Epicerie Boulud

Daniel Boulud opened Epicerie Boulud this past summer. I am very happy about this addition to my neighborhood. Basically this is a restaurant that only serves take away--they have bar height tables inside and outside under a breeze way, but no chairs. It is, like all of Daniel Boulud's restaurants, French food done right. Epicerie Boulud boasts an oyster bar, the DBGB dog from his midtown restaurant named for the famous comedy club CBGB's, some staple French pastries and bread, sandwiches, soups, salads and other vegetable dishes, a daily hot meal, some charcuterie, coffee, and gelato.

I don't particularly enjoy oysters so I can't comment on the oyster bar, but I have sampled a bit of everything else!

The DBGB dog is excellent. It's more of a beef sausage than a hot dog, but that's really not the point. The point is the toppings and the roll. The dog/sausage sits in a brioche roll and is topped with a zingy but not spicy mustard/mayo/ketchup sauce, pickled relish of a variety of vegetables, and sauteed onions. I always get a bag of the gaufrette potato chips on the side. 

The other sandwiches are more along the lines of traditional French fare. They include a wonderful ham and butter on baguette, a delicious turkey BLT club with avocado and fried egg, and an excellent lobster roll. The one problem with all their sandwiches--including the numerous other ones which I have not tried--is that they are quite expensive for the size. I know that they are pricey because they are made with high-quality ingredients, but the mark-up is a bit on the steep side. 

Their salads and cold vegetable dishes are again overpriced for the quantity, but delicious and made with quality ingredients. Their beet and blue cheese salad is one of my favorites.

The hot meal is very good, although I've only tried it once, so I can't comment on how consistent it is. The soups are delicious, both the hot ones in the winter and the chilled ones in the summer. They recently started serving quiche, which is delicious.

The coffee is excellent; their iced tea is so-so. They serve wine as well. I've only tried one or two of their reds and I was quite impressed.

Their baked goods, such as macarons and various tarts, look delicious but I've never tried them. Honestly they are very pricey and I can make fancy French bakery items at home. Their gelato, on the other hand, is completely worth the price. Firstly, it isn't much more expensive than any other ice cream place in the city and, secondly, it's delicious. I've liked every flavor I've tried, unfortunately they keep rotating out my favorites (such as mint chip). The only real problem with the gelato is that some of the staff give tiny scoops and leave off the free wafer cookie (and give you a nasty look when you ask for it) that are barely worth the price while others give nice, substantial scoops. You have to know who is at the counter and only go when the stingy people aren't there.

Speaking of the staff, some of them are wonderful, some are not. The manager (at least I think he's the manager) is snooty and unhelpful. My biggest problem is that I go very frequently and most of the staff never recognize me. I don't expect them to know my name or my usual order (especially because I don't have a usual order) but I'd like a glimmer of recognition--at least they are typically nice. Of course a few people there are very nice and not only know I'm a regular but also as about my mother (she frequents it as well, often with me) and my dog (who comes with me sometimes since they have outdoor tables.)

All in all, it's well worth a visit, just be prepared to spend quite a bit, especially for a place without chairs. 

Brunch at Bar Boulud

The prix fixe brunch at Bar Boulud is a good deal, especially for NYC. It is $32 for four courses, though I'd really call it three and a half given the diminutive size of the first course. I went here with my mother, aunt, and uncle. We had a lovely time and all of us enjoyed all our food--and I got to taste what everyone else ordered. Anyway, the prix fix brunch comes with American coffee, which they refilled quite frequently, or tea for a supplement. It's always cracked me up that places charge more for tea when it's just unlimited hot water and one tea bag, but I digress.

The first course is termed "pastries" but we all only got one very small viennoiserie. I had a pain au chocolate, as did my mom. My aunt had an apple croissant, according to her, delicious. My uncle had a raisin danish, which was also lovely. 

For the second course I ordered the creamy grits with rhubarb compote, a maple whisky sauce, and pecans. Oh my goodness it was good. The grits were the perfect texture; not clumpy but not at all runny--I suppose calling them creamy about sums it up. The rhubarb compote was excellent, with just a hint of tartness which complemented the sweet sauce nicely. My only problem with the compote was that I'd wished there had been a bit more--not too much more or it would have overwhelmed the dish, but a bit more would have been nice. The sauce was quite sweet, but very thin and not syrupy so it did not overpower the mild flavor of the grits. The pecans worked well and added a nice crunch, however there was something slightly incongruous about them...maybe they needed to be toasted or perhaps chopped a little bit finer, they just seemed a little too strong as they were for the dish.

