BARS ARE WHERE THE FLAVOR ACTION IS
Looking for future flavors? Keep keen eyes on artisan boozeries. Ambitious bartenders (whose numbers grow exponentially) are infusing vodka and gin … and especially rum … with mango, kiwi and other housemade exotica (even dried fruit) as they stretch the notion of hand-crafted cocktails. Talde, in Brooklyn, lines its bar with beakers of honey syrup, grenadine, vanilla syrup, mint syrup, Chinese five spice syrup, citrus bitters and maple bitters, all house-made. At “Farm-to-Bar” Capo d’Oro in LA, fruits, herbs and vegetables come fresh from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market … you tell the bartender alcoholically what’s on your mind and he fashions a drink from these ingredients. It’s happening across the country. Flavor researchers (and chefs, too) should refocus upon the bar: cocktails of pureed and muddled melons, syrups of lemongrass, rosemary, pomegranate, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, among other esoterica; flavored vinegars going into old fashions shrubs, smoked ice cubes, yuzu bitters, chocolate-chile bitters, sangria variations no one’s heard of in Spain. Restaurant and hotel chains, straining to step away from bottled and powdered shortcuts, are playing catch-up … but training hundreds of bartenders can be a killer. To raise their competitive profiles, they’re emphasizing Latin accents – example: Friday’s Tiki Torch, a mixup of tequila, muddled pineapple, triple sec, lime and chipotle-pineapple syrup. Boozy soda fountain favorites for grownups are on-trend: floats, shakes, parfaits and smoothies laced with bourbon, peppermint rum, aquavit, Benedictine, or Chartreuse along with flavored syrups. And “better burger” chains, obsessed with differentiation, are now pushing alcohol-laced shakes. You need to know about “fatwashing.” Because hand-crafting artisan cocktails is slow and laborintensive, we’re seeing pre-made barrel-aged cocktails … small batches stored for weeks and even months in old bourbon, rum or sherry barrels where they mellow and absorb butterscotch topnotes inherent in the wood. State laws prohibiting pre-mixing of different boozes are being relaxed or ignored … so this trend is spreading fast. A five- or six-liter batch of Negroni might barrel-age for a few weeks and then sell out in a day or two … taking only seconds to fill a glass. Avant garde bars are batchcarbonating pre-made cocktails … serving them in capped bottles. All this artisan stuff is expensive, and cocktails are regularly crossing the $15 line … so there’s lots of inflation at the bar. Wines-by-the-glass, too, are galloping in price. An $8 glass once came from an $8 bottle; now we’re seeing $12 glasses from $10 bottles … what recession? And local craft beers, traditionally poured in 16-oz. pints, now come in 14- or 12-oz. glasses.
All these oddments give rise to itinerant cocktail consultants working for hotels and hot restaurants around the country, staying on top of local smallbatch distilleries and cranking up their inventiveness. A London bar hawks Meatequita … chorizo-infused tequila, vegetable juice, balsamic vinegar, smoked salt, pepper and port. Coming to you: Bars specializing in brown booze, especially bourbon and new-old ryes. Mysterious vermouths. High-proof spirits (think 50% alcohol and up) and artisan beers with 8% to 12% alcohol. Not just because people want to get tanked faster … bartenders say they’re getting stronger flavor identities. Beer-based cocktails. “Enhanced” juices …with a bit of booze, so you get your antioxidants and simultaneously a bit sloshy.
BUNDLING IS BIGGER: GOING THE WHOLE HOG
Whole animal or whole bird dinners are expanding, triggered by successful nose-to-tail dinners across the country and, in equal part, by large format meals like Momofuko’s $200 Korean “bo saam” family-style meals of a dozen oysters, a whole roasted pork shoulder, bbq sauce, kimchee and lettuce in which to wrap the meat. It’s available at lunch or only before or after peak dinner hours. A seat-filler if there ever was one! At Daniel Boulud’s dbgb this past summer $495 got you an entire pig for up to eight people plus headcheese as a starter, a mountain of side dishes and baked Alaska. Grace Restaurant in Portland, Maine, has a “whole beast” lamb dinner for six to eight people at $65 a head, including harissa-spiked lamb tartare, cured lamb “bresaola,” rigatoni with smoked lamb shoulder, and leg of lamb stuffed with pine nuts and corn. Like many such feasts, it requires 72 hours’ notice. Wong, in New York, does it with duck -- duck in lettuce wraps, duck buns, duck meatballs, whole duck two ways, duck broth, and duck fat ice cream with plums. The shebang is $65 per person for four to eight on 48 hours’ notice. Although fairly timid (rarely do you get tongues, kidneys, livers and tails) these “dining adventures” are immensely profitable … chefs know exactly how much to purchase for a pre-ordered table, the kitchen cooks a banquet-style meal, tables get filled at off-hours, waiters don’t juggle complicated orders, and the festive event prompts diners to vastly over-order cocktails and wines. Diners, meanwhile, revel in theatricality and in a carnivore’s delight at digging into an animal, often getting finger-sucking greasy.
