06.18.08
Review of August, Friday May 2008
359 Bleecker & Charles St., 212-929-8727
Great for: skinny people, simple good food
My foodie friend A is thoughtful and articulate, so our discussions are always interesting and she can frequently help me figure out what flavors are and such. We decided to be each other’s Friday night date and August was on both our lists so she managed to get us a reservation.
A started with the special of veal tongue salad, bone marrow toast, mustard, capers and escarole with fennel seeds sprinkled all over everything. Confusingly, the thinly sliced tongue had a little iron skillet to itself. It tasted like cafeteria meat. I actually can’t think of an adjective to describe the flavor, it was that nondescript. The bone marrow had the texture of butter and was also blah. We liked the escarole with creamy vinaigrette though. Fortunately my tarte flambé abundantly made up for it – made with Alsatian onion, very fatty bacon and crème fraîche, it was deliciously creamy. It didn’t look like a proper tarte so much as a pizza without cheese, which was kind of funny.
My main dish of oven-roasted whole orata, a white fish, with Sicilian salmoriglio (a sauce with olive oil, fines herbes and garlic) was tender and flavorful. It was also a tad salty, but very enjoyable. A went for the charred minute steak with julienne salad and crispy potatoes, pickled shallots and horseradish strips. The meat was soft and lovely with olive oil and balsamic sauce. Though it comes pre-sliced, you’ll probably have to do a little more knife work as the slices are quite large. We found the steak perfectly seasoned to bring out its flavors.
We thought we were too stuffed for any dessert, until our handsome waiter unexpectedly brought us a free dish of gelati because we didn’t like the veal tongue. Both flavors were delicious – the ricotta almond was hard and mildly sweet, while the anise was not as strong-tasting as we thought it’d be. Our champagne cocktails were good too. They come in lavender or rhubarb. The lavender was quite sweet, I think because of added honey, and we liked the rhubarb as well.
The restaurant is very narrow, with a back dining room. We sat in the front section – it’s a good thing we’re both slender, or we would have had trouble. The table was so small that might have been why we didn’t get bread plates. We could barely fit our dishes at the same time as it was. It’s cozy though. They’re definitely going for the quaint wooden farmhouse look. We were less impressed with the forks, which had tines as messed up as redneck teeth, but overall we had a good experience.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Our cost: $125 (2 champagne cocktails)
Noise level: quite loud, but easy to have your own conversation
Chance of walking in: very low.
