Corner Table - November 14, 2015
(I really got behind on these. I have some books I was going to begin reading and learning from in earnest and arbitrarily picked December as the starting point, but I decided to start reading them on Sunday. My apologies.)
I’m not sure what made me think of heading to Corner Table on this day, but I’m going to credit it to a pair of friends, Kat & Andrew, that went the week before.
This is my third time officially eating at Corner Table. I ate there on my birthday, late September, and today. I’ve also been there for a whole pig porchetta sandwich during the Open Streets Minneapolis Nicollet event, and an impromptu dessert experience during restaurant week.
Corner Table is widely regarded as one of the best restaurants in town, especially their service. Thomas Boemer runs a couple awesome crews here and at the Southern comfort food hot spot Revival, which I’ve mentioned before.
Given my penchant for tasting menus, that’s the route I usually go when dining solo if an establishment offers one. It’s easy to have your entire party do the tasting menu when you are your entire party. I grabbed a bar seat so I wouldn’t be taking up a 2 or 4 top solo, I want the places I frequent to get as many covers in as they feel comfortable doing. The first time I dined I did the bar too, but it was on the long side, facing the stoves, this time I sat on the short end so I’d be able to see down the line. I enjoy looking into a kitchen when I’m dining. I think that stems from a dining experience I had in Brussels at Restaurant Vincent, they had a small stove in the center of the dining room where they would bring your steak and finish crusting it and make your desired sauce - I always went with the green peppercorn sauce. I still dream of the Mussels and Steak au Poivre there.
I think I’ve mentioned before during a Birdie write up that if there’s paired wines I usually go with them, this was no different.
Amuse - Sunchoke Soup with Haralson Apple and Olive Oil: Sweet, earthy. Crunch. The bubbles in the wine helped clear the palate and prevented the soup from coating the tongue too much. The soup brings you up to temp, more important as we get ready for long cold nights. (I didn’t get a picture of this wine bottle and the phonetic spelling I wrote, “Italy Revicchio?,” isn’t yielding a good answer, the same wine was used for the Amuse and First course. Update: Corner Table read this and let me know what wine it was, I’ve added it above. Somehow it looks like I transposed the “v” and “r”)
First Course - Crudo of Hamachi, Orange Juice, Olive oil, Cracked Pepper, Sea Salt, and Micro Cilantro: the acidity of the wine and the orange juice paired well, the herbaceous character of the cilantro went well with the wine too, bringing out a slight minerality.
Second Course - Lamb-cetta Carbonara, house made pasta, egg sauce, parm: So good. The notes I was given for the wine were Chalk, melon, pinot, and apple. It took about 15 seconds after the pour to clear, it had an almost medium body that rolled on the tongue, not quite coating, but there’s an enjoyable linger, like catching a furtive glance that’s both welcome and wanted. The melon aspect of the wine stole the show, its pairing with the cured lamb reminded me of a great passed appetizer at Sameh Wadi’s whole lamb dinner, it was a house cured lamb prosciutto wrapped around melon with mint. This was a great dish. Pro-tip: save your bread for sauce sponging.
(Not part of the tasting menu, but added on) Char Siu Pork Jowl, brussels sprouts, golden raisin chili sauce, pickled mustard seeds, and micro greens. My #1 rule at Corner Table is “always get the pork jowl.” Chef Boemer won the title King of Porc for a reason, get the pig, especially the jowl. So good. Bitterness from sprouts paired against the sweet of the Traminer/Reisling, the body and cloying from the Pinot helped fight the heat, but let the flavor of the chilies and raisins through, the acidity helped fight the fat.
Third Course - Pork Loin, butternut squash puree, pepitas, Brussels sprouts, saba, and grilled radicchio: Perfectly done pork. The wine helped accentuate the bitterness of the sprouts, in a good way. This dish was really good.
Fourth Course - Beef Loin, potatoes elegance of buttercream and swiss cheese, au poivre sauce: Very good. The wine was strong enough to cut through the richness of the potatoes and paired really well with the beef. The wine itself was very nicely bodied, reminding me of pinotage with a slight ashy-ness, but lacking the complete mouth desiccation.
Fifth (dessert) Course - Candy Bar, sour creme fraiche ice cream, salty crumble, cherries poached in red wine, cinnamon, and black pepper: The candy bar portion was a super chocolatey mousse on a crisped rice base and coated in cocoa. I’m okay with chocolate, but I don’t prefer it, and this was a lot of chocolate. When I made sure to get a spoon of the chocolate and the ice cream, it was pretty great, bitter vs sour, sweet vs creamy. The wine was good too, a late harvester, allowed to dry on straw mats for a while before pressing. Nice raisin notes.