RANDOM HARVEST--Restaurant Notes from New England
by John Mariani

   Autumn is almost upon us, and New England seems like the  most  natural region to visit, given its daunting foliage and crisp fall air, which can easily build a mighty appetite after a day driving  along its Atlantic seaboard. 
    Two new chefs in two established restaurants in Boston hotels have impressed me recently, while a chef whose work I know well is now cooking at the top of his form in Norwalk, Connecticut, a town that is also home to the great Spanish restaurant Meigas. 

The Federalist, which locals call "The Fed," in Boston's sleek Beaux Arts moderne hotel XV Beacon (15 Beacon Street; 877-XVBEACON; www.xvbeacon.com) has had more than a couple of chefs over the past three years, but I think they have this year acquired the best yet, David Daniels, who does not so much toe a New England line as he utilizes its bounty for his own innovations, like a tortellini of crayfish and lobster with fava beans and corn cream.  His spiced lobster soup and avocado salad is a superb rethinking of  the traditional New England bisque, and his butter-poached lobster with roasted porcini, sea beans, baby carrots and parsnip potato purée melds all its elements flawlessly.  (Forgive me  for ordering so many lobster dishes, but "when in Rome. . . .") First-rate Colorado rack of lamb comes with a lusty ravioli of lamb's shank, dried tomato and ricotta, with a fava bean succotash and two complementary, not too assertive, mustard sauces.
    Desserts did not come up to snuff, however.  A flourless chocolate cake was no better than so many others in this overworked category, and the apple tart tasted as if it had been made far in advance.
     The main dining room (above) is a mix of psuedo-Federalist style chandeliers and woodwork together with odd, chipped away pillars and somber modern art. The lighting, better than it used to be, still must contend with a basic brown color scheme. The Fed's wine cellar, however, is astonishing, with unique bottlings like a 1907 Heidsieck Monopole, "rescued from a schooner sunk by a German U-Boat," a '37 Romanée-Conti, 22 vintages of Yquem, 41 of Lafite, 39 of Pétrus, and 64 of Latour, all of which can be enjoyed in the private dining room downstairs (right).
    The Fed is not inexpensive, with appetizers ranging from $9-$24 (though that's for Kobe beef au poivre with risotto, mushroom purée and red wine reduction), and main courses $28-$42.




      Spire, the second-floor dining room in the hotel Nine Zero (90 Tremont Street; 617-772-5800; www.ninezero.com), has a new kitchen master in young Gabriel  Frasca, who is trying an eclectic approach to a menu previously nouvelle French.  He’s got some very good ideas,  and the kitchen is turning out some first-rate desserts.  The dining room (below) seems now to have warmer lighting than I remember when it opened a year ago, and the service staff is quicker on its feet.  There are glowing recessed lighting fixtures, minimalist decor, and spire-like motifs echoing that of the Park Street Church outside its windows.
      Frasca is an exuberant cook, and if he sometimes seems to get a little excitable with his dishes, I sense that his focus will narrow as he settles in.  The best dish I had was a pork chop brined with maple, served with French lentils, cauliflower and a perfect touch of curry to bring everything alive.  The pork itself was of excellent quality, with good fat content and a succulence maintained by the brining and careful cooking.   Oddly then, what seemed like a capital idea--spring pea soup with a pastry dumpling of crab and sautéed pea shoots--came off heavy handed because of an overdose of mint that obliterated both the sweet flavor of the peas and the delicacy of the crabmeat (whose pastry was tough enough to require a knife and fork). 

    His terrine of foie gras with a “petite Waldorf salad,” Muscat grapes and brioche, was excellent throughout, and with a little better seasoning, his potato gnocchi with braised oxtail, ricotta salata and parsley would have really come alive.  Maine diver’s scallops were certainly of top quality, though fiddled with a bit too much in their crispy coating, with "candy-roaster squash," black trumpet mushrooms, and lime.
    Desserts were all delicious, from a sweet potato pithivier with spiced honey and tea ice cream to a devastatingly good pain perdu with grapefruit, maple walnut ice cream and a little pot of syrup.  The ice creams are among the best I’ve had in Boston.  Prices for appetizers run $11-$22; entrees $22-$39.

