The Modern at MoMA

[Megan Blocker]

The lamb dish and the gnocchi w/ fried sweetbreads at the Bar Room are two of my favorite dishes in NYC right now.  The tarte flambe is no slouch either.

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These are the three I would pick!

[Sethro]

The lamb dish and the gnocchi w/ fried sweetbreads at the Bar Room are two of my favorite dishes in NYC right now.  The tarte flambe is no slouch either.

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These are the three I would pick!

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If you have room for a fourth, the seared foie they're running right now is spectacular.

[ulterior epicure]

I really want to like The Modern - I really do. I've been there twice now and while there's nothing really wrong with it, there's nothing overwhelming about it except the room itself - but not being a big ambience guy, that doesn't count that much for me. The food is good, the service is better than good, but both times I've left saying (with apologies to Peggy Lee) is that all there is?

rich, your post basically sums up my reaction to my recent lunch at the Bar Room.

While I can't say I was disappointed, I was by no means overwhelmed. The food was all impeccably prepared and plated. I had a few minor personal issues with under-seasoning, but I understand that may be a personal preference.

My friend and I shared five plates and a dessert (and a half - I'll explain later). I've posted all the pictures up on my flickr account.

Warm Veal and Goat Cheese Terrine: I found this course bland. The veal was fork tender, the goat cheese warmed and creamy, but there lacked a punch... it really was as if someone had turned on the mute button. It looked and sounded so promising. I wasn't at all disappointed with the quality or the preparation, I just wish I could have tasted it.

Arctic Char Tartare

I'll quote BryanZ, whose experience and reaction to the char pretty much sums up mine:

I had the artic char tartare.  It was good, but I would've liked a bit more salt.  The trout roe added a nice bit salinity, but I would've liked it slightly more aggressively seasoned.  I think there was basil oil, too, which added some bitter green notes that helped cut the fatty fish.  I liked it a lot but wasn't in love.

Grilled Diver Scallops: This was my favorite dish of the meal. Those scallops were perfect. But, even more compelling was the spice - cumin, sumac and a dish full of wonderfully silken diced beets and toasted almonds. It was an oustanding combination of flavors and textures.

Tarte Flambee: I felt pressued into getting the Tarte Flambee since everyone has raved about it. It truly is a good tarte flambe - textbook. Thin, greasy, and slightly cheesy and sweet from the onions - which were impossibly melt-away soft. I must comment that I didn't get much of the pork product as it was mostly the strands of fat and little meat, so all I got was grease and little of the actual meat flavor, which I was looking for. I have to admit that were I in the mood for something like this, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. But, as it was, my friend and I took one slice each and left the rest.

Crispy Yellowfin Tuna: This is the only dish we ordered from the "Three" section of the menu. This one could have really rivalled the scallop for my favorite dish. The cube of fresh tuna had been crusted with panko and spices. I really enjoyed those spices - I'm pretty sure cracked coriander seeds was one of them - the server described the affect as "floral." The crust was nice and secured to the fish and wasn't overly greasy. The cube was sliced diagonally in half and served on a bed of sprouts and "crispy" cauliflower and charred onion consomme, poured (at breakneck speed by a server who literally ran to our table and ran away afterward - it was all very sudden). Great balance of flavors.

For dessert, my friend and I debated between a unique-sounding Licorice Vacherin and a tried-true favorite concept, the Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Dome. Our server was really pounding the Beignets, which I've heard are great, but I really didn't care for - the table next to us got it. They were so fascinated by my picture taking that the ended up offering their beignets for a quick snap. LOL!).

Pistachio and Dark Chocolate Dome: Reminds me a lot like (in fact nearly identical to) a dessert I had at NoMi in Chicago a few years ago. My friend and I took one tiny bite of the dome and abandoned it for the pistachio ice cream and the awesome bitter ameretti gelee (what tiny amounts were on the plate).

