MARIANI’S

  September 11, 2005                                                        NEWSLETTER

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In This Issue

Away in Alsace, Part Two by John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER:  Bayard's by John Mariani

KATRINA RELIEF FUND EVENTS

QUICK BYTES

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Away in Alsace, Part Two by John Mariani

   The Vosges Mountains that run along the Rhine are not very tall--the highest is Ballon de Guebwiller at 4,672 feet--but they have a sloping, pine-rich majesty that gives way to the dappled vineyards of Alsace. And seen from the region's major cities--Strasbourg, Colmar, and Sélestat--they seem magical and full of misty myths that meld well with the old Gothic and early Renaissance architecture that still holds sway here.
   Strasbourg (written about in this newsletter in June: click here), is the largest of Alsace's cities, and Colmar and Sélestat are quite distinct from their more famous sister.  Colmar doesn't look very much different from the poster to the left, by the beloved native artist nicknamed "Hansi," still possessed of winding streets of timbered houses with mansard roofs and finely maintained steepled churches.
       Before arriving In Colmar, my wife and I had driven through the nearby vineyards and visited an extremely affable couple, Marianne and Marco Willman (below), who run Le Foie Gras de Liesel in the village of Ribeauville (3 Route de Bergheim; 03-89-73-3551; click ).  Though the actual process of fattening geese liver dates back to Roman times, terrine de foie gras, we were to learn, was invented in Strasbourg in 1780 by Jean-Pierre Clause, the cook of Alsace's Governor, who sent a sample to King Louis XVI, who in turn made it very fashionable at court.
  The Willmans have maintained the traditions of fine foie gras making in their quaint little shop. They do not produce the raw product but they make it into terrines, which are among the loveliest and most delicious in France.  (We also learned that the popularity and sale of foie gras around Christmastime stretches production everywhere to the limit; thus, much inferior stuff comes into the market.)                  Photo: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery
     Anyone may stop by the shop and  learn the rudiments of what makes fine foie gras and what makes junk  foie gras--of which there's plenty--and you'll undoubtedly come home with jars or ceramic terrines of this wondrous product.  (They also have a small shop in Colmar itself, at 3 Rue Turenne.)
     Afterwards we had a delightful lunch at a very typical winstub in the Weidback Valley named Caveau Morakopf (89-27-0510; click), run by hard-working Anne and Jean-Michel Guidat and set in a tiny village (600 inhabitants) with a long name, Niedermorschwihr.  The name of the restaurant commemorates a Moor of the Crusades who became a symbol of the town, and there is a stained glass window at the restaurant (left) with  his profile in it.  It's a very cozy place, with wooden chairs and check tablecloths, and the food is very hearty indeed, ranging from quenelles of liver called lawerkneplas, served with fried potatoes, to a platter of pork tongue (schwina Zingala), also with fried potatoes.  We did not resist a starter of Munster d'Alsace cheese tart that came in a huge portion we could barely finish.  The caveau is one of the best in the region, with a huge array of Alsace wines, some made within kilometers of the restaurant. Our lunch, with wine, tax, and service, came to less than $75 for two.
  That afternoon we entered the enchanting city of Colmar and visited the Musée d'Unterlinden (click), located in a former 13th-century convent and home to the extraordinary and heartbreaking Isenheim altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald. Then, very tired, we checked into the hundred-year-old Grand Hotel Bristol (7 Place de la Gare; 03-8941-1010; click ), an extremely comfortable, 70-room luxury hotel in the center of the city,  where Chef Michaela Peters, who has garnered a Michelin star here, prepared us a superb dinner that evening in the hotel's deluxe Rendez-Vous de Chasse (right) appropriately decorated with paintings of the hunt.
       Peters, 33, whose credits include work at the famous Auberge de l'Ill, has a fine hand in balancing the traditional provender of Alsace with her own new but never fantastical ideas.  We began dinner with a glass of 2002 Domaine Schoffit Muscat d'Alsace made near Colmar, its lush aromatics blending sweetly with Peters' ravioli of frogs' legs and wild mushrooms in a light cream sauce; the wine also went very well with little croque monsieurs of lobster with rocket salad and an herbed vinaigrette.  Hugel's 1999 Riesling "Tradition" showed just how well these Alsatian wines age, perfect with a silken  pavé of  roasted turbot with black truffles and cappellini treated to truffle butter.
     For the meat course there was rump steak of milky veal with fettuccine in a dressing of spinach and truffles, and lamb ribs roasted pink with a small version of Alsace's beloved baeckoffe with cocoa beans and chorizo--a dish that showed (forgive the pun) Peters' chops in coalescing the old and the new.  A lovely tartine of fresh goat's cheese followed, with which we finished a 2001 Château Pulch-Haut Coteaux du Languedoc, then dessert--a banana gratinée with coconut, a citron sorbet with rum.
     Prices range from 28-32€ ($34-$39)  for starters and 28-35€ (34-$43) for main courses, with a 3-course dinner at 42€ ($51) and 4 courses at 69€ ($84).