AYE, ROBOT
Sprinkles, the LA cupcake chain, made headlines with its pink 24-hour Cupcake ATM that (it said) sells 1,000 pieces daily to people who beat in-store lines or demand an after-hours sugar fix. Meanwhile, McD is bringing its touch screen order-and-pay kiosks from Europe to the U.S. to speed service and cut lines … along with back-ofhouse upgrades to handle increased orders. CULINARY CONCIERGE | SPRING 2013 |
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It’s “the need for speed” … industry-wide moves to accelerate getting food into customers’ hands. Sprinkle’s creative cupcake vending is no threat to, say, Panera Bread … but the concept suggests using machines to accelerate service and to generate supplemental sales. Examples: A Lay’s machine in Argentina churns out warm, salted chips from real potatoes and sells them by the bag … Seattle’s Best Coffee brands machines in grocery and convenience stores, so you’re not forced to buy anonymous swill on-the-go since this one starts the process with whole beans and vends coffee, mocha and lattes … A butcher in Spain has a 24- hour vending machine for prepared meals, sausages, steaks, meatballs; in- store customers can use it during business hours, bypassing salesclerks …Jamba Juice launched JambaGO, vending its products in non-traditional locations like schools, entertainment complexes and convenience stores … In France, a 24-hour machine sells freshly baked baguettes. Coke in Korea has an interactive dance machine … you imitate dance steps shown on a large screen and the machine rewards you with bottles of soda; in Singapore, you hug a vending machine lovingly and out comes some Coke. The Japanese buy everything from underwear to lobster from vending machines, but we’re just scratching the surface ... machines at your airport now vend paperbacks, sunglasses and electronic doohickeys. Why not more food? You easily can see a McD self-ordering kiosk marrying a vending machine that, say, dispensed just fries and beverages to impatient teenagers. You could see Sprinkles or Seattle’s Best vending machines next to your drive-thru ATM. You’re looking at the introduction of upscale vending for hungry folk with restless tastes. Not yet? Ok, not yet. But watch convenience stores.
BREAD TRENDS
Look for more elaborate breads and rolls...restaurants are baking in-house to save costs … and to ramp up distinctiveness, especially with sandwiches, emphasizing an “artisan” at work.
FIELDS OF GREENS
Seaweed beyond sushi … in bread, in flavored salt, in crackers, in breakfast cereals, in butter, toasted and sprinkled on fries, fish and pasta … also in packaged snacks flavored with wasabi, olive oil, sesame seeds. Greens beyond seaweed: Kale trickles down to mass-market feeders…beet greens, chard, turnip greens, mustard greens… rejected only five years ago, finding favor. (Someone’s testing a “better burger” topped with bbq flavored kale chips.)
SUPPLIERS OPENING OWN-BRAND STORES
Blame it, perhaps, on the wildly successful Apple Store. Food suppliers and manufacturers are launching their own restaurant startups. Their aim: To raise their brands’ visibility and build
powerful appeals to consumers. Take the latest “culture wars”…Dannon and Chobani have opened flagship yogurt bars in Manhattan, planting their flags where thousands of customers pass by. Dannon is hawking a choice of traditional and Greek- style yogurt, a retail segment that’s doubled in five years with no sign of slowing. Chobani, the largest US purveyor of its kind, sells only Greek yogurt curated by “yogurt masters.” Both stress “fresh” yogurt …the tangy mainstay of all those Korean upstarts … the stuff we ate before all manner of sweetenings were added to satisfy American tastes. Barilla’s launching branded pasta restaurants next year to enhance the company’s pasta products in supermarkets and, presumably, among restaurant food buyers and customers. A competitive manufacturer, Pastificio Rana, is opening a longdelayed fresh pasta restaurant in New York’s Chelsea market, the first of a chain. Ghirardelli Chocolate, on the prowl for high traffic venues, opened a soda fountain/chocolate shop at Disney California Adventure… to be followed by the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and Harrah’s Carnaval Court in Las Vegas. In Virginia, Smithfield Foods opened a pork-centric restaurant, Taste of Smithfield, combined with a specialty retail store… again to enhance the brand’s visibility by attracting a large number of tourists. Vogue magazine will open a Vogue Café in a mammoth shoe store in Dubai, and a GQ bar in a hotel there. Publisher Conde Nast already has branded F&B venues in Kiev, Moscow and Istanbul … And an English branded gin bar is opening in a London hotel, a forerunner, perhaps, of a trend. And don’t forget beer. Anheuser Busch-InBev is joining other global breweries at airports … with a chain of Belgian Beer Cafes serving their own brands-- Stella, Hoegaarden, Leffe … and modest amounts of food.
