Mas (La Grillade): Turn Me Over, I'm Done

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 22, 2011]

I'd noticed this restaurant quietly opening a few weeks back, and it was easy enough to walk in for dinner on a weekday evening.  In fact, I dropped by after a reading by the artist and activist Stewart Home a few blocks away.

High-ceilinged, white-walled, rather elegant, the grill was fairly quiet.  I asked for a table rather than the bar and got one.

To cut to the chase, just as I had problem making conclusory judgments about Saxon+Parole in my recent review, so I'm reluctant to take a dispositive tone about this place.  The reason is different.  At S+P, the menu was so wide-ranging and unfocused, that I think two or three meals at least would be necessary to give a considered opinion on the cuisine.  Not being funded by a big-time publisher, I wouldn't get around to that any time soon.

At Mas (La Grillade), this one short supper identified some failings in concept which make me reluctant to go back and spin the wheel again.  If I ordered wrong, so be it.  I can't  be ordering every which way at these prices.  (Note that when a restaurant gives me a reason to go back, I gladly go:  my review of Promenade des Anglais was based on repeated meals - I'd enjoyed the first one, you see).

Of course, dinners at the mothership, the tautologous Mas (Farmhouse) had been expensive, as well as generally enjoyable.  I still didn't anticipate the pricing structure at Mas (La Grillade) - or Farmhouse (The Grill).  The first question from more than one server who attended me was a cordial, brand-building "Have you dined at the Farmhouse?"

The concept is wood-smoking.  This was underlined by the noisy appearance, halfway through my meal, of an upstairs neighbor,  bellowing "Don't eat here, they are poisoning the neighborhood."  Smoke extraction apparently needs some work.

The menu encourages spending my offering small plates as well as appetizers.  That's not uncommon these days.  It also charges à la carte for "proteins" and sides.  Servers made a point of emphasizing to all tables that the proteins arrive unadorned.  "You probably want a couple of sides with that," I was told as I ordered the squab.

I had started with the smoked, spiced walnuts, a wise investment of $4.  They were warm,  not especially spicy, but redolent of the flame.

I followed this with a pair of chicken liver tartines, not too crisply toasted but heaped with peppers and fresh herbs.  Nice; ideal for two people, $7.  Among the appetizers, I shrank from an $18 grilled artichoke plate, chanterelles or no chanterelles.  I also wasn't sure I wanted my oysters wood-smoked.  A thorough review would tell you at least about the squid and the sardines.  Such are my failings.

I was committed to the squab, based on some laudatory remarks I had read.  Spit roasted over the smoke, and served - as they said - unadorned, carved into small pieces in a puddle of nicely seasoned jus.

The hen o'the woods mushrooms in the photo above were served as a side at $8 (I had spooned some onto my plate).  I had rebelliously ordered only one side.  Squabs are small birds.  The "protein" here was an appetizer portion ($30).  I really did need two sides with it.  Had I ordered, for example, some sweet potatoes for ballast, the total entrée price of $44.  Oh, dear.  That's not the right price for this food.

Nor was there much relief to be had from the wine-list, least of all wines by the glass.  There's a $12 red,  a simple French country wine, and I ordered it.  Anything more interesting swiftly sails into $18, $20+ terrority; honestly, you will do better by finding one of the cheaper bottles on the list, even if you don't want to drink it.

You would also do better if the server bent his arm a little while pouring.  The wine serving was miserable, not even reaching the wider part of the glass.

For a "Farmhouse" "grill" to live up to billing, there really does need to be a sense of generosity about the food and wine, and its presentation.  A  bit of squab, some mushrooms on the side.  A few nuts.  My check stopped barely short of $100 before tax and tip.  That's why I don't have a reason to return.

Okay, let's be honest, I ordered a cocktail too.  I am fond of eggnog, but I suspected - and my server agreed - that it would be better to finish, rather than begin the meal with it.  Yes, it was sweet.  It's called a Fell's Point eggnog.  I think it does feature some eggs; also some rum.  The most obvious ingredients, however, are the Valhrona chocolate base and the cocoa powder.  The drink lacked the distinctive viscosity of eggnog.  In fact - and this tends to show the limitations of premium ingredients - I have never tasted a cocktail so reminiscent of Nesquik chocolate milk.

If you want to prove me wrong, here are the restaurant's details.