Schwa - Chicago, IL

I ate at Schwa over a year ago, right before the now infamous Charlie Trotter dinner that preceded its closing.  The dinner is chronicled in this interesting profile of Schwa's chef/owner Michael Carlson.

My meal at Schwa was extraordinary. Despite being served a short rib main course that was not my favorite (sweetmonger and I are the only people in America who don't like short ribs), Schwa at the time was the best meal of my life. It remains probably the second best meal I have ever had, second only to my February 2008 meal at Town House.

I still think about many of the dishes I had there.  There was a cauliflower soup that was so rich and decadent.  I had no idea cauliflower could taste like that.  There was a panzanella with tripe which utilized the absolute most flavorful tomatoes imaginable.  As I ate this dish, tears came to my eyes. The raw quail egg ravioli was a bold display of talent that is never far from my mind.  And the pad Thai jellyfish. This dish is just amazing, perfect in every way.

Michael Carlson and his staff serve food that is, I don't want to say unparalleled, but certainly uncommon in its attention to detail and its ability to create crazy yet perfect flavor combinations. It is easily one of the best restaurants in America.  I have not eaten at Alinea, Charlie Trotter's or Curtis Duffy's Avenues but if I was given the chance to eat only one more Chicago meal in my life, I probably would choose Schwa.

Schwa

www.schwarestaurant.com

1466 N. Ashland

Chicago, IL  60662

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Las Vegas, NV

Thanks to some unexpected blackjack winnings and spurred on by a horrible meal the night before, I decided to get dinner at L'Atelier in the MGM Grand before I left Las Vegas. It turned out to be a really good meal. It certainly wasn't exceptional, but there were just enough superb courses so that I left impressed.

Foie Gras parfait with port wine and Parmesan foam

This was a knockout. It was richer than many of the amuses I've had but the flavors were incredible and each distinct component was distinguishable. Superb.

Lobster Carpaccio with delicate aromatics and shellfish oil

It was good. The frissee salad on top was distracting both texturally and flavor-wise. This dish needs some tweaking.

Poached baby Kusshi oysters with French butter

The oysters were served on top of some coarse salt. I ate the first one and thought it was pretty good but I added a little bit of the coarse salt to the other two and it completely changed the dish. The kitchen should instruct diners to do this. Really Good.

Seared fresh scallop on a bed of truffled macaroni

My waiter talked up how good the homemade macaroni was. He was wrong. Also, the scallop was not of high quality. Okay but shouldn't be served.

Carmelized duck foie gras with chestnut confit and truffle veloute

There was some Iberico ham in there too. Really Good.

Steamed Seabass filet with spicy confit peppers

This dish also had the L'Atelier take on potato chips. The fish was cooked perfectly. A solid course but nothing that I could not get at a less expensive restaurant. Good.

Peppered venison with quince puree

Wow. This is one of the best red meat courses I have ever had. It was a fairly simple dish but was executed to absolute perfection. The meat was out of this world good. Not gamey at all. The sweetness of the quince and the richness of the venison melded nicely. Excellent.

Pineapple infusion Tahitian cheesecake

Pineapple cheesecake topped with a graham cracker and pineapple sorbet. Ridiculously good.

Light coffee cream served with coconut mil and lemon from Corsica

After the first dessert, this was a huge let down. It was just a decent chocolate dessert. Nothing interesting or inspiring.

Rating L'Atelier is difficult. It is certainly not 4 cutting board status. Really not even close although some of the dishes are certainly worthy of it on an individual basis. A meal consisting of larger versions of the foie parfait, the oysters, the venison and the pineapple cheesecake dish would have probably been one of the top 5 meals of my life. However, the inclusion of some of the other dishes certainly detracted from my dining experience. Overall, L'Atelier is not as good as any of the other restaurants I have given 3 1/2 cutting boards to but it is better than all of my 3 cutting board restaurants.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand

www.mgmgrand.com/dining/atelier-joel-robuchon-french-restaurant.aspx

Mint Indian Restaurant- Bluefield, WV

I had an amazing authentic Indian dinner a few nights ago in the unlikely location of Bluefield, West Virginia. This place is right on par with, if not better than, many of the casual Indian restaurants I have frequented in cities and neighborhoods known for their Indian cuisine.

We learned that Chef Robbie has been cooking at Mint for around 6 months. He was trained as a chef in India, and cooked there for 17 years before coming to West Virginia to work for Mr. Patel, a family friend of his who owns the restaurant and the adjoining Economy Inn. Chef Robbie is incredibly talented, and Mr. Patel and his staff are welcoming and gracious hosts.

