While the three of us make up the LMDC, we decided from the onset that our reservations should be made for four people allowing us to bring guests, friends or anyone we thought would enrich our evening. For this evening out we invited Susan (of AfterTaste blog fame) to join us and what a wonderful addition she made! Susan might just find herself included in more LMDC evenings out if she's not careful.
Our reservation on this particular evening was a very respectable 6:30pm. Leaving Bound Brook, New Jersey at 4:30pm, with Susan in tow, should have left us not only plenty of time to make the drive into the city but allow for pre-dinner drinks at the bar. Unknown to us and our advanced planning was the idiot who felt it necessary to get into a car accident INSIDE the Lincoln Tunnel. So an hour of sitting dead stopped in traffic and we had to make peace with the fact we were going to be late. Luckily Patty was there early ~ having drinks, making friends with the bartender and holding our reservation for us. Hell, we were so late even Gianne made it there before us (said with love Gigi)!
But we made it, close to 7pm. Upon entering the restaurant you got a sense of warm and chic...Here's the decor as described on the restaurant's web site...
With spacious seating for 140, the room is as ample as the food is in its sense of welcome and luxurious modern casualness. Created by Jeffrey Beers, designer of Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Daniel Boulud's DB Bistro Moderne in New York, and Jeffrey Chodorow's Ono at the Hotel Gansevoort, the dining room has been critically praised for its handsome, polished design and panoramic views of Central Park. Dominating the entry is a long, sleekly gleaming cherry wood bar. Deep butter-soft leather banquettes range along the opposite wall with comfortable caf é seating in-between. The wide-grained wood floor runs the length of the bar into the formal dining room. Diners relax beneath beams of warm, slatted cherry wood and mellow, meal enhancing lighting. Wooden tables are draped with crisp white tablecloths and encircled by big, roomy arm chairs that mix American clubhouse with American opulence. The private dining room seats and additional 50, and can be divided into two more intimate and quiet spaces, providing a perfect venue for a variety of events and activities.
They settled us into a table smack in the middle of the dining room. I thought, these poor people have no idea what they're in. Wait until they realize we're loud, funny and not at all censored during our meals together. But there was a mild din permeating the restaurant that I think damped anyone's ability to listen to closely to our conversations. A good thing, I'm sure!
A disjointed and boisterous discussion ensued over the topic of how many courses, which courses and who was ordering what kicked off the evening while also trying to pick wines and ensure our waiter that we weren't nuts and we would eventually place an order. Where we netted out - a shared platter of oysters, a round of appetizers and then two porterhouse steaks to be shared amongst the four of us. To kick off the evening, we ordered a bottle of Pierre Peters Blanc de Blanc Brut, NV. This was after asking the sommelier if he could tell us a bit about the other bottle that we didn't know anything about, the La Caravelle Brut Rose, NV. During his monologue describing this champagne we were unfamiliar with he did proceed to tell us that, "it's a rose, so that means it's pink in color". We stopped him right there and ordered the Pierre Peters.
I'm going to ask Susan to weigh in on the tasting notes...I honestly was more wrapped up in the conversation and less paying attention to the bubbly. I know it was easy to drink, bright in flavor, short on the finish, medium golden color with a nice if not deep bouquet. It went well with our first two courses and seemed like a very nice choice for the $110 price point.
The first course, a tasting platter of a dozen oysters arrived. The wait staff set the iced platter up on one of those wire racks in the center of the table. The issue? The rack was so tall that the oysters were literally higher than our eyes...you couldn't see what you were eating. After some chatting we decided to take matters into our own hands and remove the rack, sitting the platter on the table, on a napkin. Seeing what we intended to do, a waiter (not our head waiter) with a deep scowl yelled at us! "STOP, I'll do that in a minute when my hands aren't full" is what he admonished us with. Luckily our head waiter must have overheard, came right over and moved the offending wire rack. Here's a picture of the oysters, down where they belonged, easily accessible to four starving young women.
Not unusually, I have forgotten the types of oysters they presented us with except Pine Island. And something I found interesting...there were four of us, we asked for a dozen oysters with some variety. Don't you think you'd make the platter up of three different kinds, four of each? That way everyone gets to try each kind. But alas, no...we got three of four different kinds so even if one type was a complete standout, someone missed out on trying it. This and being yelled at was a pretty good indictation of how the service was going to pan out all evening long.
