This is the new restaurant from the husband and wife team previously at Lord Stanley. I didn’t want to try them at their very first week so I waited all the way until their second week to book this reservation (I know, I am so virtuous with patience, haha). We had only eaten once at Lord Stanley and that was back in 2019, but they did remember my name (it is pretty unique) which was nice.
The menu features 11 regular courses (Snacks, Shellfish, Cabbage, Tomato, Striped Bass, Lobster, Duck, Pain au Jus, Sno ball, Autumn Fruit, and Treats and 2 supplemental options – Caviar and Wagyu. They also said they do an la carte menu at the bar/common table area. I did order the supplements so we could try (Andrea did not) as well as the wine pairing; Andrea just went with a cocktail which was a very tasty tequila based savory cocktail called Stonepunk served in a retro cool pink coupe reminiscent of a flower.
The first course Snacks consists of 5 different bites/canapés (comprised of 7 separate dishes) called sunflower, onion petal, potato salad, cod, and enoki. Sunflower is a striking presentation of artichoke hearts with toasted seed butter topped (I guess technically this is the bottom, lol) poppy seeds on a toothpick made up to look like sunflowers and served in with a vase of sunflowers. The second snack, onion petal, was a delicate looking dish with an onion petal with an onion blossom puree topped with some black garlic. The third snack, potato salad, came in two parts – a curled tube of a potato (?) sliver holding a bundle of greens and herbs and a yogurt and nasturtium dip. The third snack, cod, also came on two parts – the crispy cod skin and the dip made up of a whipped brendade (salt cod, olive oil, potato) topped with trout roe. I loved the flavor of this bite with the crispy skin, salt cod, and trout roe, but it was definitely too fishy for Andrea, so that meant more for me and I ate the whole thing, haha. The final snack, enoki, featured a tempura fried enoki mushroom (to some it may look like a branch, but to me it looked like chicken feet, lol) meticulously dotted with curry and topped with either preserved lemon or pickled kombu.
The Shellfish course came as a trio of a Miyagi oyster, a razor clam ceviche (a bit too fussy to eat and not much razor clam), and a their version of an elevated mussel escabeche with the components served as tiny diced cubes. The escabeche was was our clear favorite of the three due to the flavors, a bit of acid, and a tiny kick of heat.
Next up was the supplemental Caviar course. The caviar presentation was different from any other we’ve had. It was served in a little boat made out of toasted nori, inside was clotted cream with a touch of sweetness coming from some apple bits and maple syrup and of course the caviar – 20g of Tsar Nicolai Reserve. The sweetness threw me off a bit at first since we’re not used to having sweet with caviar, but in the end I did enjoy this quite a bit.
Next course was the Cabbage which was a more refined version of their buttermilk cabbage from Lord Stanley (personally, I don’t remember it). It was some cooked cabbage with buttermilk, shaved sea urchin bottarga and some sprigs of dill served in a bowl shaped like a sea urchin.
Next came the Tomato course which featured tomato served in 3 parts. First there was a little rectangle steak of heirloom tomato with small pickled rose petals and tiny bits of olive and rye crumbs. Second there was the burrata also topped with little bits of the rye and olive. Lastly, there was the essence of tomato made from the juice of cherry tomatoes gravity extracted.
Then came the Striped Bass course. This was prepared with verjus braissage (presumably braised with unripe grape juice) in a celery root sauce and foam.
After that, the Lobster course which came in two parts – one being the lobster tail set atop a red pepper with some bisque spooned on courtesy of Chef Rupert Blease and the second, a tempura treatment on the claw served in a lettuce cup that included some shiso (Andrea generally doesn’t like shiso at Japanese restaurants, but she didn’t mind it here at all) and a bit of espelette aioli on top.
The next two courses came together, the Duck and the Pain au Jus. The duck was from Liberty Farms and was roasted along with a fig wrapped in fig leaves which paired together nicely. The bonus came with the bread course which was described as a dish they would provide the workers at the end of the day. I was a a rectangular slice of toasted sourdough with some butter liberally drizzled on top and the magic was the jus spooned on top. I enjoyed the duck, but I reveled in the decadence of this Pain au Jus.
The last savory course was the supplemental Wagyu course. The wagyu was dry aged and had marbling from the fat and was seared and cooked nicely. It was topped with some microplaned Burgundy truffle. There was a roasted porcini mushroom to accompany along with the sauce. It was a fine dish, although I didn’t really need it at this point.
Then came the mercifully light (I was pretty full having had the supplements and eaten a bit of what Andrea didn’t finish on some of her dishes). The first sweet course was the Sno ball which was more of a palette cleanser with shaved ice and milk oolong and plum. The next course was the Autumn fruit which was not surprisingly made of various fruits. There was brown sugar mochi with a fruity simply syrup, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, with a sorbet topped with a carmelized sugar tuile and sesame seeds.
The last course, Treats, included including a parallelogram of stacked fruit gelatins, a tasty hibiscus bite, a truffle, and a canalé. Our favorite was the hibiscus and also the canalé (we’re suckers for canelé ever since having had them in Bordeaux) which was surprisingly crunchy but still very moist on the inside.
Overall, they definitely seem to be looking to regain their star from Lord Stanley. The dishes and the overall menu was more ambitious than what we remember from Lord Stanley with a lot more technique here and meticulous plating. Wines were well paired and interesting (interesting whites and reds from Switzerland which we don’t often see which is why we like to do a pairing so we can experience wines we don’t normally see). We both agreed that’d we’d definitely be interested in dining here again during another season.
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