I also ordered a sampling of their Prune & Armagnac ice cream. I always ask what the ice cream/sorbet/gelato options are regardless of whether I intend to order any (1/2 the time, the flavors are so compelling that I do - and this was case in point). I had to order the prune & armagnac just to compare with Jean Georges's. I preferred The Modern's version. The Jean Georges version has more of the prune (large and more distinguishable pieces), but The Modern really spiked theirs with the Armagnac and so you get a heady dose of the liquor, which I found absolutely bewitching.

Again, nothing necessarily dissappointed, but nothing overwhelmin either. The biggest disappointment of the meal was the service. We were one of the first seated and halfway through the meal, we literally had to chase after our server who became non-existent. Our bus became our go-between - he actually did much more work and gave us much better service than our server, who never replaced silverware and never cleared plates before the next course arrived. We also ended up waiting a very long time to track our check down at the end of service.

[BryanZ]

This could be somethign of a generalization that could be applied to many NYC restaurants. Nevertheless The Bar Room is one of the "trendier" places I eat at and have more often that not found the waiters to be more frequently of the struggling actor/model types. Engaging or beautiful people but not necessarily all that passionate about the food they're serving. Throw in the persistent crowds and the service experience can suffer. I've found the closer you're seated to the bar, either on the low banquettes or in the first row or two of tables, the better the service. The closer you get to the fine dining side, the more sparse servers become. With that said, ue is right in that the backwait, usually Central or Southern American gentlemen with marginal English skills, are hardworking and efficient while still trying to remain friendly.

Edited March 28, 2007 by BryanZ (log)

[ulterior epicure]

With that said, ue is right in that the backwait, usually Central or Southern American gentlemen with marginal English skills, are hardworking and efficient while still trying to remain friendly.

Exactly. Bread arrived promptly and water was never begged for.

[Sneakeater]

I think The Bar Room at The Modern may suffer from heighened expectations.

Those of us who first experienced it as the more casual front room of a new fine-dining establishment seem to think more of it than those who first experienced it as this highly-touted harbinger of a new era in dining.

Interestingly, though, Momofuku Ssam seems NOT to have this problem.

Edited March 28, 2007 by Sneakeater (log)

[Nathan]

I've only eaten once at a table at Bar Room....short of four star places service is almost invariably better at the bar at any NY restaurant.

[Sneakeater]

I've only eaten once at a table at Bar Room....short of four star places service is almost invariably better at the bar at any NY restaurant.

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DITTO (even down to the "once").

[ulterior epicure]

Alas, had we not been partaking in such communal dining, I would have opted for the bar.

I'm not sure, however, that it's fair to say I expected too much from The Modern Bar Room. But, I have to admit, I did expect more than what I got - which was "okay" service, good, but not memorable food (save the scallops).

And, yes, Ssam Bar next time.

[kathryn]

Alas, had we not been partaking in such communal dining, I would have opted for the bar. 

I'm not sure, however, that it's fair to say I expected too much from The Modern Bar Room.  But, I have to admit, I did expect more than what I got - which was "okay" service, good, but not memorable food (save the scallops).

And, yes, Ssam Bar next time.

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I dined at the Bar Room last night with my boyfriend and two friends visiting from out of town. We all ordered three dishes so I think we got the a good portion of the menu covered:

The Arctic Char tartare and Steak tartare really wowed my compansions; I regretfully forgot to try some since I was busy with my own first couse. My friend must have thought that they were good, though, since her eyes were rolling into the back of her head. I had the Foie Gras Torchon with muscat gelee. I didn't think the gelee really added much to the dish. I did, however, have trouble finishing the torchon and must've eaten 4-5 slices of bread in trying to do so. Another one of us ordered the warm veal and goat cheese terrine, which he likes a lot, but I thought was a little too subtle, a little too ordinary, like many others have observed.

