Union Pacific (Closed)

[Bux]

We haven't done the restaurant week lunch thing often or recently, but some friends suggested we get together and give it a shot this week. Union Pacific was our eventual choice. UP has been mentioned recently on this board and criticized as often not being perceived as a "value meal." With three choices for appetizer and main course and a couple for dessert, I thought if offered a lively meal and great value. That's the short mention, although I should add that the deal continues beyond restaurant week.

Some less positive notes are that the wine list has few choices at the lower end and the lower end is not very low. There were choices in the thirties and forties, but even through the fifties the pickings were slim. It's fine food that really calls for bottle of wine and if you're determined to do it on the budget you may be stressed. Nevertheless, with one bottle of wine (light consumption for the four of us) and three espressos--beverages were still less than the food--the bill came to about ๪ per couple and we considered it money well spent. If you're determined, you can go with the least expensive wine, or just a glass of wine and skip coffee. With four glasses of wine, a bottle is probably less expensive anyway.

The music was most unpleasant however. I do not find music with a pronounced beat, conducive to digestion or conversation. The music might actually keep me from thinking of UP next time, in spite of the fact that we loved the food.

Portions were small, but comfortably adequate for lunch. I don't know if they are bigger at dinner or on the a la carte menu. Service was very good, although very leisurely. The pace was find for us. No one was going back to work.

Salad of asparagus with mushrooms was nicely seasoned. Artichoke soup with a single shrimp and some bits of ham was very interestingly seasoned and had a nice acidic kick. One member of the party tasted the soup and found the seasoning extreme and judged the soup unpleasantly inedible, however the two who ordered it, loved it. Anyway I thought they were bargain courses at the price. Someone ordered hake and found it excellent. Three of us ordered duck with sour cherries. A few slices of nicely done pink breast and a falling off the bone leg were served with a few baby root vegetables, some tart cherries and a fine reduction with a hint of sweetness and acidity to pique our tastebuds, but not overly so as to ruin the wine or the duck. I didn't taste the chocolate dessert, the creme brulee was served with a grapefruit sorbet. The sorbet didn't do much for the creme brulee in my opinion, but the creme brulee, flavored with sesamee seed (no actual seeds in the custard) was just the sort of thing I'd hope to see on a ฤ menu and quite satisfying.

[Charles Smith]

Hi everyone-

My wife and I went to Union Pacific this weekend and had an average meal, at least compared to my expectations.  I'd been for lunch once before and it was amazing.  After a forgettable amuse (jingle bell pepper with pumpkin puree????) our apps were uni and scallops with mustard oil and bluefin tuna.  Both were excellent, with a nod to the scallop dish-  

For a an entree I had roasted pheasant with black truffles, served over parsnip puree.  My wife had wild striped bass.  The pheasant was very good, but nothing at all was added with the dusting of truffles- not worth the Ů supp.  It also came with a dies of fries, which looked great, but were ultimately weak- soggy!!

The flavor of the bass was good, but it was over cooked, and had definietly been cooked in caul, which was not mentioned on the menu-  no big deal for us, but for anyone avoiding meat, watch out.  

Desserts were fine, a nice "carpaccio" of mango and papaya and something chocalate-  

Wine list was great for whites, but I thought the reds were too overpowering for the food- not much older at all-  we had the '97 Trimbach Riesling "Emilie"  

all in all, a good meal, but not  great-  

Rocco sure does spend a lot of time in the dining room-

that always makes me wonder a bit about waht's happening in the kitchen.  

Cheers,

Charles

[Steve Plotnicki]

Charles - A freind of mine was in from out of town and ate at U.P. just before x-mas. He ate the exact same meal as you and had the exact same reaction. And I will tell you the exact same thing I told him. The Asian fuison dishes at U.P. are always better than things that are more French. So thumbs up for the scallops with uni and mustard oil. Thumbs sideways for the Roast Pheasant.

[Wilfrid]

I tend to have the same reaction to Union Pacific too - maybe I'm ordering wrong.  The meal is good enough that I go back from time to time, hoping to have a real eye-opening experience, but I always end up thinking, "Well, that was pretty good."  Rocco seems a very nice guy, who is trying hard, so I'm always kind of willing myself to enjoy it more.  Odd.

[Steve Klc]

Have any of you seasoned UP-goers noticed that Rocco never seems to put his pastry chef's name on the dessert menu?  did it strike any of you as strange?  That might explain why he seems to rotate through so many of them--that and the fact that desserts have to be walked down two flights of stairs to be approved by the chef--then back up the stairs and out the pass.  Can't be good for internal relations, not to mention quenelles of sorbet.