SHORT TAKES
Pop-up restaurants and bars with edgy designs and food will focus new attention on hotel dining, energizing formerly dead spaces-- not just on rooftops. Drip-irrigated green walls, costly to maintain, decorating hotel lobbies and some restaurants, too. Next: Edible garden walls. Grilled cheese will not be the new hamburger. Pies will not be the new cupcakes. Most “Neapolitan” pizza isn’t.
Baum+Whiteman International Restaurant Consultants create high-profile restaurants around the world for hotels, restaurant companies, major museums and other consumer destinations. They are this year’s lead speaker at CIA’s “World of Flavor” conference in Napa and run trends seminars for hotels, restaurants and the food industry. CULINARY CONCIERGE | SPRING 2013 |
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New Restaurant Round-Up lisa leblanc-berry visits six new restaurants in 36 hours
Our dine-around weekend begins on a breezy Friday afternoon in the Vieux Carré, when the well-heeled lunch crowd descends on Galatoire’s and holds court for the remainder of the day. With several foodie friends in town from the East Coast, we plan to spend the next 36 hours checking out six new restaurants that have opened this Spring that are headed by star chefs. At the top of our list in the French Quarter is Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak with Chef Michael Sichel at the helm, preparing such untraditional starters as horseradish-crusted bone marrow with Leidenheimer toast rounds, followed by Dickie Brennan’s stunning Tableau at Le Petit Theatre on Jackson Square featuring French Creole cuisine with fresh interpretations by Chef Ben Thibodeaux (Palace Café). We ended our Quarter jaunt with the Huey P. Long-inspired Kingfish restaurant with Chef Greg Sonnier’s fun and creative Louisiana fare featuring such dishes as Shrimp Gaufre (hints of Gabrielle) and the “Shakshuka-gator.” Next on our list is Donald Link’s seafood-centric coastal cuisine and “live-fire cooking” at Peche in the Warehouse District, and (Iris) Chef Ian Schnoebelen’s Italian-inspired, casual Mariza situated in Bywater’s hip Rice Mill Lofts. Our final destination that we are eagerly anticipating will be Uptown at the chic-and-sleek new Dominique’s on Magazine, where Mauritius-born Chef Dominique Macquet has teamed up with business partner Mike Schexnayder (Le Foret) to showcase such signature items as Wagyu meatballs, Royal Redshrimp ceviche, jerk pork chops and green apple cotton candy that were popular in his former restaurants. No better place to start such an odyssey than at the iconic Galatoire’s on a Friday afternoon. We arrive at around 2 o’clock, when everyone is already well on their way, and happily fortified with libations. The vociferous chatter become increasingly lively in the 108-year-old tiled dining room, as tuxedoed waiters squeeze between the tables carrying platters of oysters Rockefeller and magnums of champagne. We limit ourselves to a couple orders of the Galatoire Gouté platter, calculating the hearty dinner we will enjoy in just a few hours at the new Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak next door.
