birdie - September 29, 2015
Premieres can be a fickle thing. Lots of industries have the concept of a pre-premiere demonstration of the viability of the concept which can lead to either excitement for mass consumption or fear of public dismissal. Theatre has the dress rehearsal, media has junkets, software has betas, and restaurants have soft openings. These are all good things and a good practice for the creators and performers, but they’re for those in the know, those in the industry. The real test is opening night on Broadway, the movie’s opening weekend, the application’s general release, or the restaurant’s first seating.
birdie had its first public seating last night. If the first evening is any indication, birdie is going nowhere but up.
As a fan of new experiences, I love tasting menus. They usually change quite often, and a lot of the time they feel like the chef(s) saying: “See, this is what I can do!” Sometimes they’re for the more adventurous eater, sometimes they’re to showcase the flavors of the moment. Whatever variety and design behind them, I like giving myself over to a chef and their staff and saying: “Do what you want.” It’s the pinnacle of that much spoke childhood missive: “You’ll eat what they give you, and (if you’re lucky) you’ll like it.”
birdie nests next door to Landon Schoenefeld’s other young, and very good, restaurant Nighthawks. They share hoods, HVAC, and amenities; but once the swinging door that acts as a tenuous membrane swings fully closed they are worlds apart. Nighthawks is a diner, doing great things with pancakes, burgers, and blue plate specials, it’s a place for regulars to go and get their usuals, institutions like that are important. birdie is change, precision, catalysts, and change. birdie is special.
Arriving, if you’re not sure where the door is and ask at Nighthawks, you’re informed it’s the door to the north. I’ve been to Nighthawks several times, and walked north to five watt coffee numerous times, I failed to ever notice that there was a door there. Now it’s unmistakeable. Two long wooden tables with chairs on the outside and an aisle running down the center are prominently displayed like a holiday motif.
The first two courses were paired with a Sparkman Birdie Riesling.
First course was a Furikake Flaxseed Cracker with green tomato jam & scallion cream cheese. Smelling of scallions, sour cream, and a touch of spicy molasses; it felt crunchy with an explosion of seeds in the mouth, the tomatoes bright resiliency were reminiscent of pickled watermelon rind, the scallions peppered the cream cheese like organic pop rocks; it tasted sweet, nutty, slightly sour, and the tomatoes helped it hang on to some herbaceous notes. The wine lent some apple notes to the dish, accentuating, but not over powering.
Second course was a Butter Poached Spot Prawn with a sweet corn puree, fried basil, basil oil, fresno pepper, and fried breadcrumbs. I won’t go into the lengthy preparation notes for this dish, but suffice to say, it’s layers upon layers of stock, corn, and butter preparation. Basil was the prominent nose with hints of corn and butter; the textures contrasted beautifully, this being the best prawn flesh I’ve ever experienced, so soft and succulent; the flavors were sweet corn, buttery salt, basil, and the flavor of the fresno with minimal heat. The wine took on a kettle corn flavor with this dish.
The wine for courses three and four was a Zuani Vigne Collio Bianco, which may have been my first experience with a the Friulano grape.
Course three was Tomato Soup with ratatouille, charred eggplant, & torn burrata. On our menus was a note that said “Farewell to Summer!” Landon said that referred to this dish specifically because it was a last grasp for some of the flavors that have been so locally abundant for the past few months, but are now slipping from our grasp. It smelled of green and acid, felt like pop rocks, rock candy (salt), and popping bubble gum; it tasted wonderfully of babaganoush, caprese, and room temperature gazpacho. The wine definitely added to the gazpacho idea with its viniferous qualities.
Course four was a Smoked Carrot Dumpling, turnip broth, soy sauce, and green coriander blossom. This dish was mind blowing in it’s preparation, sous vide carrots that are then smoked, and pureed to the right texture, carrot juice wonton wrapper, shaved carrots, baby carrots. It smelled reminiscent of fish sauce and cilantro, hit so many textures, and tasted of yams, brown sugar, and saltiness. Very good.
Courses five and six were paired with a Mercat Nature Brut Cava.