My mom got the grits as well. I wanted her to get the sheep's milk yogurt, granola, and berries (a former classmate of mine at the FCI told me they import their strawberries from Italy and I don't think I've ever eaten an Italian strawberry) so that I could try it but she wanted the grits and I didn't want to taste those strawberries enough to give up the grits. My aunt and uncle both had the potato soup with smoked haddock. They wouldn't let me try their haddock or croutons, apparently they were just too good to share, but I had a sip of the creamy potato broth--it was incredible. The taste was strongly potato-y, perfectly spiced, and wonderfully smooth.

For the third course we were very boring...the three of us ladies all got the croque madame and my uncle got the more manly croque monsieur. For those of you who don't know, a croque madame is a croque monsieur with a fried (typically sunny side up) egg on top. I'd heard about the croque monsieur and madame so I was always going to get that. The fact that everyone followed suit is perhaps due to the fact that, while delicious sounding, the other third course items were easier to come by at other establishments (brioche french toast, for example) but it's nearly impossible to find a proper croque monsieur. Happily, these were proper croques! My croque madame was cooked perfectly. The ham was excellent quality, the cheese was delicious, and the béchamel sauce on top with browned to perfection. The egg on top was perfect as well; the yoke was runny but the white was cooked as throughly as it can be without overcooking the yoke or making the white like rubber. We all cleaned our plates. Well that's not entirely true, I left over a bit of the side salad. It was nice with crisp mixed greens and a light vinaigrette, but I needed to save room for dessert.

The final course was not at all a let down, though dessert after breakfast never really could be a let down. There were three options, a clafoutis du jour, a sundae du jour, and a poached meringue. I'm not a huge fan of poached meringue--something about the texture--and after I mentioned that no one at the table decided to be adventurous and try it. My aunt and uncle both had the clafoutis, which was made with sour cherries--the traditional fruit for clafoutis--and had a delicious creme anglaise sauce and toasted almond topping. It was very nice. I'm not a clafoutis fan, but they both loved it. My mom and I both had the sundae. It was amazing. The waitress was quite soft-spoken and I couldn't quite hear what the sorbet was--I heard "sour" and "sorbet" but there was a word in between that none of use could catch. The what-ever-it-was sorbet was served with creme Chantilly, vanilla tuiles, and pistachio crumble. I believe the ice cream was a sour yogurt sorbet, though I could be wrong. Whatever it was, it was deliciously tart but not too sour and quite refreshing. The "served with vanilla tuile cookies" was a bit of a joke, there were three hippen batter tuile cookie dots that were smaller in diameter than a dime. That said, they were yummy. The creme Chantilly was surprisingly thick and rich, I'm wondering if it was stabilized with gelatin. By the way, that isn't a complaint, just an observation. The best part was the crumble. There were whole chunks of pistachios in a streusel-like, buttery, nutty crumble. Happily they were not nearly as stingy with the crumble as they were with the tuiles. This wasn't my favorite dessert but it was delicious and light (which is nice after a large and filling meal). More to the point it was an excellent end to an excellent meal.

The service was excellent. It is a little slow at times, for example the coffee came well after they'd served us our pastry. On the flip side, they don't rush you through courses or out the door at the end. They weren't perfectly attentive with keeping our water and coffee full, but then again I was drinking water like a fish (though fish don't drink water, I suppose) so they probably just couldn't keep up.

Overall an excellent experience for a (relatively) reasonable price. A great place to bring family from out of town if you want to impress them or just a nice place for a bit of a splurge. I'm not sure I'll be going back for brunch anytime soon--there are at least four other places I have to try first and I don't go out to brunch very often--but I'd definitely recommend it!

Cafe Luxembourg

Cafe Luxembourg is an Upper West Side bistro that actually approximates a real French bistro. Their food is excellent. I've tried a number of different things, and loved everything. Their "Luxemburger" is my favorite thing on the menu, but is their fish and chips with minted peas (the peas are amazing!) is a close second. They have a nice, traditional French onion soup and good salads for appetizers. I've never tried their omelets but I've been with people who have and they all raved about them.

One of the best things about Cafe Luxembourg is their desserts. Their homemade ice cream is wonderful: a perfect texture and great flavors. I also have enjoyed every plated dessert I've had there as well. For more on their desserts see my post, Dessert at Cafe Luxembourg, on my other blog.

The atmosphere is nice, very French bistro-esque. It is often crowded and can be quite noisy--the tables are on top of each other--so probably not a place for a business dinner. Then again how many business dinners do you have on the Upper West Side?

The restaurant is almost always busy for dinner---I highly recommend making a reservation. But if you are like me, you won't think that far in advance and you'll just show up, hoping for the best. Usually they can squeeze you in at the bar if you do that. They serve the full menu at the bar and the bartenders are very nice, so I recommend that option. The table service is reliably decent. It is often better than that, but not always. Luckily the reliably excellent food makes up for any shoddy service.