For seconds, two of us were wowed by the Roasted Long Island Duck, served with peppercorn crusted apples, and a creative pistachio-truffle dipping sauce. It was the perfect combination of textures and flavors. Lots of umami here and I was very jealoud that I hadn't ordered that dish. One of us also ordered the seared foie gras, which was reported to be very very tasty; I didn't have any because I was very foie'd out by this point. Instead I focused on my dish: the adorable egg in a jar, with perfectly juicy and tender lobster and asparagus, topped with uni foam. I didn't really taste the foam once I pierced the egg, but the combination of egg yolk with lobster and asparagus is unstoppable. Looking at the online menu, it appears that the vegetable in this dish changes seasonally. My only complaint was that I wish they'd put more of the tender asparagus in my jar. There was plenty of lobster, though, and it was delicate and very comforting. Also, I wish that I had gotten to keep the jar.

For thirds, I enjoyed the simple but well-executed duck confit with "pommes lyonnaise." My companions thought the lamb loin and quail were good but not as outstanding as some of the first and second dishes we had. I was happy with my duck confit but getting very full by this point. My boyfriend, however, was knocked out by the crispy yellowfin tuna with cauliflower and onion consomme and I could only happily concur, and second what U.E. has already written.

And for dessert, we shared the ultra-fluffy and popular beignets. I don't know about you guys, but this portion is definitely too small! Then again, my boyfriend is a nefarious beignet stealer. I loved the caramel sauce, not too hot on the maple ice cream (too cold and heavy for a warm, fluffy beignet) and was "eh" on the apple? malmalade. It said mango on the menu, but all I could taste was apples, strangely. I did, however, grab my spoon after the beignets were spent, and ate the maple ice cream straight up--delicious, and reminiscent of Shake Shack's maple custard flavor.

Service notes: water refilling was very very good. Oddly, it took a while for the bread to come out to us; it reached the table a good two minutes before our first courses arrived. Not sure why, I surmised that they had run out of bread, since ours arrived hot and piping. Our server was competent but didnt' have that "Danny Meyer" service touch that I was expecting. He seemed a little harried in the beginning, as we arrived when the bar room was nearly full (around 8:30pm) but became more and more visible and available as our meal progressed.

It's also worth noting that I could barely hear what he was saying at the other end of the table at 9pm but had no trouble later on in the evening. I love the buzz of the room and the hip-factor, but, dammit, it sucks when you can barely hear your server.

Regardless, I'll definitely return, but perhaps at a less busy time.

[Fat Guy]

I don't think it has to do with expectations, at least for me it doesn't. As someone who has dined at the Bar Room a lot, I can say that I think it took a dip right when it got the three-star review. I don't know if it's back to original form yet -- I was about to go the other night but had to cancel. Also, there was a change in executive sous chef (that's who runs the Bar Room kitchen on a day-to-day basis) towards the end of last year, from the opening sous, a gentleman named Willis, to Ari Bokovza. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few months to get everything back up to speed -- that's pretty normal.

[Sneakeater]

Ah, it's "©", then.

I have to say this, though. The first time I ate in The Bar Room, I didn't see what the big deal was. It took me a couple of meals there to "get" what was so good about it. It isn't because the food is particularly subtle. I think it's because you have to sample a good portion of the menu before you can appreciate the breadth of their achievement here, the way they range from excellently-prepared rustic dishes to dishes that live up to haute pretentions.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't surprise me when a first-time visitor isn't all that impressed by The Bar Room at The Modern. I wasn't, either.

[ulterior epicure]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't surprise me when a first-time visitor isn't all that impressed by The Bar Room at The Modern.  I wasn't, either.

That's reassuring, Sneakeater.

[markk]

We ate in The Dining Room late-ish on Tuesday (after having seen former American Idol star Anthony Federov make his (off) Broadway debut in The Fantasticks (most enjoyable).

With apologies because the photos are all "available light", I have to say that this was one of the best meals I think I've ever eaten. And I'd have to agree with Oakapple's comment somewhere above - I think this meal was actually all-around better than the two we recently had at Jean Georges (and, considering that that meal included a large portion of sweetbreads under a mountain of shaved truffles, I think that's really saying something for Gabriel Kreuther).