The oysters themselves were very good...pretty large overall. Patty didn't like the "fishy" ones that much but I loved the briny, saltiness of all three I tried. They were served with a traditional cocktail sauce, lemon and a mignonette that was bright and acidic with that strong vinegar taste that goes so well with oysters.
Next up was the appetizer course. When our waiter told us they had a special that evening and it was a chilled lobster salad made from the meat of a one pound lobster and served with greens, asparagus, avocado and citrus...well, my mind was made up. I never pass up lobster salad...it's a favorite. This dish was the hit of the evening. A wonderfully large portion with the sweetest lobster meat and a gorgeous green champagne, avocado vinegrette that just made everything come together in salad heaven. The dish got passed around and kudos from all.
Susan, after much discussion with Patty, ordered the roasted beef marrow bones with herb salad and toasted country bread. I'm not sure if I've ever had bone marrow actually IN the bone. Susan performed some surgical procedure to remove each delectable morsel out and spread it lovingly onto toast points. I tried some, since there were sounds of happiness coming from her side of the table and have to say...I'm not sure I'm the biggest bone marrow fan. I've no doubt that this was very good marrow since Susan's palette has been honed to near perfection over the years...but it didn't resonate with me specifically. The bread on the other hand was fabulous.
Next up was Gianne's pan seared sea scallops with caper brown butter and creamy celery root. Winner! The scallops were warm and cooked just past translucent. The caper, brown butter was both salty and rich giving a depth to the dish. And let's face it, creamy celery root is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Great appetizer and for me, the number two star dish of the evening.
And finally, Patty's appetizer, the wild Italian arugula salad with roasted peppers, pecorino cheese, Sicilian olives and grape tomatoes. Very pretty, but just a salad, we all admit. I think I owe Patty an apology. When listening to her and Susan debate the various appetizer choices and hearing them talk about the bone marrow and the filet mignon steak tartar, I tossed out a little dig of, "what, no greens for you two"? I certainly hope my joke wasn't what diverted her away from the tartar (because I LOVE tartar) to go with the rather plain salad. Nothing special going on with this dish unfortunately.
On to the main event...eating at a placed called Porter House, how could we NOT order the porterhouse? In fact, we ordered two of them to split between the four of us. And we asked for them to be cooked medium rare... the only appropriate way to cook a steak. With the steaks, we got three of their lovely sounding side dishes...the truffled mashed yukon gold potatoes (oh, baby), the baked macaroni and cheese and the pan roasted field mushrooms.
To go with this course we ordered and had opened ahead of time a bottle of the 2006 Littorai 'Cerise' Anderson Valley. Can I just say - damn, that's an amazing bottle of wine. One of the best Pinot Noir's I've ever had. Alan, honey...if you're reading this...we need to stockpile. :)
On my plate above you see that I'd served myself up pieces from both the filet and rib eye side of the PH and added a nice tasting of the mac & cheese and mashed potatoes. The good news first? Holy frigging awesome mashed potatoes!!! Another shining example of taking something great and adding truffles to make it spectacular! Wonderful, fabulous, incredible...ahhhh....yummy. This sentiment was shared by all. The baked macaroni and cheese was very nice as well and we debated what cheese was used since it had a nice bite to it...something in there was sharp and made the dish work. I did not try the field mushrooms this evening...just wasn't feeling it.
Now, the porterhouse. It was cooked about medium rare and the flavor was nice. But it lacked that succulence that we've achieved at home (at Susan's home actually, with Rich manning the grill) and take a look at the amount of fat on the rib eye. Having to cut away a third of every bite from fat didn't make it any more endearing. While it would have been easy to do from a quantity perspective, we didn't finish the porterhouses; either one of them. The leftovers made their way back to Bound Brook to make an appearance as either pureed dinner for Connor or steak and eggs for Rich.
And finally, for dessert we decided to put one dish in the middle of the table. That dessert? Old School Ice Cream sundae of both vanilla and chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, nuts in caramel, cherries and whipped cream. And a plate of assorted Porter House cookies that they brought out with compliments from the kitchen. The sundae was yummy as were the cookies. The total bill was reasonable, we agreed, all said and done. The company and conversation was fantastic, a great ladies night out. The restaurant, we collectively gave a 6 out of 10. Good, not great...would try other places before going back.
Jenn's rating: 82
Zagat's rating: 24-25-24
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