Craft

[g.johnson]

Tommy, only if you were being intentionally subtle.

The chance of Tommy being accidentally subtle seems remote.

[awbrig]

was Hilary's geeky husband, Chad with her?

[awbrig]

does craft have a web site?

[Orik]

any decent Indian restaurant sends up the food on hot metal dishes, and gives you warm plates on which to serve yourself.  Craft is nearly very good; if only it would shake off this last quirk.

At the premium charged, I would probably view cold plates as more than just a quirk. I would imagine that if it's consistently a problem there, they are well aware of it and should have solved it by now. Don't you agree?

[Wilfrid]

She was with some young-looking guy with short fair-ish hair. He looked kind of uninteresting, rather than geeky.

Glad to see you're all so interested in my penetrating analysis of the cuisine.

[Fat Guy]

They can't even get the bread warm, no less the plates!

Awbrig:

http://www.craftrestaurant.com/

However, it's a crappy site with no real information other than the mission statement. It seems that Tom Colicchio took a cue from Danny Meyer and hasn't bothered to do a good Web site. Then again Meyer's Blue Smoke site is okay, but his other restaurants don't have good sites. I think the Gramercy Tavern one isn't even online anymore. Pity.

[awbrig]

what a crappy site!

[Wilfrid]

The brioche toast came out warm and wrapped up. Since the regular bread was cold, my Beloved snaffled it to scoop up her foie gras. I read a French poem which mentioned foie gras yesterday, and it had been translated as "liver paste". Shudder.

Next time I have a planned dinner at a table at Craft, I plan to ask for hot plates. How difficult can that be?

[Priscilla]

"eGullet's Wilfrid"

Tee hee. Like MST3K's TV's Frank. (OK I shall diminish to the West.)

[tommy]

Glad to see you're all so interested in my penetrating analysis of the cuisine.

ummm, nevermind.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Had dinner with a bunch of my old wine buddies last night and Craft laid out their usualy terrific chef's tasting menu for our table. And while the stalwarts like Hamachi and Terrine of Veal and Foie Gras (or was it rabbit last night?) were as good as usual, a couple of things warrant special mention. The raw Novia Scotia bay scallops were even better then they were a few months back. Like popping small pieces of candy in your mouth. That's how sweet they were. But the best thing in the meal was diver scallops the size of golf balls that were studded with jullienned black truffle that just came in from France. They were really dense and firm and packed with flavor. They were probably the best sea scallops I've had in this country and they were almost to the point of rivaling the ones I had at Arpege last January. And the truffles were surprisingly good considering how young the season is. Good crunch to them and lots of aromatics. They also served us some terrific and beautifully rare venison that was showered with fresh huckleberries from Washington State. And a bowl of Jerusalem Artichokes that were roasted until shriveled on the outside which made the skin a little chewy, but were completely soft and melt in your mouth inside were great.

For the wine curious among you we drank;

1967 Hugel Riesling V.T.

1983 Weinbach Gewurztraminer Capucines V.T.

$15 Botrysized Loire rose that a world famous wine importer brought

1990 Raveneau Chablis Valmur

1978 Roumier Bonnes Mares

1993 Henri Jayer Echezeaux

1953 Leoville Poyferre

And then we went to Bar Demi where we somehow managed to drink a 1990 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Not a bad wine in the bunch. In fact they were all right on the money. And every wine seemed young. Even the '53 and '78 seemed like they had years and years left to them. Fortunately my hangover wasn't too bad this morning.

[Jinmyo]

Hust curious, Steve. How many of you were there? Did you consume all of the wine?

As well as the huckleberries, was there any saucing of the venison?

ediot:

Look! I just can't spell "just"!

Edited December 5, 2002 by Jinmyo (log)

[Lesley C]

Steve, would you know where the venison was from?

Could it be Quebec? Was it written on the menu? I just met a farmer here who sells to Trotter, Ducasse and Boulud.