      The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel's pretty L'Auberge Brasserie, which later in the day serves traditional local fare and plenty of beer on tap, then toured the town for several hours, peeking into food stores and chocolate shops, and leaving town to visit the spectacularly maintained and vast Musée de l'Automobile in Mulhouse (click), with nearly 400 examples of cars from the pre-war period, dating back to a Panhard & Levassor Phaeton of 1894.
      Lunch was back in Colmar at Meistermann (2a Avenue de la Republique; 03-89-41-6554; click ) near the Museum,  a comfortable, not particularly formal, but very handsome dining room (left) with gorgeous tapestries, tall windows opening onto the street, and excellent table settings, a room frequented at lunch by business people who take their time enjoying both the ambiance and good traditional cooking, including house-smoked salmon and fresh foie gras sautéed with wild mushrooms, pine nuts, and pistachios.  Our main courses were a generous portion of monkfish tail with a mild horseradish sauce, and scallops wrapped in tomato and vegetables.  A prune tart and the last sip of a 2001 Cuvée Emil Willem made the afternoon go buy slowly. (There is a more casual brasserie on the other side of Meistermann.)
      À la carte prices range from 8-10.50€ ($10-$12.84) and 11-22€ ($13.45-$27) for main courses, with a remarkable choice of prix fixe meals from 16-51€ ($19.50-$62).

      That evening we reacquainted ourselves with an Alsatian chef, Jean-Yves Schillinger, whom we knew from New York, where he'd run the restaurants L'Actuel and Destinée for several years before moving back home three years ago to Colmar to open what is patently the most modern and the most chic dining room in the city--JY'S (17 Rue de la Poissonnerie; 03-89-215-360; click). It most certainly draws a young, handsome, and well-dressed crowd every night, both downstairs at the bar and dining room and upstairs at a second dining area.
      There is little here you'd call traditional Alsatian cooking, especially when you start off with an array of tapas that includes calamari tempura, lamb kebabs with yogurt-mint sauce, tomato-sardine tostadas, salmon tartare with Parmesan crème brûlée, and stuffed Greek grape leaves.   Skate is steamed and set on a plate with stripes of balsamic and a reduction of pineapple and pepper with tomato-cucumber foam. There's even sushi on the menu, served with a glass of sake.  Not all of it is convincing, but there is a master's sense of taste in every dish.
     For seafood we enjoyed  shrimp risotto with Parmesan crisps in a curry sauce, and filet of St. Pierre was perfectly roasted and served with a chutney of figs and tomatoes, accompanied by a Creole boudin sausage with carrot juice and lime. Somewhat more classic in treatment was a main course of roasted sweetbreads with a reduction of chicken stock flavored with black truffles. Venison came in a crisp mushroom crust with a purée of chocolate-flavored rice, and a little cake of pumpkin and a puree of celery.
     Desserts were equally as inventive, like JY's chocolate tagliatelle with an orange emulsion, caramelized cashew crisps, and gianduja ice cream.
      À la carte, starters run 18.80-$21€ ($23-$26), main courses 26-30€ ($33-$37), with fixed price menus at 28€ and 47€ ($34 and $57.75).

