Black Salt: Still good, still pricey

My friend Bill and I headed to Black Salt on Wednesday for a long-postpooned catchup dinner. There was a snafu with the reservation...probably some screwup between me and OpenTable...but the helpful staff soon found us a table despite the crowds hanging around the bar.

We ended up having the tasting menu, which was five courses plus a perfect oyster and caviar as a starter. I cannot remember all of the courses...one was a salmon tartare with yellowtail sashimi, one was a sauteed block of mackerel or something similar, and the rest eludes me. It was all very tasty, though. The last course was a dessert presentation of chocolate pot de creme, chocolate cake, and ice cream. All very satisfying. Individual portions were small, as befits a tasting menu, but we did not leave hungry.

The tasting menu is $74 for 5 courses (which we had) and $89 for 7 courses, which would seem to be more of a bargain for people who want to eat that much, but this was a weekday and we are both trying to trim a few pounds. We drank a bottle of Goldeneye Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley which was terrific, dark, rich, and a bit on the heavy side...maybe not a classical pairing with fish but just what we wanted on a cold night.

Service was attentive (a bit too much so when they were trying to get our orders in) and reasonably professional although not overly warm. We also had to make our own call on the wine as I felt we were being steered to other things...glad we stuck to our guns.

With the wine and service, the bill came to well over $100 per person...nearly $150 after tip. Of course the cooking was excellent, we had an elaborate dinner, and fish is not a cheap meal. Nonetheless I could not escape my usual feeling when exiting Black Salt: good, but a lot of money for a meal in a very simple setting.

St Barts report

We spent a very relaxing and pleasant 10 days in St Barts, following our usual pattern. While there, we ate in a number of places, many familiar and a couple new to us. Here's a capsule report:

Esprit de Saline: One of our favorites as always. Beautiful outdoor (but covered) setting. The nasty smell from the salt pond which greets you as you exit the car does not penetrate to the dining room. Delicious, relatively simple food. As usual on St Barts, not cheap.

Bonito: This is a new place that took over the space of the old Mandala on the hill overlooking Gustavia Harbor. Beautiful white and blue space with some tables having a great view. We liked it so much that we went back for Valentine's Day with a couple of new friends. On the first visit I had scallops, which were good but not memorable, and Michael had the slow-cooked "cochon de lait" which was so good that I ordered it the second visit (outstanding both times). The restaurant specializes in ceviche which we had as appetizers and enjoyed very much.

Wall House: Another old standby. We had a very disappointing visit last year and this year's was considerably better. Service was still slow, although not as slow as last year (that was intolerable). Because of its position in the harbor it does not get much breeze and was very warm. I'd say, good but not great. Not at the top of our list.

Santa Fe: We ate here the last night. Very informal and quite small...about 8 tables on a terrace with a view of the ocean during the day (and blackness at night). Maybe the best food in St Barts. Very pleasant and friendly service.

Do Brazil: We had a post-scuba lunch here. Beautiful setting and delicious drinks including perhaps the best daiquiri I've ever had. Very expensive...over 100 euros for 2 drinks, a shared seafood salad appetizer and two hamburgers. Burgers were overcooked and dry although the fries were good. Nice setting, but better for drinks than food, I think.

Bouchon: A tiny stand by one of the local strip shopping centers in Lorient. One day we got pre-diving sandwiches which were an amazing value...4 euros for a ham and cheese sandwich occupying almost an entire baguette, 6.50 for grilled chicken! One would have been plenty for the two of us...my parents ended up having lunch on the leftovers. Another day we went for a hamburger and pizza which were both very good although preparation was quite slow (I think our timing was bad). Maybe the best value in St Barts, although that's not saying much.

Wine: We paid a sentimental visit to La Cave. It has been taken over by the grandson of the founders, who is a very nice young man. We hope he succeeds. He is hampered by old inventory...most of the wine is, I think, well past its prime. We had a bottle of 04 Sancerre that was excellent and a bottle of NV Champagne from an unrecognized producer that was also very nice, if a bit austere. He is trying to update his inventory and I hope he succeeds as it would be a shame for this landmark to fail, although I sense he is struggling at the moment.