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Like a party enjoyed among old friends, we visit with diners at the nearby tables as we sip Taittinger sparkling throughout the long and rainy Friday afternoon. A distinguished older gentleman in a crisp seersucker suit and bow tie stands up, raises his glass high above the crowd and yells, “Tujague’s, not T-shirts!” Nearly everyone in Galatoire’s packed dining room chimes in, “Here here!” in a collective toast. The very idea of the second oldest restaurant in New Orleans, founded in 1856 by French immigrants, possibly turning into a T-shirt shop is an offense to all. “Do you think John Besh will buy Tujague’s?” asks a young woman celebrating her birthday at the next table. “Well, at least Galatoire’s will always be here for us!” she laughs, as waiters gather around for a sing-a-long while the entire restaurant population resounds in an off-key, harmonious “Happy Birthday!” By the time we ask for the check, three more birthdays have been celebrated and it is 5:30 in the afternoon. We continue our planned adventure by wandering next door to Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak, as we peek into the large windows to see what’s up at their sleek new bar facing Bourbon Street. A tall man dressed in an Elvis costume strolls in, and greets a group of smartly dressed women (all wearing black four-inch high heels) waiting beside the grand piano situated near the entrance of the handsome new dining room on the first floor. The aroma of grilled steaks permeates the air, as a man steps up to the keyboard to play. After extensive renovations of the 12,000-squarefoot, circa 1878 three-story building that has been dark for the past seven years following the closing of Mike Anderson’s, Galatoire’s handsomely appointed new steak house opened on April 10, to the delight of loyal regulars. “We want this to be the very best steak house in the city of New Orleans,” says Chief Operating Officer Melvin Rodrigue. “We have USDA prime, grain-fed beef that has been aged for 28 days, and also Black Angus filets. The sides have their own menu, and we have an entire selection of au gratins as well. We are taking wines that are steak-centric and putting them on our wine list at 33, but you can also order from our lovely cellar of 800 bottles next door.” Galatoire’s was the recipient of Wine Spectator’s “Best of Award of Excellence” in 2011 and 2012.
Recommended “snacks” are the shrimp toast, stuffed mussels, and smoked tuna dip; stars of the small plate line-up are the stuffed crab claws with pepper jelly, and fish collars in chili vinegar. “These are the actual collars, or necks, of the fish,” Link explains. Our final destination is dinner at the dazzling new Dominique’s on Magazine, which opened in an old firehouse after an extensive renovation. The sleek and stylish 77-seat dining room is appointed with a bar and banquettes, contemporary lighting by Julie Neill, and a “communal table” in the rear (where a cocktail tasting was being held the night we dined). It has a very hip feel, and sets the stage for Chef Dominique Macquet’s brilliant global cuisine prepared with regional ingredients. The main dining room leads to a charming courtyard, where you can view art projected on the wall by Courtney Egan. A hydroponic herb garden, one of only four like it in the U.S., graces an intimate seating area in the rear of the restaurant. An extra 110 seats are available in two stunning dining rooms upstairs. We begin with a delicate lime-cured salmon ceviche amuse bouche, followed by Royal Red shrimp ceviche laced with cilantro and served in a little boat; a melt-in-the-mouth Wagyu beef tartare; and seared shrimp with an oven-dried tomato rémoulade and mint oil, crowned with a sprig of mint. We sample the refreshing lobster and celery root salad with shaved fennel and basil fresh from the garden, and a salad of yellow and red beets served with a delicious goat cheese turnover made with phyllo. We try a fabulous duck soup with duck confit, smoked potatoes, and ground mustard greens. Recommended entrées include the seared black drum with roasted baby limas and sautéed kale, and the seared Maple Leaf duck breast with a tart bing cherry duck essence, a soothing parsnip purée, and duck cracklin’. Also outstanding, to my surprise, is the Wagyu beef meatballs with homemade spaghetti, veal jus, and shaved piave cheese. The desserts are artful, almost too pretty to eat; I recommend the almond nougatine and the goat cheese cake by pastry chef Sofia Bruno of Argentina. There is also a fine selection of cheeses for dessert, in addition to hand-crafted cocktails and fine wines. Dominique’s is, in my opinion, the highlight of dining Uptown, and the best restaurant in the area to come along in many years. It served as the perfect conclusion to our “six restaurants in 36 hours” culinary adventure.
New Restaurant Directory Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak 215 Bourbon Street Phone: 504.525.2021 Tableau 616 St. Peter Street Phone: 504.934.3463 Peche Seafood G rill 800 Magazine Street at Julia Phone: 504.522.1744 M ariz a 2900 Chartres Street Phone: 504.598.5700 Kingfish Kitchen & Cocktails 337 Chartres Street Phone: 504.598.5005 Dominique’s on Magazine 4213 Magazine St Phone: 504.891.9282
Lisa LeBlanc-Berry is an award-winning independent journalist, author, and editor who writes for various publications. She studied the culinary arts in Paris and served as Gambit’s restaurant critic for 10 years. She is currently at work on her second book, a culinary novel set in Louisiana.
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