    Morning brought a brisk, sunny day amiably fit for a drive to the immense and massively looming castle 800 meter up in the Vosges, Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg (click), which offers a grand panorama of the entire region. Both guided and self-guided tours are available, and the experience will give you a very strong sense of the strategic importance of Alsace and why it's changed hands so many times over the centuries.
      We also had time to visit the workshop of an amazing artisan, Jean-Charles Spindler, whose unique marquetry is unlike anything I've ever seen--expanses and minuscule pieces of perfectly matched woods that show an astounding replication of paint. The workshop is set in a tiny town called Saint-Léonard (33-388-95-8017), near Boersch, and I urge you to stop by to see this strikingly original artwork.  Their web site (click) will give you an indication of the remarkable quality of the work.
      Our next, and last,  stop in Alsace was the city of Sélestat, supposedly founded by a giant named Sleto and famous as the town that keeps Christmas best in France; indeed, the earliest known record of the purchase of a Christmas tree dates back here to 1521, and you may see the ledger of sale in the marvelous Humanist Library, which also happens to house a copy of the first book to mention the word "America" in reference to the New World.  It is a superb repository of 450 manuscripts and 550 incunabula, along with countless historic volumes and papers from the Renaissance.  There is also a superb Museum of Contemporary Art here.
      Wandering the curving streets and canals of Sélestat is very much like being in a Christmas fairy tale, and throughout the year the bakeries and sweet shops are full of decorated yeast cakes and gold-foil-wrapped chocolate animals, Pére Noël figures, and gnomes.  In the butcher shops there is a wide variety of sausages, including saucisse de fou, a long, boiled variety of knackwurst eaten at carnival time.  There is even a bread museum in this city of many mixed cultures, which can be seen in the shapes and styles of the breads and muffins and buns here.
     We checked into the beautiful Hostellerie Abbaye La Pommeraie in the center of Sélestat (8 Avenue Maréchal Foch; 33-3-8892-0784; click), once a site of a Cistercian abbey, with a number of individually decorated suites, garden rooms,  and a Louis XV room--all remarkably well priced, depending on the season, ranging from 139€ ($170) for a double to 314€ ($385) for a magnificent suite (right).
     Downstairs there is a very pretty, wonderfully lighted, quite feminine butter yellow dining room  with a menu that changes according to season.  We enjoyed appetizers of a silky foie gras terrine with a confit of figs macerated in gewürztraminer wine, and "variation autour du homard"--warm lobster in a leafy salad, as a cappuccino soup, and in an artichoke mousse.  My wife ordered pike perch (sandre) with fennel confit, anise cream, and a thyme tuile, while I was very happy with noisettes of venison with onion ravioli and cabbage cooked with lard.  Apricot profiteroles came with olive oil-flavored ice cream (not a great idea) and a lavender mousse, while a millefeuille of dark chocolate, strawberries, maple syrup and spiced sorbet was a lovely ending.  There is also a delightful bistro L'Apfelstubel on premise where we had a hearty Alsatian breakfast the next morning.
    À la carte appetizers run 29.50€ to 39€ ($36-$48) and main courses 33€  to 39€ ($40.50-$48), with fixed price menus at 51€ and 89.50€ ($62.50 and $110).
     Alsace seems less changed than most places in France these days, and it clings to two old cultures with a gentle appreciation of what makes it unique.  It is a quiet region of people who still treasure old dialects that the average Frenchman cannot understand--though, oddly enough, South African Dutch apparently can!  It is a misty, marshy, mountainous region where travelers have long been welcomed warmly and fed well on specialties that share the earthiness of German cooking and the finesse of French technique.
    It would be hard to imagine any lovelier place than Alsace to spend Christmas, with every old street and quaint square twinkling with lights and candles while sugarplums are arrayed in windows to the delight of children.  For its natural beauty and ancient architecture, it is a region that reminds me that very often, change is least desirable where nothing could seem any better.

BAYARD’S
One Hanover Square
212-514-9454
www.bayards.com.