We had better luck at La Cave au Port Franc on the edge of town, where the charming owner (with very limited English) has a very nice and very well priced selection of wine, including enough Alsatian wines to keep us happy...we had a very dry Muscat as an aperitif with visitors and a bottle of Gewurz that Michael and I loved although it was not a hit with Mom and Dad.

Bonterra in Charlotte

Through a series of travel complications too long and boring to relate here, we found ourselves in Charlotte, NC for the evening of Friday, February 5th on our way to St Barts. My first thought, when I knew we would be spending the night in Charlotte, was to look for a decent barbecue joint, but the bloggers and chatters at Chowhound suggested that there was really no good barbecue to be had within a reasonable distance. (I had a decent experience, years ago, at the 3 Little Pigs in Asheville...not really close...but nothing here).

Anyhow, through a little research I stumbled on this place called Bonterra, which boasted of being Charlotte's finest restaurant (always a claim that fills me with suspicion) and with the best wine list (which, if the website was accurate, seemed like a real possibility). It was close to our modest airport-area hotel so I figured, how bad could it be?

Well, the answer is, not bad at all. We were somewhat exhausted from our trials in escaping the "snowstorm of the century" -- the second one this season -- and were in need of a good drink and some uncomplicated food, which is exactly what we found. I will say that our options did not test the kitchen in any way and in fact we skipped entrees entirely and focused on a series of appetizers, but we were quite happy with the results.

Bonterra is in an old deconsecrated church and has nice high ceilings and a fairly simple decor. On a cold rainy night it provided a pleasant although perhaps slightly austere atmosphere...of course Michael spent part of the evening pointing out how the decor should have been done differently but that is to be expected. The service was very pleasant and very professional although the waiter seemed overtaxed...the restaurant was not terribly busy but it is a large space and there appeared to be only two people working the floor so the waits for things were a bit longer than ideal.

Bonterra has an extensive and excellent selection of cheeses and allows you to pick your favorites on an a la carte basis. They are very reasonably priced at $3 per selection. We chose probably our all time favorite, Humboldt Fog, plus Crater Lake Blue from Oregon and Black Diamond cheddar from Canada...maybe not the most adventurous selections, but they were all generous sized and in excellent condition. And delicious. We also had some Rosette de Lyon salami and Serrano ham ($5 each, both very good although the salami was a bit bland), a tub of chicken liver mousse (also $3, excellent and an amazingly generous portion) and a tub of mixed olives. This latter, billed as a "spicy mix", was the only real disappointment of the meal...rather watery, and not spicy at all.

Following this selection, we had a couple of Southern-themed salads: the Azalea, with apples, bacon, and blue cheese, and the Magnolia with goat cheese and almonds). Both generously portioned and with first class ingredients. We also had an order of duck spring rolls, which I thought were OK but not memorable, and Michael didn't like even that much.

Compared to the very reasonable appetizers and salads, the entrees seemed a bit pricey at $25-30 and up, so we were happy to economize and make a meal out of the starters. The chicken liver mousse alone could have served 4 as an appetizer easily.

The wine list was, I must say, truly extraordinary. It would have been a good wine list in New York or San Francisco and was exceptional for a modestly sized city in the South. The vast majority of the selections are available by the glass and there were also several interesting tasting flights.

Michael opted for the "Napa's best chardonnay" flight which included Trefethen, Cakebread, Robert Keenan, and Silverado. The Trefethen was a bit light and not so flavorful, but the other three were excellent...we're familiar with the Silverado but the other two were a nice surprise. Meanwhile I had a Pinot Noir tasting including two Oregon (Adelsheim and King Estate) and two California (Grey Stack and Testarossa). To my surprise, I liked the Californians much more than the Oregonians. The flights were not cheap at $18 and $16 respectively but made for an interesting drinking session. We followed this up with a glass of Mollydooker Verdelho for Michael and a glass of Hendry Block 7 Zinfandel for me, which were both as good as we remembered.

