Birthday at Boca

Wednesday 20 November

We've dined at each of Boca's many incarnations, starting with its humble beginnings in Northside and its buzzy Oakley venue.  Now they've taken over the former home of the Maisonette, the long-gone five-star bastion of traditional French food.  We'd been there once or twice when we were new to Cincinnati, and enjoyed it for what it was - old fashioned, lush, even a little stuffy.  That Boca has claimed this storied space indicates that it's aiming high, so we wanted to see just how high they could go.

We were seated in the center of the space, right under that Phantom of the Opera chandelier. 

You need some sparkler for a birthday, so we got an excellent rosé cava, Raventós i Blanc De Nit, to start off; its mauve color reminded us of the great cavas we'd enjoyed in Tarragona. 

Our appetizers were hamachi crudo, paired beautifully with silky avocado, grapefruit, shishito and ponzu; and beef shortrib tartare with very palpable black truffle and a little poached quail egg among its greens.

Mains were also inventive but solid: crisp-skinned loup de mer (i.e. branzino, or sea bass), with bacon, potatoes, fennel, and a tarragon vin blanc; and a tender, juicy braised pork shank from celebrity butcher Pat LaFrieda, served with potato purée and little roast vegetable dice.  We got a glass of Chanson pinot noir le Bourgogne to go with the pork.

And since it was a birthday, we had to have a sweet - a toothsome terrine of chocolate with pistachio nuts and salt (salt on sweet is the flavor of the month all this year).

Boca has some nice touches - the silver cellar of crystalline salt on the table, though the dishes were perfectly salted; the sauce spoons; the comfortable couches under the chandelier.  It also has features that are so of-the-moment that we will laugh at them very soon: the requisite family-style long table with uncomfortable high chairs, or the counter facing into the open kitchen so you can watch chefs plate your food with tweezers and foam.

Then there are things that are just ill-thought-out.  Boca charges for bread (admittedly it's Blue Oven, but come on) and has no busboys, so we and other tables had to sit with our dirty dishes on the table for an unacceptably long time until our waiter got around to clearing. 

What's more, the tables on either side of us got things that weren't on the menu and big productions involving the chef and a circle of assistants proffering ingredients.  So we ended up feeling that Boca had an in crowd, and as we weren't it, we're unlikely to go back any time soon.