Capitol Grille, Nashville

[adoxograph]

When the email includes the line, "i am on vacation and I would like to finish up your menu..." you have reason to have high hopes. I mean, the chef is on VACATION thinking about what to feed ME!

Woo-hoo!

My sister and her husband had driven up to Chicago for 48 hours to take me to TRU for my 30th birthday. A meal like this one demanded equal measure for Scott's 30th, just last week. But they live in Nashville, what to do? I saw chefseanbrock's invite in earlier threads to make a reservation, so I dropped him a note. Absolutely, he would love to cook for us, he said. Reservations were made, changed, confirmed with nothing but congenial attitudes. And so my BIL Scott, my sister Julia, Sarcasmo and I arrived slightly before 6 pm on Saturday (sorry Chef!) for what turned out to be a wonderful meal.

The atmosphere for the evening was really set when we arrived. The hostess smiled brightly when I gave my name. "Welcome! We're excited you're here." And that was before we sat down.

Watermelon- Lemon Oil - Advocado Ice Cream - a crisp cube of fresh watermelon, topped with the ice cream and a slice of dried lemon on top. Not only was it a great awakening of what was to come, but wonderful textures as well.

Marinated Toro, Chilled Asparagus Soup and Preserved Wild Ramps - For me, the ramps made this soup. Not sharply aspargus flavored, but smooth and a bit salty, with the delicate tuna and crunchy ramps making me grab for a bit of bread to wipe up the remnants. This became a pattern for the evening.

Puree of Heirloom Tomatoes, flavors of gazpacho - Here, we became suspicious. We loved this soup, but Scott glanced over the menu and noted that many of the items seemed to include things I had mentioned to Chef Brock in my email as "dislikes". I don't like tomatoes. We asked Chase as he checked our progress, " Is Chef Brock messing with us?" After being assured that no, Chef was not, I confessed that I liked this soup. Pickled Garlic, gel cubes, a bit of tomato sorbet made this more substantial than the previous soup.

Sous Vide Maine Lobster, parsnips, naval orange, floral aroma - Absolutely, unanimously, without question, the best dish of the night. Hot water poured into the bowl of about 15 different types of flowers and herbs like saffron did not make the lobster taste like potpourri. Instead, it acted as subtle flavoring to this amazingly tender lobster. It was very, very good. It was good enough to inspire some rather raunchy suggestions as to what else the lobster would be good for. It was also good enough to remind me why I like eating with these people.

"Beets and Goat Cheese" - Chef came out to check on us and brought these morsels along - crispy purple balls filled with warm goat cheese. Did I mention Chef Brock has spent some time with some chefs in Chicago? I'm not sure how coherent we were, giggling from good food, and perhaps a bit of Pinot Grigio.

Artisan Foie Gras, steel cut oats, pomegranate molasses, vanilla fragrance - imagine the best bowl of oatmeal and side of sausage ever. This wins. The ice wine that appeared with this course matched perfectly.

Wild King Salmon, cauliflower, beets, leeks - The skin on this salmon was particularly wonderful, crispy. In fact, we asked if we could just have a plate of the skin. At this point Scott started counting down how many more courses we had until the Kobe beef. So... much... food.

Arkansas Rabbit, morels, tomato confit, garlic shoots, black truffle emulsion - My sister was bouncing for this one, dying for morels. Sarcasmo less so, with his thing against bones. Both liked the dish. Once again, we reached for the bread. Scott's comment? "Chef gives good sop."

Spice Roasted Duck, celery apple, lavendar, chocolate - mmmmm Duck. Scott and Sarcasmo traded plates for this one due to varying fat preferences. Discussion insued on the necessity for re-education. How could someone not like the sliver of duck fat on these pieces?

"Prosciutto and Melon" - a shot of melon juice and what can best be described as a cracker of prosciutto jerky. I crunched away on mine and sipped honeydew juice, glad for a light course.

American Kobe Beef, mushroom puree, organic hominy, fava beans, Vidalia onions - ok, I confess, I only took a small bite of this. I normally don't eat meat much if at all, and I had already plowed through rabbit, duck and fois gras. I couldn't do it. Birthday Boy to the rescue! He happily cleaned a second plate, making him Mr. Super Macho for the evening's food consumption.

Blueberry-Hibiscus Soda - not only was this a nice refreshment, it harkened back to the lobster. Sure enough, hibiscus had been part of the floral aroma.

super bonus course: there arrived before us a capsule/straw contraption filled with something dark, with a spear of fig on the straw part. It turned out to be a port reduction with chocolate and fresh fig. The idea is, hold the capsule in your mouth, squirt, then pull the fig off with your teeth. No need to explain twice to us, we squirted and scraped in a way that reminded me of getting the meat out of lobster legs. The boys liked it so much they started competing to see who could get the most chocolate out of the capsule. Chase came over as they were dipping the capsules into Julia's mint tea to use the hot liquid to squeeze out more chocolate. He didn't comment except to smile. We liked Chase.

