[Pigging by Wilfrid: January 21, 2012]
It's a personal thing, but some restaurants just feel right. That doesn't necessarily make them popular, or a big hit, but it puts them on the right track.
I got a kick out of Chef Claude Godard's Jeanne & Gaston. Such a kick, that after a press dinner, I went back and spent some of my own money. But then, this is the kind of place which is going to feel right to me.
There were dishes at Jeanne & Gaston which took me back to La Caravelle and La Côte Basque--but minus, of course, the formality, the stiff white tablecloths, the stiff waiters.
And no swanky midtown location either: it's tucked away on a lively strip of West 14th, more or less opposite Flannery's sports bar. Step inside, and it's a haven. Clean, modern, simple, with a couple of grand murals.
My first visit was by invitation, and chef Godard had prepared a tasting menu. Owner of the established Madison Bistro, the chef is from Burgundy, but his instincts lean towards the elegant rather than the rustic. (Madison Bistro shares many dishes in common with Jeanne & Gaston, but adds brisk brasserie favorites like duck confit and choucroute.)
A taste of tuna tartare diced with tomato, on cucumber cream, didn't tell me much (it was a little heavy on the onion). Neither did a disc of pleasant foie gras terrine, although the sober apple-saffron compote suggested an adult palate at work--nothing sugary-sweet about it. These were tasting portions: just a bite.
The following dish, however, was a knockout. Lobster chartreuse with a fish velouté. Nothing to with the liqueur, a chartreuse was originally a dish of layered ingredients, cooked in a mould with aspic, turned out, and served hot.
Kind of a chartreuse, here, the jelly replaced with a lightly eggy flan mixture. Concealed inside, chunks of really nicely cooked and seasoned lobster. If you prefer your lobster underdone and chewy, as is the fashion, move on. This was unctuous lobster in a silky sauce.
Sometimes one dish can turn your head around. This was cooking. I got a similar buzz from the sweetbread tart.
Now I was reminded of Adour. That was sweetbreads en feuilleté with a rich demi-glace reduction. Here we had a simple flan case, heaped with precisely cooked (and properly trimmed) veal sweetbreads, entangled with parsley, and bathed similarly in a rich reduction.
By no means a heavy, one-note dish though. There were citrus notes playing behind the rich meat, lightening the overall effect.
This is high end cooking, working within the limits imposed by the pricing. The lobster dish $16, the sweetbreads $13. You should go along and order either or both.
The tasting menu finale, roast duck, showed the grown-up palate at work again. Grape sauce and red cabbage, from many kitchens, would seek to balance the duck with excessive acidity or sweetness. Here the effect is restrained, complementary.
And in a final reminder of La Caravelle, a miniature Grand Marnier soufflée for dessert, paired with another classic: brioche pudding Diplomat with candied fruit and crème Anglais.
Chef Godard looks after the pastry department too.
Certainly, from one perspective, Jeanne & Gaston is just one of many, mid-priced French bistros. But that undersells its ambition. I've eaten leaden, disappointing versions of French classical cooking, not least at La Mangeoire, where one might expect Christian Delouvrier to be cooking at least at this level.
With appetizers mostly in the low teens, and the highest priced entrée $25, of course the kitchen is working within constraints. Within those constraints, it's producing some little marvels.
I see quennelles in sauce Nantua on the menu, for example, as well as a boeuf Bourgignonne made with short ribs. These are reasons to return, and to hope the restaurant will find its audience.
The website is here. My first meal here was complimentary; my second was paid. And there's an added attraction out back, once they get some heaters...
Photos of Claud Godard, and the rear garden, courtesy Jeanne & Gaston
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