Lonesome Dove bistro

[Nathan]

looking at the menu, this place is going to be either really interesting or really bad.

http://www.lonesomedovenyc.com/default.htm

[Nathan]

hmmm...not that it says much (since she likes everything) but Andrea Strong has very good things to say here:

http://thestrongbuzz.com/buzz/buzz_view_buzz.php

apparently the "prairie butter" (bone marrow) is served free at the bar from 4-6

Edited September 18, 2006 by Nathan (log)

[Sneakeater]

It sounds like they're using a lot of fat.

That's always a good sign.

[scottie]

My boyfriend's office is on the same block. We thought this place was going to be another cheesy theme restaurant/ lounge on a block full of mediocre gimmicky places.

I only put it together that it was Tim Love's place when he was featured in Food & Wine a couple issues back. Then we started looking forward to it.

Seems kinda pricey, but we'll definitely try it. Can't be worse than Porky's.

[rooftop1000]

Mmmmmm whats lobster bacon?

tracey

[smgarsh]

Mmmmmm whats lobster bacon?

tracey

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from http://newyorkmetro.com/restaurants/openin...323/index1.html

FRIED LOBSTER BACON: Goes with the monkfish braised in a posole stew. We poach the lobster in veal stock first about halfway, then we cut it up into chunks and soak it in bacon fat, then pull it out and deep-fry it in peanut oil. It’s real crispy on the outside, so it gets that kind of bacon chew. It’s gorgeous!

[joiei]

Tim Love's Beard House dinner from 2003

press release about his trail drive to California

Chef Tim is the real deal. I took a class with him in Ft Worth when he was getting ready for the Beard House dinner. The food was exciting with out being hokey. I have eaten at his new place in Ft Worth, Duce. We got started on small plates and ended up sharing something like 12 plates. The rabbit ravioli with chorizo cream sauce was the best thing of the night.

[jon777]

Today's Daily Candy featured Lonesome Dove.

That lobster bacon (above) sounds UNBELIEVABLE... I'm drooling on my keyboard after reading that description!

[Nathan]

Went here last night with SneakEater and ate at the bar.

It actually is quite good.

foie gras shooters were decadent and terrific.

the "prairie butter" (bone marrow) was well seasoned.

my wild boar foreshank with sweet potato fries appeared to have been braised in red wine. it was succulent and tasty, amply portioned and well-priced.

a side of fried spinach was quite good (how could it not?)

nothing here appears to be a culinary revelation and it is a bit gimmicky. but it works. some thought is put into every dish and the ingredients are fine. I'd eat there again without hesitation.

[Sneakeater]

As Nathan said at the top of this thread, you could tell this place would be either really interesting or really bad.

The website boded ill. What with the mock-Coplandesque music blaring out, I was sort of embarrassed to be viewing it at work. At first, reading the Western platitudes in the intro, I thought it must be ironic. But it gradually dawned on me that they were serious about that stuff. Or, if not serious, at least serious in believing that some segment of the public would be responsive. It made me apprehensive.

No worry. This isn't the greatest place you'll ever visit, but it's interesting and solid. They're not just throwing a bunch of fancied-up stuff together and calling it "haute cowboy" cuisine. Somebody here knows what they're doing.

Things started off weakly with a bland amuse that I mistakenly thought was my foie gras shooter. What a relief when the bartender (we ate at the bar) gave us the real foie gras shooters. These could best be described as fat in a glass. Their appeal is immediate -- and elemental.

Not as elemental, however, as the appeal of the "prairie butter." This bone marrow differs from others only in that the bone is split lengthwise (making the marrow easier to extract), and the marrow itself is seasoned with more than just salt. You spread it on this flatbread they have some kind of cute name for which I've forgotten.

It was difficult not to order any of the several highly attractive game dishes, but curiosity led me to the monkfish wrapped with lobster bacon with fried artichoke in pozole. The "bacon", while not wildly flavorful, made the monkfish more toothsome. The pozole was very good.

Fried spinach is an idea whose time has come.

It goes without saying that the menu is too gimmicky by half. But the good thing is, it all works. If they'd cut out the cute terminology and just serve the food, there'd be no reservations.