The total for all of this was $120, half of which was for wine, so I must say we ate very well for $60 (and drank very well too, for that matter). Certainly a place I would not hesitate to go back, or recommend, if I find myself in Charlotte again.

Paris: L'As du Felafel

Much has been written about the superb quality of this mostly takeout falafel joint in the Jewish quarter of Paris and I am telling you that it’s all true. The lines, the heft of the sandwiches, and the deliciousness.

We stopped by for the first time on Saturday afternoon, forgetting that of course a kosher restaurant would be closed on Saturday, and went back on Sunday about 2. Even at that time there were probably 25 people in line but it moves reasonably quickly and we weren’t in line more than five minutes or so. The staff is brusque but friendly in a Jewish-deli manner. The falafel sandwiches were delicious, a fresh pita bread stuffed with crispy fried falafel and topped with a delicious red cabbage slaw, tahini, and as much harissa as you care to ask for. It was so good that we went back on Monday for another visit….Michael had the schawarma this time which he raved about, while I stuck with the basic falafel. At 3:00 on a Monday, there was no line. We briefly considered going back for seconds but thought better of it…probably a bad decision.

Anyhow, it’s everything they say it is, and must be the best 5-euro lunch in Paris.
 

Paris: Les Bouquinistes

For our last dinner in Paris, we were at a bit of a loss, having uncharacteristically not planned ahead. I had neglected to call our first choice, Chez Josephine, on arrival and since they are closed on weekends, I wasn’t able to call them until Monday afternoon – only to find that they were completely booked for that evening. Suspecting that perhaps our rejection was due to my request being made in English, I called back a couple of hours later and asked again in French, but with the same result.

In any case, we settled on Les Bouquinistes, an offshoot of the Guy Savoy empire and within walking distance from our hotel. It was a bit pricier than we really had in mind but no attractive alternatives presented themselves and we were open to a little bit of a splurge for our last night. Besides, they could take us at our preferred time of 9 pm.

After a stroll through St Germain, we arrived at the dining room just about on time. The décor – a modern idiom with shades of faux-distressed plasterwork -- seemed a bit dated but we were there for the food.

And we did find the food, in general, excellent. We both had the menu degustation, which seemed like a good value at 75 euros. We started with an amuse-bouche of lobster puree thickened with cream, then the fun began. The first course was a few coins of foie gras, just the right amount, rich and creamy with good coarse bread on the side. It was followed by a lobster and crab salad, a small oblong of sautéed sea bass with uncommonly crispy skin (Michael passed on the skin), a creamy chestnut soup with wild mushrooms, sauteed chicken breast, and a melted chocolate cake with a vanilla shooter and pistachio ice cream. None terribly innovative, all very delicious…with the one notable exception of a tasteless and mushy stalk of artichoke heart accompanying the crab salad, which had no obvious reason for being there.
With the meal we drank a 2007 Gewurztraminer Grand Cru from [ ] which was rich, unctuous, slightly sweet, and an excellent pairing with the food.

Service was friendly but somewhat off. The wine wasn’t immediately available (the captain had to go fetch it from the cellar down the street, he explained) but he was nice enough to pour each of us a glass of the same wine from a bottle standing on a nearby table (leftovers from another group? It was never made clear) while we waited. The first three or four courses came out very rapidly, then there was a long pause before the chicken course and an almost interminable wait for dessert, this despite the fact that the dining room was more than half empty at that stage. Our very young waiter seemed a little overmatched, as though perhaps some of the staff hadn’t shown up when expected or perhaps if every table came at once, which didn’t seem to be the case.

All in all a delicious experience, but not a particularly polished one. Of course one doesn’t expect 3 star service at one star prices but this suggested a lack of organization uncommon in Paris in our experience.
 

Paris: 404

Very fun dinner at 404 on Saturday night. We were talked into the house “special cocktail” which turned out to be two of the most delicious mojitos we’ve ever had (and they ought to be for 11 euros each – that stung a little). We then had what amounted to chicken in wrapped in feta and fried (delicious) and Moroccan lentil salad (also delicious, but I thought a bit underspiced) as starters. For main courses, we both had tagines, Michael’s was chicken with preserved lemon and mine was lamb with prunes and raisins, both of which were awesomely tender and delicious. The restaurant is very atmospheric with stone walls, Moroccan lanterns, and music almost drowned out by the buzz of happy eaters.

