Birchrunville Store Cafe

[I_call_the_duck]

Was there supposed to be a wine scribe?

Thanks, Percy for arranging this dinner. Mr. Duck and I had a great time.

I think my favorites were the amuse and first two courses. The veal cheeks were so tender and flavorful, and the gnocchi...I agree with you--they were the lightest gnocchi I've ever!!

As far as the missing pate goes, it was venison.

The escargots were nice big juicy fellas. Tasty, but I found the sauce had a bit too much rosemary.

The cheeses, if my wine-addled brain remembers correctly were a cabernet-washed cheese, goat, reggiano-parmesano, and...ohhh, I'd like to say Stilton, but am not sure. Anyone else?

Yes, a great meal. I'm ready to go again.

[philadining]

Your pics are fine Percy, I could have taken the night off!

It was a very enjoyable meal, with a few real knock-out dishes.

Amuse Bouche - Veal Cheeks

Wild Mushroom and Pheasant Lasagna

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Porcini Cream

Country Pâtés - Duck, Rabbit and Venison

Escargot Bordelaise with Wild Mushroon Cigar

Crispy Japanese (Suzuki) sea bass, artichoke hearts, bourbon tomato coulis

Roasted Partridge, huckleberries and shiraz reduction

Fromages

Caramelized Fig Napoleon with Tahitian Vanilla Gelato -

As mentioned, we had a last-minute addition to our party, and quite understandably, the kitchen couldn't add-on another tasting portion on such short notice, so he just ordered off the menu, which was not exactly a hardship!

He got a Goat Cheese Souflée

And the House-Smoked Pork Chop (which really was as mammoth, and delicious, as it appears, although it was in better focus in person.)

as Percy mentioned, a Pumpkin Risotto was subbed-in in an attempt to compensate for a couple of the creamy dishes up front. It's true that very often lactose-intolerant people can eat aged cheese like was grated on top, but that wasn't the particular issue in this case. It was a nice thought, and the rest of the table was happy to polish it off!

Overall, I thought the food was excellent, the lasagna near the beginning perhaps my favorite. Or maybe Carl's porkchop.... My fish was quite moist and tasty, so I have no complaints there, and I really enjoyed the tomato coulis that accompanied it. I thought the escargots got stomped-on by the abundant bacon in the dish, but it was still quite good, especially dipping that crunchy mushroom cigar in the sauce. I liked the gnocchi, but thought the pumpkin might have been a bit too subtle. I'm on the fence about he huckleberry sauce, it did complement the partridge, there was nothing wrong with it, but I'll agree with Percy that I might have preferred a less-fruity flavor. But that's purely a matter of taste. The bite of braised veal cheek at the start was an unusual amuse-bouche, but an intensely delicious one.

Oh, and I feel like the bread rolls are much better than before!

Service was very good: friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.

The only down-side to an otherwise very enjoyable meal was some confusion about dietary restrictions. We'd mentioned that someone in our party had a dairy allergy, and another had a shrimp allergy, and after some initial hesitation, they assured us it would be no problem. We certainly have sympathy for how difficult that can be for a chef in a small kitchen, in a busy restaurant (all tables were full that night) but having eaten in this restaurant several times, including having tasting menus twice, it didn't seem like it would be too much of a stretch to avoid milk and cream and cheese, or sub-in something else. But both the lasagne and the gnocchi were pretty dairy-heavy, and were served to the sensitive party without comment. The servers did forward a sincere apology from the chef shortly after those dishes were served, I'm sure it was an honest oversight, and we do understand how it can be hard to keep track of various restrictions, but it put a little crimp in the enjoyment of the meal.

Among everyone at that table, we've eaten a lot of tasting menus around town, around the country, around the world. It's generally been our experience that the restaurant will ask about food allergies and work around them, either adjusting what the whole table gets, or making tweaks for the particular diners. We were at one tasting recently that made a dairy-free versions of more than one dish, and I'd gotten scallops substituted for shrimp at another dinner without complaint just a few weeks ago.

Again, we can certainly see how a myriad of restrictions could make it impossible to do the kind of creative, spur-of-the-moment, whatever's-fresh, kind of meal that Birchrunville offers. And indeed, a day or two before the event they had told us that they couldn't work around our restrictions, that we'd have to order off the menu. And that's fair enough, I can respect a chef deciding that some array of restrictions is too confining.

It doesn't make it any easier for the kitchen, but in our defense, we weren't just being picky, offering a long list of things the various people at the table would prefer not to eat, we had two specific physical allergies. And we've generally been able to work around them.

But that's making the dinner sound like a bit of a downer, which was not at all the mood of the night. It was a very nice meal, with good food, good wine, good company, just a touch too much cream!

This is still one of my favorite restaurants, and I wouldn't hesitate going back for a tasting menu, or for off-the-menu dining any time.

Thanks again to Percy for getting it organized, and to everyone for making the trek out!

Edited October 5, 2007 by philadining (log)

[percyn]

Bump !!

Can't believe it had been this long since I had visited Birchrunville Store Cafe, so we were overdue.

Started with...

Fresh Goat Cheese Souffle w/Truffles - The tartness of the goat cheese shined through this fluffy delight

Rabbit Lasagna - Rabbit cooked in its own juices for hours, then delicately layered amongst sheets of fresh pasta.

California Bass w/Wild Asparagus - Moist and succulent with delicately flavored small baby wild asparagus, which kept this dish wine friendly.

Sweetbreads and Foie Gras Napoleon w/Xeres Syrup - Crispy, creamy sweetbreads, tender rich foie, drizzled in a slightly sweet and tart Xeres based sauce.

Buffalo Lasagna - The most moist and delicious piece of Buffalo meat I have had in recent memory.

Dessert - Caramelized chocolate strawberry ganache and pear sorbet.

6 people, 18 wines (dont worry, we didn't finish all bottles)

Edited May 24, 2009 by percyn (log)

[The Smiths]

We have enjoyed dinner at the Birchrunville Cafe a number of times. It has generally been absolutely excellent but Francis can have an off night. The last time we were there it was merely OK (enjoyable but not necessarily beckoning us back right away)

Generally though - Francis does the best tuna tartare and smoked calamari that we have ever had.

We'll give it a few weeks and try again.