This is one of those places where I had real trouble choosing between various menu items. I've already made plans to return.

Edited September 23, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Luckylies]

what a terribly stupid name. more to follow.

[adamru]

When someone from the restaurant called yesterday to confirm my reservation, the message they left was unenthusiastic and unintelligible and they butchered my name like a bad telemarketer and it made me concerned for what was to come. When I arrived on time for my reservation, they first could not find it, then explained that my party was already seated. This seemed reasonable since my date was expected to get there ahead of me. But no, my whole party was seated. I explained that could not be and the hostess went back to ask the party their name and she came back and told me that yes, they are who I was claiming to be. Then another host or manager came over, went back to the same party who it turned out had a name not at all similar to mine and he came back and told the hostess so. Within the next ten minutes, my date arrived and we were both seated. We were seated at a table that on one hand had a great view of the kitchen and on the other hand was practically inside the kitchen. At this point there are only four tables occupied at the restaurant. They have to work on all that.

From that point on, it was an entirely different experience. Our waitress was incredibly perky, enthused to be working there, very knowledgable about the menu, and explained the complexity and variety in the dishes, their flavors and textures. We already knew what we wanted but this was the best explanation of a menu I've had since at Alinea six months ago.

We ordered five appetizers, but first the amuse. Texas toast with chili ricotta and some green leaf on top. This tasted like a heavily peppered rice cake and was the only let down of the night in terms of food. Next came two foie gras shooters which look like a shot glass filled with egg yolk topped with creme fraiche and there's a piece of foie gras tuile on top to eat afterward. It's delicious. Warm, milky, silky and savory, it goes down smooth and they're cheap enough ($5) that we considered ordering another round. The red chili jumbo shrimp and the chili crusted scallops - four shrimp, two scallops - were both well-seasoned, had similar tasting sauces and an intense heat that grew after eating them. The scallops with corn sauce are a flawless dish. The only flaw with the shrimp is that they could not at all pick up the pepper hollandaise sauce. The prarie butter was next. The menu reads that it comes with roasted chiles but they're few and far between cut thin and mixed with a lot of sweet roasted onions all of which are just great. The marrow was not too salty, just well seasoned and in endless supply. And splitting the bones is just a great idea making the marrow more accessible and more visually appealing. The grilled camp bread was only warm from the plate, though soft and fresh, but I expected grilled bread would toast, it's not. But it works. It's also the same bread served to the table, and while not warm, the butter's soft. The last dish, the lobster cakes with orange sauce and black bean salsa. The salsa is great. The orange sauce does not overwhelm the lobster cakes, in fact they give the cakes they're only flavor. It's the only dish of the five neither of us would order again. Fortunately with the prices so low for the portion and quality of the dishes, one can afford to make a mistake. Two cocktails, two shooters and the four other appetizers were $83 before tip.

I look forward to going back for entrees. A few notes, there is no dessert menu on paper yet, but there are half dozen the server recited. A chili chocolate cake sounded best. There was a panna cotta and a fruit dish with a margarita cream that I remember. They're working on a cocktail menu but have no house drinks yet. The house margarita is $10. The tomahawk chop ribeye with lobster tail, mashed potatoes and scallops that's not on the online menu is at market price. If you don't want to ask, it's $125. It serves two. Everything coming out of the kitchen looked great and the restaurant filled up quite a bit more when we left but more people were eating at the bar. I didn't think the restaurant would be so small but I think the intimate size keeps it from feeling like a theme restaurant. I was worried this would be like an Outback Steakhouse alternative but the only thing they have over Lonesome Dove is a better hostess.

[Noodlebot]

My boyfriend and I went to Lonesome Dove tonight and had a very good experience. We made reservations on Opentable this evening (around 7) for a table at 10, and were promptly seated when we arrived. The good service continued at our table. Our server was incredibly friendly and helpful throughout the meal.

We ordered the prairie butter (bone marrow) w/camp bread (like a fluffy pita) and scallops with dutch oven corn sauce to start. I love bone marrow, and the prairie butter didn't disappoint. The scallops (my favorite food) were perfectly cooked, and we loved the corn sauce.