Everything we were served was fresh and homemade. There were 8 of us, so it was the perfect opportunity to sample a good variety of dishes on the menu. Started with some delicious shrimp and vegetable fritters, chicken chaat, then we were served a beautiful seafood chowder (was not on the menu), followed by a trio of south Indian dosas and uttapam. Our "main dishes" included a mixed grill of tandoori chicken, lamb, and seafood, lamb biryani and vindaloo, 2 types of dal, okra, and cauliflower - all were incredible. The homemade cheese in the saag paneer was also a standout - so much that as stuffed as we were, we could not resist ordering the two types of fried cheese dumplings (again homemade) that were offered for dessert.

It's more than an hour drive for me, but I plan to make the trip often. You just don't find Indian cuisine on this level in this part of the country . . . if at all.

Mint Indian Restaurant
3200 E. Cumberland Rd
Bluefield, WV
304-325-9111
Open Tues-Sun- lunch buffet 11:30-3; dinner 5-10 pm
They do not serve alcohol - next time I will inquire about BYO - not familiar with WV laws on this . . . 

Jasper's - Austin, TX

Sweetmonger and I celebrated my birthday (a few days early) on Saturday at Jasper's in The Domain. Jasper's is a place I have wanted to eat at for a while. A few months ago, I was lazying around on the couch one weeknight and saw an Iron Chef America rerun with Kent Rathbun battling Bobby Flay. Then, the very next night I caught a Bon Appetite TV special naming Jasper's barbecued ribs as the country's second best. Even though Jasper's is a mini-chain in Texas (3 locations and a fourth opening soon), this TV publicity (I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff) made Jasper's a must go and we finally made it up there this past weekend.

The menu is enticing (for the most part) and certainly conforms to the restaurant's tag line: Gourmet Backyard Cuisine. The only turn off is the inclusion of 5 or 6 "fine steaks" which range in price from $32 - $67. Expensive steaks are one of those things that rarely meet expectations and I prefer to just stay away from them. And at a restaurant like this where they appear to be nothing more than an afterthought and are certainly not consistent with the restaurant's theme, I would prefer they just be left off the menu.

That being said, Sweetmonger and I enjoyed out meal.  We started off with prosciutto wrapped shrimp and grits.  It's hard not to like this dish.  Fat, juicy grilled shrimp wrapped in salty prosciutto served over top of creamy grits and blue corn chips. Really good.

Next, we split a grilled asparagus, tomato, red onion and blue cheese salad. The presentation was nothing to write home about but the tomatoes and asparagus had a lot of flavor and the blue cheese was definitely a compliment instead of being the unintended, overpowering centerpiece that it so often is. Well-done.

We also decided to share two main courses.  First we opted, obviously, for the ribs.  Are these the the second best ribs in America or even the best in Austin?  Who the hell knows? But I will let the pictures do the talking.

Before:

After: 

These ribs are excellent.  They have a crispy, outer texture.  The barbecue sauce is spicy and deeply flavored. And the meat is smokey, fall-off the bone tender and super moist. I could eat them again and again. Sweetmonger, who usually doesn't particularly like ribs, was in love with these. Additionally, they came with a pretty tasty "creamy baked potato salad," which can best be described as Jasper's take on cheese fries. 

Unfortunately, our other main course was an unmitigated disaster. It was some type of firm white fish along with grilled shrimp served with fingerling potatoes and some type of hideous green brie cream sauce.  This was just terrible.  The seasoning on the fish was ridiculously sporadic. Some bites had absolutely no flavor while others were unbelievably over-salted.  Further complicating this mess was that the sauce was not only hideously ugly but also tasted like nothing.  It was completely useless.  A third of the fish went uneaten. The only thing it was good for was dipping the shrimp in the side of extra sauce that came with the ribs.   

For dessert we went with a simple chocolate cake.  The cake itself was good but a little dry.  However, dipping the cake into the side container of what can best be described as melting vanilla ice cream turned an otherwise okay dessert into something very enjoyable.  It was much like a hot-fudge brownie.

 

Jasper's is good, and we would definitely go back for the ribs at some point but as good as they were there are plenty of other rib places that we must try first. Ultimately, 4 of the 5 dishes were good enough to warrant a 3 cutting board rating; however, the horrific entree cannot be overlooked.

Jasper's at The Domain

www.kentrathbun.com/jaspers/austin

11506 Century Oaks Terrace

Austin, TX  78758

Town House - Chilhowie, VA

One of the perks of being from Southwestern Virginia is that when visiting family one is able to dine at one of America's very best restaurants. Sweetmonger had to go back to Austin a few days early so she and I snuck away from the family to dine at Town House on Saturday night. As expected, it was an interesting, excellent meal.

