A Francophile's dream
Cheval Blanc: Grand cru or simplement superieur?
By Erica Wayne 08/05/2010
Now don’t get me wrong — I’m a huge fan of the Smith Brothers. Whenever we want to impress folks from out of town, we take them to Parkway Grill. And I still wear my Crocodile Café sweatshirt with the lounging lizard decked out in shades. It vies for favorite with the “She Who Must Be Obeyed” shirt from BBC’s Rumpole and Garrison Keillor’s Professional Organization of English Majors (POEM) shirt that my husband gave me for my birthday last year. But I digress.
We like Smitty’s Grill and Café 140 South (Crocodile redux), although, frankly, we’ve never been big fans of Arroyo Chop House (too dark, too a la carte-ish and, alas, too chop house-y for me). Prime beef is sublime, but big meat isn’t what I dream about. It’s something you can ruin with poor chefery, but can’t invent (the cow has to do that). But Parkway’s Thai tagliatelle, Smitty’s cornmeal trout with pumpkin seed and sage butter and Café 140’s grilled white peach salad — now that’s creative cooking!
So it was with some slight trepidation that we ventured into Cheval Blanc Bistro, the Smiths’ latest eatery, for a celebratory dinner for four, one of whom had just gotten his doctorate in physical therapy from USC. Unlike the three Smith restaurants I like, Cheval Blanc (named, I presume, after Chateau Cheval Blanc, whose Grand Cru 2001 Saint Emilion is, at $350, by far the most expensive wine on the restaurant’s list) has a simpler, much more traditional menu.
Many items are old favorites for Francophiles like me: escargots ($14) and steak tartare ($16) on the appetizer list, boeuf a la bourguignonne ($21), coq au vin ($25) and bouillabaisse ($27) among the entrees, with crepes suzette ($9) and profiteroles ($9) for dessert. In fact, much of the menu could almost have been lifted wholesale from Julia Child’s first cookbook.
In the comfy, wood-paneled dining room, set behind the spacious bar at the front of the building, we started with two cocktails (a $13 sidecar and an $11 campari and soda) and two $6 beers. After perusing the bill of fare, there was unanimous agreement that we should start with a plate of charcuterie ($18) and some moules-frites ($17) for the table.
The charcuterie was relatively uninspired. Of the two triangles of terrine, one was magnificent, with the earthy flavor of liver and the spike of peppercorn predominant; the other bland enough to be forgotten after a few tastes. A jumble of raw-cured ham was tasty enough, and there were a few chewy slices of dry-cured sausage. A ramekin of housemade pickles, including cornichons and onions, decorated the middle of the plate.
On the other hand, the mussels, in a fragrant dijonnaise sauce with mustard, crème fraiche and white wine, were to die for. They were piled three or four deep in a huge pot that we slowly emptied in order to sop our bread unimpeded. The busboy tried to take the dish away several times, only to be stopped and, finally, after a third refill of the bread plate, was asked to bring spoons to catch the rest of the broth. The accompanying frites were shoestring, cutely wrapped in a paper cone; but they soon lost their crunch and, like the lesser pate, were ignored.
Not having anticipated the generosity of the portion of mussels, nor our desire to consume them down to the tablecloth, we had also ordered simple butter lettuce salads with tart tarragon vinaigrette ($9) and a crock of super onion soup, neither too sweet nor too salty, with lots of gooey gruyere ($9) and full entrées as well.
Our friends selected trout with almonds, pan-roasted with sautéed fingerling potatoes ($22) and a special of Lake Superior whitefish with jasmine rice and spinach ($24). I asked if the trout came whole to the table, but since it was filleted in the kitchen, I decided on rack of lamb ($32) instead, while my mate settled on a grand (and I do mean GRAND) steak au poivre ($39) with another cone of frites.
Everything was delicious, and my hubby downed his entire three-inch steak. (Too much meat deprivation at home, I guess.) The two fish dishes were beautifully arranged, with crispy-skinned filets perched in a pyramid upon potato or rice bases. The steak was so large that there seemed only enough room left on the plate for three or four fanned spinach leaves as garnish. My two thick chops rose majestically from a bed of ratatouille and were quite tasty.
We might have ended the meal with ile-flottante, tarte tatin, peach melba, crème brulee or opera cake with hazelnut, chocolate and espresso mousse — each $9. But, not mentioned on the menu but available upon request were a grand marnier soufflé and a chocolate cognac soufflé (each $13) served with crème anglaise.
These were, indeed, a proper and celebratory finale to our meal, and we enjoyed them mightily. Even better, when the tally for our meal was finally in our hands, we were pleasantly surprised to find that, despite the splurges, the total cost for our four-person celebration was still approximately $100 less than the wine that shares the restaurant’s name!
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