The only downside to the appetizers was an excess of salt. Luckily, this didn't carry through to the entrees. My boyfriend ordered the pork tenderloin w/onion rings and spicy mashed potatoes. The tenderloin was cooked medium rare, as ordered. It was very tender, with a nice smoky flavor. The onion rings were great, but my boyfriend complained that the mashed potatoes were a bit spicy for his taste. I had the monkfish in posole stew with lobster bacon. Monkfish is easy to overcook, but the Lonesome Dove didn't make that mistake. My piece of fish was snow white and tender. I really liked the lobster bacon too (basically smoked lobster).

Although our food at LD was well-portioned, and we were very full at this point, we decided to share a dessert. There was no dessert menu--our waitress read the options too us, including a spicy chocolate cake, an ice cream sandwich, a fruit plate, and a flan. We had the chocolate bread pudding, which had a taste of apple and cinnamon that made the dish surprisingly light for what it was.

I'll definitely be back.

[BryanZ]

Bruni laid on the smackdown with a "Satisfactory" aka zero-star review today. Ouch.

[Sneakeater]

What I found weird about that review is that, from the text, you (or at least I) couldn't tell why it would be no-star instead of one-star.

[BryanZ]

Bruni would've one-starred it if they simplified a lot of the dishes. He said the quality of the ingredients was marred by the "swagger" of the rubs, accompaniments, sauces. Not that I think this place deserves a star or not, but Bruni, confronted with a simpler restaurant to a more ambitious or creative one that sometimes missteps, will usually prefer the former.

[rich]

I noticed that at the end of the column, the reviewer mentions that sometimes they take coats and sometimes not. What isn't mentioned is if they ever return the coats they do take.

[oakapple]

What I found weird about that review is that, from the text, you (or at least I) couldn't tell why it would be no-star instead of one-star.

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I sensed that it was a borderline case, which is also the conclusion I reached in my own review. Either one or zero stars would have been consistent with the text. He's not allowed to award a half-star, so he had to jump off the fence.

The restaurant also got goose-egged by Adam Platt in New York. Overall, not an auspicious start.

[Sneakeater]

You could see from his blog entry about LD that he was having trouble deciding which way to go.

[Nathan]

I had a good meal there...but it was the 2nd day and certain issues that others have noted (not just Bruni) were not present in my meal.

As Eater noted, considering how much of his own dough Love has in this restaurant it's reasonable to assume that changes will be forthcoming following this review (and offering to put white truffles on those dishes is just stupid). I'd be very curious to see what it's like in a month.

[Sneakeater]

You mean that, when we went, the animal skin welcome mat hadn't yet gotten ratty?

[Nathan]

heh. I was wondering how long that skin would last. now if they'd put it on the wall....

still, as Bruni noted, that "prairie butter" is great...

[Nathan]

You know, the more I think about this the more I think that LD should have gotten a star.

Yeah, Adam Platt's review was more straightforwardly negative -- but he was wrong.

I don't question the negatives that Bruni found (others have found them as well) and he rightly underlined the strengths of the restaurant, but I don't see how that doesn't add up to a one star restaurant.

I've been one of his few defenders here (I don't think he's written a substantively objectionable review in a long time) but I don't see how a "satisfactory" rating is justified. There are too many worse restaurants with a star.

[Sneakeater]

I noticed that at the end of the column, the reviewer mentions that sometimes they take coats and sometimes not. What isn't mentioned is if they ever return the coats they do take.

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I think they only do if you punch them out.

Your kind of place, rich.

[rich]

I noticed that at the end of the column, the reviewer mentions that sometimes they take coats and sometimes not. What isn't mentioned is if they ever return the coats they do take.

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I think they only do if you punch them out.

Your kind of place, rich.

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I'm there tonight with brass knuckles.

Speaking of Gallaghers (sorry to hijack this - but only for a moment). Friends went last night and called it the worst steak experience ever - and this from people who like the place and eat there regularly. Meat was tough and grizzled, crab cocktail was mushy and served over ice so it kept falling into cold water.

They were so angry that I heard about this at 5:45 this morning.

PS - they said my picture was on the wall with a large red "X" through it - never been "walled" before.

Edited November 16, 2006 by rich (log)