Dinner and Dancing....
Three Cheeses...(blogger blurry)
US Kobe burger...
Spiny Lobster sous vide
Cheeses, focused...
According to the bylaws of United Bloggers Local 3036, Miami Division, I am required to post about Chef Kris Wessel's 'red light' at least once a week, or risk losing my union card. I don't mind, I like the place, and I always support my brothers and sisters.
So for Earth Day weekend, Kris has listened to one of his little daughters, and created a small menu focused on organic foods, and local ingredients. I started with the Cheese Plate, which was a bargain at $6. It was an abstract mound of Loxahatchee mild goat, a stinky Triple Cream from Nantes (France), and a Cheddar from upstate New York, that was nice and sharp, with a long finish. It was served with 'guava chew', which tasted like guava jerky, and some chunks of Asian apple and toast. It was a nice, big, plate, which carried my constant companion and I through our first bottle of wine-a very nice Syrah-heavy Côtes du Rhône ($32)
We moved on to the 'Spiny Lobster, leeks, orange confit, red bliss potatoes, and little neck clams' ($12-half portion), a dish that is cooked sous vide, which means the ingredients (at least the lobster and one or two other ingredients) are cooked in a vacuum pouch in water at low temperature, sometimes for several hours, although for this dish it's cooked at 110 degrees for twenty minutes in the thermal circulator. For serving, the pouch is opened table side, and poured over the other ingredients (see below). I've never eaten 'spiny lobster' that tasted quite like this. I'm not going to write a 'review' here; all I'm saying is that this dish is both fascinating and frustrating at the same time. Order it, it is tasty, and see if you agree.
The US Kobe Beef Burger moves to the top of the pack in the 'Best Hamburger' category, and at $12, served with a densely delicious salad, is really a complete and healthy meal. I would politely suggest you order it rare, to best savor the rich yet subtle tang of the meat. Don't be afraid.
Other menu items included a 'pan roast' of garlic, shrimp, green tomato, and thyme butter toast, two nice-looking salads (organic tomatoes, 'safewater' albacore tuna), an 'earth mushroom' soup, fresh Cobia, and organic milkshakes(!) and sour orange sorbet with saw palmetto honey for dessert.
Kris is working hard, and Julienne is splendid behind the bar. The service is still very relaxed, and the food may take a while, so just sip your wine, relax, and gaze off at the spookily-hypnotic titty bar neon sign across the river. I haven't seen any manatees on the river yet, but I did see a duck. Patience, they say, is a virtue. A damned annoying one, but a virtue nonetheless.