Liquid Chocolate Cake, cocoa nib, raspberries - As the ice cream melted down into the liquid cake, natural disaster comparisons were inevitable. Add a spoonful of raspberry sauce, "Look, it's Pompeii!" Tasty, tasty pompeii

White Truffle Milk Shake - a single, rich, wonderful sip to end the meal. It was so wonderfully rich, I almost wished it had been earlier in the desserts, and finished with something lighter. After all, it was now 10:15.

As we said our most grateful thanks and made our way towards the door, a gentleman asked what had been the occasion, that we were there when most of the diners arrived and were leaving after many had left. We pointed to Scott - "His birthday." Terrific present. I'm glad to have given it.

So, moral of the story - go to the Capitol Grille. The lobster dish is on the regular menu now.

And Chef Brock gives good sop.

[KatieLoeb]

All I can say is - WOW! What an incredible meal. Clearly a great deal of thought went into that menu and I'm just amazed at the results. I'm sure your brother was blown away.

I don't think the Capital Grille in Philadelphia is known for such wild feats of culinary prowess, even if it is my favorite steakhouse in town. Perhaps if I knew the chef personally it might be different.

Chef Sean should be rightfully proud. Do they do Chef Exchange programs within the Capital Grille chain? If so, I want a heads up!

[tbrown]

The Capitol Grille in the Hermitage Hotel is an extremely historical piece of Nashville history where people such as Al Capone and Minnessota Fats once resided there. Although many people make this misnomer the Capitol Grille in the Hermitage Hotel is not part of the Capitol Grill chain. An opportunity to dine with chef sean brock is truly a once and a lifetime experience, and comes highly recommended in the Nashville area.

[chefseanbrock]

tbrown.......

your name sounds familar...........where do you work??????

sean

Edited July 25, 2004 by chefseanbrock (log)

[davebr]

I sent a friend visiting Nashville there 2 weeks ago. He stayed at the Hermitage and ate at the grill. He said the food was incredible and it was probably the best pork he ever had. Which says alot considering the pork we had at Terra in Napa, and the one at Joel in Atlanta.

[dlc]

We also celebrated a birthday at the Capitol Grill last week. Chef Brock has done some fantastic things at the refurbished Grill. We have been to a couple of events that he did in conjunction with the Ete du Vin (country's largest 1 night charity auction) and the food and service were outstanding.

Saturday night we had the following (wines were provided by our party):

Tomato Sorbet: A fresh and sweet taste of ripe tomato sorbet served on a bed of basil foam topped with a very thin slice of dehydrated Roma tomato. This had the flavor of a ripe TN tomato that is the essence of summer here. The concentration of flavors was execellent. We drank 1990 Grande Dame Rose Champage in mags. to start and with this dish. It was an excellent pairing.

Sous Vide Maine Lobster: A combination of tail and claw meat in a small bowl with parsnips, leeks, julienne citrus peel served over a bowl of a floral infusion. This was the second time I have had this dish (although with a different infusion) but my wife loves lobster and had not had a sous vide preparation before. We finished the Champagne and had a 2000 Chave Hermitage Blanc with this course, another winner.

Roasted Diver Scallops: These had a lovely crust and were served with fennel pollen, eggplant, pine nuts, squash blossoms, and a red bell pepper emulsion. There was much discussion around the table as to whether this course or the previous one was the best of the night. Both were superb and the match with the 1989 Marquis de Laguiche Montrachet we drank with this and the following course made this my favorite of the evening.

Wild Coho Salmon: This course was served with salsify-potato puree, lobster mushrooms, fresh peas, pickled ramps and sauce Perigord. The match with the Montrachet was good but this was a perfect course for an earthy Pinot Noir but we had decided on a white wine evening before seeing the menu. The salmon filet was perfectly pan seared and the skin was crispy and delicious. It gave a sublte crunch and texture that enhanced this dish.

Curried Pineapple: WOW!! The sweetness of the fruit combined with the subtle hint of spice was outstanding. This was served with coconut, lime and Marconna almonds. With dessert we drank a 1983 Hattenheimer Nussbrunner Reisling TBA from von Simmern.

This was a tour de force, anyone visiting Nashville should not miss the food and service that is provided by Chef Sean Brock. A great young chef who goes out of his way to delight his guests and is a regular on egullet.

Thanks again Sean and we are looking forward with anticipation to our next visit.

PS The regular menu for lunch is a great value and of the same dimension as his dinner creations.

Edited July 28, 2004 by dlc (log)

[artisanbaker]

I was curious as to how the local clientele takes to this kind of cuisine. How open are the Tennessee diners to this food?

I will try to stop by next time I am in the area to give it a go round, since I am from Chattavegas.

[chefseanbrock]

you wouldn't believe how much fun people are having with our "call ahead" tasting menus, we are actually doing liquid nitrogen tableside (extremely fun) and the use of bizzare serving utensils has also been a main focus lately, new year's eve was the most fun i have ever had in a kitchen, we started everyone with 5 amuse right off the bat including "twice baked potato pippette and pop rock lollipops, people had a great time and we have requests for our tasting menus almost daily, we have put together an amazing team of young forward thinking chefs and are having a blast with the clientele in nashville, please feel free to email me or call the restaurant and they will connect you to the kitchen...................

sean

Edited January 3, 2005 by chefseanbrock (log)