Jovia

[chopjwu12]

has anyone been to jovia yet? Didn't see a thread on it so i was wondering?

[The Little Blue House]

has anyone been to jovia yet? Didn't see a thread on it so i was wondering?

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That's kind of funny--I just walked by there an hour ago and realized that I hadn't noticed it before. How is it?

[chopjwu12]

thats the thing i hear its peety busy but i found it hard to believe that egulleters haven't been yet.

[rozrapp]

A review by Moira Hodgson in the New York Observer. She gives it two stars.

[SobaAddict70]

Is the food at Jovia as heartfelt and wisely considered as it is self-consciously conceived? Is there enough sheer gusto behind the cooking, whether that cooking is entirely or negligibly Italian? Beyond the fettuccine, does the payoff equal the promise?

It often didn't. The menu read better than it ate. The dishes looked better than they tasted.

One of the most enjoyable entrees was layers of duck and quail breast, which had been poached slowly in a plastic bag, sliced thinly, and served with a mash of sunchokes and duck fat.

One night several friends and I watched a man at a nearby table pour an alarming volume of salt onto that fettuccine. We figured him for a rube, until our own serving of fettuccine arrived and we too craved salt.

Sous vide and Italian cuisine....very interesting.

Jovia (Frank Bruni)

Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style of reviewing and the New York Times star system can be found here.

Soba

[Sneakeater]

As you all know, Jovia is a new Upper East Side Restaurant run by the people who run Zoe dowtown, with the kitchen under Josh DeChellis, who cooks at Sumile downtown.

Sumile is one of my very favorite NYC restaurants. I've always wondered why it isn't a place that everybody always talks about and returns to. Its Japanese-French cuisine is by far my favorite fusion food ever -- the only modern fusion cuisine I've ever liked without reservation, in fact (unless Claude Troisgros's French-Brazilian fusion at CT counts). Every meal I've had there (and I've had many) has had at least one dish that astonished me, and virtually no dishes that I thought didn't work at all.

So obviously I was curious to see what DeChellis would do with a more "normal" cuisine, like the Italian-inflected American he's cooking at Jovia.

It's good, sometimes very good. But it's not a patch on the magical Sumile.

The physical plant is very pleasing. The restaurant is in a townhouse. The first floor is a bar, backed by the open kitchen. The second floor has a front and a back dining room. Usually, in that set-up, the back dining room is sort of a forgotten step-sister, but this one looked very nice. (I was lucky enough to be seated by a second-floor window in the front, however.) The decor is posh without being overbearing.

The cocktail menu was reportedly concocted with the aid of Dale DeGroff. There's no mention of him on it. My cocktail -- gin with tonic water, orange bitters, and other stuff -- was excellent.

The food: it's hearty -- the last thing you could say about Sumile -- but it isn't simple. Everything is subtley tweaked. But unlike at Sumile (where the food is unsubtley tweaked), this doesn 't create combinations of ingredients, flavors, and techniques that you've never dreamed of before. Rather, it's sort of like food you've had before, but different. Except for the dessert, which was pretty ordinary, I didn't have anything I didn't like a lot. But I wondered whether all the obvious effort that went into each dish was worth it. It ws good, very good -- but was it that much better than the straightforward version would have been?

My appetizer actually banished thoughts like that for a while. It was their famous terrine of duck and suckling pig, served with a pickly marmalade. This was simply delicious food, not vastly different from other similar things I've had, but not exactly like any of them, either -- and extremely good in itself. This is the kind of dish where the best thing to say about it is, if you like this sort of thing, you'll love this.

My entree was a roast squab with a date glaze and served with a quail's egg. Note that this was NOT the layered squab and quail, cooked sou vide, that the restaurant was serving when it opened. The squab was excellently cooked, and the glaze suited it perfectly. But, good as this was, it wasn't materially better than any other good squab dish available around town. The chunk I grabbed of my companion's cod was lovely -- but not better than what you'd get at Oceana.