Anyone notice whose name was on the dessert menu?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Dinner for four this past Saturday night at what has turned into the most reliable restaurant in town for me. When we arrived, the place was full which I was happy about. Excursions to UP not too long after 9/11 revealed a less than full dining room. But we were made to wait 15 minutes for our 8:15 reservation.

One thing that is great about UP is there are no shortage of choices for either the appetizers or the entrees. Still in spite of all of the choice, I stuck with my usual, Taylor Bay Scallops with Uni and Mustard Oil. If I have never waxed rhapsodic about that dish before on these pages, let me take a moment to do so right now. There are six to an order but I wish there were 60. That's how good they are. For those who have never had them, it is a raw bay scallop that is served in its shell. It is doused with a mixture of tomato water and mustard oil and then a small portion of uni (sea urchin) is placed alongside the scallop. You eat it like an oyster, lifting the shell up to your mouth and taking it all in with one big slurp. The scallop itself is naturally sweet but also has a distinct yet mild taste of the sea. The tomato water lends a bit of acidity yet enhances the sweetness, while the mustard oil puts a tiny bite in it. And the uni is the icing on the cake, with its custard like creaminess contrasting with the firmer and springier texture of the scallop, while at the same time offering a second somewhat stronger taste of the sea, as well as additional and contrasting tastes of salty and sweet. It is a masterpiece and I think it is one of the greatest dishes to come out of New York dining during the last 20 years. Conceptually it is worthy of being on the table of any 3 star restaurant anywhere in the world.

The wife of the couple we were dining with and had the scallops as well. My wife and the other husband had the Curried Baby Calamari . It turned out to be a sort of risotto-like, or maybe fricasse like depending on how it was constructed, mixture of tiny circles of extrmely tender calamari that were laid somewhat atop, and somewhat mixed in a small pile of rice and then covered in a yellow curry sauce. I believe the rice was cooked in a seafood broth to begin with, though it might have just been tossed in the curry sauce afterward. Whichever, it was quite delicious with an intense, slightly sweet curry that I can only identify as being more Southeast Asian in style like from Singapore.

We followed our great appetizers with half portions of the Crab and Spring Morel Soup. It was really a throwaway line that led to this course. There were so many good sounding appetizers to choose from, I narrowed it down to the scallops and the soup. After I ordered the scallops, I said to Fred Price (who sort of runs the front room and does everything from handling the wine to taking our order,) that I was sure Rocco had a big pot of the soup on the stove and could he bring me a little taste of it. Well that request turned inot four half portions (which we paid for if you want to know.) Immediately after they placed the soup in front of us we were in heaven. The aroma of intense shellfish broth was so potent, that one could only put one's nose into the small bowl and take a deep breath of this hallucinative of the sea. And an inspection of the contents of the bowl would make one easily conclude that this was hardly a soup for there was a pile of shredded crabmeat and small rounds of morels that were in a pile that was sitting in a shallow, deep rust color broth. More like a stew than a soup. The soup tasted as intense as it smelled and the pile of crabmeat and morels in proprtion to liquid  combined in a sort of semi-gelatenous and meaty mass and made it far more substantial than just a bowl of soup. I should add that later on in the evening someone at the next table ordered an entire bowl of soup and we could smell it intensely at our table.

Not having a white wine in my house of proper Alsatian, Austrian or German pedigree, I relied on Fred having something on the list (he always does.) And we had a very nice 1990 riesling from the Mosel by a grower named Soloman that went perfectly with our food.

My Main course was a rack of lamb in a mustard and cherry crust, and it was served with thin slices of eggplant that were braised in the sauce until they were so soft they were falling apart. The sauce was studded with a few dried cherries which added to the sweetness but in no way made it a sweet dish. Two others had the crispy soft shell crabs with ramps (and I think braised green papaya) and our fourth had the Roasted Salmon atop some caramelized endive. Just all terrific and all plates cleaned.

We drank a 1990 Jaboulet Crozes-Hermitage Thalabert which I brought with me. A powerhouse of a wine for a Croze. Deep, dark chocolate and berry flavors. This wine is just starting to hit a plateau of maturity but it needs 2-4 more years in my opinion. A massive wine for the price it brings at auction.

We finished with an assortment of desserts. Fine but not as interesting as the food. And we had a half bottle of a terrific 1993 Vin Santo but I forgot to jot the name down.