        Ocean Drive (128 Washington Street; 203-855-1665; www.oceandrivesono.com) in Norwalk, CT, is three years old now, but the recent addition of Chef Marc Lippman, last at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in   Los Cabos,  is a real coup for the management, especially since this is not yet one of the more picturesque or genteel towns off the New England Thruway.  In fact, South Norwalk's fairly gritty atmosphere is only now getting gentrified, with a courageous effort to save its historic waterfront architecture (the city once had a thriving Bluepoint oyster industry). Its nightlife along Washington Street and the city's south end--anagrammed as "Sono"-- is booming, and it's become very pleasant to stroll along the avenue, poking into antique and clothing stores and dropping in for some lightweight food and drink along the way.
    Restaurateurs Bruno and Mario Fontana made a success of their first venture here, Fontana, and Ocean Drive had the spark but needed the kind of culinary credentials Lippman was able to bring to the mix.  While Ocean Drive is far from a posh dining salon--how could it be with a 7-foot  anemone-like glass chandelier (below) and a bustling bar scene beneath the second tier of dining tables?--the cooking is as serious as anywhere in the state, yet not in the least fancy.
    The wine list, supervised by one of the best consultant/sommeliers in the business, Glen Vogt, formerly of Windows on the World, is excellent, headed by a category called "Wines We Love," all under $40 a bottle and all unusual, like Bodega Weinert Sauvignon Blanc '01 ($20) from Argentina, and C&T Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon '00 ($32) from Napa.
    The name of the restaurant strongly intimates that it resembles some eatery along Miami Beach's Ocean Drive, except the food is much better here than at anything along that maddeningly trendy strip of salad and pasta places. Still, the style notes are similar: Striped walls in shades of blue, a blue tiled bar, and cabana-like sections ringing the balcony may well put you in mind of South Beach. You can even arrive by boat by pulling up to the nearby Town Dock. There is also a display of shellfish on ice and an open kitchen.
     Lippman, who got his classical chops at La Grenouille and his sense of adventure at Bouley, turns his talent to seafood in the most engaging ways at Ocean Drive, stressing simplicity over complications, which is the only sensible way to treat good seafood. You may want to start off with rafts of fresh shellfish, either at the bar with a cocktail or at your table.  It’s an extensive menu, and there’s good sushi and sashimi to be had too, including spicy tuna roll,  yellow tail and  scallion roll, a smoked salmon “Zabar’s roll,” and something I didn’t feel quite up to trying, the  “I'm on that low carb diet roll.”
   Otherwise opt for wonderful appetizers like Lippman’s crab & sweet corn soup; steamed mussels “Acapulco style,” which derives from his Los Cabos days; his seviche of diver's scallops, crispy calamari with a delicious smoked tomato aïoli; and not-to-be-missed “mac and cheese”--orzo pasta, farmhouse cheddar, mascarpone, prosciutto cotto,  and truffle oil.  For main courses, which are all generous proportioned, I’d recommend the pan-roasted rainbow trout “almondine,” with plenty of buttery nuts; a grilled 2 –pound  lobster with tangy-sweet kumquat-golden pineapple chutney, and terrific hand-cut French fried potatoes;  a mahogany sea bass glazed with miso and accompanied by  wasabi mashed potato, bok choy, and shiitakes; and a whole branzino roasted to a succulent turn and served with  fingerling potatoes, asparagus and Tuscan olive oil.
    If you’ve room for dessert, go right ahead and enjoy the Valhrona chocolate pudding or the Key lime pie. Then take a stroll through SoNo and say you've been somewhere most people have not.

    Appetizers run $9-$13, main courses $19-$29.

 

