Friday was busy

I had an interesting day on Friday. I spent most of Thursday night and the wee hours of Friday morning celebrating the birthday of my friend Troy. The next day we put on our Friday lunch best and continued the birthday celebrations at Eleven Madison Park. I love Eleven Madison Park. I went when they first opened years ago and recently with Nadine. Nadine and I had the tasting menu which was amazing. I wanted to take Troy there because he loves fine dining and wine and rarely gets to go out to nice restaurants in the city.

We walked in and were greeted quite warmly by the hostess, who wished Troy a happy birthday and talked to Troy about being the maître d at Bouley. They sat at a wonderful table by one of the giant windows. For those of you that haven’t been there, it’s a gorgeous dining room. Art deco inspired with massive ceilings.

We started out our meal with champagne; they brought out a champagne cart driven by a sommelier. Troy decided on a German sparkling white, (I may be wrong here I will fact check over the weekend). It was really refreshingly dry the perfect way to start the meal. We decided to have the tasting menu, because, you know I like tasting menus. As it was Troy’s birthday they had the foresight to give us menus that said “happy birthday” it was quite sweet and Troy was quite touched.

The first course was a Garden pea and Coconut panacotta with “crunchy spring vegetables”. The panacotta was lovely. Light and delicate, the crunchy spring vegetables balanced the panacotta texturally perfectly. A wonderful way to start the meal, it really tasted of spring.

The second course was halibut with razor clams, cauliflower puree and green almonds. I cannot stress enough how exquisitely cooked the halibut was. Tender, juicy and cooked all the way through, the halibut was divine. The accompanying cauliflower puree, green almonds and some sort of saffron sauce balanced the dish beautifully. The razor clams added another dimension of savory that was unexpected and worked quite well.

At this point I suppose it’s prudent to mention the wine. Now as much as I love tasting menus, I also love them with wine pairings. Troy however being a sommelier is a bit weary of them. He went through the 90 page wine list (shouldn’t it be a wine book at that point?) and chose a German white, a Franken Rielsing ( Hans Wirsching, Iphöfer Kronsberg , Spätlese, Trocken 2006, and yes I did just copy and paste this from the restaurants website. Sue me). The bottle was not the usual wine bottle shape and short, which is why a lot of restaurants don’t carry it (it’s hard to store). It was absolutely perfect. It was a pleasant compliment to the panacotta and the halibut. This is one of the perks of going to eat with a sommelier; he knows stuff about booze that I am sure not to know.

Now the next course was the foie gras. Ahhh foie gras, so delicious, so hard to mess up (though apparently it does happen). The foie was served with rhubarb and was absolutely delicious. Our waitress brought us a glass of dessert wine to accompany it. This is where the weirdness with the service starts. Troy had to be at work by 4, and told our waitress when we sat down. So she gives us a dessert wine to accompany the foie, it tasted like sweet lacquer. Sweet delicious lacquer. She said that they chose to give us the dessert wine rather than an extra course because of the time constraint. After we left Troy and I looked at each other like “bitch please”, the courses while delicious were on the small side and we were eating fairly quickly. They totally could have done an extra course. But no matter, the glass of wine with the foie was quite nice (though Troy pointed out that the pairing was “textbook”).

The next course was a lamb en croute with artichokes and prosciutto. They presented us the lamb before they plated it which is a nice old school touch that I always appreciate. The lamb was delicious. Lamb loin wrapped in prosciutto wrapped in puff pastry, it was served with tomato confit, and baby artichokes. A note about baby artichokes: my first garde manger job at ‘Cesca I had to clean and cook cases of artichokes, babies and full grown. I love artichokes but I rarely order them in restaurants or cook them for myself because they are so labor intensive and I feel bad. Hats off to you entremet at Eleven Madison Park. They were magical. They also sent us a glass of red to accompany the lamb. Worked together very nicely.

So now on the tasting menu we had a choice of cheese or dessert. And to quote my favorite movie I thought “can’t we have both?”. So we did. Now when I came for dinner they brought the cheese cart. I still dream of that cheese cart. It was filled with lactose loving sometimes while I’m watching law and order I wish a captain from eleven Madison Park would show up with the cart and offer me some goat cheese to accompany my favorite crime drama. But I digress. Um no cheese cart for lunch. This made me sad. I was tempted to add an emoticon but thought better of it. The cheese plate though was delicious. They were served with wine gelees, which frankly added very little to the cheese but looked pretty on the plate. There was a Portuguese soft sheeps milk that was a standout. Our German white (remember that) went perfectly with the cheese, which Troy predicted when he first tasted it.

Dessert was a “ Vacherin” of Lemon and Basil Parfait, Strawberries and bits o’ Meringue. It was really refreshing. The parfait was light and delicious, the strawberry ice cream tasted much more like a sorbet though it was far more intense than a normal sorbet. Now here’s the weird bit about lunch. When I made the reservation I told them I was bringing the maitre d from Bouley for his birthday. When we walked in they greeted us with a happy birthday, they even wrote it on the menu. Now just about every restaurant that has sit down service if they know it’s your birthday will bring you a dessert with a candle. I was sitting there looking for anyone with a plate with a candle. Nothing. I discussed it with Troy, he said he didn’t mind, he was for more touched by the menus. He got up to go to the bathroom, I asked our waitress if she could bring out just any dessert with happy birthday written on it. She brought out a cookie plate with happy birthday written on it. Cookie plate was nice, had some awesome dark chocolate and peanut butter tarts. We washed everything down with a glass of cognac that Troy chose, a wonderful way to end a meal. Now the bill came and it wasn’t cheap, they comped us the two glasses of wine and the cheese course. But they charged me for the cookie plate. That was weird. Now I don’t mind paying, going into Eleven Madison Park you know that you will be dropping at least $300 (I think our total was like 340 after tip), but $12 for a cookie plate for a birthday? Really? To sum up food fantastic, service pretty great with a few odd missteps.

Now did my day end there? NO Friday night I went to see Stone Soup Theatre Arts Production of Ghostdancers (quality linkage). I met my friend Nicole at Gusto and we had a quick dinner at Dallas BBQ before the show. Now after the champagne, the wine, more wine and then the cognac I was as they say a tad overserved so all I really wanted was some fried food. And frankly I don’t like the barbeque at Dallas BBQ. So I ate some fried shrimp and a giant apple martini because I am classy. Comparing the restaurants would be odd, but I’m glad I went to both in the same day to get some perspective on restaurants in general.

The show was great, I am blessed to have some amazingly talented and wonderful friends. (Please vote for Nadine. A lot). After the show we went to some tiny Mexican restaurant. I didn’t eat anything, so there’s really nothing to report other than apparently I intimidate my friend DR with my knowledge of food. A few things, DR you are sweet and naked, 2. I just love food I don’t judge. Unless you put ketchup on your eggs which is just gross. Other than that most everything is fine. All in all a great day filled with wonderful food, drink and friends.