As I have long held, I believe that Union Pacific is the top restaurant in NYC in its category. It's a shame that the casualness of the restaurant itself doesn't lend itself better to constructing a proper tasting menu. There is certainly enough

diversity on the menu to do so. I'm going to see if I can organize one for a special occassion.

[yvonne johnson]

Sounds like an excellent meal. Consort thinks I'm drawn to DiSpirito for the wrong reasons (I think he's handsome), but I like him for culinary ones too. I've been two or three times, and although some of the combinations seemed a little whacky (lime pickle with halibut, for example), I liked the clean taste of many of the dishes. I like the room too. I hear UP has one (or two?) private rooms. Might make for an eGullet dinner.

From your description, the dishes sound plainer than I remember.

By the way, Steve, may I ask you elaborate on why you think UP doesn't lend itself to a tasting menu?

[Beachfan]

Wow, sounds like the type of food I really enjoy.  Thanks for the post Steve.

By the way, would you also recommend them for lunch?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Yvonne-I don't know about the tasting menu. They used to serve one but they stopped. But I don't think the restaurant has the requisite formality to it. It also might be that the combinations are so acute that your palate tires. I don't know. But you are right and it would be a good place for an eGullet dinner. But it has to be when the scallops are still in season and I don't think we have that much time left.

Beachfan-It's good for luch too. Maybe better as the room is relaxed. But I don't think the menu is as deep in choice as it was at dinner.

[Jason Perlow]

FYI the Wine list at Union Pacific was designed by Willie Gluckstern aka The Wine Avenger.

He teaches wine classes in NYC and is one of the better known Germanic wine importers on the east coast.

click: The Wine Avenger

[Steve Plotnicki]

Jason-That might have been the case when the restaurant first opened but since Fred Price came there from Picholine (at least 3-4 years ago) he's been taking care of it. I looked through Willie's catalog and didn't see any wines I noticed on the list on Saturday night. But I think I am going back there later this week and will ask Fred about Willie. But I did eat in Willie's grandfather's restaurant a number of times including going to my cousin Mel's Bar Mitzvah there in 1965. It was a kosher meat restauarant of which there weren't many at the time. I can still picture the block it was on. And I'm sure his Grandpa is turning in his grave over who he married.

[cabrales]

And the uni is the icing on the cake, with its custard like creaminess contrasting with the firmer and springier texture of the scallop, while at the same time offering a second somewhat stronger taste of the sea, as well as additional and contrasting tastes of salty and sweet.

Steve P -- Thanks for your description of the scallops/uni dish. When you have a chance, could you compare the uni in the dish to the fresh sea urchin one might have in season in France?  Where do you guess the uni at UP might be from?  

On lunch selections, I have eaten during past summers at UP for slightly under USD 20. The menu selections were very limited, but it is nonetheless UP cuisine. I vaguely remember a tasty dish with beef marrow (not available as part of said prix fixe lunches).

[Steve Plotnicki]

Cabrales-I can't comment on how the Uni served at UP compares to the Uni in France as I have never eaten Uni in France. Also, it is a tertiary flavor in the UP dish as the bay scallop and tomato water/mustard oil combo are the primary movers there. But if you want good Uni in NYC, head over to Sushi Yasuda. I was there two weeks ago and the Uni was like Creme Brullee.

[Bux]

I've not eaten there often enough to add much to Steve's comments. I recall a time when it did have a tasting menu and I recall some food that was a bit further out in design, but I don't see what Steve described as a step in the wrong direction. The last meal I had there was a restaurant week special and it was a bargain. I'm sure it didn't represent the full abilities of the place, but it was more than one should have expected at the price. Not that we got out all that cheaply. We were with a friend who's the type who seeks out the restaurant week bargains and then blows the savings on the wine.

[Liza]

Back to the signature scallop dish, I think the uni provides a very important textural note, and sweetness. I find that dish to be one of the few that I would easily describe as completely harmonious. I always intend to order something else and never do.

And I've always trusted Fred there as well. I wouldn't think of eating at Union Pacific without asking Fred to match each course.

[Mao]

Went to UP last night.  Had the uni and scallop combination and the white Pekin [sic] duck as main course, as well as amazing cheeze course and an unmemorable dessert (the two desserts I have consumed at Bouley recently simply cast a very long shadow). Thoughts in no particular order:

The uni dish is quite brilliant and super yummy, though I am a little dubious how massively original it is.  It strikes me as sashimi with a slight twist (the addition of tomato water and mustard flavors adding greater levels of complexity).  Its possible that the people at Saka gura are copying Rocco, but the notion of pairing Uni with another fish/seafood thing and a sauce of some kind is something I have encountered in more than one incarnation on the back of Saka gura's menu.  Its also verging on some of my Sushi of Gari experiences.  I don't deny its greatness, its just so evident to me that this is dish originating in textural experiences of sashimi-esque eating, some of which are eerily familiar.

