About a month ago, I was lucky enough to get reservations at Houston's newest Pop-Up restaurant, Les Sauvage. It was dinner #6, with the guest chef being Grant Gordon of Tony's restaurant here in town. We didn't really know what to expect, except that the other dinners seemed to have been well received.
Even hours before the meal was to be served, we didn't know what the menu would be. I had e-mail the head Sauvage, and he said they don't know what they will serve until minutes before. My only problem with that was that I didn't know what wine to take! So we took a Champagne (Laherte Frères Champagne Brut) and a nice white Burgundy (Moret-Nominé Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru - one of my favorite whites of all times. I bought it at Wine Library and had it delivered via the internet. Thanks to our anti-Free Market governor here in Texas - Rick Perry - we can no longer buy wine from a retailer on the 'net from out of town. Thank you, you socialist!). We also took a delightful Pinot Noir we picked up in Oregon - Archery Summit - just in case we did not have enough with the Champagne and Burgundy.
The location of the dinner was just blocks from our house. It was nice to be so close to home.
We arrived just at 7:00 PM, and most of the crowd was already there. They had complimentary cocktails, so we got in line to watch a very competent bartender swinging cocktail shakers with both hands non-stop. She was offering a bourbon, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, tarragon, and prosecco drink. I cannot remember the name. But it was quite refreshing, and a nice touch.
We sat down at our table - there were only 40 people at the dinner, so they had 5 tables of 8 people each, and introduced ourselves to our table-mates.
In one of those very small world stories, we knew one of the other couples at our table! She was the real-estate agent who represented the seller when we bought our house! How do you like that! She is a lot of fun. Her husband is a brain surgeon, who looks just like Patrick Duffy from Grey's Anatomy. There was another couple who had very close connections to me via the industry. She was a petroleum engineer (drilling engineer) with ExxonMobil, he was a geologist with Shell, who now has his own consulting company. The last couple run a hip clothing store on Washington Avenue. They were young enough to be hip, and had young twins. Nice to have some Gen-Xers at a table full of Boomers.
So with that prep work, how was the food?
It was delicious!
We started with a nice Amuse that was a Tongue Pastrami with homemade mustard. Just a bit, but it was great. The champagne was good with it. Of course, I think that champagne is good with everything.
Next we had a small piece of fluke on an edamame puree (yes, it tasted just like edamame. I am not sure why I was surprised at that, but I was) and a burnt scallion puree.
Then a vegetable course - eggplant, peppers, and "gribiche" - an emulsified sauce.
The next two dishes were probably my favorites - the gnocchi with pork cheeks and saba, followed by sweetbreads with swiss chard and a monkfish liver veloute. I could live on sweetbreads, and having them piqued by that fish liver veloute was something else.
In a continuation of the protein combo, the next course was halibut braised in olive oil (it was not at all oily, nice a firm) with brandy scented chicken jus, and faro. If I remember correctly, there was a bit of crispy chicken skin laid on top of the fish. I think we change to the Chardonnay at this point. As above, the fish and the chicken complimented each other is a way I never would have guessed. Faro is like big barley, and was great. A bowl of that, with the chicken jus would be a nice treat.
By this time we were getting full, and not just a tiny bit tight. We seldom drink more than one bottle of wine between us, and here we had already had a cocktail and a bottle of champagne. And there was a little more to come.
The last main course was a lamb filet with a tiny nan (about the size of a nickle) some hummus, and a lamb jus made with syrah. Flavor explosions in your mouth.
The dessert was a ricotta with kefir and olive oil cake, and muscadine grapes. Nice way to end the meal. There was also a nice glass of iced coffee at this point.
And finally, everyone got a piece of berry coffee cake to take home for breakfast.
The pacing was good, and they really had the food distribution down well. IT was a long meal (we didn't get home until about 11:00) but that was to be expected with so many dishes.
We have been to other set dinners so we know it can be done otherwise (too much time between some courses, slow pickup of dishes, strange timing of the course, etc). It was impressive to see what these Wild Ones have put together.
Go if you get a chance. Your meal will not be like mine, but you can only put your foot in a river once.
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