[Pigging by Wilfrid: August 4, 2014]
Cherchez le sel? But it's here, it's there, it's everywhere. Or at least it was on my first--and so far, last--visit to Keith McNally's new bistro, Cherche Midi, in what was previously his trattoria Pulino's on the busy corner of Bowery and East Houston.
It wasn't supposed to be my last visit. I booked a table easily enough in the early days of Cherche Midi opening, but it quickly reverted to the default reservation pattern familiar from Minetta Tavern (and I guess from Balthazar--although I haven't been there for dinner in many years).
5.30 or 10.30. That's it. Oh sure, you can walk in--and find the bar packed, and walk out again. I did try, a couple of times, because I wanted to write a full review. But life is too short, and I don't get paid, so here are the impressions from one meal. Sadly, a bad one.
Last time I looked in, there was certainly a mob at the door. The Infatuation reported this week that things have gotten worse: "There’s just nowhere to put all the people. They packed probably five tables too many in this place, and trying to get around is like playing a game of Marble Madness. You get bumped all meal long by waitstaff trying to get by, and are literally inside the entree of the table next to you."
So there I was lucky. My early visit, on a weekday evening, showed how pleasant the ambience can be--in the patented McNally faux-French way--when the place isn't full. Some fresh bread, some butter, a glass of bubbles; the correct paper tablecloth, the tiled floor. Nice. But what to eat? The simple answer is the burger, which everyone seems to like, and which is reasonably priced at $21 de luxe. But what is you want dinner?
Like Balthazar for the most part, Cherche Midi offers a very American faux-French experience. Once you've discarded all the salads and the inevitable hamachi crudo, the remaining appetizers are frog's legs and a $26 bit of foie gras, and the frog's legs were threatened with a green sauce (my bête verte, if you like;visions of wheatgrass).
Or there was a pot au fromage, and I didn't know what it was, so I ordered it.
Now the menu does say "pot au fromage, parmesan custard," but the latter is not additional to the former. It's what the former is. A pot of warm, melted parmesan cheese, possibly (indeed probably, given the price of cheese) whipped up with some butter or something. Now, parmesan is a salty cheese, so what you may not want with it is toast spread with anchovy butter.
Parmesan and anchovies. Not a pairing anyone would describe, I fear, as well-balanced. And it wasn't. Salt upon salt.
The entrées are mostly mainstream too, from a chicken breast to salmon, from an expensive saddle of lamb to a slightly more expensive whole daurade. Generally, I'd think the $48 prime rib would be the way to go here, but I rashly settled on a simple steak frites Béarnaise. After all, I'd enjoyed the tavern steak at Minetta at the same price ($28), and it was all so bistro-ish, what could do wrong?
Well, the fries could go wrong, McNally's restaurants are rightly commended for fresh, hot, crisp, fries.
Fresh, hot, crisp? Check. And slathered with salt. Sure, I was sensitized by my first course, but this wasn't a feverishly saline imagination. These were visibly over-salted. My bad luck, I have to assume. The steak was unremarkably--dry, it's flavor drowned out by the fries. The sauce was cold.
I ordered cheese not to bolster the check but to soothe my palate. You can choose three (fair at $14) or five from a decent international list.
Reliable Tomme Crayeuse, Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Castelrosso, with a full range of condiments.
And because I believe the burger is probably delicious, and that they don't do that to the fries every order, and that the mussels or skate might be great, I really did try to give it a second chance.
But if you choose to play the 5.30 or 10.30 game, saving the rest of the tables for people with the right phone number, this is what you get.
Here's the website.
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