red light

[Miami Danny]

I had a chance to chat informally with Owner and Chef Kris Wessel yesterday, and he told me that he hopes to open in three weeks. This is great news for the neighborhood. The New Orleans native, who moved to the area to attend FIU fifteen years ago, and never left, will be offering a mid-priced menu, no white table cloths, with an emphasis on seafood, cooking with a Florida, Caribbean leaning, and a FULL BAR. I was aghast at how beautiful the Little River looks; how clean and dynamic-I hadn't been down there in a while, but the river is now flowing in and out with the tides. He had a lot of overgrown brush cleared away that was impeding the river's flow, and trapping the garbage. There will be a beautiful outdoor, waterfront area, with a bar. The interior, which, miraculously, also has a bar, is spare, with hanging lamps, red patterned walls, and mustard colored booths. I have some photos at Daily Cocaine of the chef, who seems surprisingly relaxed. I predict this place will be THE hit of 2008. You heard it here first.

[Miami Danny]

Had another informal chat with Chef Kris Wessel today, and while the River is looking great, he saw a tarpon swim by, he's delayed another 2-3 weeks. When I was opening my place in Miami, I heard '2-3 weeks' for about 6 months. I hope he has better luck.

[Miami Danny]

red light has a 'special' 'green' menu for Earth Day, and Chef Kris Wessel has come up with some nice salads, including organic tomatoes; sapodilla milkshakes; a shrimp pan roast; and an organic grilled veg sandwich with optional organic chicken. I tried the spiny lobster sous vide, and the US Kobe burger, which is hereby nominated for best burger in Miami-you heard it here first. Also, the three cheese plate for $6, had a good amount of very good Loxahatchee goat, a smelly French triple cream, and a sharp Cheddar, that was served with what tasted like guava jerky. A fine meal, with a decent $32 Cotes du Rhone. To watch a video of the sous vide spiny lobster being served, please check out 'red light' goes GREEN...

We sat outside, on Biscayne, and it was a nice city-type dinner, with cars and some skells (just one or two, actually) rolling by. You can smoke out here, which is a good option for you smokers...

Full menu coming in a week or two; although when I asked the chef when he would start serving the full menu, he replied, "Do I have to?" I guess it's nice not to have to worry about 35 dishes, just 8 or 10.

[Miami Danny]

Chef Kris Wessel's goal here was to do the improbable-turn out a full menu of ambitiously sourced and prepared food, night after night, from a tiny kitchen with barely any prep space. Of course it has turned out to be impossible, for now, and Wessel has had to be content with sending out a limited menu of modern American cuisine, with some flourishes like sous vide, or vacuum-packed slow cooking, mixed in with more traditional items like burgers and BBQ shrimp. The menu may list just one soup, like the conch-rich chowder, one salad, and maybe seven or eight main dishes, most of which are served in small and large portions. Some items are phenomenal, like the fried baby conch ($8/15)-man's got a way with conch-while some mystify, like the slow-cooked ribs that mange to be dense yet flavorless. The menu's items rotate, although two of them-Wessel's signature-worthy BBQ Shrimp ($10/18), done New Orleans-style, which means they are not barbecued at all, but floating in a tangy Worcestershire-based sauce; as well as another trendy rendition of eggs as a main course for dinner- a 'pan roast' of organic eggs, applewood bacon, morbier cheese, and tomato toast ($9/17)-are always available.

There's usually a 'local catch of the day', served in one of chef Wessel's fruit-forward sauces. I especially liked the 'Spiny Lobster', served with leeks, orange confit, red bliss potatoes, and little neck clams ($12-half portion), a dish that is cooked sous vide-the ingredients (at least the lobster and one or two other ingredients) are cooked in a vacuum pouch in a thermal circulator (which keeps water at a constant temperature) at low temperature, 110 degrees, for twenty minutes, . For serving, the pouch is opened table side, and poured over the other ingredients. I've never eaten 'spiny lobster' that tasted quite like this, although I will say that this dish is both fascinating and frustrating at the same time. And perhaps that is my only real beef with Red Light. If the chef is going to introduce new cooking methods to the table, perhaps they should be accompanied by better service. Dumping a bag of food on the plate is inelegant at best, especially when the cooking method is described by the server as "like papillote" (cooking in parchment), which is nothing at all like sous vide. Or when a bottle of wine is brought to the table and the server asks if we'd "like to taste it first, or should I just pour it?" That is simply a question that should not be asked. Of course, all neighborhood joints are granted special exemptions to work out some of the kinks, and, in the end, I'm hoping the allure of Kris Wessel's innovative cooking, as well as the 'banks of the Little River' location, will outshine any early missteps.