The Pekin white duck was superb, and I gobbled it up too quickly and with relish, because it was so damn good, to appeciate everything about the dish.  Sometimes I just gobble, I guess, without pausing to savor or reflect.  It happens.  Sorry

There is a tasting menu for $95.  The guy sitting next to me at the bar ordered it, and was told by the bartender that the chef was watching his reaction to the food (there is closed circuit TV apparently that flows into the kitchen and enables Rocco to wtach but not be watched).

Their cheese course really really rocks.  I remember this from my prior two trips, but it was incredible.

[tommy]

Pekin [sic] duck

pekin duck is a type of duck, not much unlike those from long island.  probably the most widely eaten in the US. so, assuming you thought it was a misprint or a bastardization of "peking duck", it probably wasn't.  

[Bux]

(there is closed circuit TV apparently that flows into the kitchen and enables Rocco to watch but not be watched).

It's not all that common, but closed circuit TV is used by a few restaurants to ensure smooth service in the dining room. It may never replace a good waitstaff, but it can help the kitchen know when to fire dishes. The first time we noticed cameras in the dining room was in a nice inn in France. I thought it was all part of a burglar slam system. Now I know better. These days, cameras are far less noticeable. Some diners resent the idea of cameras in the dining room, but in a way, they're a sign that they care about the timing of a meal.

[Wilfrid]

The tasting menu.  When I dined at UP last year (October I believe), I asked where the tasting menu had gone.  I was told then that they had suspended it as they were having trouble sourcing all the necessary ingredients.  Guess Rocco didn't feel the need to bring it back.

However, I was then encouraged to create my own degustation from the carte, and offered whatever dishes I chose in tasting menu portions.  I chose a selection of dishes, and then decided to have them full-size.  Rocco came out afterwards to compliment me on my choice, although doubtless the phrase "greedy guts" was not far from his lips.

Actually, I think the staff at UP are a bunch of sweeties, and I am glad to hear the restaurant is doing well.

[lizziee]

Rocco DiSpirito made the uni dish for the Meals on Wheels Event in LA in 2001. In their souvenir booklet he published the recipe.

TAYLOR BAY SCALLOPS WITH UNI AND MUSTARD OIL

5 small scallops cleaned by fishmonger(retain shells for serving)

1 uni, cleaned by fishmonger

1/2 oz. seaweed (ogonori) rinsed free of salt

1 tsp. mustard oil, at room temp.

pinch black mustard seed, freshly ground

1/2 tomato, overripe

1/4 tsp. mirin, at room temp.

pinch cayenne pepper, to taste

coarse sea salt, to taste

pepper, freshly ground

crushed ice (for presentation)

A. To make tomato water, pulse the overripe tomato with the coarse sea salt in a food processor. Suspend in cheesecloth and set in a strainer overnight, allowing the liquid to drop into a bowl. Pass the liquid through a coffee filter to remove all the solids and season with mirin and cayenne, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

B. Arrange one scallop and one piece of uni in each well-rinsed scallop shell. Pour tomato water over the scallop and uni and drizzle several droplets of mustard oil over the top. Garnish with crushed black mustard seed.

C. Place the seaweed on a bed of crushed ice on a small serving plate. Arrange five scallop shells in a circle on the seaweed bed and serve immediately. Increase the quantities to create additional servings.

Note: Mustard oil and black mustard seeds are available from Foods of India (28th Street and Lexington Avenue)

[cabrales]

Steve P, robert brown and his wife Susan, Wilfrid and his Beloved and I had dinner at Union Pacific last night. The cuisine was fairly good, and we enjoyed talking about it and other topics.

Amuses -- Green asparagus with grilled morels and fresh pecorino; Salmon with caviar and pineapple gelee

Bluefin Tuna with yuzu

Roasted Foie Gas with rhubarb and lovage puree

Crispy Soft Shell Crab with a hot and sour XO sauce

Wild Copper River Salmon, with rhubarb and fava beans

  (sequence relative to crab may have been reversed?)

Rack of Lamb with a cherry-mustard glaze

Various desserts

Our BYO wines were appealing, and consisted of: a 1989 Musigny, Jacques Frederic Mugnier; a beautiful white Burgundy that others could better describe; a 2000 Riesling, Cuvee St. Catherine, Domaine Weinbach; a 1983 Salon; and an unusual Alsatian wine that was paired with the foie gras and that others could better describe.