Course five was the bread course, and oh what a bread. Spent Corn and Malted Rye Bread with calendula butter. The spent corn is from the mash created by Du Nord Craft Spirits when making some of their wares. The smell is vaguely corn, some beer maltiness; the texture was incredible, it had an amazing crunchy crust but ample chew and density inside, the butter was flecked with large crystals of salt that melted in the mouth; the taste was amazing with notes of corn without being cornbread like, but pairing with the wine gave it a cool caramel corn note, the cultured butter is a nice addition to this scene, I’ve been a huge fan since my visit to Razza in New Jersey and I’m glad to see it paired with such an amazing bread.
Course six was phenomenal. Baby Potatoes with garlic confit, sour cream, and chives. So many preparations of potato, all perfect. I called this potatoes with potato gravy. Some of the potatoes are potatoes, some are gnocchi, some are translucent chips, all are amazing. The smell of the garlic hits you first, then the potato, then the cream; the gnocchi have a good density, the potato a great al dente, the puree silky smooth; taste is just amazing.
Course seven, just past the half way marker, was a delightful palate cleaning Fresh Juice. Surprisingly, the most heat I experienced all meal, was the zing of the incredibly fresh ginger. If they bottled this, I’d probably get one daily.
A few of the courses got their own wines. Eight got a Darting Pinot Meunier.
Course 8 was Grilled Salmon Belly with radishes, jalapeño, kiware, and ponzu. Smelling of fish, soy, citrus, jalapeño, herbs, and wood; it had crispy skin, firm crunch radishes, buttery firm flesh; and tasted of salt, sour, sea, green from the peppers, pepper from the radishes, but little heat. This dish and wine pairing was interesting, it made the wine better.
The wine for course 9 was a really lovely cab Fausse Piste Le Boucher. (I’m going to be ordering some.)
Course nine was an Aged Pigeon with creamed corn, peaches, chantrelles, and popcorn shoots. The smell was very meat focused once plated, but the mushroom jus permeated the atmosphere and led to a great amount of salivating; the textures were great, firm mushroom, near crunchy peaches, slightly crispy skin; flavors were all great, sweetness from the corn, primal umami from the little “birdie” and mushrooms, great bitterness from the popcorn shoots (I kind of want to see a yellow pesto made from them).
The wine with course ten might be my favorite given my sweet tooth. A Forrest Botrytised Riesling, is another I’m going to seek out.
Course ten was Valdeon (Spanish Blue Cheese) with walnuts, sweet potato cracker, and figs. It smelled funky as only good cheeses can, was smooth, crunchy, and succulent with the figs; it tasted amazing with the wine, the noble rot sweetness cut through the funk and yielded that elusive desiccating fungal ash that is a sign of a great blue cheese.
The last two served courses were paired with the Anno Domini Moscato Frizzante.
Course eleven was a Melon Sorbet with a cucumber granita, candied cucumber peel, edible borage bloom, and espellete pepper. It smelled green and fresh, a little bitter from the cucumber skin, and peppery from the espellete; the candied cucumber evoked memories of fruit roll-ups and licorice with its texture; the tastes were really subtle with cucumber being pleasantly prominent.
Course twelve was the last plated course. A dense Flourless Chocolate Torte with hemp seed ice cream, and a squash and citrus granita. It smelled of citrus and nuts; in the mouth it felt like excellent fudge punctuated by nuts, and due to my impatience a too firm ice cream; the flavors were exceptional, a deep cocoa in the torte and the nuttiest non-peanut butter ice cream I’ve ever had. If I were to eat this dish again, it would go granita with torte, drink some wine, chat, and as soon as the ice cream started to soften, lightly scrape away the softened layers, savoring it with each bite.
With our beverage checks (the meal is ticketed) we were also presented a small token to take and enjoy at our leisure. I adore restaurants that do this.
Inside were what I think were pumpkin cookies, with white chocolate, oats and coconut(?). The texture on these was amazing, the surface was sugar crisp, the interior was moist, on the border of cookie and cake, but not in a scone manner. Delightful.
During the cold winter months after getting some pho or fried chicken at other great restaurants that share a street with birdie, I might be caught, bundled up, sipping a hot Five Watt Coffee, and wistfully peering into the window, giving an acknowledging nod to Landon and crew, knowing smiles to the diners experiencing bliss, and counting the days until my next birdie experience.
I tweeted last night that I needed to dream about this meal before writing about it. I dreamt, and those dreams were good.