NEW YORK CORNER

Kittichai
60 Thompson Street
212-219-2000
www.kittichairestaurant.com

  To say that Kittichai is the sexiest new restaurant to open in New York is to state what will be obvious the moment you walk in, greeted by model hostesses (meaning they are very good at what they do and are probably part-time models), and shown past well-dressed people who have, overnight, made this one of the big deal hot spots in Greenwich Village for cocktails or dinner. Since it's in a hotel, Sixty Thompson, it's also open for breakfast and lunch).
    You sashay past teak cabanas with ottoman seating and black bamboo screens; goldfish swim in a gorgeous aquarium, and the walls are cut by laser to form a poem about the restaurant.
    The photo to the left does not do justice to the shimmering, shadowy, aqueous dining room.  See that reflective surface? It is actually water on which candles are moving, like little bumper cars.   It's an enchanting effect, one of many in the design, which apparently has a whole lot of feng shui going on. 
    The owners, Robin Leigh, Michael Callahan, Jean-Marc Houmard and Huy Chi Le, are no strangers to Asian motifs, having opened Indochine, BondSt, and Republic, but this is something far more seductive, unless you don't find loud restaurants seductive.  Then again, the nice American boys waiting tables don't look too convincing or comfortable in their tidy little Mandarin collared shirts; the waitresses look just darling in their black sleeveless tunics and Thai fisherman trousers.  One other oddity: the bare tables are set with chopsticks, even though Thais eat with forks and spoons.
     The chef at Kittichai is Ian Chalermkittichai of Bangkok, who had cooked at Darley Street in Sydney, then headed the Four Seasons Bangkok, and was brought to NYC by the partners, who have taken an enormous  gamble tying into the chef's name on the assumption that he will stick around forever. I hope he does, for he brings a refinement to Thai food that it has largely lacked in NYC, comparing favorably to the cooking at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Vong, before it became a chain.  Still, those expecting the fiery blasts of the kind of food you actually find in Thailand or even in the storefront Thai eateries that dot American cities, will not find much of it here.  Only one  of the dozen or so savory dishes I tried had all that much chile-spiked heat. 
    Nevertheless, most of the food was delicious, starting with a cute little tartlet with minced chicken, dried chili and coriander, tantalizer my guests and I could have gorged on.  Very good and a lot of fun to eat were Siamese spiced crispy chicken lollipops marinated in tamarind-palm sugar.  These two fall under the category of  "Thai Tapas," so we moved on to a superb galangal and coconut soup with chicken, lemongrass and kaffir lime--one of the finest renditions of the classic tom kha gai I've ever had.
    Clay steamed mussels, the one dish with a lot of chile here, lost in the bargain, because the heat and spices overpowered the delicate shellfish.  I passed on Hudson Valley foie gras with pineapple marmalade as something that sounded like a reach for a Thai kitchen. Pork ribs marinated in Thai spices with a dousing of chocolate was nothing special.
   Among the entrees I liked most, prawns cooked in a clay pot with glass vermicelli, scallion, and bits of prosciutto was very good, and marinated loin of lamb with a trio of eggplants, Thai basil pesto, and some foie gras snuck into it was much better and balanced than a lackluster, too-sweet honey-glazed duck with a Champagne/mango and micro-bok choy accompaniment. Crispy whole fish with ginger and Thai hot basil was all right, but only as good as I've had in a million other Thai restaurants around town.  Monkfish with hearts of palm in a chili-ginger curry was a nice dish you certainly don't see anywhere else.
   I'm afraid none of the desserts roused much interest at our table. Flourless chocolate cake was supposedly steamed for three hours in a banana leaf, which didn't seem to add much that the cherry compote and Thai red wine syrup couldn't (Thai wine?).  Tapioca with passion fruit sorbet was goop, and I didn't care for the ice creams and sorbets here, which lacked intensity. 
       The wine list is serviceable, though it's very difficult to match wines with Thai food. The red wines unfortunately  come to the table at dining room temperature, which at 78 degrees, is much too warm.
     There is a lot of conceptualizing here, from the front door to the last sip of tea, and it's all very appealing.  Whether that appeal will hold up for those seeking more traditional Thai food and for those who only  visit a hot spot once before moving on to the next remains to be seen (the previous restaurant in this spot flared brightly for a couple of months then faded fast).  I'd like to see the place gather a following, and I really, really hope the chef likes NYC enough to stay put.
     Kittichai's appetizers run $6-$14, its entrees $14-$27.


OH, PUH-LEEZE!

"While navigating the bric-a-brac, I must have rubbed a brass lantern, because a genie apparently sent Serena to my tent. Catching my rolling eyes with each clink of the belly dancer's finger cymbals, Casa's manager rushed an array of mazzas to the table.  Like her, their powers were immediate and magical--a dense, chunky hummus had such a deliciously spicy harissa that we demanded more at every meal."--Hal Rubenstein, reviewing Casa La Femme North in New York Magazine (July 12, 2004).

Visit www.lapanetiere.com or call 914-967-8140.