The opening amuses were the best I've had at Town House. First was an Asian spiced walnut which left the taste of Chinese food in the mouth (trust me, a very good thing). Next was the Town House black olive cookie with Parmesan cheese. These cookies are just amazingly good; they should be packaged and sold. The last was a crab chip. We had had a version of this a few months ago but this one was topped with an incredibly succulent morsel of crab.

Before the main courses began we got a palate cleanser of spiced Asian pear tea. Amazingly refreshing. I could have drunk a gallon of it.

I was a little hesitant about the first course after reading the menu: King crab on top of a Kaffir lime gelee and grapefruit with tamarind and a coconut foam side topped with a crispy muscavado sugar shell. I had a version of this dish a few months ago and did not particularly like it. It was too hard to eat and the grapefruit was too prevalent. However, after eating it last night, I have done a complete 180. It was just about perfect. The crab was really flavorful, the coconut foam and the Kaffir lime gelee were wonderful and in perfect balance and the sugar shell's texture brought everything together. This dish should never leave the menu.

The second course was even better if that is possible. Black truffle puree, bacon ice cream, celery, celery foam. It was just a wonderfully executed display of bold flavors, textures and aromas. Insanely good.

The third course was chorizo bouillon with three different types of gnocchi: manchego cheese, egg yolk and cuttlefish. It had a wonderful presentation and was pretty tasty but was probably my least favorite dish of the meal.

Sous vide squab with coriander, Thai basil, foie gras golden egg jam and a root beer consume was the fourth course. This was an exquisite dish, both in taste and presentation (the picture does not do it justice). The squab was very moist and super tender and was certainly the focal point of the dish. The foie gras jam (which tasted like sweet butter), coriander, basil and root beer consume created a wonderful, subtle compliment. A restrained yet excellent dish.

The fifth course (what is usually the final savory course on the menu) was one bold, decadent and absolutely amazing plate of food. Lamb loin wrapped in saddle fat and sous vide in nicoise olive oil for 36 hours and served with carrot taffy (exactly what it sounds like), pistachio croutons, mustard seeds and an herb and red wine foam.

Sweetmonger and I requested the barbecued pork shoulder with a pickled prune, bread ashes and shallots cooked in black butter. This is such a cool dish. The pork is sous vide, cooked on top of coals and then painted with squid ink. The result is a piece of tender, moist meat that looks exactly like burnt tree bark. It tastes like really good BBQ. The prune and the shallots were also quite tasty; however, the focus of this course is definitely the presentation. Such a fun course to eat.

Our first dessert was a Gorgonzola custard. I really cannot remember what was in here. It was very complicated. Some type of Gorgonzola pudding and maybe some cranberry ice cream. It tasted great though.

Next came what Town House calls Crab Apple. This is a stunning dessert. The flavors are familiar (apple pie, vanilla ice cream and funnel cake) but they are so much more intense than anything I have ever had. Wow!

Our final course was the night's most intricate and was absolutely delicious. It had curry ice cream, Hubbard squash, white chocolate and granola. It was a spot-on perfect ending to another great meal at Town House.

I also went back to Town House for New Years Eve. The menu was similar but there were a few new dishes. The night's opening course was Marinated oysters, osetra caviar, sorrel and jalapeno. This was a light, well-balanced first-course. Everything was there to heighten the senses and the use of the jalapeno was perfect. It was subtle and added no heat.

The main entree was Wagyu beef with bulgar wheat, snail caviar and the flavors of parsley. The beef was perfectly cooked: insanely tender and oozing with flavor. Everything else created an earthy flavor and texture. I really enjoyed this course.

I also had two new desserts. The first was Textures of Milk with honey and nutmeg. I truthfully don't really know what was in this dish. But suffice it to say it is a tough course (dessert or otherwise) to top. It was excellent.

The other new dessert was Pumpernickel, chocolate, seckel pear and sangria. It was the richest dessert I've had at Town House and it worked well because it was the third dessert in the progression. It was very chocolaty and utilized multiple textures. All around, it was a great way to end 2008.

In the two meals, I had a glass of wine with almost everywhere course. Charlie, Town House's wine guy, does a great job pairing beverages. The wines he chooses are always very good and appropriate, and he even throws in a few unexpected beer pairings (which I of course love).

Furthermore, at what other modern, progressive restaurant can one dine on some of the country's best cuisine while listening to background music including Robert Earl Keen? Town House is just an amazing restaurant. Every part of the meal from the amuses to the desserts are superb. There is not a let down anywhere. Thus, there is little doubt that it remains The Monger's favorite American restaurant.

Town House

www.townhouseva.com

townhouseblog.blogspot.com

132 E. Main St.

Chilhowie, VA 24319