Our captain (Jason) couldn't possibly have been any nicer or more knowledgeable about the food and wines, and he was as enthusiastic as could be about helping us to customize a meal - we were in the mood for an extravaganza, but some of the dishes on the 3-course dinner were calling to us more than some on the tasting menus, so with his magnificent help, we settled on the Spring Tasting Menu as a base, with probably more dishes substituted than not.

It was a meal of sheer culinary excitement, and the way it was executed without pomp or ceremony, but rather a casual parade of, well, unabashed gluttony, was completely reminiscent of dining in Alsace, which we do a lot.

The meal began with a procession of goodies to amuse the senses, though all I remember is the foie gras bauble in the center:

The next teaser was a very delicious bit of seared Mackeral that was not photographable in the available light, but as soon as we realized this, our Captain was kind enough to bring a second candle to the table.

We began the menu proper with "White Asparagus from Provence in an Herbed Merlot Mousseline":

It was a "curry" foam, not to my liking, but the Merlot Mousseline was a magnificent accompaniment to the asparagus, and from that plate on there was nothing but sheer culinary triumph that just kept building and building.

Next came "King Crab with Morel Mushroom and Spring Garlic, finished with fresh baby leeks", a masterpiece:

Followed by "Seared Diver Scallop and Red Mullet with Celeriac-Truffle Sauce", for which I am already out of adjectives:

(The play of flavors and acidity in this dish was simply thrilling!)

Next came one of the single best, and most exciting (I know I must stop saying that) dishes I have ever eaten, "Sweetbread, Rock Shrimp and Scallion Potato “Gâteau” with Banyuls Vinaigrette":

A more masterful combination of flavors and textures can't be imagined or executed more perfectly; by the time we thought to photograph the inside, it was in no condition to be photographed.

And that was followed by "Sautéed Sullivan County Foie Gras", in a preparation with fresh Rhubarb that again was thrilling:

The photo would have benefitted from a brushing aside of the micro-greens, because there was a thick and expertly roasted slab of foie gras under there!

And then (astoundingly, more food really came), the "Squab and Foie Gras “Croustillant” with Caramelized Ginger Jus and Farm Vegetables", which was astounding:

The wines that accompanied this feast were utterly delicious - an Alsace Pinot Blanc, a Chassagne-Montrachet, and an Alsace Pinot Noir (a wine usually devoid of fruit, but as our Captain promised, full of fruit and a delicious match with the last two courses):

There was a large and over-the-top procession of some supremely good desserts.

I'd have to say that this is one of the best meals I've ever eaten, period.

edited for spelling

Edited May 3, 2007 by markk (log)

[oakapple]

And I'd have to agree with Oakapple's comment somewhere above - I think this meal was actually all-around better than the two we recently had at Jean Georges (and, considering that that meal included a large portion of sweetbreads under a mountain of shaved truffles, I think that's really saying something for Gabriel Kreuther).

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IMO, of restaurants that have opened in the last 3 years, The Modern offers the best case for four stars. That the present critic has awarded only two is truly a disgrace.

[BryanZ]

Did you have to pay a supplement for your substitutions?

[markk]

No. We had certainly indicated a willingness to pay extra to have what we wanted, however it worked out, but it turned out that by working with the Spring Tasting Menu it wasn't necessary - quite surprisingly, too.

There were some other dishes we'd like to have tried, but that'll have to be next time. We were afraid to push our luck, and at the same time there were some dishes on the menu we did not want to give up, too.

The nice part was how willing they were to create exactly the meal we felt like eating.

Edited for more detail.

