Wednesday 29 October
Over the years, we've dined at
many of Jean-Robert de Cavel's enterprises.
His new-ish Jean-Robert's Table is in the space that belonged to the
Bistro on Vine back when we (and he) were new in Cincinnati, and he's turned it
into another fine dining experience.
We were hosting our Onassis
speaker and his wife, Frank and Linda Holt.
So Barbara and Jack were the only non-Holts at the table.
We ordered a Domaine des
Clairneaux Sancerre Rosé to start, and our attentive servers brought excellent
crusty baguettes and butter.
There was a special four-course
menu "All about Apples" for only $45, so one of us got that, while
the other ordered off the menu.
Our apple first course was a duck
confit salad with apple (of course), endive, and radicchio, with a poached egg
in cider dressing on the side. The other
was a "duo of rabbit confit," one in a roll with hazelnut and dried cherries, the other a sort
of rabbit pancake, with a side of tiny broccoli and cauliflower florets, and a
pair of mustard sauces to dip in.
The apple second course was
haddock with a cider demiglace, plus a fondue of napa cabbage and apple with
bacon, shiitake mushrooms, and an edamame purée so pure that it wasn't even
green.
We needed a red for our hearty
mains, so ordered a bottle of Chateau Pezat Bordeaux Superior - which it was. The apple main was superb beef tenderloin
with apple-onion compote, root vegetable with pecans, and an apple mushroom
potato croquette. Our other main was
"3 Little Cochons": pork belly, ribs, and tenderloin, with Bourbon
sauce, country potatoes, garlic confit, braised cabbage, and mushrooms.
Our ending apple dessert was only
called "assortment of sweet apples," or rather, assortment of apple
sweets: a semifreddo, a turnover, and some other tiny exquisite thing.
The company and conversation were
sparkling, and so was the food and the service.
In fact, everything but the wine, which wasn't supposed to be.
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