                As much architectural history attaches itself to Bayard’s as any restaurant in America. It began back in 1761 as a townhouse owned by  Nicholas Bayard.  Destroyed by The Great Fire of 1835 and rebuilt as a Florentine-style brownstone, it was at first a bank, then the New York Cotton Exchange, then, in 1914, a private luncheon club called India House.
      About five years ago Harry Poulakakos, a Greek immigrant who for more than 30 years ran Harry’s at Hanover Square  in the basement  (to re-open this fall), purchased the lease on the building and did a total renovation of the property, stripping away layers of paint to reveal the extraordinary beauty of  a mahogany grand staircase with brass details and superb mahogany floors. Antique Windsor chairs, six fireplaces, chandeliers hidden under black paint, and a magnificent collection of marine art have all been brought back to their original luster, and in keeping with the original decor they've  added period sconces, fluted carvings, Oriental rugs, striped silk draperies and the finest table appointments.
      Poulakakos turned the management of the newly christened Bayard’s over to his son, Peter, 28, who had wanted to be in the business since as a child he'd swept the floors at Harry’s.  After being awed by a dinner at Alain Ducasse's restaurant Louis XVI in Monte Carlo, Peter persuaded his father that Bayard's should be a French restaurant. (Peter has also opened a very popular Ulysses bar, a pizzeria named after his late mother, and a new pastry shop all in the same building, which--lucky guys--they own.)
       Executive Chef Eberhard Müller, formerly at Lutèce, and Chef de cuisine Eric Lind have fashioned a dinner menu as refined as it is inventive. Indeed, Bayard’s now ranks with NYC's great modern French-American restaurants like Bouley, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, and Gotham Bar & Grill in both food and service.  Bayard’s wine list even exceeds those of the others, with an awesome array of rarities Harry built up over four decades--more than a thousand labels on more than 100,000 bottles, impeccably stored and including rarities like Bordeaux First Growths from the early 1970s. Prices are, on the whole, very reasonable, with some real bargains here and there.
     Dinner might begin at Bayard’s with tuna tartare with quail’s egg, sesame oil, and jalapeño, or perhaps a silky foie gras terrine with pickled peaches in Riesling wine. Mussel saffron soup with tomato, zucchini, and chives is lustrous, and a warm lobster salad comes with Caribbean fruits and mango vinaigrette.
      For entrees consider sautéed wild striped bass with a lovely, autumnal corn stew, cherry tomatoes, smoked bacon lardons, and sprinkling of coriander, or pan-roasted halibut on a saffron-scented artichoke en barigoule.  If you favor meat, Lind's roasted pork chop is of superb quality, served with fava beans, chanterelles, and an assertive brown-butter mustard sauce, while duck comes two ways, as a roasted breast and braised leg, with orange-rosemary glazed turnips. This is prime steak territory, and the Poulakakoses have always obtained the best, as is true of their rack of lamb.
     Eric Bedoucha and William Quellec's desserts are wondrously lavish, from a perfectly puffed chocolate soufflé  and apricot clafoutis with almond ice cream to poached peach with raspberry chibouste, and sablée Breton, or a molten chocolate cake.
    Bayard's is clearly a taste of a vanished Olde New York, of which almost nothing else exists (Fraunces Tavern nearby is a reconstruction, not original.)  Here, where New York began as a Dutch Colony, you will sense how, from the beginning hopes were high and based on a  belief  in  trade and industry.   Wall Street got its name from a wall built to keep the Indians out, but the wall is long gone, as are the Indians who paid Governor Peter Minuit $24 for Manhattan. Still,  Bayard's survives as both a testament to endurance and good taste.
      A 3-course prix fixe dinner is $59 (with several supplements); "chef's tasting menu" is $95.  There are nine private dining rooms.  Bayard's is open for dinner only, Mon.-Sat.

IT'S O.K.   JUST  TAKE ONE OF THOSE PILLS THE NICE DOCTOR GAVE YOU AND LIE DOWN



"Drawing on the same uncompromising commitment to quality ingredients, well-honed culinary technique and top-notch service that have long kept Beachwood's Moxie at the top of Northeast Ohio's dining scene, Bennett and Moxie founder Brad Friedlander have opened what is arguably the best steak restaurant in Cleveland. (Feel free to argue, but I'm not listening. . . la-la-la-la-la-la-la . . . I'm not listening. Finally, my year on the debate team is paying off.)"--Greg MacLaren, "Takes the Steak," Cleveland Magazine (July 2005).

WHAT AM I BID FOR REALLY WRETCHED EXCESS?

According to Star Magazine, singer Justin Timberlake, partied a tad too hardy at Chi in Hollywood ( in which he is a partner), ate and drank to excess, and proceeded to throw up on the restaurant floor, at which point members of the restaurant staff allegedly discussed selling the pop idol's puke on E-Bay.

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,  Naomi  R. Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson,  Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Lucy Gordan, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

 John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Bloomberg News and Radio, and Diversion.  He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).

 Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com by clicking on the cover image.

copyright John Mariani 2005