Edited May 3, 2007 by markk (log)

[markk]

I'm not able to go in and edit my photo-post at this point, but I had been taking most of my descriptions from their on-line menu, though when I got to the roasted foie gras I realized it was not the same dish we had, and they were kind enough to reply to an e-mail I sent them, to tell me that the description of the dish we had (and photographed) is "Roasted Sullivan County Foie Gras Five Flavor Scented, Fresh Rhubarb and Celery ‘Au Jus’"

[Jmahl]

Philip A. Mahl 1980-2007

On April 29th returning from a graveside service a group of 13 of us lunched at the Bar Room at the Modern. The purpose of the lunch was to memorialize my son Philip who died in an automobile accident in East Hampton L I this past February. The lunch was arranged with the assistance of Philip’s friend, Sandro, who is the sous chef at the Dining Room at the Modern. Service at lunch was provided by Sabrina who was very understanding and accommodating. The wines selected were bottles of a North Fork Sauvignon Blanc by Raphael and a Rhone by Gigondas Brusse. The Northfork was selected since Philip was working as Chef Saucier at the Maidstone Club in Easthampton and the Red since Philip had interned years before at La Pyramide on the Rhone. Both good choices and reasonably priced.

With such a large group we basically went through the menu including the mushroom soup, the Gnocchi, Foie Terrine, Grilled Shrimp, Veal Terrine, upside down tuna, and the oysters. Also ordered was the goat cheese salad, the lamb, Rib-eye, Duck Confit, Tuna, Poussin, and Salmon. We concluded with some desserts, coffees and liquors including an outstanding 1971 Pedro Ximenez.

During lunch Sandro showed up on his day off and we sat and talked. He first met Philip at when he was cooking at Eleven Madison Park waiting for the Modern to open and when Philip was at Per Se. They discovered they were kindred spirits; Sandro, Swiss trained and Philip French trained. They immediately struck up a friendship.

The lunch was a bitter-sweet event, the food and service as near to perfect as can be achieved. The gathering was a celebration of life and a tragedy of loss. Philip would have loved to be there with us.

We had selected the Modern since we had dined with Philip in the Dining Room in September and thoroughly enjoyed it. He is dearly and painfully missed.

[Domestic Goddess]

Jmahl - I feel your pain. My condolences. RIP Phillip.

[DutchMuse]

Very touching post, Jmahl. Thank you so much for sharing with us. Very touching indeed.

[Fat Guy]

I attended an extraordinary dinner at the Modern last night. It was a collaboration between the Modern's chef Gabriel Kreuther and visiting chef Thierry Marx of Cordeillan-Bages. The Michelin-starred Cordeillan-Bages is owned by the Cazes family, which owns Chateau Lynch-Bages (as well as several other wine properties, most notably Chateau Les Ormes de Pez). Chef Thierry Marx, who like Gabriel Kreuther hails from Alsace, was named Named Chef of the Year for 2006 by France’s Gault Millau guide.

The dinner featured ten courses (depending on how you count them) paired with Lynch-Bages and other Cazes family wines dating back to 1975. I was lucky to be a guest of the chief operating officer, however the retail price of the dinner was $675 per person all inclusive. There was a single sitting -- arrivals from 7-9. We took a 7pm table and left around midnight.

The Lynch-Bages wines were shipped directly from the chateau's cellar, and the older wines were in large format bottles: magnums, double magnums and imperials, the bottles getting bigger as the wines got older.

The young Jean-Charles Cazes (he is in his early 30s), who now directs Lynch-Bages, was on hand to chat and answer questions. He's the son of Jean-Michel Cazes, and the Cazes family has owned the chateau for three quarters of a century (since 1933).

I apologize in advance for the awful quality of these photos. It was a low-light situation, our table was particularly dark, and it wouldn't have been appropriate to use flash. Also, I took the photos, which is already a problem.

We started with an amuse of trout roe beggar's purses, miniature quiches, and figs wrapped in thin sheets of something crunchy like daikon. This was served with a white Bordeaux wine I'd never tasted or heard of, Chateau Villa Bel-Air Blanc 2004, from the Cazes family's vineyard in the Southern Graves (Saint-Morillon). This was certainly not intended to be the blockbuster wine of the evening -- I'm told you can pick up a bottle for about US$25 if you can find it -- but five hours later, after tasting some of the great red wines of the past 40 years, I was still thinking about Villa Bel-Air Blanc. I rarely think of white Boreaux, but this wine had the crispness of an in-season apple and lots of nice citrus notes, plus great acidity.