Susan and I thought the sweetness in some of the dishes could have been better controlled. Steve P and I discussed how sweetness combined with other flavors is a distinguishing aspect of certain dishes at UP.  I will provide a more detailed description of the meal at a later point.

[robert brown]

How can I let my dear departed 1990 Meusault Perrieres of Comtes Lafon pass in anonymity? I gave it up for a worthy cause, and it was praised and enjoyed by all.

[cabrales]

robert -- Thanks, for the detail and the wine!  I did not want to misrepresent it and another bottle that I did not contemporaneously document the name of.  

[Wilfrid]

Spent much of yesterday catching up on sleep, but let me agree, first of all, that sweetness was a distinct, and even obtrusive, theme of several savory dishes.  Andy Lynes started a thread recently on "perceptions" of American food (specifically by the British), and I have to say that a common perception in the UK that Americans like sweet food would have been reinforced by this meal.

I love rhubarb.  It might be permitted to appear twice in a menu, once in a savory dish, then later in a dessert - as a sorbet flavor perhaps - but to use it twice as a garnish to savory dishes suggested either the kitchen was long on rhubarb or short on imagination.  It turned up as a tart accent to the foie gras (good; Esca garnishes monkfish liver with rhubarb to similar ends), but also showed up as a very sweet accompaniment to the salmon.  I said at the time that I was perfectly happy to eat the delicate salmon, or the dessert-style rhubarb, but not on the same plate.

I didn't like being served two contrasting amuse bouches simultaneously.  We each had two plates in front of us, cluttering the table, and it wasn't as if one was going to be eating both dishes at the same time.  Were the waiters trying to save themselves an extra walk?  It was at this point also that it became clear that the kitchen had decided to surprise us by changing the order, and to an extent the content, of the menu; this was irritating, and would have necessitated changing the wine plans too.  A compromise had to be negotiated.

The soft shell crab was fine, although the best I have had this year was the version at Fleur de Sel, crusted with powdered almonds and accented with ramps.  The foie gras was terrific.  I had forgotten the glaze on the lamb, but Cabrales may have forgotten the quite distinctive, dark eggplant puree which accompanied it.  Final thought: it may read like a long menu, but the portions were fairly small, and I certainly woke up hungry.

Let's be clear: this was a good meal, skillfully cooked, but what would eGullet be without nitpicking criticism?

[cabrales]

I have historically liked the cuisine at Union Pacific, and Wednesday night was no exception, although the sweetness theme linking the meal was unduly stark. I agree with Wilfrid's comments, and add the following observations:

-- The asparagus amuse was not particularly interesting, but the pineapple gelee in the salmon amuse was fairly well-executed and subtle. It did not have the unusal stark taste of pineapple, a fruit of which I am not particularly fond.

A note on the presentation of the amuses. When they arrived, the dining party, spearheaded by Steve P, immediately noted that we were slated to have asparagus as the first course of our meal and Copper River salmon as a subsequent course (we had initially decided upon our own tasting menu that would have included asparagus where the bluefin tuna with yuzu dish ended up). Steve admonished the party to refrain from taking in the amuse until we had addressed this potential problem with the restaurant. The maitre glided over, and remained his very responsive self during the 3-5 minute discussion that ensued. There was a quasi-vote among the dining party, and other discussions, before the amuses were taken in. The maitre d' assured Steve the chef was attending to the sequencing and composition of the dishes included in the meal (?).

-- The Copper River Salmon was cooked just to the right limited level. It was luscious and smooth, and the dish pleased me despite the re-utilization of rhubarb (which I like a great deal, both as to its color and its taste).  We were fortunate to have caught the apparent end of the CRS season (?), although the scallops with uni dish was not on the menu when we visited.

-- Soft shell crab came more spicy than I had anticipated. Steve quickly surmised that the saucing included XO sauce, although it had been modified to be slightly more complex.

-- The eggplant with the lamb was interesting (in a good way). It was described as Thai eggplant, and was a dark green color. I liked the way the seeds inside the eggplant felt when taken in, and thought the noticeable bitter tones were helpful. The cherry aspects in the glaze were dominated by the mustard notes, which were themselves appropriate.

-- The restaurant provided different surprise desserts for each diner. I received a chocolate, molten-center item with ice cream -- I always seem to receive a chocolate item in these situations, even though chocolate is not a favored ingredient for me. I was eyeing the banana dessert Wilfrid's Beloved was savouring.