[Fat Guy]

Millbrook Farms venison from Upstate New York seems to be the most popular product among the high-end New York restaurants, though I don't know what any given place uses specifically.

[cabrales]

Steve P -- If you are comfortable discussing it, could you consider discussing how much you are charged for a menu of the type described and whether you are charged corkage for the handling of your wines.

[Blue Heron]

beautifully rare venison that was showered with fresh huckleberries from Washington State.

Washington State huckleberries , yum.

Those diver scallops w/ truffles sound fantastic.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Cabby - I'm uncomfortable but I'll do it for you .

The base meal was $130. We had bay scallops, tuna, hamachi, spanish mackeral, a squid salad along with chick peas and a mache salad. Then we had the veal/foie gras terrine, straight foie gras, duck ham, braised leeks (really delicious,) beet salad and celeriac. Then the diver scallops and red snapper both with jullienned truffles, mashed potatoes and parsnips. Then the venison with the Jersusalem artichokes and a plate with four types of roasted mushrooms. Cheese and we were so stuffed we passed on the desert course except for the ice cream and sorbet trays. It was tons of food. Then the trufffle supplement was $30. And the corkage is the same price per bottle and we had seven bottles. Do the math.

[SFJoe]

Does anyone know who retails Millbrook Farms venison in NYC?

[Steve Plotnicki]

Hey Joe, nice to see you here. For those of you who don't know him, SF Joe is the one and only Joe Dougherty, famous wine board poster and one of the participants at the meal described above. Joe, why don't you tell us about the venison since I was a little full by that point in the meal.

[Robert Nesta Marley]

"SF joe",

what's up with your name, by the way -- do you permanently reside in san francisco? are you just haunting us here in new york?

good luck on finding millbrook meat retail. but did you know millbrook winery is owned by the williams-selyem people..... a colleague poured us off this W-S marsanne blend tonight, and it set off a bunch of trivia. but you probably aren't concerned with much new world trivia.......

[Malaika]

SP's dinner sounds great, but does it strike any question with anyone the "fresh" Washington huckleberries? Huckleberry season was over about a month ago, they do freeze very well, but I would be skeptical if they said the hucks were fresh. I only bring this up because I live in Seattle and if I can get fresh huckleberries in December, I would love to know the source.

[SFJoe]

"SF joe",

what's up with your name, by the way -- do you permanently reside in san francisco?  are you just haunting us here in new york? 

but you probably aren't concerned with much new world trivia.......

Steve, thanks for the welcome.

Hey, Robert,

I've been SFJoe on the wine boards since I lived there years ago, and it seemed awkward to change names too often. I *am* out there quite a bit, so it's not completely misleading!

Ah, it's true, the NWT department ain't what it used to be. Mostly a price/value/changing style/changing palate issue for me. Not that I wouldn' t want to try a W-S Rhone white, if only for the triple obscurity points.

I'm now a slave to botrytized Loire rose'.

Steve, the venison had a bit more character than Cervena stuff from New Zealand. I don't mind a bit of gaminess, as long as the preparation is compatible. I keep trying to get my sister to let me cook reindeer for Christmas dinner, but so far no go. We have gotten as far as rack of venison for this year, so I'm trying out different sources.

Has anyone tried the Pennsylvania stuff that D'Artagnan sells?

[SFJoe]

Although in truth, the rose' was not botrytized to my taste, but rather, concentrated by passerillage--drying on the vine by wind and weather, without noble rot.

Can I still write a run-on, or what?

[Steve Plotnicki]

You're not talking about that "Rose d'Anjou" stuff that Dressner sells are you?

[SFJoe]

You're not talking about that "Rose d'Anjou" stuff that Dressner sells are you?

Do you mean the Angeli? Or the stuff he brought, which is from a new producer, was it Griottes?

The Angeli last year was very ripe and a bit sweet, but I loved it. I thought the stuff he brought was pretty good, too.

.sasha still has a bottle of the Angeli standing up in the cage, maybe you should ask him to bring it next time.