We stuck with Villa Bel-Air through the next few courses. Next we had English cucumber paste topped with Osetra caviar and smoked eel. The black line on this blurry photo is the caviar, the pinkish line next to it is the eel. Underneath that is the cucumber piece. We were advised to eat it like a loaf of bread, slicing pieces off in order to get eel, caviar and cucumber together, but that would only have worked in a Ginsu knife commercial. There was no way to cut the eel that precisely with a regular table knife without smashing the whole composition. So I ate bits and pieces in various combinations -- all superb.

Next was a signature of chef Marx, soy sprout risotto with black truffle and oysters. I'm confident that this is the best soybean sprout dish being served on planet Earth. The baby soy sprouts, cut to the size of grains of rice, have a crunchiness that's like al dente rice to the third power. One of the best dishes of the evening.

Next was warm watermelon layered with tomato confit and Sicilian pistachios, with balsamico, accompanied by a radish with vinaigrette on the leaves. A wonderfully sweet, crisp palate cleanser.

Next, an "uncooked" hot souffle with a sea water crisp and an oyster. (The menu description is "Souffle Chaud sans Cuisson, Croustillant d'Eau de Mer"). This dish was small but awfully rich, especially the creamy sauce poured tableside. As soon as I tasted the sea water crisp I was reminded of a dish Paul Liebrandt had done at Atlas back in the day, and as Ellen and I were reminiscing about Atlas, Paul Liebrandt walked in -- he had one of the later reservations. The next two wines we had were, relatively, the low points of the progression, which is not to say they were bad -- they just paled by comparison to the rest. With the souffle, we had the Blanc de Lynch-Bages from 2006. Too young, too harsh, not particularly to my liking.

Next was chorizo-crusted Chatham cod with white coco bean puree and Sherry vinegar jus. A boldly spiced dish (especially coming from a French chef) that was not particularly flattered by the 1990 Chateau Les Ormes de Pez, which was bitter, astringent and just not a good food wine in my opinion. Maybe in a technical tasting it would have scored well enough, but I'd not pick it as a wine for enjoyment with dinner. And I don't think it's going to improve much with time, though I'm hardly a skilled evaluator of these things.

At this point, the evening took a much more serious turn both in terms of wine and food. Everything up until this point had been throat clearing. The next dish, another Marx signature, was one of the most dramatic I've had in a restaurant. A gueridon arrived at the table bearing two plates, each with a couple of sculpted fingerling potatoes and a pattern of sauce lines. Then the beef tenderloin, from the "blonde d'Aquitaine" breed of cattle, arrived wrapped in a plastic tent. Inside the tent were smoking embers of sarments (vine shoots) in a little dish, which in the closed environment of the plastic tent were able to permeate the beef with smoky flavor. When our captain untied and opened the plastic tent, the most bracing aroma of smoke and beef emerged. The beef pieces were plated with the potatoes and drizzled with a little jus. Not only was the dish wonderful -- not least because of the excellent quality of the tenderloin -- but also the drama repeated itself throughout the evening at other people's tables, periodically taking us back to that dish as the aromas wafted over. It was a great shared experience for all the guests. This dish was accompanied by an excellent wine match (and an excellent wine), the Lynch-Bages 1990, a wine that was both technically superb and hedonistically enjoyable as a food wine with beef. More terrible photos:

Things kept getting better. The next dish was slices of young squab breast in a black truffle and dark cocoa fumet with a truffle pea puree. Each slice sat on its own pile of the pea puree and was topped with a little cocoa crisp. This was paired with 1985 Lynch-Bages, another blockbuster wine that married well with its companion dish.

The final meat course was a baby lamb "charlotte" described as "lacquered in three steps." That's the round thing on the left of the plate. It alone would have made a nice lunch. Next to it, a small chop, and a vegetable puree contained by a crisp. And the dish was significantly enhanced by Lynch-Bages 1982.

