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Also this issue: E.R.A. Bar and Restaurant |
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August 29-September 4, 2002
food
 king fish: Seared king salmon paillard, with tomato confit and aged balsamic vinegar, at Striped Bass. Photo By: Michael T. Regan |
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STRIPED BASS1500 Walnut St., 215-732-4444
Bar menu: three courses with tasting wines, $50
Lunch: Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; Dinner: Mon.-Thu., 5-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11:30 p.m.; Sun., 5-10 p.m.
Wheelchair accessible. Smoking permitted in the bar area. Reservations suggested. All major credit cards.
I can’t imagine too many places to a spend a sultry August night as pleasant as this one. We’ve wandered into Striped Bass, having heard that they have a financially manageable bar menu, and we feel great. The palms in this elegant room seem entirely appropriate in the heat, and though the comparison to the lowly Rick’s Café in Casablanca may seem far-fetched, it always feels that way to me. Deals are being made at one table; at another a romance may be starting or ending.
Anyway, the bar menu may be had at the little bar to the left of the entrance, which has its own habitués, but they smoke there so we choose to sit in the glorious main room, with a full view of the busy kitchen. Terence Feury, the executive chef, and Ed Murray, the sommelier, have devised a light and pleasing meal for a summer evening. And with Ella in the background, what could be better?
For the first course, there's a choice of a raw bar sampler or cured salmon blini and caviar. With this, Murray offers a French 75 champagne shooter, a drink composed of gin, lemon juice, a little brandy, and champagne -- a take on the original French 75 of World War I vintage that had all these ingredients but the champagne. But first there's an amuse-bouche of a tiny cup of scarlet gazpacho floating a nugget of avocado sorbet. It's a cool and delicious starter.
The silky salmon is served on delicate blini topped with a dab of crème fraîche and a generous scoop of osetra caviar, a formidable combination. The raw sampler gives Feury a chance to strut his stuff. Aside from three perfect cherrystone clams, three different oysters and two gigantic shrimp that are a meal in themselves, there is a carpaccio of scallops, fanned on a scallop shell, that is wonderful. The transparent slices of raw scallop are glossed with lime juice, olive oil and dots of tomato, and are worthy of Botticelli. Of course, with the shellfish, they serve cocktail sauce that's rather banal, but livened by freshly grated horseradish and a mignonette for the oysters. A basket of focaccia, seeded bread and a baguette is handy for the juices.
The second course is a choice of baked Glidden Point oysters or grilled shrimp, and with this, we receive a glass (all wines are served in 3-oz. portions) of Lolonis Sauvignon Blanc, from Redwood Valley in California, a perfect flinty compliment to the seafood. Three huge grilled oysters manage to remain creamy beneath their golden blanket of bacon-flecked, horseradish-sparked crème fraîche. The grilled shrimp are flavored with roasted garlic, preserved lemon and a few roasted tomatoes. There's nothing much more to say about two such perfectly conceived dishes.
Our main course offers a choice of seared king salmon or grilled striped bass. With this, Murray dares to be a little different, serving a C™te du Roussillon La Garrigue Domaine Casenove 2000, a deep, smooth, fruity red wine from the South of France that happens to go very well with strong fishes. I wouldn't try it with sole, but with the mighty, red king salmon paillard, it tastes fine, and holds up to the tomato confit and balsamic vinegar that anoint the fish. This is not the pallid salmon to which we are accustomed, rather, it is the color of red coral, with a flavor just as intense. The striped bass -- one of my favorite fishes -- marked by the grill, reclines on smooth polenta, sidles up to some caramelized fennel, and is finished with some fruity olive oil. The anise taste of the fennel penetrates the fish, and also goes well with the wine.
The meal ends with a "chocolate sara shooter" --a true shooter of vodka, mandarin liqueur, perhaps some crème de cocoa, in a glass rimmed with cocoa. It's deceptively strong, and we don't really need the liquid chocolate cake that is placed before us. But it's so artfully painted and decorated that we take a few spoonfuls of the dessert that's become so ho-hum these days. What dazzles us is not the cake but the little scoop of butter pecan ice cream beside it. It is possibly the best butter pecan I have ever tasted. We are satiated but not filled to discomfort, and reluctant to leave our fashionable cocoon, where we compliment Feury and Murray and observe the other diners doing the same.
Outside the air is like thick cotton, but we decide that next week we will try Avenue B's bar meal. Going on the cheap is a good idea these days, especially for some who feel that these restaurants are too pricey to try. Good food is available to everyone, you just have to pay attention.
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