One situation at the end marred the experience a little bit. One of the waiters…who spoke very little English, or claimed to…brought the bill and when confronted with a credit card, asked “how much should I make it for”. Well, this is not how it is supposed to work in France, where the tip is by law included in the price of the food. It seems uncommon for people to tip over and above the set amount…and if they do, it is by leaving a few euros in cash. So this rather blatant attempt to solicit a tip was rather offputting. What was worse is that Michael, a little confused, asked this server “isn’t the tip included in the bill” and was told “no”…which is clearly wrong. In fact so wrong that we mentioned it to the host on the way out and he kind of shrugged off our concern, saying “yes the tip is included but some people like to leave a bit more …it’s optional”.

Well, the meal wasn’t cheap at 118 euros including a bottle of pleasant but non-memorable Tunisian rose, but it was altogether enjoyable except for the shenanigans with the bill. However, the tip incident combined with the upsell on the expensive cocktails kind of leaves the impression that the restaurant has its hand in your pocket. On the other hand, as we joked on the way back, from what we’ve heard, that’s kind of how it is in Morocco.

Anyhow, a very atmospheric, attractive, and fun restaurant with very tasty food. Just keep your hand on your wallet while you’re there, and watch out for those cocktails!
 

Bofinger: Good food, terrible service

We met up with our friends the celebrated artists Andrew Zega and Bernd Dams for dinner on Saturday night. They were nice enough to come by our part of town (the Marais) and to pick a restaurant, Bofinger, that was both atmospheric and within easy walking distance.

Well, with one thing (mostly champagne) and another we didn’t get out of the apartment until nearly 9:30, Andrew having explained that Bofinger was not taking reservations that evening by the time he called so we would have to take our chances. Fortunately the heavy rain of that afternoon had mostly stopped as we headed out and it was indeed only a five minute walk from our apartment.
We arrived to find a mob scene in the best French ski-lift tradition, with the “line” representing a mob in a roughly circular pattern around the host’s desk, spilling into the miniscule bar and out into the street. Being the best French speaker, Andrew was dispatched to see what he could do while Bernd went across the street to Le Petit Bofinger to see if things were any better (even worse, he reported). While we considered a “plan B”, we were told that we would probably get a table in 15-20 minutes, so it was not worth leaving and going somewhere else, which would take even longer. And we were all delighted to find our table ready just a few short minutes later, to the discomfiture of the many paired-off folks waiting in the bar.

The short report on Bofinger was good food, terrible service. Michael and I had the choucroute, a specialty of the house, and I can report that the sausages were excellent, even (or perhaps especially) the boudin noir, which even Michael enjoyed. There were at least four kinds of sausages, smoked pork loin, pork chop, smoked bacon (a bit fatty for me) and a mass of sauerkraut about the size of my head which even I could not make a serious dent it. For starters I had six impeccably fresh (and quite expensive) oysters and Michael had a nice salad. Andrew and Bernd had salads and a steak and steak tartare, respectively, which we did not taste.
Unfortunately, the wait staff decided, about halfway through the meal, to totally ignore us, to the point that we started pouring our own wine, and tried in vain to order dessert before giving up. I don’t know whether we annoyed someone or they got distracted with somebody more important, but I have rarely felt more ignored in a restaurant. Being with friends whom we didn’t want to embarrass, I was not tempted to make a scene, but it would have been the kind of situation where one was called for. And of course with the tip included, as it is in France, you can’t even make a point of your displeasure on the tip.

We had a perfectly serviceable bottle of Alsatian Riesling (somewhat less astringent than most) and a reasonable value from the mostly short and expensive list.
We had a lovely time catching up with our friends, and the company made the dinner memorable, but given our experience I cannot recommend Bofinger to anyone else. Perhaps not on a busy Saturday night…