The cheese course was St. Maure (a raw goat's milk cheese) with turnip confit (the slices on top and bottom of the little cheese "sandwich" in the photo below) and an herb salad. I assume Marx brought the cheese over with him, and it was a flashback to great cheese courses I've had in France. With this we were served the wine that had been the big question mark hanging over the evening: Lynch-Bages 1975. Everything I'd read, everything I'd heard, indicated that the 1975 was going to be a disappointment. In general, the 1970s were not kind to Lynch-Bages. In addition, the 1975 should have been dead by now -- it wasn't supposed to be a wine suited for 30+ years of aging. Stephane Colling, the sommelier, was clearly nervous about serving it. Yet, it was the wine of the night. I think two factors helped: first, storage at the chateau for the wine's entire lifetime; second, it was an imperial, and large-format bottles simply age better. The wine was in great shape, and it was a totally different animal from the 1980s-and-after Lynch-Bages. This was wine made by farmers, not oenologists. Real old-school Bordeaux, rustic and incredibly pleasurable to drink. I wonder if I'll ever taste a wine like it again -- if there will ever be a wine like it again.

In a bold, provocative move the tasting jumped forward to the 2000 Lynch-Bages for the dessert phase. This wine couldn't have been more unlike the 1975. The 2000 was a technically fantastic wine, with tons of fruit, tannin, structure and everything else desirable about a wine. In 30 years, though, it's not going to taste remotely like the 1975 tastes now. No way. Maybe in some ways it will be a better wine, but it won't have the personality. The first dessert was a red beet confit. Why isn't everybody doing beet desserts? Of all the weird desserts I've had in the past few years, this one made the most intuitive sense: beets are really sweet, and much of the world's sugar supply is extracted from them. So why aren't they used in desserts more often? Not to mention, they pair beautifully with wine. First, the server presented a spoon filled with "beet pasta," which we ate out of hand (the only reason it's on the table is that I had to put it there to photograph. Then, the main plate came with the beet confit topped with meringue and a beet-chocolate band.

The main dessert: Modern Guanaja chocolate mille feuille with honey locust farm raspberries.

We were also served some excellent petits fours, including the Modern's macaroons, which I maintain are the best I've had anywhere.

There were no dessert wines. The 2000 Lynch-Bages carried through the end of the evening, and the servers also offered to top off any of the other vintages for comparison and contemplation. How could I say no? I call this the wall of shame -- these are all the reds at the end of the evening.

As we left we were presented with gift bags containing, among other things, bottles of the Cazes family's olive oil from L'Ostal Cazes, a vineyard and olive grove in the Languedoc. This olive oil had been poured earlier, with the bread service.

It was a wonderful meal and evening, and it reminded me of dining in France. I was very impressed with chef Marx, and also with Gabriel Kreuther whose contributions to the meal were many. To me, the Modern remains a chronically underrated restaurant. Last night, though, I'm sure the restaurant made some new friends.

[Jmahl]

HAY Fat Guy:

When I spoke to Sandro earlier this year he told me you were a regular at the Modern. Now it is even clearer why. Just beauiful. (Of course the photography leaves something to be desired - but you know that.)

Jmahl

[Fat Guy]

(P.S. for those who have insatiable appetites and deep pockets, there are still a couple of tables left for this evening's dinner -- the last of the series of two. If you go to the Modern's website, on the home page there's a place to click through for all the information.)

[ulterior epicure]

(P.S. for those who have insatiable appetites and deep pockets, there are still a couple of tables left for this evening's dinner -- the last of the series of two. If you go to the Modern's website, on the home page there's a place to click through for all the information.)

*whistles*

My, deep indeed.

FG, thanks for the great report and pictures. Next time, if you want to capture the food a little better, just remember: u.e. has camera, will snap for food.

Other observations, questions and comments:

1. From the photo, it looks as if the cucumber, caviar, and eel "terrine" is lying down. I gather from your description that it was in fact standing up (layers one on top of each other). Given your description of the mechanics of eating it, do you think that the composition would have been mor successful lying down, or with the eel on bottom and (softer) cucumber on top?

2. Any idea what kind of wood the beef was "smoked" with?