Because portions are small, sides are a necessity (at least if you're a pig like me). We had the truffled polenta, which (let's face it) couldn't help but be great if it was competently cooked. And it was. We also had sunchokes sauteed (I guess) with onions (I think), which were fine.

Dessert was a disappointment. I had the lemon pound cake with limoncello sabayon. It was just dull. (A dessert glass of late harvest viogner -- I didn't know there WAS such a thing -- was extraordinary, though. Something to search for for home.)

If I didn't know DeChellis's work from Sumile, I'd probably think of Jovia as yet another very good UES restaurant. Since I do know his work, though, Jovia has to count as a slight disappointment. I'll be back, I have no doubt. But I'll be back to Sumile first.

Edited December 23, 2005 by Sneakeater (log)

[Sneakeater]

I want to emphasize, though, that the level of cooking at Jovia -- the technical execution -- is very high. Everything is extremely well-prepared. As I said, it's only because I'm familiar with DeChellis's other work that I expected more.

Edited December 22, 2005 by Sneakeater (log)

[M.X.Hassett]

Nice write up, I do not know how Sumile never made it onto my radar. From what I gather if one is interested in innovative cuisine Sumile is the choice as opposed to Jovia?

[Sneakeater]

Absolutely!

[gaf]

Diner's Friend New York City Entry #100 Jovia

Jovia is so close to where I live and work that in the months I have been in town I have never stopped in. A chef is without honor on his own block. Perhaps Jovia has seemed too much a neighborhood joint (I have not treated Daniel similarly, although its distance is no greater). However, recently a friend suggested that we break for lunch and we hied off to Josh DeChellis's Italian-accented establishment for their $24.07 lunch prix fixe. If Jovia does not provide the finest meal or even the finest lunch, it surely is the champion prix fixe. A happy occasion for tongue and wallet. Cheap at twice the price.

Jovia's upstairs dining room is light and serious, and as with many restaurants in these days of global warming particularly striking for its floral arrangements, nicely accentuating the browns and creams. One can tell uptown dining from downtown by the space between the tables: Jovia is designed for the private tete-a-tete.

Lunch opened with a perfectly lovely Tortellini en Brodo, served with Duck, Ramazzotti, and Aged Provolone. This soup was majestic because of a spectacular broth, a stock days in the making; it was dense and powerful. The tortellini with duck were perfectly honorable, but it was the consomme that was majestic. I puzzle over the presence of ramazzotti, a popular bitter Italian aperitif. The soup certainly didn't taste of bitter herbs, but perhaps it was an undertone, providing the soup a complexity and power. Or perhaps ramazzotti refers to some esoteric ingredient below the Google radar.

The main course was a well-cooked Sauteed Skate with Paprika Marinated Vegetables. The skate had a lovely breading that seemed to be corn-meal. Together the moist fish and somewhat grainy coating evoked sand and sea. The vegetables were hearty though ordinary, perhaps to be expected in a prix fixe, cooked al dente but without surprise.

The meal concluded with Crispy Fritti Bellissima: Lavender Scented Brioche with Orange Blossom Creme, Chocolate Sauce (not listed on the menu), and a Tangerine Creamsicle Crema Gelato. I found these cream puffs the least compelling of the trio of courses. Part of the problem was technical. Biting into a puff, the cream squirted in a joyous mess. Attempting to dip the pastry in shallow pools of liquid, created more glop. The lavender scent of the brioche was mild, and the chocolate sauce was not dense and dark, but the orange blossom creme was bright and tart. The tangerine creamsicle was, as one might imagine, a somewhat odd - although not entirely unpleasant - conceit.

So often restaurants persuade diners through their prix fixe that their cooking is sallow and pallid. Jovia deserves credit for selecting compelling dishes as loss leaders. Josh DeChellis has acquired a sterling reputation as a rising young chef, first at Sumille and now at Jovia. By demonstrating that meals at Jovia can be frugal and flavorful, he proves himself the diner's friend.

Jovia

135 East 62nd Street (at Lexington Avenue)

Manhattan (Upper East Side)

212-752-6000

My Webpage: Vealcheeks