[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 21, 2011]
Well, Saxon + Parole = two race horses, and I am sure I missed several press releases telling my why that's a great name for a restaurant. But what kind of restaurant is it really?
It's a steakhouse with a raw bar. Simply that. Except it's also a kind of New American market-seasonal bistro. It's a celebrity chef restaurant too, so it bears Brad Farmerie's distinguished signature.
Double Crown didn't quite do it for me: I don't think I'm the right demographic for a menu which, I suppose, proffered a lampoonish version of British Empire cuisine - an entirely imagined entity. I mean, pigs-in-blankets with the blankets replaced by lychees: clever, but not something you want to eat again and again.
Saxon+Parole is stabled in the Avroko-designed Saxon+Parole space. As far as I could see, they've done little to change it. The back dining room still has the feel of a wrecked temple from an Indiana Jones movie. The bar in front is contrastingly sleek and modern. Madam Geneva, the cocktail appendage, remains concealed behind a rear wall (diners plaintively prodded it all evening, hoping to hit the hidden spring).
I asked a friend who dined at Double Crown recently. "They've put up a lot of pictures of horses," she mentioned. It resembles, to that extent, those splendid Belgian restaurants which specialize in horse flesh, but neither Saxon, nor Parole, nor their offspring are on the menu here. What is?
Warm rolls. Served with regular butter they're proud of (my server told me where they got it, and it wasn't D'Agostino's), as well a foie gras butter, truly imbued with foie and very enjoyable. You'll scrape the corners of that little square pot.
The rolls were easy, as they brought them anyway. Other decisions proved truly difficult. A separate oyster menu didn't help. It's printed daily and has the gimmick that your server punches your choices with a little gadget which makes you feel you're getting a ticket on Metro North. The west coast selection was, well, Blue Points or something else. So I had two of the something else, the four deeper-cupped Pacific oysters.
All you need to know is that they were fresh and cleanly shucked.
I arrived at the oysters after rejecting the charcuterie choices; and the "pot" choices (portobello mousse with the house "Parole" whisky and truffle jelly - sounds good, right? or chicken liver mousse); and a list of appetizers with Farmerie-ish flourishes (PEI mussels with roasted piquillo peppers; carrot soup with ginger and lemon, and toasted chili marshmallows). Truthfully, I didn't really want the soup, but I did want the salmon tartare with roasted capers and a quail egg. I meant to go back for it. Hasn't happened. Should have eaten it on the spot. I know.
Then there are the seafood towers, the razo clams... Anyway, you see how many ways there are around this particular block?
The entrées are altogether more tightly edited. Indeed, if you're looking for meat (and don't regard a burger as dinner), the alternatives to the steaks are a pork chop, half a chicken, or an ambiguously sized portion of short ribs cooked in Guinness.
Ambiguous, because the short ribs are priced at $44, but not listed as "for two." Compare the chicken and chop, both priced in the twenties. Sorely tempted, I asked my server if it was suitable for one. "It's a big dish," came the reply.
Hmm, steak then. There is a bone-in ribeye for two, absolutely the modish cut of the season - to the chagrin of those of us whose regular dining companions just don't crave bloody meat. A strip steak, then, claimed to be dry-aged, correctly cooked, but nothing astonishing. Of course, we are lucky enough that excellent steaks are no longer the preserve of Peter Luger (the ribeye I tasted at Minetta recently fully lived up to its billing). I have a feeling I would have liked this steak six to eight years ago. It probably wouldn't have cost $44 then either.
What a failure I am. I just used it as a steakhouse, intending a fuller and more varied exploration of the menu. I am skeptical of the New York Times ritual of repeat visits to restaurants which are basically doing one thing - and you can pretty quickly tell whether they are doing it well or not. Did Frank Bruni really shepherd some twelve or sixteen covers through Socarrat to find out if the paella was good?
In this case, though, I think at least three visits would be necessary to gauge the success of the place, such is the scope of the menu. The burger is rumored good. My friend told me that the seafood towers are the hit. Maybe the shrimp cocktail followed by some tortellini? Who knows?
This review then is entirely disposable, and I am sorry for wasting your time. Expect to pay $80 a head or more; go and try it yourself. Here's the info.
It was weird, we wanted to order the rimhsp dumplings, they were out. We wanted mini-doughnuts, they were out. We wanted the skate sandwich (looked delish at other tables), they were out.. so in a way we were kind of forced into ordering what we did. For what it was worth, it was a good brunch. Gotta love the secret entrance to Madame Geneva though!
Posted by: Tal | April 22, 2012 at 01:21 AM