color on the food pics -- lighting in the restaurant is very dim and it got much darker as we went into the meal, and I had to shoot in RAW mode and do a lot of post production with exposure levels and white balance.

[Jason Perlow]

Cold Asparagus Puree

Beet Chips

Paired with 2003 Albarino

Asparagus with Prosciutto and Sesame

"Testa" (head cheese) croquette with pickled cauliflower

Spring Vegetables on Rice Cracker with local ricotta cheese

Roasted Oyster with Fennel, Tapioca Pearls, Soybeans, Fennel Pollen and Moscato

Paired with a Tocai Friulano

Bread

Salad of Bibb Lettuce with herbs, panko crusted soft boiled egg, pancetta vinegar dressing over hummus

Paired with Philip Eckstein Riesling Kabinett 2003

Hot Smoked Brook Trout with green garlic sauce, pea shoots and asparagus

Maine Lobster poached in mushroom consomme with shimeji and porcini mushooms

paired with 2002 Burgundy

Spinach Pasta with arugula puree and baby arugula leaves, pearl onions and baby carrots

paired with Villa Cecchiano Chianti Classico 1999

Berkshire Pork trio -- loin, belly, cotechino sausage over braised red cabbage and jerusalem artichokes and beets

Rhubarb Soup with Spearmint Sorbet

Valrhona Chocolate Croquette, Chocolate Sorbet and Pistachio Parfait

Island Range

Co-Exec Chefs Dan Barber and Micheal Anthony

[AmyDaniel]

Lucky, lucky dog.

But how did it taste?

[emmapeel]

Fantastic pictures Jason, and I'm looking forward to your report. From the photos, I cannot imagine dinner was anything but very good.

[tetsujustin]

those fiddleheads look amazing.

Thank goodness its spring!

[Pan]

Terrific photos, and it looks like food I'd probably enjoy.

[bleudauvergne]

Berkshire Pork trio -- loin, belly, cotechino sausage over braised red cabbage and jerusalem artichokes and beets

That must have been pretty darn good. Excellent photo too. Can you explain the name of the pork? The area where the pig was raised, or a special breed of pork? Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us, Jason!

Edited May 13, 2005 by bleudauvergne (log)

[FabulousFoodBabe]

The pig is Berkshire pig (it's called "pig" on the menu and in the kitchen). They live on the farm and come down to be petted during family meal time.

Beautiful photos that tell the story well. What a wonderful place that is!

[HungryChris]

Wow!

The Berkshire pork trio and a nice glass of chianti is going to haunt my thoughts all day. Great photos!

Thanks Jason,

HC

[Jason Perlow]

The pig is Berkshire pig (it's called "pig" on the menu and in the kitchen).  They live on the farm and come down to be petted during family meal time. 

Beautiful photos that tell the story well.  What a wonderful place that is!

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Berkshire is a type of breed of pig that originates from England. They grow and live on the estate and are allowed to wander in the woods.

Berkshire Pigs (New Zealand)

Berkshire Pigs (BBC)

For those of you not familiar with Blue Hill, the restaurant tries to produce dishes which contain mostly meat and vegetables that are grown on the farm, where possible, or they go with local sustainable sources. The fish, for example, came from a local source. Virtually all the vegetables used are grown on the farm, a good amount of which are in the greenhouse area depicted here:

The NYC branch (which is the one that opened first) uses produce and meat that comes from the farm as well.

Edited May 13, 2005 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Food impressions:

The cold asparagus puree was right on, very sweet and refreshing, almost like a vichysoisse.

Beet chips, which were baked and not fried, didn't really put an impression on me, kind of like those Terra Chips, but they weren't salty. You really needed to sprinkle the kosher salt on them. I think they would have been better fried and then seasoned with salt and pepper, but then again, everything is better when fried.

Asparagus (there was a lot of it this evening) with Prosciutto and Sesame was a nice, playful presentation, loved the textural contrast between vegetable and sesame. Didn't really notice the prosciutto though.

Testa Croquette was very good -- soft and porky tasting. I didn't realize that it was head cheese until the server told us, which was probably a good thing! At this point I was a bit concerned our entire meal was going to be served on sticks, but we were quickly disarmed of that apprehension.

Spring Vegetables on Rice Cracker was a nice interlude, loved the morel mushrooms and the two cheeses -- however I would have preferred they piled on the shredded stuff they used as a bed for the presentation, as opposed to having to use your fingers and put it on yourself. A very minor nitpick to a great course, though.

Roasted Oyster with Tapioca and Soybeans in the fennel/moscato was probably the standout appetizer of the evening -- very unusual but successful combination, I think.

The bread, freshly baked, were buttermilk biscuity-type things, was really exceptional, as was the butter. We had to restrain ourselves from ordering a third basket.

Salad was great -- just phenomenal. The pancetta viniagrette was a perfect, classic combo to the incedibly fresh greens, and the panko crusted soft boiled egg was a nice twist on an old favorite. The thin layer of hummus sauce, which was at the bottom, sort of added a slight creaminess to the dressing but it might as well of not been there.

Hot Smoked Bass was also very good. While I'm not a huge fan of smoked fish, I ate the whole plate and sopped up the garlicky sauce with the biscuits -- the smoke flavor was very subtle and the fish was very moist and tender. More asparagus in the sauce -- hey, can't have too much farm fresh asparagus in your diet, right?

The Lobster with mushroom broth was extremely good, although normally this is paired with rabbit and pasta. I don't like rabbit, so they sent us out this presentation instead. Very intense mushroom broth, perfectly poached lobster tail and claw. What's not to like?

Spinach pasta was probably the least liked dish of the evening -- the vegetables were stellar, as was the fresh pasta itself, but the dish in its entirety came off as overall too sweet for some reason. I guess baby arugula puree doesnt have the bitterness of regular arugula, and combined with the pearl onions which were somewhat caramelized and the baby carrots, the dish came off sweet. I liked it more than rachel did.

Berkshire Pork Trio was a home run -- very Alsatian/Germanic type of presentation and preparation, over the cabbage with the wonderful roasted jerusalem artichokes (which I could have eaten a whole side dish of, they were that good). Pork belly was tender and soft, with the loin having a nice toothsomeness to it and the cotechino having a really nice sausage texture and flavor. Best dish of the evening.

Rhubarb Soup was nice and sour, although I am not a fan of the actual vegetable itself and left most of the peices of it over -- the sour flavor of it was a great foil to the spearmint sorbet, which had a powerful spearmint taste.

Chocolate Dessert was excellent, I particularly liked the dark chocolate fried croquette, paired with the pistachio parfait. The chocolate sorbet had a nice intense flavor although it was a bit grainy.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable evening, and we had a great time. Staff was extremely attentive and friendly, our server was lovely and the sommelier did a very nice job of pairing wines with the courses. I can't wait to go back and try the summer menu.

Edited May 14, 2005 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Daniel]

Thank you Jason.. I really got a feel for the place.. Your pictures are wonderful..

[SobaAddict70]

That pork dish is amazing.

All right, now I have to go there. Seriously.

Soba

[TongoRad]

At the risk of sounding like a bit of a caveman- that oyster appetizer looks amazing, but did you eat it with a spoon? I don't think I could resist picking up the glass myself...

Excellent photos- and I do have an anniversary coming up...

[Jason Perlow]

Yes, we ate it with a spoon, and we were asked to scoop all the way down to the bottom to get all the layers of stuff before eating it.

[destro800]

How do I get here from Manhattan. Without a car?